of opinion within a party without causing disruption. Disruption occurs when men bolt party conventions and party caucuses. Not so many questions are made the basis of party voting in the House of Representatives as in the Commons, but on party questions party forces are as strong and party lines are as closely drawn.

Collisions

Two Houses.

The

Collisions sometimes occur between the Senate and the House, when the two bodies cannot agree on important measures of legislation. When the disagreement over a bill cannot be adjusted a dead between the lock occurs, and the proposed measure is lost or postponed. If the collision, or deadlock, occurs over a bill appropriating money necessary for the maintenance of the Government, or upon some important measure that the country is demanding, or that both Houses feel should be passed, some solution of the difficulty will be found in the Conference Committee. Each House appoints a special com- Conference mittee, and these two committees are expected to meet in conference and, if possible, adjust the difference. The result is generally a compromise of the differences that exist. The famous Missouri Compromise of 1820, for instance, was evolved in this way. If the two conference committees unite in a report to both houses in support of the compromise and the report be supported there by all the conferees, the arrangement will probably be accepted by both Houses. If no arrangement can be reached in the Conference Committee, the proposed measure, of course, fails.

Committee.

Legislative

The legislative “rider'' is sometimes employed by one House against the other, in order to coerce, or induce, the passage of measures. In 1820, the Senate, in order to overcome the opposition of the House to the admission of Missouri as a slave State, attached the bill admitting Missouri as a "rider" to the

Riders.

Maine Bill.

The two were sent to the House bound in

one bill to be lost or passed together.

In conflicts of this kind between the houses the Senate will be likely to win the greater number of points. Its members are more experienced, and as many of them have been members of the House they know the ways and weaknesses of that body; and as the Senate is a smaller body its majority can be held together better. Being a permanent body the Senate can afford to wait; if it does not get what it wishes this year, there are years yet to come for at least two thirds of its members, while the Representatives, being members of a transient body, may be serving their last year. A Representative's political fortunes and influence may be enhanced by deferring to the Senators.

Relations of Executive and Congress.

Each Depart

Although the Constitution designed the separation of the Executive and Legislative departments, some political connection between the two has been inevitable. Political practice has brought them into necessary relations. A recent President is said to have complained that he "had a Congress on his hands"; while managing the affairs of the Administration he had also to manage Congress,-to induce it to promote, or to prevent its interfering with, the public interests. This indicated Executive presumpment Is Re- tion, and it was a reflection upon Congress. It was resented by a member, who complained that Congress "had a President on its hands, whom they had to instruct and restrain. departments are not thus answerable to one another. The legislative policy of Congress is not to be guided by the Executive, nor the Executive policy by Congress. Each department is to attend to its own business and neither is to handle or control the other. While the Constitution does not acknowledge a political relation between the departments, nevertheless, political usage,

sponsible to the People for its Own Conduct.

The

outside of the Constitution, or in violation of it, has led the two departments to bring their influence to bear the one upon the other.

Indirectly the President may influence the action of Congress in the following ways:

1. By his message to Congress.

The annual messages of Washington and

How the President may

Influence

Congress.

The

Message.

John Adams were delivered before the two Houses in person. In those days the President's speech on this state occasion at the opening of Congress was an affair of considerable pomp and ceremony, cor- President's responding to the king's speech from the throne. Jefferson discontinued this custom and sent a written message, a precedent which was followed until President Wilson's time, who has revived the practice of Washington and Adams in addressing the two Houses in person. The President's annual message is now a long and able paper, reviewing the state of the country and urging its needs upon the attention of Congress. It serves merely as advice to Congress which that body is in no wise bound to follow. The President may at any time send a special message or give a special address to Congress, urging. action on a particular cause.

2. By calling Congress into extraordinary session and urging particular measures of legislation.

This is, on occasions, a very effective influence, though, if Congress be hostile to the President's proposals, it may reject them and adjourn without action.

3. By the use of his veto, or by the knowledge that he will use the veto against proposed legislation. A bill may, on this account, be modified to meet the President's views, privately communicated. The President may let it be known that he will veto or approve bills in which members are interested, as a means of influencing their conduct on other measures favored or opposed by the Executive. This, of course, is unbecoming Executive conduct.

4. By contact and communication through the Executive departments, with the congressional committees and their chairmen.

It is the unwritten law that the Cabinet officers may not appear before the houses to advocate their measures. But there is nothing in the Constitution or the written law to prevent this, and it would be altogether proper for a Secretary to appear in Congress. In the early years of Congress, however, proposals to have a Secretary before Congress were resented as involving Executive interference or control. When Hamilton was called upon in 1790 for his famous Report on the Public Credit, the question arose whether it should be submitted in person, to be spoken, or in writing, to be defended there by some Representative who could be relied upon to reflect the opinion of the Secretary. The Congress preferred the written report, and subsequent Secretaries have followed this precedent, and it would now be very unusual for a Secretary to appear before one of the houses to present or advocate his measures. He may, however, appear before any one of the committees. The Secretary's written reports are the formal and usual way of making his influence felt on the Committee, but there are more positive ways. These come by personal interviews and contact with the committee chairmen and, on proper occasions, by personal recommendations and arguments before the committees themselves. The committee takes the initiative in bringing the Secretary, or one of his departmental officers, before it. He may be summoned as a witness, or called upon to answer questions or to give information, and he may be allowed to advocate his proposals. A favorable committee may thus enable a Secretary to bring before it, and, through it, before Congress and the country, the arguments in favor of his policy. Though this is an indirect, it is a very effective, way of influencing Congress.

5. By the distribution of executive patronage.

The President may give places to Congressmen or their friends, if they consent to support his policy in Congress, and he may withhold appointments from those who refuse. This is sheer bribery and a palpable source of corruption. This would lead Congressmen to vote, not according to their own independent judgment, not according to the merits of the bill or the interests of the country, but according to the party and pecuniary interests of themselves or their friends. It was in this way the English kings, by the places and favors which they had to bestow, corrupted and controlled Parliament and exercised executive tyranny. In practical politics it is known that this practice exists to a degree, but public sentiment is so pronounced against it that no President, or his friends, would admit that he had been guilty of such corrupt abuse of his power.' A President who would do so would deserve impeachment and disgrace, and the people cannot be too jealous in guarding their representatives against such a palpable and corrupting abuse of executive power. In the same way, but in a more vulgar form, the executive departments have been charged with attempting to influence Congress by awarding department contracts to nominees of Congress

men.

On the other hand, Congress may bring influence to bear upon the President in the following ways:

How

Congress may Influence the Executive.

1. By resolution, calling upon the President, or an executive department, to take a certain course, or censuring steps already taken. The President is not bound to notice such a resolution, nor in any way to act upon it. But, as a rule, a President prefers not to have his course condemned by the legislative branch of the Government. When President Jackson was censured by 1 See p. 186.