Council

“ These hee-hee councils splendidly illustrate the inconsecutiveness and inconsequentiality of the Folk. Here were we, drawn together by mutual rage and the impulse toward cooperation, led off into forgetfulness by the establishment of a rude rhythm. We were sociable and gregarious, and these singing and laughing councils satisfied us. In ways the hee-hee council was an adumbration of the councils of primitive man, and of the great national assemblies and international conventions of latter-day man. ”

“ If we can ascertain those of the members of the council, elected by the assembly, we shall have a clue to the temper of the assembly itself. We may know the tree by its fruit. If we find that body electing to a place in the council men of very decided political character, we shall have a right to believe that those associated with them by the vote of the same body were, at least, not zealous members of the opposite party. ”

“ An ordinary council of one hundred worthies, who assembled twice in each year, and oftener when circumstances made it necessary, to give advice to the Best Man.
3. A grand council of worthies, who assembled once in four years, to admit members [120] to their body, collect the sense of the nation on all public affairs, and aid the Best Man with their judgment in the appointment of Efficients to discharge the executive duties of the state.
The Best Man could only be elected by an unanimous vote of the grand council.
The Worthies are of three orders—the Good, the Wise, and the Useful. ”

“ How happy if they could have annihilated all our charters, and yet have been beloved, nay, deified by the people, as friends and advocates of their charters! What masterly politicians, to have made themselves nobles for life, and yet have been thought very sorry, that the two houses were denied the privilege of choosing the council! ”

“ But with you the Council must first hear about everything, and pass its preliminary resolution—and even that not at any time, but only when notice has been given of the reception of heralds and embassies: then you must convoke an Assembly, and that only when the time comes for one, as ordained by law: then those who speak for your true good have to master and overcome those who, through ignorance or wickedness, oppose them. ”

“ The king can make no decision in matters in which the council of state are to be heard, unless at least three counsellors of state, and the secretary of state whom it concerns, or his deputy-secretary, are present.--All the members of the council shall, upon due notice, attend all deliberations deemed of importance, and which concern the general administration of the affairs of the kingdom; such as questions for adopting new statutes, repealing or altering those in existence, introducing new institutions in the different branches of the administration, &c. ”

“ As we marched from one petty district to another, each independent from the other, governed by its own chief and council of elders, exclusive from its own peculiar customs, habits, or passion, varying differently from the other according to the age, intelligence, and disposition of the chief, our duties and rule of conduct varied. ”

“ What are their hearts to us? Did we propose to hold a council with them, or ask them for advice? Our hearts are Nez Perce hearts, and we know them. We came here to hold a great council with the great chiefs of the Americans, and we know the straightforward path to pursue, and are alone responsible for our actions. ”

“ A Council so constituted, and having but little prestige of superior birth or education to support it, is not likely to be a match for a capricious and turbulent Lower House, borne on the flood-tide of present popularity, and ever ready to provide for present emergencies at the expense of the future. ”

“ Others laboured to have the supreme authority to consist of an Assembly chosen by the People, and a Council of State to be chosen by that Assembly, to be vested with executive power, and accountable to that which should next succeed, at which time the power of the said Council should determine. ”

“ The result is, that the chief is individually and effectively responsible for every act of the government. The members of council have only the responsibility of advisers; but it is always known, from documents capable of being produced, and which, if called for by Parliament or public opinion always are produced, what each has advised, and what reasons he gave for his advice ”

“ The Council was composed of men capable, on the one hand, of judging of the expediency of the general policy involved, and willing, on the other hand, to trust for details to the official in charge of the measure, without any desire for captious interference with details. ”

“ As for the Spontaneous Commune, one may say that there never was on Earth a stranger Town-Council. Administration, not of a great City, but of a great Kingdom in a state of revolt and frenzy, this is the task that has fallen to it. ”

“ Having thus reached to a seat in the council, I discerned that it behoved me to act with circumspection, in order to gain a discreet dominion over the same, and to rule without being felt, which is the great mystery of policy. ”

“ But each council has the power, when a matter seems to it susceptible of a preparatory examination, to appoint from among its members a special commission, which confines itself exclusively to the matter that led to its formation. ”

“ The council shall keep a register of all affairs that may come under its consideration. Every individual who sits in it shall be at liberty to give his opinion freely, which the king is obliged to hear ”

“ In the performance of purely administrative duties, all the members of the council might without difficulty agree, and their coöperation in their proper work might be perfect, notwithstanding possible differences of opinion about matters of legislation. ”

“ If a public improvement is agreed upon, the districts and communities interested, make an appropriation of necessary material and labor, and the work is pushed forward. In all things this great council is advisory in its character and the executive committee only takes such action as the people have agreed upon, and when any matter has been agreed upon the executive power acts at once without question. The will of the people is the law which no one ever assumes to question. ”

“ And you, all of you—not you alone, Boss, but all of you: ward leaders; State leaders; all the national political bosses—you all betray them. You receive from them their votes, so faithfully given, and you transform them into office-holders whom you teach or corrupt and compel to obey you. So you reorganize the city government. You, not the Mayor, are the head of it; you, not the council, are its legislature; you, not the heads of departments, are the administrators of the property and the powers of the people of your city; the common, helpless, friendless people. ”

