in the matter of legislation. One of the difficulties about a
Congress--I say it with deference to that body--is that it does not know
enough about the executive facts which ought to control legislation in
the course of an efficient government. The introduction of cabinet
officers on the floor of the House and the floor of the Senate to urge
legislation on the one hand, and to point out the defects of proposed
legislation, on the other hand, would furnish the necessary element.
This would, of course, make it requisite that cabinet officers should be
able to look after themselves on their feet. They would have to know
their Department and be ready to answer such questions as are put to
cabinet officers on the floor of Parliament.

President Wilson has inaugurated the policy of delivering his message to
Congress personally. I think that is a good innovation. A Democrat could
have made it, not a Republican. Washington had to go to Congress, so had
Adams, but when Jefferson came in he said, "No, that is monarchical, and
I will just write a letter to Congress," and so he did. Washington went
once to the Senate and attempted to have the Senate concur with him in a
treaty with the Indians. He took with him General Knox, who had
frequently dealt with Indians. John Quincy Adams, in his diary,
describes what happened as he learned it from a member of the Senate at
that time. He says that in the conference, Washington found that every
member of the Senate thought he knew more about the Indian treaty than
General Knox. Whereupon, he, the father of our country, who has been
represented as a model in every way, proved that he was no such "sissy"
as some of his historians would like to make him out. His character was
one which develops into grand proportions when you study it, but he was
no mere steel engraving of copy-book perfection. When he got through
with that particular session, he turned to Knox as he went out, and said
he would be damned if he would come to the Senate again. Now I do not
approve of profanity generally, but somehow or other I rather like that
story because it lets in a little light on Washington and shows he was a
man with good red blood.

The first power of the President that I wish to consider is the veto
power. The English King has it, but never exercises it, i.e., he has not
exercised it for two hundred years. If he attempted to exercise it under
the present British Constitution, he would shake the throne