to follow it.
Are the electors considered bound to vote as the majority of the
people in their different states direct?
--Undoubtedly they are.
Then it is fair to say that the vote of a majority of the electors
show which way the majority of the people voted?
--That's a simple question. Why, of course!
What are the duties of the President?
--To mind the business of the nation, and his own, too.
Anything else?
--Isn't that enough?
Well, but what is that business?
--The business of the nation?
Yes.
--He makes treaties, weeds out old political hacks, and sends them
on embassies where they cannot annoy him, and have nothing to do;
appoints Judges of the Supreme Court like Joe Bradley, when he wants
to play eight-to-seven, commands the army and navy, gets fifty
thousand dollars a year, takes all the presents he can get, lives
in the White House, and does a kind of general housekeeping business
for the country.
I was not talking of Grant. Let that go. Does he do anything else?
--Yes; if he comes from Ohio, he fills nearly every place he's got
to give away with lean, hungry Ohio men, so that you can get a "whiff"
of that state all over Washington, and in a good many other places
too, any time of the day or night.
Really I don't understand you. All our Presidents do not come from
Ohio or Illinois!
--Thank God they don't.
Just tell me what the Senators have to do?
--To prevent Congressmen from making fools of themselves.
Anything else?
--Yes; to keep an eye on the "jobs" Congressmen are always trying
to put through.
What are the duties of Congressmen?
--God knows! I don't think they do themselves.
What should you think?
--From the way they go on, I should say: to make a grab whenever
they can.
Who is now President of the United States?
--Samuel J. Tilden.
That is a mistake. The present President of the United States is
Rutherford B. Hayes.
--He is, is he? Yes, just about as much as I'm owner of Central Park,
when I sit down on a bench there.
What do you mean?
--I mean to say a man can't be President of this country unless he
is elected, and Hayes was never elected.
Who was elected then?
--Why, Samuel J. Tilden, to be sure!
Then how did Hayes get in?
--He had some "statesmen" working for him, who kept the right man
out and pushed him in.
Do you really mean that?
--As certain as death.
Very strange! Who were these "statesmen;" I suppose yo
|