were in daily connection with those of other powerful nations, the
executive government would assume an increased importance in proportion
to the measures expected of it, and those which it would carry into
effect. The President of the United States is the commander-in-chief of
the army, but of an army composed of only six thousand men; he commands
the fleet, but the fleet reckons but few sail; he conducts the foreign
relations of the Union, but the United States are a nation without
neighbors. Separated from the rest of the world by the ocean, and too
weak as yet to aim at the dominion of the seas, they have no enemies,
and their interests rarely come into contact with those of any other
nation of the globe.

The practical part of a Government must not be judged by the theory
of its constitution. The President of the United States is in the
possession of almost royal prerogatives, which he has no opportunity of
exercising; and those privileges which he can at present use are very
circumscribed. The laws allow him to possess a degree of influence which
circumstances do not permit him to employ.

On the other hand, the great strength of the royal prerogative in
France arises from circumstances far more than from the laws. There
the executive government is constantly struggling against prodigious
obstacles, and exerting all its energies to repress them; so that it
increases by the extent of its achievements, and by the importance of
the events it controls, without modifying its constitution. If the laws
had made it as feeble and as circumscribed as it is in the Union, its
influence would very soon become still more preponderant.

Why The President Of The United States Does Not Require The Majority Of
The Two Houses In Order To Carry On The Government It is an established
axiom in Europe that a constitutional King cannot persevere in a
system of government which is opposed by the two other branches of the
legislature. But several Presidents of the United States have been known
to lose the majority in the legislative body without being obliged to
abandon the supreme power, and without inflicting a serious evil
upon society. I have heard this fact quoted as an instance of the
independence and the power of the executive government in America: a
moment's reflection will convince us, on the contrary, that it is a
proof of its extreme weakness.

A King in Europe requires the support of the legislature to enable him
to perf