He finds the
elements and essentials of this doctrine in our Constitution, though
somewhat obscured by the old "literary" theory of checks and balances.
He finds it more fully acknowledged in the British Constitution. He
finds it originating in our English race, enunciated at Runnymede,
developing by a slow but natural growth in English history, sanctioned
in the Petition of Right, the Revolution of 1688, and the Declaration of
Rights, achieved for us in our own Revolution, and illustrated by the
implied powers of Congress and the more directly exercised powers of the
House of Commons. It is a corollary of this doctrine that the President
of the United States, to whom in the veto and in his peculiar relations
to the Senate our Constitution gives a very real legislative function,
should associate himself closely with Congress, not merely as one who
may annul but also as one who initiates policies and helps to translate
them into laws. In his _Congressional Government_, begun when he was a
student in Princeton and finished before he was twenty-eight years old,
Mr. Wilson clearly indicates his dissatisfaction with the tradition
which would set the executive apart from the legislative power as a
check against it and not a cooeperating element; and it is a remarkable
proof of the man's integrity and persistent personality that one of his
first acts as President was to go before the Congress as if he were its
agent.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25