Year: 1874

OUT regard 10 party. 1mpe0cnment II III nc
sense a political proceeding, and we should
rejoice that it is SO. But there should be a
remedy. and the democratic party should
mark its accession to power by giving it


This remedy should be found in the passage
of certain amendments to the constitution.
There should be an amendment giving the
President one term. This certainly has been
decided by the people There should be an
amendment prohibiting the President from
removing civil officers, other than the heads
Of departments, without cause, and without
assigning the cause TO the Senate There is
Treasury or an efficient postmaster in New
York should not hold his office by the
same tenure that major or q captain holds
his military commission. There should be
some constitutional recognition of the Cabi-
net. Instead of being o group of staff Off
GERS, or executive clerks who write the orders
Of the President. it should be committee of
Congress, as the English Cabinet is a commit
tee of Parliament. 1t should have direct re-
sponsibility to Congress. AS it is the Secre-
taries of the Treasury, of War and the
Navy-the most important officers under the
government, charged with, the honor, the
credit and the defence Of the nation-are virt,l-
ally irresponsible civil servants. The Eng
lish Chancellor of the Exchequer must appear
before full Parliament and tell what he pro-
poses to do with every penny in his budget.
No such responsibility rests upon the Secre-
tary Of the Treasury. And SO we might fol-
low all the ramifcations of our government
and show that the threads of responsibility are
SO attenuated that they may be broken by the
caprice of any Chief Magistrate. In other
words, the Presidency since the war has been
growing stronger and stronger. With the
Presidency also tho Senate One has been
moving on toward despotism, the other
toward an oligarchy. A Senator, who does
not represent the people, who simply repre-
sents constitutional tradition about State
sovereignty and equality of Commonwealth
an obsolete tradition in this that it
perished during the war-has more power
than Representative. He has Legislative, and
in some sense executive power, and he does
not have representative responsibility. The
existence of this Presidency, with all Of it's
tendencies toward absolutism, and of this
Senate, with its tendencies toward an
oligarchy, un ierlie the fear of Casarism which
so largely Influenced the last canvass.


1t is cowardly to say that this fear is ground
less because of the patriotism of General
Grant and the Senate. When our republican
government depends upon the honor or the
faith of any man, no matter how renowned,
then we are not a republic. There is not an
argument we can present against Csesarsm
now that would not hold good were Wash
ington President and not Grant. Democracy
can only live by devotion to prin-
ciples and not to men. And the party which
claims to be democratic will, if it is wise,
mark it's victory by restoring the government
to its republican simplicity, and by giving it
indeed simplicity that it never possessed
even under jefferson. Let the constitution be
so amended that we can have government by
the will of the people.