The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-01-22
PRESIDENT OR EMPE.
R0R.


idly these days. il the speed at which
we are going at present is kept up
much longer we shall have passed we'll
cut OF the orbit of the Constitution
into the region OF direst absolutism.
You have doubtless read, with
amazement, the speech of our New
York lawyer and statesman(?) Charles
a. Gardiner, recently delivered before
the State Bar Association.
For the benefit Of suck Of your read
ers as may not have seen the remark
able discourse in question, permit me
TO give at least it's main para graph
The new statesman'S subject was
"The President of the United States, >"
and this is his description of him:
"A majestic constitutional figure, un-
controlled by Congress, unrestrained
by the courts, vested with plenary con-
stitutional power, and absolute consti-
tutional discretion sovereign over
so ,000,0 900 people, and the servant OF
so, 600, 900 sovereigns, whose sole in
spring purpose is to serve his fellow
citizens, guard their liberties and make
this nation the freest, most enlighten-
ed. most powerful sovereignty ever or.
ganized among men,"
If Mr.. Gardiner had deliberately snt
himself TO task, he could not, in the
same space have uttered q greater
Mark you, the President, according
to the gentlemans theory, is vested
with "plenary power, he has "abso-
lutte discretion" he is a sovereign"
and yet, according TO the gentlemans
own statement, he is a Constitutional
figure" his discretion is a Constitu-
tional discretion, and every scintilla of
his power" is vested"
How anybody, who is fit to be out
Of bedlam, can make these various
statement agree is the wonder with US
all.
If the President is a constitutional"
PERSON, if such power and discretion as
rnay belong to him are vested in
him by the instrument that creates
him, then, if / know anything about
logic and plain common sense, he cam
not possibly be uncontrolled, "abso-
ute,' a sovereign"
The fundamental meaning of Con
s tuation' is check, or prohibition.
The very fact that an official is under
a Constitution means that he is under
n restraint, and, instead of being abso-
Lutte, is bound-by the stipulation of
the contract
The Sultan of Turkey, the Car Of
russia, are absolute. unrestrained SOW
ereign-because of the fact that there
hold them in check and TO conflne
them within vested power
The further we go the more stupen-
dous the inconsistency becomes.
For instance, Mr.. Gardiner tells us
that the function of his strange Pres
ident" is to make this nation the
freest, most enlightened, most power
fui sovereignty ever organized among
men"
Has Mr. Gardiner read, studied and
"inwardly digested" the early consti-
tutional history of this country? Has
he read the "Federalist, Eliots, the
debates in the various State conven-
tons prior to the ratification of the
Constitution? If he has, does he not
know that it is absurd TO speak of the
nation as being a sovereignty?
The only sovereignty that the men
who ratified the Constitution knew
anything about was that of the people
Of the States, who, through their re-
spective conventions, spake the words
which gave TO the Constitution the on
~ life it ever had
The Constitution was as worthless as
the parchment upon which it was writ
ten until the sovereigns-M Ma ssachu-
sets. New York, Virginia, North Caro-
lima, and the rest of them, through
their respective wills as expressed in
their respective conventions, made it a
living thing, the agent of their COM
inon purposes.
Created by the States, the general
government was ordered TO do certain
things. and, to the end that it might
do these things, certain power
were delegated" loaned to it, which
| it was to use in the name, and for the
| interests of, it's masters--the United
L 49,, \, fof. Cd
In no department of the Federal
government nor in all of them COM
bined, is there grain of sovereignty.
Every particle of the power ii possesses
| is delegated, loaned, for certain sreci-
! fed purposes, by the people of the sew
eral commemorative of the Union.
Coming now to the President, we
find him to be constitutionally tether-
ed on every hand.
He can make no law.
He car adiudicate no law.
1t is true: he can veto law; but his
veto, 30 far from being absolute. .
| that is to say, the voice of a sover-
| eign.' may be overridden by a two
thirds majority of both Houses of Con-
! aress.
The President was to be. according
| to the idea of the great and good men
who wrote the Constitution not "sov-
eFelSn, out the executive Oh the peO-
| Pies will, as that will should be ex-
pressed through their representatives
| in Congress.
They had had experience plenty
with "sovereigns," and, certainly. they
did not intend to subject themselves to
another one. who, for all they knew
might turn out to be even a more in
tolerable despot than was George III.
He is blind indeed who is not aware
of the fact that we are rapidly drifting
away from the old landmarks. AS the
| fathers thought, we are thinking no
more. AS the fathers believed, We are
! believing no more. The fathers idea.
Of a confederacy of sovereign States,
especially their Will in a Constitution
and by that constituting, creating and
| equipping q General Agent to serve
their common purpose, is being re-
placed by an altogether strange and
alien idea--the idea of a nation with a
big N, a great autocratic, centralized
sovereignty, which is above the States,
and their absolute master
More and more is this miserable
idea gaining strength In our midst, and
when it is fully grown away viii go
constitutional liberty, and all that has