Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 255, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1918 — WILSON ON EXECUTIVE’S CONDUCT [ARTICLE]

WILSON ON EXECUTIVE’S CONDUCT

From “Constitutional Government of the United States,” by Woodrow Wilson, now President of the United States, published in 1908 and reprinted in 1911 and 1918, page 71, is taken the following: “There are illegitimate means by Which the President may influence the action of Congress. He may bargain with members not-only with regard to appointments but also with regard to legislative measures. He may use his local patronage to assist members to get or retain their seats. He may interpose his powerful influence, in one covert way or another, in contests for places in the Senate. He may also overbear Congress by arbitrary acts which ignore the laws or virtually override them. He may even substitute his own orders for acts of Congress which he wants but can not get. Such things are not only deeply immoral, they are destructive of the fundamental understandings of constitutional government, and, therefore, of constitutional government itself. They are sure, otoregreft te a country of free puMic opinion, to bring their own punishment, to destroy both the fame and the power of th? man who dares to practice them.