The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-18

| tHdl they dO not, IT such measure IS forced upon them, resign their offices or dissolve the parliament, As the crown cannot be held responsible to the peo- pie, the ministry must be,-a vlcarious sacrifice at the altar of liberty"
 But the American veto is supported by no legal fiction, and impeded by no fear of popular discontent, During his short term of office, and because of h.s short term of office, the president of the United States may set down his foot at any point and oppose his indi- vidual will to the judgment of the whole people, speaking by their repre- sentatives, and of all the states, speak ing by their ambassadors in the senate. If such veto is sent in during the 1 closing days of the session, as congress is now constituted, with so great a number of members in each of the houses, and the opportunity for unlim- ited discussion in one, it is almost cer- tain to be fatal to the bill and under any circumstances it is fatal if the president and congress are in general political accord.
 What if they are not, what then? He has greater prerogative in re- serve
 The executive power of the United States, and the whole of it, is vested in this one man. What are laws, if they are not executed? And who is to judge except the president, or above the pres- l ident whether an act of congress which he is called upon to execute is or is not such an act as congress had pow CT to pass"
 Judge Baldwin forcibly illustrates his subject by the recent development of the Monroe doctrine.
 "In all America that lies south of us we have long taken an especial inter- est. As to the foreign relations of our sister republics there, we may almost say that our will Is law; and our will is uttered by our president.
 Let one of these republics complain 1 to him of encroachments threatened by a European power. It is Mexico strug- gling to free herself from an Austrian emperor sent and supported by Louis Napoleon. At a few words from our | department of state, in the name of | President Johnson. the French troops are recalled and MaXmilian is led to execution. It is Venezuela, charging England with pushing too far the boun- l daries of British Guiana. A sudden message to congress from President | Cleveland asks for the appointment of l a commission to aid him in determining which nation is in the right, and inti- mates that if Venezuela proves in the right she shall have right done. In an hour, by this executive act, we are brought face to face with a question of war with the leading power in Europe, and the danger of it passes away through a diplomatic correspondence, for the issue of which the president was again alone responsible.
 The very ground of our interference in this quarrel of Venezuela-what was it but doctrien proclaimed, and in- deed invented, by president of the United States? The Monroe doctrine has laid down the law for our hemis- phere and it was the single act of the executive department.
 l Has any sovereign in Europe, of his own motion, ever done as much? l There was some reason for the remark made at the time by the organ of the French ministry, that it had been re- served for Mr. Monroe to show us a I dictator armed with right of superb I ority over the whole of the new world.'
 Judge Baldwin thus forcibly sums up his view of the power of the president:
 1T think it may be fairly said that of the leading powers of the world, two, only, in our time represent the princi- pie of political absolutism and enforce it by one mans hand. They are Rus- sia and the United States
 The Czar of Russia, indeed, stands | H.. 4I,, l. in which we can say that the president of the United States stands for them. The people of the United States have not put all their power in the keeping of all or any of their temporary rulers. They are the sleeping giant, that sleep ing or waking is a giant still Their 1 word is still the ultimate rule of con duct-their written word. But when they gave their assent to the Constitu- tion of the United States, they created
 in it the office of king without the name"
 "The foe that threatens American in- stitutions to-day is not absolutism, but anarchy; not the tyranny of a man but tyranny of the mob. To meet it we need the strong hand of power. If we were not nation before the civil war, we nave been since. A natlOn must have a head. There Is no ground to fear that the President of the United States, absolute as he is within his bounds of office, will ever act the part of Caesar. The foundations of Ameri- can liberty are laid too deep. The checks of the Constitution are ample for any strain, because they are backed by the sentiment of a free and intelli- gent people.
 It might seem that there was grave danger of his acting rashly in great emergencies Had he less power, there would be. But concentration of power l brings concentration of responsibility The most impetuous man is held back if a hasty word or act of his might put the peace or welfare of a nation in peril. It is his very absolutism that has made the President, in respect to all matters of foreign policy.-and there he is most powerful,-the great conserva- tive force in our constitutional sys- | tenn
 We have, in reviewing this essay, no disposition to enter into discussion of the view which Judge Baldwin has so ably and forcibly presented.
 Many will think that it is the vast l power of the President that for more