Year: 1878

country will predict the success of the prof.


ect broached in the House on Monday by


Mr.. Southard, of Ohio Still, what it suG-
proposes. Mr.. Southland is chairman of the
Committee on the Revision of the Laws for
Counting the Electoral Votes, but the
change he proposes is his individual propo-
| sition and not the recommendation OF his
committee. and it appears by the
explanation he made yesterday that
it was offered merely to oblige
another person, who is its real author Since
neither the chairman of the committee nor
| any of it's members take any stock in the
proposal it is not probable that anything
more will be heard of it during the session.
The substance of the scheme is to substitute
by an amendment of the constitution,
triple for a single national executive; or in
other words, to exchange the President for
an executive board The three members OF
this board are to be distributed among the
three great sections of the country-one
being assigned to the Northeast, including
the four Middle and six New England States;
one to the Western States; the third to the
Southern States. 1t is proposed that the
one member shall 60 out and his successor
be elected every two years, its organization
being modelled in this respect on that of
the Senate. But each member Of the
executive board is to be elected by the
country at large and not by the people of
the section ffom which he is chosen and
whom he is to represent.


A plural executive is not new proposi-.
tion. One of the ablest men who ever acted
leading part in our government, Mr.. John
G. Calhoun, in his posthumous treatise
on government advocated dual executive
with the ingenuity and acuteness which
stamped the productions of his luminous
and powerful intellect. But even from him
such a proposition was regarded as para
dox, and it ceased to be discussed as soon
as the gloss of novelty had worn off, All
our American traditions and American
practice favor single executive. In all
our State constitutions provision is made
for single. governor; in MI our cities we
elect single mayor. There are stronger
reasons for q single head Of the national
than Of the State governments. The
supreme command of the army and navy
has always been thought to be most safely
vested in single directing head, which
best combines the great requisites of unity,
efficiency, secrecy, and in sudden emergen-
cies celerity. The same order of considera-
tions has been thought to dictate, though
not quite so peremptorily, On undivided re-
sponsibility in conducting our diplomatic
intercourse with foreign governments.


Still, plural executive is not such
mere crochet or whimsey as people trained
under most modern governments incline to
consider it, The most powerful of the an
greatest political as we'll as military genius,
the nation whose power was more solid and
durable as well as more extensive and CON-
manding than that Of any other nation of
antiquity, had dual executive throughout
the whole period when it was ris-
ing to the control of the world.
For several centuries, centuries which
form the most resplendent period of
Roman history, that master State of the
ancient world was governed not by one
king, as in its earlier and infant period; not
by one emperor, aS in its later and declin-
ing period, but by two consuls, elected an
nually and exercising jointly the executive
authority Of the Roman Republic. The test
of several hundred years steady progress
toward supreme national greatness proved
that this mode.of government was, in that
instance, at least, wonderful success The
government Of Great Britain in recent times
is not exactly parallel case, but ever since
the monarch has become mere pageant of
state-ever since it has become an es-
tablished maxim that the king or queen
''reigns, but does not govern" the
executive authority has been virtu-
ally vested in o board called the Ministry.
There has remained, to be sure, the fiction
of royal authority but the supreme execu-
tive of the nation has been really vested in
a committee of the House of Commons. We
say committee Of the House of Commons
because no Ministry can survive an adverse
vote of that body, and no new Ministry can
take Office and conduct the government
without the support of the lower House of
Parliament. The world has had occasions
to see, within the last few weeks, how regu-
larly and promptly the Cabinet is sum-
moned to meet at every new and alarm
ing turn of the Eastern news, and
the decisions reached are the re-
suit of joint deliberations. A plural
executive is not, therefore, the solecism
Il, ,,o1;t;ca which our Amaricon n, nda of
thought incline to consider it. Even in the
great national or international emergencies
which involve questions of war. peacesand
require critical negotiations, the foremost of
all existing governments is controlled by
the deliberations of an executive board.