The
Ministry Which He Selects, On Coming To His Seat, Will Probably
Represent A Majority In Congress, Seeing That The Same Suffrages
Which Have Elected The President Will Also Have Elected The
Congress.
But there exists no necessity on the part of the
President to employ ministers who shall carry with them the support
of Congress.
If, however, the minister sat in Congress - if it were
required of each minister that he should have a seat either in one
House or in the other - the President would, I think, find himself
constrained to change a ministry in which Congress should decline to
confide. It might not be so at first, but there would be a tendency
in that direction.
The governing powers do not rest exclusively with the President or
with the President and his ministers; they are shared in a certain
degree with the Senate, which sits from time to time in executive
session, laying aside at such periods its legislative character. It
is this executive authority which lends so great a dignity to the
Senate, gives it the privilege of preponderating over the other
House, and makes it the political safeguard of the nation. The
questions of government as to which the Senate is empowered to
interfere are soon told. All treaties made by the President must be
sanctioned by the Senate; and all appointments made by the President
must be confirmed by the Senate. The list is short; and one is
disposed to think, when first hearing it, that the thing itself does
not amount to much.
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