The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-10
ADDRESS BY MR. CLEYELAND.
speaks at Princeton on "The IndepeMd-
 eMce ofthe Executtve."


 Princeton, April 9. Ex-Presiden Cleveland delivered before large au
 dience in University hall this evenin: l the first of his two addresses in th new lectureship founded by Stafford
 Little, esq. MT. Cleveland was intro
 duced by President Patton and wa
 enthusiastically greeted. He an
 nounced as his theme "The Indepen
 dence of the Executive" saying that h( proposed to comment upon the office
 of president of the United States ant
 made familiar to him by the incumben
 cy of that office.
 | MT, Cleveland began by speaking o1
 the indictment presented by the origin.
 al thirteen colonies against the oppres- sive exercise of executive power by the
 king of Great Britain. The coonists
 dreaded a repetition of these abuses through the powers that might devolve upon an American president Thus the | articles of confederation provided for
 no executive head, but in the consttu- tional convention ten years later, it was conceded that If the experiment. of
 popular government were to be sue
 cessful, an executive branch, invested with power and responsibility must be
 one of it's essential factors.
 In the scheme of our national gov. ernment, as then established, the pres
 identis spre- eminently the peoples office.
 Tn laws passed by congress are inert and vain without executive impulse; and the federal courts pass upon the right of the citizen only when their aid is occasionally invoked; but under the constitutional mandate that the presi- dent shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed" every citizen is constantly within the protection and restraint of the executive power. Fur thermore, it is ,only in the selection of the president that the body of the American people can by any possibility act together and directly in the equip ment of their national government. To the wisdom of the man who composed the convention we are indebted for the creation of an executive department, limited against any possible danger of usurpation or tyranny but, at the same time, strong and independent within it's limitations.
 MT. Cleveland then reviewed the de- bate in the first session of congress in 17S9 over the power of the president un- der the constitution to remove an officer appointed by him by and with the ad- vice of the senate. Theioutcome of this debate was a legislative construction of the constitution to the effect that the president had the power to removal without the participation or interference of the senate. But the question was again raised in 1886 in a sharp conten- tion between the senate and the presi- dent. In order to make clear the nature of this controversy, which he expects to discuss in detail in the second lecture, MT. Cleveland described the tenure of office act passed in 1867 for the express purpose of preventing removals from office by President Johnson, and com pared it with the tenure of office legIs- lation passed in 1S69 during President Grants first administration.
 'I fully appreciate the fact" said Mir Cleveland in closing, that partisanship follows party organizations that it is apt to be unduy developed in all parties, and that it often hampers the best as- pirations and purposes of public life, put I hope I have reached a condition when I can recall such adverse parti- sanship as may have entered into past conflicts and perplexities without mis- eading irritation or rejudice-especial- v on such an occasion as this"