The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1915-03-05
WILLIAMS DEFENSE OF WILSON.

WILLIAMS DEFENSE OF WILSON.
Senator John Sharp Williams, recognized
Democratic leader, came to the rescue of
President Wilson recently and in his res
ponse to a criticism heaped on him by Sena-
tor O'Gorman, delivered a defense Of the
president that was in itself a masterpiece of
rhetoric, logic and constitutional law, says
the Natchez News-Democrat. When the
Republican senator assailed President Will
son for interfering with the legislative de-
partment of the government and undertook
to ~criticise his policy on the grounds that
.sthere would be just as much propriety if
the president of the United States were to
send for the chief justice of the supreme
court. and ask him to come to the White
House and discuss a pending case as there
would be if he were to send to the senate
and command some of the senators to go
down there and take their orders as to what
they should do in this body" Senator Will
liams at once asked for recognition and COM
|pletely destroyed the arguments of Senator
.O'Gorman by a logical, clear cut, singing
reply. Mr.. Williams said in part:
1.-THE president of the United States is
a part. of the legislative power of the United
States. He is made so by the constitution
itself: In the first place, there is conferred
upon him the power to veto a legislative act.
He is thus two-thirds of the legislative
power as a final arbiter. No legislative
action can become a law without his cooper
alton; therefore, a president of the United
States who was opposed to a pending bill in
congress to the extent that if it passed he
would veto it, would be merely wasting the
time of the congress and of the people of
the United States not to permit the fact to
be known.
1.-THE constitution further provides that
he shall from time to time give to the con-
gress information of the state to the union,
and recommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and
e%xpedient.
''When the senator from New York ar
raigns the chief magistrate of this nation at
this time for talking privately to senators
and members of congress about pending
measures, he arraigns George Washington
to some extent; he arraigns Thomas Jeffer-
son for nearly every measure that passed
during Jeferson's administration; he ar
raigns Andrew Jackson, the democratic
militant, who hardly spent a day without
talking to the members of his party in one
or both bodies of congress about what party
policies should be; he arraigns Lincoln, the
father of the republican party, who, perhaps,
next to Jefferson, held more heart to heart
talks with members of the house and senate
than any other president of the United
States; he arraigns Mckinley, who managed
the program and the policy Of the republi-
can party while he was president Of the
United States, almost entirely from the
White House, by private conference with
senators and with representatives.
Every great president Of the United
States, regarding as a part of the legislative
power of the United States, and as the
selected leader of his Dartv. has considered
himself at liberty to talk to the other in
tergers constituting the legislative power
about what should be the policy Of the ma
ton.
Moreover, as have said once before
upon this floor, this country never suffered
by leadership. This country has suffered by
bossism. Leadership is the legitimate use
by elected persons, the choice of the people,
of the human intelligence to persuade other
human intelligence to pursue in harmony a
common purpose. That sort of leadership
Madison had; that sort Of leadership Jack
son had, and Lincoln had it, and Woodrow
Wilson, thank God, has it also."