American President has no similar security. He is elected in one
way, at one time, and Congress (no matter which House) is elected in
another way, at another time. The two have nothing to bind them
together, and in matter of fact, they continually disagree.

This was written in the time of Mr. Lincoln, when Congress, the
President, and all the North were united as one man in the war
against the South. There was then no patent instance of mere
disunion. But between the time when the essays were first written in
the Fortnightly, and their subsequent junction into a book, Mr.
Lincoln was assassinated, and Mr. Johnson, the Vice-President,
became President, and so continued for nearly four years. At such a
time the characteristic evils of the Presidential system were shown
most conspicuously. The President and the Assembly, so far from
being (as it is essential to good government that they should be) on
terms of close union, were not on terms of common courtesy. So far
from being capable of a continuous and concerted co-operation they
were all the while trying to thwart one another. He had one plan for
the pacification of the South and they another; they would have
nothing to say to his plans, and he vetoed their plans as long as
the Constitution permitted, and when they were, in spite of him,
carried, he, as far as he could (and this was very much),
embarrassed them in action. The quarrel in most countries would have
gone beyond the law, and come to blows; even in America, the most
law-loving of countries, it went as far as possible within the law.
Mr. Johnson described the most popular branch of the legislature--
the House of Representatives--as a body "hanging on the verge of
government"; and that House impeached him criminally, in the hope
that in that way they might get rid of him civilly. Nothing could be
so conclusive against the American Constitution, as a Constitution,