Part 5 (2/2)
It will readily be seen that the contingency may often occur when the Vice-President becoislation
On the occasion of the writer's retire farewell address before the Senate:
”Senators: The hour has arrived which ress, and terminatesdown the gavel for the last ti you for a ratitude for the uniform courtesy extendedthe tiood fortune to preside over your deliberations My appreciation of the Resolution of the Senate personal to myself, can find no adequate expression in words Intentionally, I have at no tiiven offence; and I carry fro of unkindness toward any Senator, nothe favors political fortune has bestowed uponbeen the associate--and known so of the friendshi+p--of theheld official relation in this chaust body is an honor of which even the ht be proud I a the one hundred and eight years of our Constitutional history, ever entered upon the discharge of the duties pertaining to this office more deeply impressed with a sense of the responsibilities inity of the great Legislative asse, questions of deep import to political parties and to the country have here found earnest and at times passionate discussion This Chareat debate The record of four years of parliaislation, is closed, and passes now to the domain of history
”I think I can truly say, in the words of a distinguished predecessor, 'In the discharge of my official duties, I have known no cause, no party, no friend' It has been my earnest endeavor justly to interpret, and faithfully to execute, the rules of the Senate At ti to coard or a perversion of the rules Yet, I think it safe to say, the result, however salutary, will be dearly purchased by a departure frouidance A single instance, as indicated, ht prove the forerunner of untold evils
''T will be recorded for a precedent, And many an error by the same exaotten that the rules governing this body are founded deep in human experience; that they are the result of centuries of tireless effort in legislative hall, to conserve, to render stable and secure, the rights and liberties which have been achieved by conflict By its rules, the Senate wisely fixes the liainst the Senate and its mode of procedure it may be truly said, 'They know not what they do' In this Chamber alone are preserved, without restraint, two essentials of wise legislation and of good governht of amendislation, rarely from the delay which follows full discussion and deliberation Inthe unrestricted right of a intact the tily secure action after deliberation, possesses in our scheovernment a value which can not be measured by words The Senate is a perpetual body In the terse words of an eminent Senator now present: 'The hly all forovernment History was streith the wrecks of unsuccessful democracies Sometimes the usurpation of the executive power, sometimes the fickleness and unbridled license of the people, had brought popular governers, they placed their chief hope in the Senate The Senate which was organized in 1789, at the inauguration of the Government, abides and will continue to abide, one and the same body, until the Republic itself shall be overthrown, or time shall be no more'
”Twenty-four Senators who have occupied seats in this Chaer members of this body Five of that nue, and Wilson-- 'shattered with the contentions of the Great Hall,' full of years and of honors have passed fro and honorable terms of service of other Senators, ill be borne in kind remembrance by their associates who res if I failed to express my thanks to the officers of this body for the fidelity hich they have discharged their i courtesy of which I have been the recipient
”For the able and distinguished gentle officer, I earnestly invoke the saenerously accordedwords have been spoken, and I now dischargethe Senate adjourned without day”
V THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
DIFFICULTY OF FORMULATING A FEDERAL CONStitUTION--THE CONVENTION OF 1787 SEES THE NECESSITY FOR A GENERAL GOVERNMENT WITH PLENARY POWERS--JEALOUSY OF THE SMALLER TOWARD THE LARGER STATES-- BRITISH PARLIAMENT TAKEN, WITH QUALIFICATIONS, AS THE MODEL FOR THE HOUSES OF CONGRESS--EQUAL STATE REPRESENTATION IN THE SENATE-- NON-EXISTENCE OF ANY METHOD FOR TERMINATING DEBATES IN THE SENATE-- POTENCY OF THE PRESIDENT'S VETO--ABUSE OF THE _CLOTURE_ IN THE HOUSE--PROCEDURE IN THE EVENT OF THE FAILURE OF THE PEOPLE TO ELECT A PRESIDENT OR A VICE-PRESIDENT--THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST--DANGER OF USURPATION OF POWER BY THE EXECUTIVE--THE SENATE AS A HIGH COURT OF IMPEACHMENT--TRIAL OF CHASE OF MARYLAND--TRIAL OF BELKNAP, SECRETARY OF WAR--TRIAL OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON
It is a well-known fact in our political history that the convention which forreatly exceeded the powers delegated to its members by their respective States It was the supree depended events of far-reaching consequence The Constitution of the United States is the enduring e, the forecast, the wisdom of the members of the Convention of 1787 It was theirs to cut the Gordian knot, to break with the past, and, regardless of the jealousies and antagonisms of individual States, to establish the more perfect union, which has been declared by an ereatest work ever struck off at a given time from the brain and purpose of man”
