American Eloquence, Volume 4: Studies In American Political History (1897)
History
American Eloquence, Volume 4: Studies In American Political History (1897)
Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- History; United States -- Politics and government
Another feature to which I will allude is that the new constitution
provides that cabinet ministers and heads of departments may have
the privilege of seats upon the floor of the Senate and House of
Representatives, may have the right to participate in the debates and
discussions upon the various subjects of administration. I should have
preferred that this provision should have gone further, and required
the President to select his constitutional advisers from the Senate
and House of Representatives. That would have conformed entirely to the
practice in the British Parliament, which, in my judgment, is one of the
wisest provisions in the British constitution. It is the only feature
that saves that government. It is that which gives it stability in
its facility to change its administration. Ours, as it is, is a great
approximation to the right principle. * * *
Another change in the Constitution relates to the length of the tenure
of the Presidential office. In the new constitution it is six years
instead of four, and the President is rendered ineligible for a
re-election. This is certainly a decidedly conservative change. It will
remove from the incumbent all temptation to use his office or exert the
powers confided to him for any objects of personal ambition. The only
incentive to that higher ambition which should move and actuate one
holding such high trusts in his hands will be the good of the people,
the advancement, happiness, safety, honor, and true glory of the
Confederacy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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