No desire of the people can turn
him out; nor need he fear any clamor from the press.
If an officer
so high in power be needed, at any rate the choice of such an
officer should be made with the greatest care. The Constitution has
decreed how such care should be exercised, but the Constitution has
not been able to maintain its own decree. The constituted electors
of the President have become a mere name; and that officer is chosen
by popular election, in opposition to the intention of those who
framed the Constitution. The effect of this may be seen in the
characters of the men so chosen. Washington, Jefferson, Madison,
the two Adamses, and Jackson were the owners of names that have
become known in history. They were men who have left their marks
behind them. Those in Europe who have read of anything, have read
of them. Americans, whether as Republicans they admire Washington
and the Adamses, or as Democrats hold by Jefferson, Madison, and
Jackson, do not at any rate blush for their old Presidents. But who
has heard of Polk, of Pierce, of Buchanan? What American is proud
of them? In the old days the name of a future President might be
surmised. He would probably be a man honored in the nation; but who
now can make a guess as to the next President? In one respect a
guess may be made with some safety. The next President will be a
man whose name has as yet offended no one by its prominence. But
one requisite is essential for a President; he must be a man whom
none as yet have delighted to honor.
This has come of universal suffrage; and seeing that it has come in
spite of the Constitution, and not by the Constitution, it is very
bad. Nor in saying this am I speaking my own conviction so much as
that of all educated Americans with whom I have discussed the
subject. At the present moment universal suffrage is not popular.
Those who are the highest among the people certainly do not love it.
I doubt whether the masses of the people have ever craved it. It
has been introduced into the presidential elections by men called
politicians; by men who have made it a matter of trade to dabble in
State affairs, and who have gradually learned to see how the
constitutional law, with reference to the presidential electors,
could be set aside without any positive breach of the Constitution.*
* On this matter one of the best, and best-informed Americans that I
have known, told me that he differed from me. "It introduced
itself," said he. "It was the result of social and political
forces. Election of the President by popular choice became a
necessity." The meaning of this is, that in regard to their
presidential elections the United States drifted into universal
suffrage. I do not know that his theory is one more comfortable for
his country than my own.
Whether or no any backward step can now be taken - whether these
elections can again be put into the hands of men fit to exercise a
choice in such a matter - may well be doubted. Facilis descensus
Averni. But the recovery of the downward steps is very difficult.
On that subject, however, I hardly venture here to give an opinion.
I only declare what has been done, and express my belief that it has
not been done in conformity with the wishes of the people, as it
certainly has not been done in conformity with the intention of the
Constitution.
In another matter a departure has been made from the conservative
spirit of the Constitution. This departure is equally grave with
the other, but it is one which certainly does admit of correction.
I allude to the present position assumed by many of the Senators,
and to the instructions given to them by the State legislatures as
to the votes which they shall give in the Senate. An obedience on
their part to such instructions is equal in its effects to the
introduction of universal suffrage into the elections. It makes
them hang upon the people, divests them of their personal
responsibility, takes away all those advantages given to them by a
six years' certain tenure of office, and annuls the safety secured
by a conservative method of election. Here again I must declare my
opinion that this democratic practice has crept into the Senate
without any expressed wish of the people. In all such matters the
people of the nation has been strangely undemonstrative. It has
been done as part of a system which has been used for transferring
the political power of the nation to a body of trading politicians
who have become known and felt as a mass, and not known and felt as
individuals. I find it difficult to describe the present political
position of the States in this respect. The millions of the people
are eager for the Constitution, are proud of their power as a
nation, and are ambitious of national greatness. But they are not,
as I think, especially desirous of retaining political influences in
their own hands. At many of the elections it is difficult to induce
them to vote. They have among them a half-knowledge that politics
is a trade in the hands of the lawyers, and that they are the
capital by which those political tradesmen carry on their business.
These politicians are all lawyers. Politics and law go together as
naturally as the possession of land and the exercise of magisterial
powers do with us. It may be well that it should be so, as the
lawyers are the best-educated men of the country, and need not
necessarily be the most dishonest. Political power has come into
their hands, and it is for their purposes and by their influences
that the spread of democracy has been encouraged.
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