Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The senates are gradually renewed by the annual retirement of a certain number of members, and the election of successors.

By dividing the legislature into two branches, the founders of the constitution did not intend to create an aristocratic body, but by the mutual check of two assemblies to secure greater deliberation, and also to form a court of appeal for the revision of the laws.

The executive power of each state is principally vested in the governor. He apprises the legislature of the wants of the public service, and may suggest the means of providing for them. In general, the governor carries into effect the measures of the legislature, but they sometimes appoint special agents for that purpose. He may suspend their measures by his veto. In the administration of affairs in the counties and towns, he never interferes except to appoint justices of the peace. He has the controul of the military power of the state.

The governor is a magistrate chosen by the people for a term of one or two years, and consequently he is dependent on the majority from whom his short-lived power is derived.

Having thus given a brief general outline of the governments of the states, we proceed to consider the federal or supreme government of the union. The first federal constitution was formed in 1778, and was finally adopted by all the states in 1781. At the close of the war with England the several states had virtually become independent, their union was scarcely more than nominal, and was on the eve of dissolution. The task of framing a new and improved constitution was entrusted to an assembly of fifty-five members, among whom were Madison and Hamilton and Washington, the last being President. The new federal government entered upon its functions in 1789, at the commencement of the French Revolution. The powers

vested in the federal government and in the several states are well explained in the following passage from the Federalist, a celebrated work written by General Hamilton, with the exception of a few papers by Jay and Madison:-"The powers delegated by the constitution of the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite; the former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negociation, and foreign commerce. The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the internal order and prosperity of the state."-Federalist, No. 45.

The federal government has therefore the sole right to declare war, to conclude treaties of peace and of commerce, to raise a naval and military force,—to exercise controul over the finances, and to impose taxes. It likewise has some other functions in matters which concern the states generally. It has two legislative assemblies, the senate and the house of representatives. If the number of members which each state should send to Congress had been regulated solely by the amount of its population, the influence of the smaller states in Congress would have been overborne; and on the contrary their influence would have unduly preponderated, if an equal number of representatives in both houses had been allotted to each state, irrespective of the amount of its population.

It was finally determined that, to secure the independence of the states, each of them should send to Congress two senators; but in order to maintain the sovereignty of the people, the number of members which each state should be entitled to send to the house of representatives should be in proportion to its population; namely, one member for every thirty

thousand inhabitants. Hence it has come to pass, that while the small state of Delaware sends to the house of representatives only one member, the populous state of New York sends forty members. Congress may raise the numerical standard of inhabitants, who are to return one member to the house of representatives. Virginia and other slave-holding states send members to Congress in proportion to the number of their slaves, as well as of their free citizens, although the slaves themselves have virtually no political privileges. In the senate each state is represented by two members only.

It might happen therefore that the minority of the nation should return the majority of senators, and so oppose the decisions of the other house which is elected by the majority of the people. With respect to this anomaly M. De Tocqueville observes, "It is only in the origin of societies that the laws can be completely consistent with theory. When you see a nation enjoying this advantage, do not too hastily conclude that it is wise, but rather remember that it is young." This shews how rare and difficult it is to combine logically and rationally all the parts of a legislative system.

The house of representatives is elected by the people, and the term for which the members are chosen is two years.

The members of the senate must be thirty years of age, residing in the state they represent, and citizens of nine years' standing. They are elected by the legislatures of each state and for a period of six years, one third of their number going out by rotation every second year.

Thus the house of representatives is directly chosen by the people; but the senate is appointed by elected bodies. No person is eligible as a representative who is not twenty-five years old and resident in the state in

which he is chosen, and who has not been a citizen for seven years. No qualification in property is required. The functions of the house of representatives are purely legislative. It has also the right of impeaching public officers.

The senate, besides its legislative powers, has the right of trying political offences brought before it by the other chamber. It is also the great executive council of the nation. The treaties concluded by the President must be ratified by the senate, and his appointments must have their sanction.

The executive power of the union is vested in the President, who is a magistrate chosen for a period of four years, and is re-eligible. His power is kept in check by the people who conferred it, and by the senate who can annul certain acts of his. The senate cannot however compel him to take any measure, nor do they participate in the exercise of his authority. The President has a suspensive veto, whereby he is able to arrest the progress of laws that might abridge his power, and it obliges the senate to reconsider any measure to which he thus objects. The legislature would undoubtedly prevail in any struggle with the President by persevering in its course; but the veto renders it necessary to review the measure, and a majority of two thirds of the whole house is then requisite before it can become law.

Two dangers which especially threaten democracies are, first, the entire subjection of the legislative bodies to the will of the electors; and second, the absorption of all the other powers of government by the legislature. The federal government is rather less exposed to these dangers than the state governments, having been formed subsequently and with greater skill, by the wisest, ablest, and most patriotic of American statesmen.

"The federal government," says M. De Tocqueville,

"is more just and more moderate than that of the states. Its designs are characterised by greater wisdom, its projects by more consistency and foresight; its measures are executed with greater skill, steadiness, and perseverance.".... "In America the subjects of the union are not states but private citizens. The national government levies a tax, not upon the state of Massachusetts, but upon each of its inhabitants. All former confederate governments presided over communities, but that of the union rules individuals; its force is not borrowed but self-derived, and it is served by its own civil and military officers, by its own army, and its own courts of justice. It cannot be doubted that the spirit of the nation, the passions of the multitude, and the provincial prejudices of each state tend to abridge the power of a federal government so constituted, and to facilitate the means of resistance to its authority."

The American union is superior to all other federal governments, being permanent leagues of independent states, submitting, as states, to one central authority. The central government of America is partly national and partly federal, exercising authority over all American citizens in matters in which they are generally interested.

The circumstances under which the American confederacy arose were unusually favourable. The AngloAmerican colonies, speaking one language, as nearly resembling each other in manners, customs, laws, civilization, as the inhabitants of different counties and provinces in a European kingdom, were separated from the mother country, and they united together under one government, so as to combine the superior happiness and freedom of small republics with the power of a great nation.

Nevertheless the inherent defect of a confederacy is its weakness, and the stability of the American union,

« AnteriorContinuar »