“ The Council of Ten was created by the votes, the discussions, and conclusions of a numerous and intelligent Assembly; strong in its united strength; full of political instincts, which did not ignore the truth that the power which by a vote it was about {119} to establish was created to prevent the dangers which men of great ambitions on the exterior, or revolutionists in the interior, might bring to the Republic. ”

“ If one House represents popular feeling, the other should represent personal merit, tested and guaranteed by actual public service, and fortified by practical experience. If one is the People's Chamber, the other should be the Chamber of Statesmen—a council composed of all living public men who have passed through important political office or employment. ”

“ The first, a legislative council, is composed of a limited number of members nominated by the Crown, and who hold office for life; the second, or legislative assembly, is composed of members elected by the people and chosen by ballot. ”

“ As the 13th century advanced, the council, representing the wealthy and powerful gild of merchants, began to take a larger share in the government, and to restrict more and more the direct exercise of the episcopal authority. ”

“ The professed scruples of the Council, cannot be admitted to have any weight. Usage, and the plainest rules of propriety, will dictate, that it never could have wounded the dignity, or delicacy, of the executive of any State, to have given to a committee of Congress, appointed to confer on a subject of moment, a written answer to a request in writing after previous explanations. ”

“ However experienced may be the council, and however inexperienced the minister, he will have the deciding voice. The power will rest with one who may know less of the subject than any member of the council, and is sure to know less than the council collectively, if they are selected with ordinary judgment. The council will have no substantive power, but only moral influence. ”

“ Nevertheless, the higher a man is placed the more independent he is, and the greater confidence the people have placed in him the more he has need of enlightened and conscientious councils. Thence the creation of a council of state, henceforward a veritable council of the government, first wheel in our organization, a collection of practical men, elaborating bills in special commissions, discussing them with closed doors, without oratorical ostentation in general assembly, and presenting them afterwards for acceptance to the legislative body. ”

“ Also included in this category are powers to establish norms having the power of law, control over the application of laws and decisions passed by the assembly, and supervision of the Council of Ministers and other central administrative bodies as well as the activities of the people's councils. ”

“ The counsellors extraordinary of state, who might be nominated members of the assembly of their high mightinesses, shall not be assembled at the council of state so long as they shall exercise that dignity. ”

“ By an Assembly of Deputies, popularly elected, who shall form the laws, determine the expenses of administration, decree duties, and fix the military force, with consent of the federal congress.
2. By a Council, similarly chosen, whose privilege it shall be to give or withhold sanction to the laws, to counsel the executive power, and to nominate the individuals holding the higher offices of the state. ”

“ We have seen the times, when the majority of a council by their words and actions have seemed to think themselves obliged to comply with every thing proposed by the chair, and to have no rule of conduct but a governor's will and pleasure. ”

“ We are of opinion that they do. By the Revised Statutes of the United States, the legislative power in each territory is vested in the governor and a legislative assembly, the latter to consist of a council and house of representatives. ”

“ Let there be two bodies to be elected by the people,—a council and an assembly. Let the council consist of seventy-two persons, to be chosen by universal suffrage, for three years, twenty-four of them retiring every year, their places to be supplied by new election. ”

“ The direction, ceasing to fulfil its theory as a {53} council formed of members who possess equal powers, falls under the control of some one member of superior cunning, will, or wealth, to whom the majority become so subordinate, that the decision on every question depends on the course he takes. ”

“ Thus, instead of a council with restricted powers and divided authority, we have a few men assuming positions of genuine responsibility, as regards both the originating and enforcing of laws. My colleagues will show that such a concentration of powers in one small body is necessary and desirable, both from the legislative and administrative point of view. ”

“ The people, or an assembly cleverly made up and manipulated to represent the people, were induced to vote all the powers of government into the hands of a council of Four Hundred, of which council the citizens appointed only five members. ”

“ XII, sect. 8 to be the involving or including the wills of many in the will of one man, or in the will of the greatest part of any one number of men, that is to say, in the will of one man, or of one COUNCIL; for a council is nothing else but an assembly of men deliberating concerning something common to them all. ”

“ But the very fact which most unfits such bodies for a council of legislation, qualifies them the more for their other office—namely, that they are not a selection of the greatest political minds in the country, from whose opinions little could with certainty be inferred concerning those of the nation, but are, when properly constituted, a fair sample of every grade of intellect among the people which is at all entitled to a voice in public affairs. ”

“ All the lines of administrative responsibility converge inward, which is what they ought to do in any well-organized government. Above the commission or council stands the electorate, the whole body of voters, which can exercise ultimate control over the whole city government by means of the initiative, referendum, and recall. ”

“ New popular authorities had, as it were, of themselves sprung up over the face of the country, and the National Assembly, in place of the royal council, became the centre of government, so far as any government existed. ”

“ The assembly thus constituted shall consider the laws of their own and other states, and gather information relating to them. Anything of the sort which is approved by the elder members of the council shall be studied with all diligence by the younger; who are to be specially watched by the rest of the citizens, and shall receive honour, if they are deserving of honour, or dishonour, if they prove inferior. ”

“ There are the representatives of all the great sections of the community, of the Church, of the law, of the Peerage, of the Commons. The exclusion of one half of the counsellors from office under the Crown, an exclusion which is quite absurd when we consider the Council merely as an executive board, becomes at once perfectly reasonable when we consider the Council as a body intended to restrain the Crown as well as to exercise the powers of the Crown, to perform some of the functions of a Parliament as well as the functions of a Cabinet. ”