household words in every
family--were passed over.[CF] Surely these simple facts may afford us
subject for profitable reflection.

We will now pass on from the Governor of the Republic to the Governors
of individual States. Their salaries vary in different States, and range
from 300l. to 2000l. a-year. Their election is in some States by the
people, in others by the legislature: their term of office varies; in
some States the election is annual, and in all for a very limited
period; and under them each separate State has its own House of
Representatives and its Senate. The chief power, which resides in the
Governor alone, is that of pardon; and here we may observe, that it is
only reasonable to suppose that so enlightened a community as the United
States would not for any considerable number of years have tolerated the
most flagrant abuse of such a power as that of pardon; and consequently
that if it be found that such abuse do now exist, it must have grown
with the ever-growing democratic element.

Mr. Tremenheere quotes largely from a work by Dr. Lieber, Professor of
Political Philosophy in the State College of South Carolina. Among
others of a similar character, the following passage occurs:--"I
consider the indiscriminate pardoning so frequent in many parts of the
United States, one of the most hostile things, now at work in our
country, to a perfect government of law." He elsewhere states "that the
New York Committee had ascertained that there are men who make a regular
trade of procuring pardons for convicts by which they support
themselves." Further on he says, "To this statement we have now to add
the still more appalling fact, which we would pass over in silence if
our duty permitted it, that but a short time ago the Governor of a large
State--a State among the foremost in prison discipline--was openly and
widely accused of taking money for his pardons. We have it not in our
power to state whether this be true or not, but it is obvious that a
state of things which allows suspicions and charges so degrading and so
ruinous to a healthy condition, ought not to be borne with." He then
subjoins this note:--"While these sheets are going through the press,
the papers report that the Governor of a large State has pardoned thirty
criminals, among whom were some of the worst characters, at one stroke,
on leaving the gubernatorial chair."--Among the conclusions Dr. Lieber
draws on this point, is the following astoundin