The remedy for these oft-recurring ministerial crises in France is to
be found in the American Constitution. The French Constitution should
be revised and changed at the part quoted and all parts relating to
it, so as to provide against ministerial crises; and the instrument
presenting a sure guide in the performance of this necessary work is
the American Constitution. It has been in operation over a hundred
years and has been found to be an admirable working document,
affording ministerial stability to its cabinets for over a century.
Such a document is surely worthy of the closest study by the public
men of the sister republic. It was inevitable that in so long a time
some amendments should have become necessary; but for a long period it
has undergone no change, save such as noted, and formulating the
results of the civil war. Now and then are heard murmurings which
claim the necessity of a sixteenth amendment, to the effect that the
name of God should be put in the Constitution. The obvious answer to
this is, that in the official life of the United States there is a
more real acknowledgment of the Divine Being than there is in the
official life of any other country, and it is better to have the name
of God impressed upon the hearts of the people than upon even the best
official document ever drawn up.
It would not be correct to say that no attempts have been made to
bring about a ministerial crisis in the United States by encroachment
upon the rights of the Executive. Only once, however, when Andrew
Johnson was President, has the action of the Executive been seriously
hampered. Professor Bryce's remark may be applied to all other
attempts. He writes: "Congress has constantly tried to encroach, both
on the Executive and on the States,--sometimes like a wild bull driven
into a corral, dashing itself against the imprisoning walls of the
Constitution." There is the secret. The "imprisoning walls" of the
American Constitution keep contending powers in their proper places.
The Constitution is so well drawn up that a deadlock is an
impossibility, the equilibrium of concomitant powers is easily
maintained, and the sovereign will of the people has a fair
opportunity of finding a natural exponent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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