inclines me to a preference of matured and considerate action over that
immediate action which notoriously is in nine cases out of ten as
ill-advised as it is precipitate. Only in the field of politics is the
expediency of the latter assumed as of course; yet, as in science and
literature and art so in politics, final, because satisfactory, results
are at best but slowly thrashed out. As respects wisdom, the modern
statute book does not loom, monumental. Its contemplation would indeed
perhaps even lead to a surmise that reasonable delay in formulating his
"mandate" might, in the case of the composite Democrat as in that of the
individual Autocrat, prove a not altogether unmixed, and so in the end
an intolerable, evil.

Thus while a change of the Executive and Legislative branches of the
government might not be always simultaneously effected, by selecting
seven years as the presidential term the election would be brought
about, as frequently as might be, by itself, uncomplicated by local
issues connected with the fortunes or political fate of individual
candidates for office, whether State, Congressional, or Senatorial; and
during the seven years of tenure, four, at least, it might reasonably be
anticipated, would be devoted to the promotion of a definite policy, in
place of one year in a term of four, as now. If also ineligible for
reelection, there is at least a fair presumption that the occupant of
the position might from start to finish apply himself to its duties and
obligations, without being distracted therefrom by ulterior personal
ends as constantly as humanly held in view.

Having thus disposed of the Judiciary and the Executive, we come to the
Legislative. And here I submit is the weak point in our American
system,--manifestly the weak point, and to those who, like myself, have
had occasion to know, undeniably so. I am here as a publicist; not as a