The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-03-26
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Paper Read by Member of Glass E.


Anglo-Saxon liberties spring from common
source-the Magma Charta. The American
branch of the race being product of conditions
raised by the exactions of the parent stock, has
it's governmental existence in system created |
by the eXigencies arising from a necessity |
peculiar in ITSELF The American lives under
two written constitutions state and federal, the
primary allegiance being due to the latter; the
germ of both being, with one exception,
(LOuSiana) the English common law. The
federal constitution is an instrument original in
plan. imbued with the best teachings of repub-
licanism, framed to avoid the mistakes and
| abuses of all other forms of government, and
debating limits of action to be followed by the
legislative and executive departments that can
not be altered or abridged except by methods
laid down by its own law. In the American
| sense England has no constitution. Custom.
usage and precedent are the British guides of
action, the underlying principle being that what
has been done before. can be done again. and
liberty or right once granted the subject must
rest III perpetuatiOn.
| Legislatively considered, England and Amer
lea are. in theory, analogous, but in practice
widely different. The House of Commons, as
the representative body of the British masses,
Yields the power that governs and shapes the
destnes of the British empire. From it ema-
nate law, revenue and governmental policy.
True the House of Lords holds a veto over its
enactments but as the upper chamber exists on
suferance as a relic of the past, representing
nothing but its own traditions. and tolerated
because no convenient method for dispacing it
has as yet been devised. its power is sucn that
dare not be exercised with freedom. In recent
years but one instance can be cited where an
important measure has been defeated by its
interpOsitiOn- Home Rule Bill.
In America the corresponding chamber of the
House of Lords is the Senate. usually composed
of men of mature age. conservative, deliberate.
exercising real power and standing as a watch
dog on both the legislative and executive
branches of the government.
In America the executive power is repOSed in
president and a cabinet of his own selection,
the head being the direct choice of the people.
In England the sovereign. reigning by the ac-
cident of birth, nominally rules. But the real
executive power of Great Britain consists of a
ministry with a premier, corresponding to our
secretary of state. as its moving spirit. This
ministry is creature of the House of Commons,
representing the majority, whose vote of want
of confidence retireS it from power When
. the government. as the ministry is called.
fails to enact into law an important measure of
its own drafting it is usual to tender its resigna
ton to the sovereign, who thereupon summons
leader of the opposition to form new cabinet.
In America it requires the united voting
strength of the nation to change the complexion
of the executive power. Probably in no other
particular is the institutional difference between
the two countries so strikingly Illustrated AS in
5 the far-reachng power invested in the supreme
court of the United States.
AS an eXpounder of organic law, and bull
wark against oppression and party ambition it
stands as the most powerful and influential
3 tribunal ever created in the annals of human
3 government, and one of which England has no
3 counterpart.
In elections, England, under the operation of
the corrupt practice act can lay claim to greater
: fairness and purity, being farther removed from
bossism and the worst features of party machi-
: nations that disgraces American politics. In
: England the Odum of fraud is visited on the
g candidate, in America on the voters. After
S election the American accepts the result as a
l. matter of course, whereas in England it is
usual for the defeated party to mob the success
: full candidate, not even sparing women. as in the
i case of Lady Churchill in Birmingham.
d In criminal matters the American has dis
a tinct advantage over his British cousin. What
is the refusal of English law to permit the de-
. PENDANT to testify in his own behalf. After con
- viction the American has the Supreme court to
=. review the judgment of the lower one. the
Englishman must look to the home secretary
- for re-Opening of his case. The one point in
. . which America is Numerically opposed to Eng
:, land lies in the spirit of system pervaGing the
:. everyday life of the common people. Monarchy
=, sets aside privileged class, tinctures its blood
:, blue, surrounds it with the tnSelled fiummeries
. of feudalstic age. endOws it with GOd-like
~ attributes, prOclams it higher and nObler than
the average of humanity and commands all tC
:, yield obedience to its behests and worship al
the shrine of its dignity. A republic teaches the
= child in it's cradle that he is equal in the race
- for place. honor and preferment. throws open
the avenues to position and bids him strive fol
=, the highest. In the one the test is merit, the
- other blood. In America the individual il
sovereign, and probably the strongest argument
that can be advanced in favor of republican
institutions is that while in England respect
able class exists favorable to the abolition o.
monarchy. there is none in America who be
a. lieves they could under any conceivable circum
K stances live under any system of government