and the best sort of principle at that--the principle of allowing the
people to do as they please with their own business. My friend from
Indiana (C. B. Smith) has aptly asked, "Are you willing to trust the
people?" Some of you answered substantially, "We are willing to trust the
people; but the President is as much the representative of the people as
Congress." In a certain sense, and to a certain extent, he is the
representative of the people. He is elected by them, as well as Congress
is; but can he, in the nature of things know the wants of the people as
well as three hundred other men, coming from all the various localities
of the nation? If so, where is the propriety of having a Congress? That
the Constitution gives the President a negative on legislation, all know;
but that this negative should be so combined with platforms and other
appliances as to enable him, and in fact almost compel him, to take the
whole of legislation into his own hands, is what we object to, is what
General Taylor objects to, and is what constitutes the broad distinction
between you and us. To thus transfer legislation is clearly to take it
from those who understand with minuteness the interests of the people,
and give it to one who does not and cannot so well understand it. I
understand your idea that if a Presidential candidate avow his opinion
upon a given question, or rather upon all questions, and the people, with
full knowledge of this, elect him, they thereby distinctly approve all
those opinions. By means of it, measures are adopted or rejected contrary
to the wishes of the whole of one party, and often nearly half of the
other. Three, four, or half a dozen questions are prominent at a given
time; the party selects its candidate, and he takes his position on each
of these questions. On all but one his positions have already been
indorsed at former elections, and his party fully committed to them; but
that one is new, and a large portion of them are against it. But what are
they to do? The whole was strung together; and they must take all, or
reject all. They cannot take what they like, and leave the rest. What