By These
Committees The Chief Legislative Measures Of The Country Are
Originated And Inaugurated, As They Are With Us By
The ministers of
the Crown; and the chairman of each committee is supposed to have a
certain amicable relation with
That minister who presides over the
office with which his committee is connected. Mr. Sumner is at
present chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and he is
presumed to be in connection with Mr. Seward, who, as Secretary of
State, has the management of the foreign relations of the
government.
But it seems to me that this supposed connection between the
committees and the ministers is only a makeshift, showing by its
existence the absolute necessity of close communication between the
executive and the legislative, but showing also by its imperfections
the great want of some better method of communication. In the first
place, the chairman of the committee is in no way bound to hold any
communication with the minister. He is simply a Senator, and as
such has no ministerial duties and can have none. He holds no
appointment under the President, and has no palpable connection with
the executive. And then, it is quite as likely that he may be
opposed in politics to the minister as that he may agree with him.
If the two be opposed to each other on general politics, it may be
presumed that they cannot act together in union on one special
subject; nor, whether they act in union or do not so act, can either
have any authority over the other.
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