Middletown transcript., 1898-04-09

MIDDLETOWN, DEL, APR. 9, 1898
THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS.
"a close friends' Of the President is
quoted as saying: "It is a disgrace to
the United States Congress to hold a
stop-watch over the head ofthe Presi-
dent of the United States and tell
him that he must submit bis message
on certain day and at certain hour
or suffer the humiliation of having
Congress act without waiting for bis
recommendations.,' "If close friend
Of the President, or anybody else, has
said this, he has spoken the truth with
creditable emphasis and. precision.
While bearing tremendous burden,
which hepcould not drop or shift to
others, at crisis IN the history Of the
United States, forsthe maintenance OF
whose honor and welfare the country
and the world will forever hold him
responsible, President Mckinley has
been depicted, even by members OF
Congress who are accounted his sup
porters, as the recipient Of favorA which
he had 30 right to claim, the beneficiary
Of singularly generous and courteous
indulgence on the part of his superiors
in authority. &.
: It is a monstrous delusion which
men who congratulate themselves upon
their forbearance in assuming that at
titude are cherishing. The simple
truth is that they are intruders upon
the Presidents exclusive domain, and
they owe it to his !discernment of "a
patriotic motive underlying the inter-
ference which has made his position
well nigh intolerable that they have es-
capped just, if perhaps injudicious.
dismissal to their own proper sphere OF
action. Nor is it pertient to argue
that, having always possessed the
power to force his hand abruptly at
any moment, it is their privilege to ap-
ply the pressure Of admonition and
warning and moral coercion when and
as they please. Congress does not pos
sess that power. The Constitution
gives Congress power to declare war.
But how is war declared9 Assuredfy
not by a general understanding or con-
s5nsus of opinion, but by an explicit
action. And ''every bill which shall
have passed the House of Representa- :
tives and the Senate," and "every
order, resolution or vote to which the
concurrence of the Senate and the
House of Representatives MAY be nec-
essary, except on question of adjourn
ment, ""shall be presented to the Presb
dsnt of the United States" With his
approval it takes effect; disapproved
by him, it is void until repassed by a
majority of two-thirds in each branch;
and for ten days after it reaches him
Congress cannot touch it. The hand
of President of the United States is
not SO easily and quickly forced as to
warrant rude excursion into the pro-
vince which the Constitution has COM
mitted to his care.
But the complaint is that Congress
has waited long; that since the situa-
tion became acute by the sinking of the
Maine on February Is tue President
has had seven weeks in which to con-
duct negotiations to peaceful and
honorable settlement. That is not the
fact. Not one-half Of that period has
been at the Presidents disposal. The
larger part Of it has been, by cruel
necessity, devoted in WEAKNESS and
embarrassment to members of Congress
who were eager to usurp, in a greater
or less degree, functions which neither
legally nor morally belonged to them, ,ant
to distort the Presidents consideration
for their feelings into an uncOvenantet
mercy from them to him. We firmly
believe that they have not succeeded in
confusing the public mind as to theil
respective authority and obligations,
but that if the President had chosen al
any time during the last seven weeks, ,or
should now or hereafter see fit, to in.
form his impatient advisers that he
could not permit himself to be un-
duly hurried in the administration of
a momentous trust consitutfonally i'm
posed upon him by the American peo-
pie, history would show that vast
majority of the American people had
made his position impregnable.- New
York Tribune.