The evening times., 1897-11-24
THE POWER OF THE PRESIDENT
Rise of the Authority of the Exeou-
tive in the United States.

i've tue u Hlttu
Judge Simon E. Bald win, III the supreme
courI of Connecticut writes as follows in
an article Oh Absolute Power printed in
the Yale Law Journal:
Down To 1868 each state had said for
herself. My people shall he free from arbi
trary arrests: their liberty and prosperity
Shalt lie secure, their rights equal The Ia W
imnart ia aIlyadministered. thestranger within
| my gates protected from wrong as fully as
NV own sons New cane rack for brief
mcnreIt to lie scene OF action the people
to the United states to say, by the four
teeuyt amendment. that thenceforth every
min SHOULD have their guarantee that the
State wUnid not reced- from these obliga-
tioas. bu' they should forever and forever
be the Foundation stones of American
| stitutlons.
Was this great change I welcome one
| to every State: You well know that it vas
not Only absolute power. the absolute
pus.eF Of q three fourth vote under writ
ten { Institution the absolute power Of Il
Cong, rS> with the right in each Of its hC uses
to drUecTIinu on the qualifica tions of its
own Inerrbers and the admission OF me-
bers from any recaIcitrant State, with the
right t. pack the jury even 10y admitting 70
Sta, .h,SoC Ii row OF mining ca nlrs on barren
nrurt;.ins. ard giving tn Nevada an equal
vote with Virginia or Ma>Sa chusetts this
| is what forced the fourteenth, IL not the
| thit teentb. amendment into organic law.
But there it is. 1t was slight ma ter
| that it fastened the da Y of negro suffrage
and paw "a tie way for the fifteenth amend
menS. passed tw" years later. Whenever
and vhe.evar the American negro Ia ed
uca;I :. enough 10 enable HIT. 10 ca 81 an IN
| telliceEt yut, he Will cast that vote. ansi he
ought to "3tst it. And whenever and whcr
eve he has not such education, he ough:
not to vote and, in tie long run. he viii
noe vote. Mississippi and South Carolina
| have put themselves upon solid ground in
sayin: tbat education must be Cohdi-
| tinr. o. suffrage 1t is no new doctrine In
| the Ncrti. there il more than one Sii,ta III
| wb,ct .!tcl. has been tn, law for nearly half
| a Ger tury.
The great change wrought by the four
| teeuth amendment has been to concete and
perpetuate 10 the United States vast aud
| far-reaChing national powers; 70 unity
| and centralizc its Government, for good o.
Ill.
IF absolute power has risen up i'll the
United States, and for the United States
during this century, to height our fathers
| never contemplated it is because We have
| departed from our Anglo Saxon inheri-
| alice Of intiividualisn. because the people
| derra nd more of heir Government, and havs
| given II more.
'.When Coleridge declared that
| We receive but what We give,
| AnG i'll our life alone does nature live.
l ahn 4 n h,u0 a.,i
free institutions. For each of them the in
| dividual citizen has pa rted with something
They arctse great result of a common con
| tritutiaB, and whatever they give back we
who receive have paid for. are paving for.
whether we recognize it or not.
| IL was colectiv ism that wrate the four
| teenth Inendment. coIlecttv ism tn at ratified
it. coIIectfvism that eDforces it. Does it
protect individual rights, as in no land
| under the broad heaven they were ever. in
aay age, protected before? Yes, but only
by tho sacrifice of other rights of indi
| vidu; ism. only by the extension of the
/ sovereignty of the Union at the cost OF the
| sovereignty of the State, only by giving to
the courts new authority to control le gisla-
lures, and Congress new power To control
| the citizen; only by giving to the President
| new laws to execute, of such kind as put
| him forward into fields before unoccupied.
"In the impeachment trial of Andrew
johnson, one of the managers of tie prose-
| cut;Un described the President as nothing
bit the constable of Congress- Had that
| impeachment been successful, the con
| temptuous taunt might have seemed simple
| truth. 1t was not successful because all
honest men. not blinded by party passion,
| felt that the President held great Constitu-
| tional functions. which made him, in his
| sphere. little short Of the dictate: of the
| Republic.
| Il am glad that we have so great an
| officer. The foe that threatens American
| institutions today is not dbsolutism, but
| anarchy. not the tyranny of a man, but
] the Tyranny of mob. To meet IL We
| need the strong hand of power. II We
were not nation before the civil war,
/ we have been since. nation must have
| head. l have no fear that the President
! of the United States, absolute as he Is.
| within his sphere, will ever act the part cf
| Caesar. The foundations Of American lib
| erty are laitf teo deep. The cheeks OF the
| Constitution, backed by Che sentiment of
free and intelligent people, are ample for
| any strain.
Proudly and safely rides the ship Of