s of the legislator is
shown in eluding its attacks. A State may survive the influence of a
host of bad laws, and the mischief they cause is frequently exaggerated;
but a law which encourages the growth of the canker within must prove
fatal in the end, although its bad consequences may not be immediately
perceived.

The principle of destruction in absolute monarchies lies in the
excessive and unreasonable extension of the prerogative of the crown;
and a measure tending to remove the constitutional provisions which
counterbalance this influence would be radically bad, even if its
immediate consequences were unattended with evil. By a parity of
reasoning, in countries governed by a democracy, where the people is
perpetually drawing all authority to itself, the laws which increase or
accelerate its action are the direct assailants of the very principle of
the government.

The greatest proof of the ability of the American legislators is, that
they clearly discerned this truth, and that they had the courage to act
up to it. They conceived that a certain authority above the body of
the people was necessary, which should enjoy a degree of independence,
without, however, being entirely beyond the popular control;
an authority which would be forced to comply with the permanent
determinations of the majority, but which would be able to resist its
caprices, and to refuse its most dangerous demands. To this end they
centred the whole executive power of the nation in a single arm; they
granted extensive prerogatives to the President, and they armed him with
the veto to resist the encroachments of the legislature.

But by introducing the principle of re-election they partly destroyed
their work; and they rendered the President but little inclined to exert
the great power they had vested in his hands. If ineligible a second
time, the President would be far from independent of the people, for his
responsibility would not be lessened; but the favor of the people would
not be so necessary to him as to induce him to court it by humoring its
desires. If re-eligible (and this is more especially true at the present
day, when political morality is relaxed, and when great men are rare),
the President of the United States becomes an easy tool in the hands of
the majority. He adopts its likings and its animosities, he hastens to
anticipate its wishes, he forestalls its complaints, he yields to its
idlest cravings, and instead of guiding it, a