ve: the President can veto laws he does not like.
But when two-thirds of both Houses are unanimous (as has lately
happened), they can overrule the President and make the laws without
him; so here there are three separate repositories of the legislative
power in different cases: first, Congress and the President when they
agree; next, the President when he effectually exerts his power; then
the requisite two-thirds of Congress when they overrule the President.
And the President need not be over-active in carrying out a law he does
not approve of. He may indeed be impeached for gross neglect; but
between criminal non-feasance and zealous activity there are infinite
degrees. Mr. Johnson does not carry out the Freedman's Bureau Bill as
Mr. Lincoln, who approved of it, would have carried it out. The
American Constitution has a special contrivance for varying the supreme
legislative authority in different cases, and dividing the
administrative authority from it in all cases.

But the administrative power itself is not left thus simple and
undivided. One most important part of administration is international
policy, and the supreme authority here is not in the President, still
less in the House of Representatives, but in the Senate. The President
can only make treaties, "provided two-thirds of Senators present"
concur. The sovereignty therefore for the greatest international
questions is in a different part of the State altogether from any
common administrative or legislative question. It is put in a place by
itself.

Again, the Congress declares war, but they would find it very
difficult, according to the recent construction of their laws, to
compel the President to make a peace. The authors of the Constitution
doubtless intended that Congress should be able to control the American
executive as our Parliament controls ours. They placed the granting of
supplies in the House of Representatives exclusively. But they forgot
to look after "paper money"; and now it has been held that the
President has power to emit such money without consulting Congress at
all. The first part of the late war was so carried on by Mr. Lincoln;
he relied not on the grants of Congress, but on the prerogative of
emission. It sounds a joke, but it is true nevertheless, that this
power to issue greenbacks is decided to belong to the President as
commander-in-chief of the army; it is part of what was called the "war
power". In truth money was wanted in t