The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1923-09-20
COOLIDGE FOR CONSTITU.
TIONAL GOVERNMENT

The recent announcement from the
White House that out Of Difference to
the rights of Congress President
Coolidge does not intend to announce
"a program" in advance Of the presi-
Dental annual message to Congress,
comes as no surprise to those aware
of President Coolidge's high regard
for the Constitutional rights and
prerogatives Of the legislative branch
of our government, and his strict OBJ
servance of them.
That school of political thought en-
amored with the doctrine of "one-man
government" which fourshed and
lowered under the Wilson regime will
not find the Coolidge administration
very congenial. Those International
lists who sing their daily hymn of hate
of the United States Senate because
it insists upon the exercise of its Ie-
gitimate and proper powers in con-
nection with foreign treaties and
agreements, will find President Coo
lidge as adamant as President Hard
ing against attempting to usurp or
override those powers.
So, too, those who have been urg-
ing largely for selfish reason) the
right and power of the House to have
absolute and final authority over rev
enue measures and expenditures, be
"short circuited' by letting a COM
mission frame our tariffs and some
other body than the House control ap-
preparations, will find no support in
the Coolidge administration for their
" plan to remove control of the public
y, purse strings from the House,-elec-
: ted by the people and directly respon-
'ible to the people.
,ie Those who wish President Cool
0Sige's views upon these matters may
find them in his inaugural address of
March 4, 1921, delivered upon his tax
ing the oath of Vice President and
assuming his duties as presiding Off
Ger of the Senate. His address, char
acteristicalIy brief and clear, was as
follows:
Five generations ago there was
revealed to the people of this nation
a new relationship between man and
man, which they declared and pro-
claimed in the American Constitution.
Therein they recognized legislature
empowered to express the will of the
people in law, judiciary required to
determine and state such law, and an
executive charged with securing obed-
fence to the law, all holding their
Office not by reason of some superior
force but through the duly determine
ed conscience of their countrymen.
'To the House, close to the heart
of the nation, renewing it's whole
membership by frequent elections,
representing directly the people, re-
fiecting their common purpose, has
been granted full measure of the
power Of legislation and exclusive
authority to originate taxation.
"To the Senate, renewing its men,
bership by degrees, representing in
part the sovereign states, has been
granted not only a full measure of
the power of legislation but, if posi-
BILE, far more important functions.
To it is intrusted the duty of review,
that to negotiate there may be added
ratification and to appointment APP
proval.
'But its greatest function Of all,
too little mentioned and too little I'M
derstood, whether exercised in legis-
lating or reviewing, is the preserva-
ton of liberty; not merely the rights
of the majority, from whatever
source they may be assailed. The
great object for US to seek here, for
the Constitution identifies the Vice
Presidency with the Senate, is to con-
tinue to make this chamber, as it was
intended by the fathers, the citadel
of liberty. An enormous power is
here conferred, capable of much good
or i'll, open it may be to abuse, but
necessary, wholly and absolutely ne
cessary, to secure the required result.
Whatever its faults, whatever it's
human imperfections, there is no le-
gislative body in all history that has
used its powers with more wisdom
and discretion, more uniformly for
the execution of the public will, or
more in harmony with the spirit of
the authority of the people which has
created it, than the United States
Senate.
Il take up the duties the people
have assigned me under the Consti-
tuition, which we can neither enlarge
nor diminish, of presiding over this
Senate, agreeable to its rules and