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.
As regards the Senate, the recovery of its old dignity and former
position is within its own power.
No amendment of the Constitution
is needed here, nor has the weakness come from any insufficiency of
the Constitution. The Senate can assume to itself to-morrow its own
glories, and can, by doing so, become the saviour of the honor and
glory of the nation. It is to the Senate that we must look for that
conservative element which may protect the United States from the
violence of demagogues on one side, and from the despotism of
military power on the other. The Senate, and the Senate only, can
keep the President in check. The Senate also has a power over the
Lower House with reference to the disposal of money, which deprives
the House of Representatives of that exclusive authority which
belongs to our House of Commons. It is not simply that the House of
Representatives cannot do what is done by the House of Commons.
There is more than this. To the Senate, in the minds of all
Americans, belongs that superior prestige, that acknowledged
possession of the greater power and fuller scope for action, which
is with us as clearly the possession of the House of Commons. The
United States Senate can be conservative, and can be so by virtue of
the Constitution. The love of the Constitution in the hearts of all
Americans is so strong that the exercise of such power by the Senate
would strengthen rather than endanger its position. I could wish
that the Senators would abandon their money payments, but I do not
imagine that that will be done exactly in these days.
I have now endeavored to describe the strength of the Constitution
of the United States, and to explain its weakness. The great
question is at this moment being solved, whether or no that
Constitution will still be found equal to its requirements. It has
hitherto been the main-spring in the government of the people. They
have trusted with almost childlike confidence to the wisdom of their
founders, and have said to their rulers - "There! in those words you
must find the extent and the limit of your powers. It is written
down for you, so that he who runs may read." That writing down, as
it were, at a single sitting, of a sufficient code of instructions
for the governors of a great nation, had not hitherto in the world's
history been found to answer. In this instance it has, at any rate,
answered better than in any other, probably because the words so
written contained in them less pretense of finality in political
wisdom than other written constitutions have assumed. A young tree
must bend, or the winds will certainly break it. For myself I can
honestly express my hope that no storm may destroy this tree.
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