tional monarchy would, in effect, change at will the
administrative head of the government, while in the new Republic
premiers would retain power despite the adverse verdict of the people
as expressed in legislative majorities; and, finally, that the
enfranchised portion of a people dwelling under a constitutional
monarchy would determine at the ballot-box every great question
arising in their politics, and drive from power all men who should
dissent from the popular decision, while the whole people of the
Republic might be balked not only of their will in matters upon which
they had distinctly made up their minds, but even of bringing
questions thus potentially decided to the practical test of the
ballot-box, and of introducing other important issues into the realm
of popular discussion.

The difficulty of procuring from the people of the United States an
unequivocal decision upon any political question, and of expressing
that decision in legislative enactment, is familiar to every student
of our history. The questions that occupy Congress now are in large
part the same that were debated there forty years ago, save that the
issue of slavery and the extreme States' rights theory have
disappeared. But even in these cases the exceptions prove the rule;
for it is grimly significant of our legislative immobility that the
two great questions of a century should finally have been settled by
the sword. If the people declared for anything at the general election
of 1884, they may be supposed to have declared for a revision of the
tariff, since the platform of principles adopted by each great party
at its National Convention affirmed the necessity of such revision;
yet Congress not only failed to legislate for that object, but
actually at one time refused to discuss a measure designed to meet the
issue in question, and at another stopped in the midst of such
legislation to test the popular will upon the very same matter.
Furthermore, while it will be assumed by most persons that whatever
the significance of the election four years ago, the contest just
ended sets the seal of disapproval upon the recent effort of the House
of Representatives to revise the tariff; yet we hear already that the
LI. Congress can hardly escape some such legislation as has just been
attempted. The truth is, that the election of 1884, as all our
elections, was in the main a struggle for spoils. The question at
issue was not tariff revision or any other