ice. My oath to support and defend the Constitution, my duty
to the people who have chosen me to execute the powers of their great
office and not relinquish them, and my duty to the chief magistracy
which I must preserve unimpaired in all its dignity and vigor, compel me
to refuse compliance with these demands."

There is a ringing quality in the style of this message not generally
characteristic of President Cleveland's state papers. It evoked as
ringing a response from public opinion, and this effect was heightened
by a tactless allusion to the message made at this time in the Senate.
In moving a reference of the message to the Judiciary Committee, its
chairman, Senator Edmunds of Vermont, remarked that the presidential
message brought vividly to his mind "the communication of King Charles I
to the Parliament, telling them what, in conducting their affairs, they
ought to do and ought not to do." The historical reference, however, had
an application which Senator Edmunds did not foresee. It brought vividly
to mind what the people of England had endured from a factional tyranny
so relentless that the nation was delighted when Oliver Cromwell turned
Parliament out of doors. It is an interesting coincidence that the
Cleveland era was marked by what in the book trade was known as the
Cromwell boom. Another unfortunate remark made by Senator Edmunds was
that it was the first time "that any President of the United States
has undertaken to interfere with the deliberations of either House of
Congress on questions pending before them, otherwise than by message on
the state of the Union which the Constitution commands him to make from
time to time." The effect of this statement, however, was to stir up
recollections of President Jackson's message of protest against the
censure of the Senate. The principle laid down by Jackson in his message
of April 15, 1834, was that "the President is the direct representative
of the American people," whereas the Senate is "a body not directly
amenable to the people." However assailable this statement may be
from the standpoint of traditional legal theory, it is indubitably the
principle to which American politics conform in practice. The people
instinctively expect the President to guard their interests against
congressional machinations.

There was a prevalent belief that the Senate's profession of motives,
of constitutional propriety, was insincere and that the position it had
assumed would