"There are some, perhaps, who may be inclined to regard a servile pliancy of the Executive to a prevalent faction or opinion in the community, or in the Legislature, as its best recommendation. But such notions betray a very imperfect knowledge of the true ends or objects of government. While republican principles demand that the deliberate sense of the community should govern the conduct of those who administer their affairs, it cannot escape observation that transient impulses and sudden excitements, caused by artful and designing men, often lead the people astray, and require their rulers not to yield up their permanent interests to any delusions of this sort. It is a just observation that the people commonly intend the public good. But no one but a deceiver will pretend that they do not often err as to the best means of promoting it. Indeed, beset as they are by the wiles of sycophants, the snares of the ambitious and the avaricious, and the artifices of those who possess their confidence more than they deserve, or seek to possess it by artful appeals to their prejudices, the wonder rather is, that the errors are not more numerous and more mischievous. It is the duty of their rulers to resist such bad designs at all hazards; and it has not unfrequently happened that by such resistance they have saved the people from fatal mistakes, and, in their moments of cooler reflection, obtained their gratitude and their reverence. But how can resistance be expected where the tenure of office is so short, as to make it ineffectual and insecure?"*

What should be the proper duration of §§ 1430, 1431.

*

office for the President of the United States is, according to Mr. Justice Story's opinion,

"Matter of more doubt and speculation. On the one hand, it may be said that the shorter the period of office, the more security there will be against any dangerous abuse of power. The longer the period the less will responsibility be felt, and the more personal ambition will be indulged. On the one hand, the considerations above stated prove that a very short period is, practically speaking, equivalent to a surrender of the executive power, as a check in government, or subjects it to an intolerable vacillation and imbecility."*

Accordingly, during the discussions upon the Constitution in the Convention that framed it, it was proposed by Mr. Madison, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Jay, three of the ablest statesmen of that remarkable period, that the Executive of the United States should be appointed "during good behaviour, or in other words, for life.”+ By other members of the Convention it was proposed that the appointment should be for seven years. The opinion in favour of the appointment for four years

§ 1435.

+ § 1436, note.

only, prevailed, and upon this Mr. Justice Story thus expresses himself:

"Whether the period of four years will answer the purpose for which the Executive department is established, so as to give it at once energy and safety, and to preserve a due balance in the administration of the Government, is a problem which can be solved only by experience. That it will contribute far more than a shorter period towards these objects, and thus have a material influence upon the spirit and character of the Government, may be safely affirmed. Between the commencement and termination of the period of office, there will be a considerable interval at once to justify some independence of opinion and action, and some reasonable belief that the propriety of the measures adopted by the Administration may be seen and felt by the community at large. The Executive need not be intimidated in his course by the dread of an immediate loss of public confidence, without the power of regaining it before a new election; and he may, with some confidence, look forward to that esteem and respect of his fellow-citizens, which public services usually obtain when they are faithfully and firmly pursued with an honest devotion to the public good. If he should be re-elected, he will still more extensively possess the means of carrying into effect a wise and beneficent system of policy, foreign as well as domestic. And if he should be compelled to retire, he cannot but have the consciousness that measures long enough pursued to be found useful will be persevered in; or if abandoned, the contrast will reflect new

honour upon the past administration of the Government, and perhaps reinstate him in office. At all events, the period is not long enough to justify any alarms for the public safety. The danger is not that such a limited Executive will become an absolute dictator; but that he may be overwhelmed by the combined operations of popular influence and legislative power. It may be reasonably doubted, from the limited duration of this office, whether, in point of independence and firmness, he will not be found unequal to the task which the Constitution assigns him.”*

Again, the executive magistrate of the United States " being chosen by and made responsible to the people," has, as we have seen above, "the exclusive management of the affairs for which he is thus made responsible." He is, in fact, the prime minister of the country, irremovable for four years, as well as the executive magistrate. Accordingly Mr. Justice Story thus speaks of the duties imposed upon him:

"The nature of the duties to be performed by the President, both at home and abroad, are so various and complicated as not only to require great talents and great wisdom to perform them in a manner suitable to their importance and difficulty, but also long experience in + § 1427.

* § 1439.

office to acquire what may be deemed the habits of administration, and a steadiness as well as comprehensiveness of view of all the bearings of measures. The executive duties in the [individual] States are few, and confined to a narrow range; those of the President embrace all the ordinary and extraordinary arrangements of peace and war, of diplomacy and negotiation, of finance, of naval and military operations, and of the execution of the laws through almost infinite ramifications of details, and in places at vast distances from each other. He is compelled constantly to take into view the whole circuit of the Union, and to master many of the local interests and other circumstances which may require new adaptations of measures to meet the public exigencies. Considerable time must necessarily elapse before the requisite knowledge for the proper discharge of all the functions of his office can be obtained; and after it is obtained, time must be allowed to enable him to act upon that knowledge, so as to give vigour and healthfulness to the operations of the Government. ""*

It will excite no surprise that Mr. Justice Story, after the above description of the qualifications required in a President, should pronounce a very guarded and qualified opinion as to the sufficiency of his term of office of four years. His words are—

* § 1440.