It Might Perhaps Have Done
Much More Toward Such Salvation Than It Has As Yet Effected, And It
May Well Be Hoped That It Will In Future Do More.
Such are the executive powers of the Senate; and it is, I think,
remarkable that the Senate has always used these powers with extreme
moderation.
It has never shown a factious inclination to hinder
government by unnecessary interference, or a disposition to clip the
President's wings by putting itself altogether at variance with him.
I am not quite sure whether some fault may not have lain on the
other side; whether the Senate may not have been somewhat slack in
exercising the protective privileges given to it by the
Constitution. And here I cannot but remark how great is the
deference paid to all governors and edicts of government throughout
the United States. One would have been disposed to think that such
a feeling would be stronger in an old country such as Great Britain
than in a young country such as the States. But I think that it is
not so. There is less disposition to question the action of
government either at Washington or at New York, than there is in
London. Men in America seem to be content when they have voted in
their governors, and to feel that for them all political action is
over until the time shall come for voting for others. And this
feeling, which seems to prevail among the people, prevails also in
both Houses of Congress.
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