Council of Clermont

“ The new form of government bears evidence of its origin; it is intended rather to fetter the king than to extend or develop the action of the community at large. The baronial council clearly regards itself as competent to act on behalf of all the estates of the realm, and the expedient of reducing the national deliberations to three sessions of select committees, betrays a desire to abridge the frequent and somewhat irksome duty of attendance in parliament rather than to share the central legislative and deliberative power with the whole body of the people. ”

“ The majority seem to have been thoroughly corrupt. It was only by means of the Select Committee, which he animated with his own spirit, that any redress of grievances was possible. Lord Clive always saw and wrote that these unwieldy Councils were totally unfit for the government of the country; and every successive legislature has sanctioned his opinion, by reducing their numbers more and more. A large executive council and a large representative body, nobody knows better than Mr. ”

“ And Fourthly, a Committee of Manners, Education, and Arts, that all wicked and scandalous Living may be prevented, and that Youth may be successively trained up in Virtue and useful Knowledge and Arts: The Quorum of each of which Committees being six, that is, two out of each of the three Orders or yearly Elections, as aforesaid, make a constant and standing Council of Twenty-four, which will have the Power of the provincial Council, being the Quorum of it, in all Cases not excepted in the fifth Article ”

“ All these state institutions are called Workers' Councils and are assumed to be Councils, but the power exercised by them is 'Council power' only by virtue of the fact that those who lead these institutions, the representatives of the top echelons of the Party leadership, are simultaneously also deputies of the Councils which have been elected by the whole population in 'direct, secret and equal' elections. ”

“ The republicans of the province of New York, composing by far the greater portion of the inhabitants, labored under severe disabilities. Acting Governor Colden was a Loyalist, and his council held office by the King's will. The assembly, though chosen by the people, continued in existence only by the King's prerogative. They might be dissolved by the representative of the crown (the acting governor) at any moment. There was no legally constituted body to form a rallying point for the patriots, as in Massachusetts, where there was an elective council and an annually elected assembly. ”

“ Heavily burdened with debt at the outset of the reign, distracted by plague, fire, and foreign war during the years from 1665 to 1668, the kingdom needed the services of all its statesmen, and even the most selfish politician must have realized the need of reorganization. Acting upon a suggestion which Clarendon himself had made to the King, the Privy Council in 1667 began by strengthening its own committee system, and on January 31, 1668, established four standing committees—for foreign affairs, military affairs, trade and plantations, and petitions and grievances. ”

“ As to yielding to the deputies and mayors, this is impossible. They are unpopular and have no authority in the Assembly. The elections will take place with or without their concurrence. Will they help us? We will receive them with open arms. If not, we shall do without them, and, if they attempt to obstruct our way, we shall know how to reduce them to impotency."
The delegates resisted. The discussion grew hot. "But, in fine," said Clémenceau, "what are your pretensions? Do you confine your mandate to asking the Assembly for a municipal council?"
[Pg 97] Many of the Committee: "No! No!" ”

“ A Legislative Council, the members of which are nominated by authorities ignorant of the country, residing 3000 miles off, composed mostly of persons who do not sympatize with the country, still exists as an impotent screen between the Governor and the governed, and nullifies all attempts at useful legislation. An Executive Council nominated in the same manner, whose influence has poisoned the mind of each succeeding Governor, remains unchanged, to protect the cumulation of office and abuses that are connected with every public department. ”

“ Their enforcement of rules is successful only among newcomers, and then only temporarily; when the newcomers join more experienced persons and learn to execute technical processes on their own, they also learn to disregard even the most minimal rules. However, even the Council Committee doesn't last. ”

“ But he was not necessarily a member of the Privy Council, and his powers were, in Clarendon's view, limited by the supreme authority of that Council. That its portals should be jealously guarded; that only men of the first weight should be admitted to it; that its proceedings should be carefully regulated and should rest upon sound legal principles—all these things made for government by the personal agency of carefully chosen Ministers of the Crown, which it was Clarendon's aim to preserve, instead of bureaucratic rule by a host of minor officials. ”

“ The consequence is that even in this solitary example of an Irish Department under semi-popular control we see the subtle taint of Crown Colony Government. Popular opinion, acting indirectly, first through the Council and then through the Boards, can legally paralyze the Department by declining to appropriate money in the way it prescribes, while possessing no legal power to enforce a different policy or change the personnel of administration. ”

“ One thing should certainly be done—the giving of concessions ought not to be in the power of Controllers, nor if Consul-Generals are amalgamated with Controllers as Residents should these Residents have this power. It ought to be exercised by the Council of Notables, who would look to the welfare of the people. ”

“ The newly-appointed governor closed his reply by saying: "I trust the day will come when I shall make one of those that will hail you among the triumphant deliverers of America." The first council appointed under the new constitution consisted of John Page, Dudley Digges, John Tayloe, John Blair, Benjamin Harrison of Berkley, Bartholomew Dandridge, Thomas Nelson, Sr., and Charles Carter, of Shirley. Mr. Nelson declining the appointment on account of infirm old age, his place was supplied by Benjamin Harrison, of Brandon. ”

“ Soon after he received the appointment of a commissioner of French, Danish, and Spanish claims. On 9 June 1860, on the retirement of the Hon. W. L. Bathurst, Helps was named clerk of the privy council, a post which he held to his death. Shrewd, singularly clear-headed, highly cultivated, he made it his business to master as matter of personal interest many of the questions that came under the cognisance of the privy council. ”

