The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-06-18
THE OvERSHADOwING SENATE.

it ere not for the Presidents OPP
portunity of appeal to the country,
and for some remnants of independ-
ence on the part of the House, an
independence, however, which is
unhappily less and less frequently
manifested as the power of the
the hierarchy increases, the Senate
would almost absolutely control leg
islatlon, as, in ordinary times, it
dominates appointments to office, the
foreign relations of the country. the
President, and party politics" Such
is the statement made in recent ar
ticle in the Century by Henry Loomis
Nelson, a writer of no mean ability,
and one who goes to the fountain
head of truth for the facts upon which
to base his conclusions. His subject
is The Overshadowing Senate and
whether his position be right or
wrong he supports it manfully.
Mr. Nelson S argument can be
briefly summed up as follows: The
Senate, through its constitutional
right of confirmation of presidential
appointments to office, has gained the
power to name the appointees them
selves through this power over offices
the members Of the Senate have be-
come the natural heads of their
party organization in their respective
States; this makes them virtually
masters of the members of the House
from their States. 50 that they can be
commanded to do the will of the Sen
ators under the threat of no re-elec-
tion if they refuse. 1t would seem to
the unsophisticated that there are
some flaws in the chain Of reasoning
when applied to known instances, but
some of the deductions are at least
interesting.
He says: The tumultuous dem
ocraey at the other end of the Capitol
has, in law, more legislative power
than the more select body possesses;
but it is also true that the President
alone is charged with the duties of
nominating persons to Office and nego-
tiating treaties. The truth is that
something has happened which has
wrought havoc with the theoretical
system of checks and balances. The
Senate has slipped out of its orbit and
is describing larger arc in the polit-
ical heavens than that which the
fathers marked out for it. Its progress
towards its eccentricity was slow at
first, but for tweney years it has pro-
ceeded with a rapidity which has al
most defied observation.
Mr.. Nelson asserts that the Presi-
dent is now practically at the mercy
of the Senators in the matter of APP
pointments. matter which regularly
takes large proportion of the time
and attention of the Chief Executive.
He says that now the President takes
the advice of the Senators from GER
tain State before he makes an ap-
pointment in that State, in nearly
every case that means that the man
the Senators recommend is the one
who is named. if the President
backs and names man not accord
ing to the liking of the Senators the
nomination is most likely to fail if
confirmation. He further says that
the President uses the offices as
means of securing the passage of
such legislation as he desires and
that the bribery of offices is all
through the actual working of the
government, with the Senate con-
trolling in most instances. The
theory of the Constitution that the
three departments of the govern
ment-the legislative, the executive,
and the judiciary-are independent of
one another and equal in rank has
been changed largely through the
force of custom known as the
courtesy of the Senate That
there are exceptions to the general
rule of control by the Senate, or at
least have been, Mr.. Nelson admits,
and comments on several, especially
that one most notable in history
the Conkling affair, in which Senators
Conkling and Platt of New York, re-
signed, because President Garfield re-
fused to appoint other than Mr.. Rob-
ertson as collector of New York
They failed of reelection. The
writer, however, considers that Conk.
ling was merely ahead of his times
and that probably Mr.. Platt, who is
at last back in the Senate, is now
controlling offices which Conkling
failed to do
Mr.. Nelson says again: Every
President must recognize the mo
mentous truth that he is virtually
powerless without the Senate. Not
only cannot he fill an Office or make {
treaty without its assent, but he mus
possess the friendship OF the majority
il he is to secure the legislation which
he especially desires. The practica
President will therefore deal. or trade
with the Senate. He will, for ex