The oft-quoted expression of Gladstone is, however, more rhetorical than accurate The Constitution of the United States was not ”struck off at a given time,” but as declared by Bancroft, ”the es” In the words of Lieber, ”What the ancients said of the avenging Gods, that they were shod ool, is true of great ideas in govern ti the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, which ternated ”the critical period of American history” The Revolutionary Governton had been chosen to the chief coht, and the Declaration of Independence proated, had been superseded in 1781 by a Government created under the Articles of Confederation The latter Govern step in the right direction; the earnest of the more perfect union yet to follow
Under the Govern battles of the Revolution were fought, independence achieved, a treaty of peace concluded, and our recognition as a sovereign Republic obtained froonist and other European nations
The Articles of Confederation, subress to the individual States while the country was yet in the throes of a doubtful struggle, fell far short of establishi+ng what in even crude fornated a Govern in one essential of all Governments: the power to execute its own decrees Its avowed purpose was to establish ”a firue of friendshi+p,” or, as the name indicates, a mere confederation of the colonies
The parties to this league were independent political communities, and by express ternty, and jurisdiction not expressly delegated to the Confederation In a Congress consisting of a single House were vested the powers thus grudgingly conferred Its members were to be chosen by the States as such; upon every question the vote was given by States, each, regardless of population, having but a single vote The revenues and the regulation of foreign commerce were to remain under the control of the respective States, and no provision waseneral Government In a word, in so far as a Government at all, it was in the main one of independent States, and in no sense that hich we are familiar, a Government of the entire people Whatever existed of executive poas in a co the expenses of the late war and the interest upon the public debt was by requisition upon the States, with no shadow of power for its enforcement
Under the conditions brieflythe nations, the now historic Convention of 1787 assembled in Philadelphia, in the rooated the Declaration of Independence
It consisted of fifty-five ton, a delegate froinia, was elected its President
Not the least of his public services was now to be rendered in the work of safeguarding the fruits of successful revolution by a stable Govern the associates horeat assee, were men whose names live with his in history If Franklin, Wilson, Shere, Mason, Pinckney, Hamilton, Madison, and their associates had rendered no public service other than as builders of the Constitution, that alone would entitle theenerations of their country fact was at once apparent that, under the Confederation, with its constituent States at tiradually drifting into a condition of anarchy
It is our glory to-day, and will be that of countless on-coenerations, that the ardless of instructions, expressed or i beyond local prejudices and State environ to time for vindication, with a ken that now see, the glory of their countryeneral Governarn nations”
To this end the proposition subs of the Convention, for a ement of the powers of the Confederation, was decisively rejected With the light that could be gleaned froestive lessons to be drawn fro the pathway of history, and from the unwritten Constitution of the uides, the leaders of the Convention were at once in the difficult role of constructive statesmen The Herculean task to which with unwearied effort they now addressed themselves was that of ”builders”
of the Constitution; the establishers, for the ages, of the fundamental law for a free people
One of the perils which early beset the Convention, and whose spectre haunted its deliberations till the close, was the hostility engendered by the dread and jealousy of the ser States This fact will in some measure explain what in later years have been denominated the ano of the motives of the builders, and an appreciation of their otten that ”The foundations of the Constitution were laid in coed froh which they had escaped the doe the Third yet burning in their memories, it is not to be wondered that the Revolutionary patriots of the less populous States were loath to surrender rights, deeovernments; that they dreaded the establish--possibly unlieneral Government, with its three separate and measurably independent departated powers of each distinctly enumerated, the salient question as to the basis of representation in the Congress at once pressed for determination Upon the question of provision for a chief executive, and his investreat office, there was after much debate a practical consensus of opinion And practical unani the judicial departreat court without a prototype at its creation, and even yet without a counterpart in foreign Governments