“ Without them a council cannot be held, a negotiation carried on, peace or war proclaimed, nor any public or private contract entered into; for not one of these transactions is accounted valid, till it has been smoked over, and sung and danced to. The calumet is the grand instrument of their policy. No important affair can be taken into consideration without the pipe in their mouths; and hence, to call an assembly of the chiefs is said to be lighting the council fire. This tube accompanies and is the guardian of every embassy, and to smoke together is the chief cement of national union. ”

“ It is utterly inconsistent both with the policy and the express language of the statute that the legislature of the territory of Utah can change the appointing power, and vest it in any other body whatever, however popular, or that in the creation of offices of this general character, whose duties and functions pervade the whole territory, they can confer the appointing power upon anybody else but the governor and council. ”

“ The Council, as representing the village, should be responsible to Government, and it would always be possible for the Deputy Commissioner to bring pressure on a recalcitrant Council by threatening to suspend the constitution and place the village under an appointed headman for a time if they did not carry out their duties properly. ”

“ Sulpice hastened to announce this news to Adrienne, although it would not become official until after Collard's funeral obsequies. He returned almost triumphantly to the Hôtel Beauvau. Only one thought, a sombre image, clouded his joy: it was not the memory of Collard, but the sad image of the man whom he had met at Ramel's, and who, when the Officiel should speak, should make the announcement, would shrug his shoulders and say ironically:
"Well! and what then?"
He had scarcely whispered these words to Adrienne: "President of the Council! I am President of the Council!" ”

“ The business of the Council was of little importance that morning. The Keeper of the Seals, Monsieur Collard—of Nantes—a fat, puffing, apoplectic man with somewhat glassy, round eyes, proposed to the President, who listened attentively but without replying, some reform to which Vaudrey was perfectly indifferent. He did not even hear his colleague's dull speech, the latter lost himself in useless considerations, while the Minister of War looked at him, as if his eyes, loaded with grapeshot said, in military fashion: "Sacrebleu! get done!" ”

“ The President of the Council, Monsieur Collard, of Nantes, had the unbounded confidence of the head of the State and of the Chamber; and he was Collard's intimate friend. The majority of the cabinet was compact. The perfect calm of the horizon was undisturbed by a cloud. Vaudrey could rule without fear, without excitement and give all his spare time to that woman whose piercing glance, wandering smile, palpitating nostrils, dishevelled, fair hair, kisses, fondness, cries, and tones pursued him everywhere. ”

“ Under Cleisthenes the council reached its full development as a democratic representative body. Its actual organization is still uncertain, but it may be inferred that it became gradually a more strictly self-existent body than the Solonian council. Every full citizen of thirty years of age was eligible, and, unlike other civil offices, it was permissible to serve twice, but not more than twice (Ath. Pol. c. 62) . ”

“ The consequence is that the Council is commonly lacking in compactness and morale. More serious still is the fact that the functions of the upper chamber are in all respects identical with those of the lower. The American Senate has power and character of its own, quite apart from that of the House of Representatives; the Swiss Council has nothing of the kind. Its organization, even, is an almost exact replica of that of the lower chamber. ”

“ Had the council been a success, it seems almost inevitable that it should have absorbed, as into a close oligarchy, much of the power that was divided between the executive and the parliament (thus Barillon said it was making ‘des états et non des conseils’) ; but it had not been in operation more than a fortnight when a kind of committee of public safety was formed within it. This included, besides Temple, Halifax, Sunderland, and Essex. But Temple was almost from the first unable to reconcile the courtier and the public minister. ”

“ This executive body is called the Grand Council, and has no fixed place of meeting. It met once in Nashville, and the last time, in March, at Augusta, Ga. Two or three months ago there were but thirteen members of this Council, there being then no greater number of districts. New districts, however, are being constantly added.
The sole business of the Council, so far, is to extend the organization, and watch for the grand crisis in national affairs, when the Brothers need no longer work in secret, and in fear of their necks. ”

“ Unless arrangements are remodelled so as to enable the Council to transact its business, whether in pleno or in committee, either in one session or in two short sessions, but in any case continuously, many of its most valuable members, who have important business, of their own which they cannot afford to neglect, will cease to attend, and the Council will not only lose much of the representative character, which is one of its best features at present, but will fall inevitably under the preponderating influence of the professional politician. ”

“ Clarendon's want of administrative skill was, however, responsible for much. He disliked the new system of committees and boards which the Commonwealth had introduced, and clung to the old plan of appointing great officers of state, as the only one suitable to a monarchy. He thought it necessary to appoint men of quality who would give dignity to their posts, and underrated the services of men of business, while his impatience of opposition and hatred of innovations hindered administrative reform. ”

“ No one foresaw, in truth, that the Senate would consider measures chiefly on party grounds, and would fail to demonstrate the usefulness of a second chamber by industry and capacity in revising hasty legislation. The delegates actually believed that equality of representation between the three divisions, Upper Canada, Lower Canada, and the Maritime Provinces, would make the Senate a bulwark of protection to individual provinces. ”

“ You will be sustained. The Looking Glass will not be allowed to speak as head chief. You, and you alone, will be recognized. Should Looking Glass persist, the appeal will be made to your people. They must sign the treaty agreed to by them through you as head chief, or the council will be broken up and you will return home, your faith broken, your hopes of the future gone.”
The council being adjourned, the Cuyuses and Nez Perces retired to their respective camps to hold councils by themselves, which lasted all night. ”