Now That Real Soldiers Have
Unfortunately Become Necessary, The Above Plan Has Not Been Found
To Work Well.
Such is the constitution of the State of New York, which has been
intended to work and does work quite separately from that of the
United States.
It will be seen that the purport has been to make
it as widely democratic as possible - to provide that all power of
all description shall come directly from the people, and that such
power shall return to the people at short intervals. The Senate
and the Governor each remain for two years, but not for the same
two years. If a new Senate commence its work in 1861, a new
Governor will come in in 1862. But, nevertheless, there is in the
form of government as thus established an absence of that close and
immediate responsibility which attends our ministers. When a man
has been voted in, it seems that responsibility is over for the
period of the required service. He has been chosen, and the
country which has chosen him is to trust that he will do his best.
I do not know that this matters much with reference to the
legislature or governments of the different States, for their State
legislatures and governments are but puny powers; but in the
legislature and government at Washington it does matter very much.
But I shall have another opportunity of speaking on that subject.
Nothing has struck me so much in America as the fact that these
State legislatures are puny powers.
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