ss whe mare wa Some of the legs: sible. H vored to Instead f produc bad and s ry way su ment, beca conceive of st and all f character Stand dall he impatien ay on a new mentaries onstitution Can the Pre onounced The questi ppointed to for immed he would perceive that the present was a crisis when, for the sake of discharging that great duty, he should have waived something of his prerogative, he should have sacrificed some of his minor obligations, to avoid coming into a collision with the legislative power, which rendered that discharge of duty impossible. He should have got the best legislation he could, and endeavored to make it sufficient for the carrying on of the government. Instead of that, he has violated the Constitution for the sake of producing this very collision, and instead of making the best of bad and insufficient legislation, he has annulled a legislation every way sufficient and proper to enable him to carry on the government, because it was not exactly what he dictated. One can hardly conceive of a hardihood of character not connected with some vast and all-absorbing design, one can hardly conceive of a hardihood of character founded on mere insensibility or ignorance, which can stand dallying with abstractions, while a whole country, goaded by the impatience of a real suffering, is clamoring impatiently to be away on a new enterprise after prosperity. The doctrine then of this precedent, with the commentaries upon it, as it stands recorded at this present moment on the constitutional rolls of the country, is, that in no case, however grave, can the President yield his clear and decided opinion to the solemnly pronounced will of the Representatives of the People and the States. The question to be decided then is, Has not the practice of those appointed to administer it yet given to this provision of the Constitution an effect, which can no longer be tolerated, and which calls for immediate amendment? he would perceive that the present was a crisis when, for the sake of discharging that great duty, he should have waived something of his prerogative, he should have sacrificed some of his minor obligations, to avoid coming into a collision with the legislative power, which rendered that discharge of duty impossible. He should have got the best legislation he could, and endeavored to make it sufficient for the carrying on of the government. Instead of that, he has violated the Constitution for the sake of producing this very collision, and instead of making the best of bad and insufficient legislation, he has annulled a legislation every way sufficient and proper to enable him to carry on the government, because it was not exactly what he dictated. One can hardly conceive of a hardihood of character not connected with some vast and all-absorbing design, one can hardly conceive of a hardihood of character founded on mere insensibility or ignorance, which can stand dallying with abstractions, while a whole country, goaded by the impatience of a real suffering, is clamoring impatiently to be away on a new enterprise after prosperity. The doctrine then of this precedent, with the commentaries upon it, as it stands recorded at this present moment on the constitutional rolls of the country, is, that in no case, however grave, can the President yield his clear and decided opinion to the solemnly pronounced will of the Representatives of the People and the States. The question to be decided then is, Has not the practice of those appointed to administer it yet given to this provision of the Constitution an effect, which can no longer be tolerated, and which calls for immediate amendment? |