The Government Has Become Greater
Than Seems To Have Been Contemplated When That Code Was Drawn Up.
It Has Spread Itself As It Were Over A Wider Surface, And Has
Extended To Matters Which It Was Not Necessary Then To Touch.
That
theory of governing by the means of little men was very well while
the government itself was small.
A President and his clerks may
have sufficed when there were from thirteen to eighteen States;
while there were no Territories, or none at least that required
government; while the population was still below five millions;
while a standing army was an evil not known and not feared; while
foreign politics was a troublesome embroglio in which it was quite
unnecessary that the United States should take a part. Now there
are thirty-four States. The territories populated by American
citizens stretch from the States on the Atlantic to those on the
Pacific. There is a population of thirty million souls. At the
present moment the United States are employing more soldiers than
any other nation, and have acknowledged the necessity of maintaining
a large army even when the present troubles shall be over. In
addition to this the United States have occasion for the use of
statecraft with all the great kingdoms of Europe. That theory of
ruling by little men will not do much longer. It will be well that
they should bring forth their big men and put them in the place of
rulers.
The President has at present seven ministers.
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