Constitutional governments were born of liberalism, which replaced the autocracy that was the salvation of the Goys, for the constitution, as you well know, is nothing more than a school for dispute, discussion, disagreement, fruitless party agitation, dissension, party tendencies—in other words, a school for everything which weakens the efficiency of government. The platform no less than the press condemned the authorities to inaction and impotency and thereby rendered them useless and superfluous, for which reason they were overthrown in many countries. The rise of the republican era then became possible, and then we substituted for the ruler a caricature of government—a president chosen from the mob, from among our creatures, our slaves. This was the kind of mine we laid under the Goys, or, more correctly, under the Goy nations.
In the near future we will make the president a responsible officer, whereupon we will no longer stand on ceremony in carrying out the things for which our dummy will be responsible. What difference does it make to us that the ranks of those aiming at authority will thin out, that confusion will result from inability to find presidents, confusion which will definitely disorganize the country?
To accomplish our plan, we will engineer the election of presidents whose past record contains some hidden scandal, some “Panama”—then they will be faithful executors of our orders from fear of exposure, and from the natural desire of every man who has reached authority to retain the privileges, advantages, and dignity connected with the position of president. The Chamber of Deputies will elect, protect, and screen presidents, but we will deprive it of the right of initiating laws or of amending them, for this right will be granted by us to the responsible president, a puppet in our hands. Of course then the power of the president will become the target of numerous attacks, but we will give him the means of self-protection by giving him the right of directly applying to the people, for their decision, over the heads of their representatives. In other words, he will turn to the same blind slave—to the majority of the mob. Moreover, we will empower the president to proclaim martial law. We will justify this prerogative under the pretext that the president, as chief of the national army, must control it in order to protect the new republican constitution, which he, as a responsible representative of this constitution, is bound to defend.
It is obvious that under such conditions the keys to the shrine will be in our hands, and nobody except ourselves will be able to guide the legislative power.
We will also take away from the Chamber, with the introduction of the new republican constitution, the right of interpellation in regard to governmental measures, under the pretext that political secrets must be preserved. With the aid of this new constitution we will reduce the number of representatives to the minimum, thus also reducing to the same extent political passions and passion for politics. If, in spite of this, those remaining are recalcitrant, we will abolish them completely by appealing to the majority of the people.
The appointment of the president and vice presidents of the Chamber and Senate will be the prerogative of the president. Instead of continuous parliamentary sessions, we will shorten them to a few months. Moreover, the president, as chief executive, will have the right to convene or dissolve parliament, and in the case of dissolution, defer the appointment of a new parliament. But to prevent the president from being held responsible before our plans are matured for the results of all these essentially illegal actions inaugurated by us, we will give the ministers and other high administrative officials surrounding the president the idea of circumventing his orders by issuing instructions of their own. Consequently, they will be made responsible instead of him. We recommend that the execution of this plan be given especially to the Senate, State Council, or Council of Ministers, and not to individuals. Under our guidance the president will interpret in ambiguous ways such existing laws as it is possible so to interpret. Moreover, he will annul them when the need is pointed out to him by us: he will also have the right to propose temporary laws and even modifications in the constitutional work of government, alleging as the motive for so doing the exigencies of the welfare of the country.
By such measures we will be able to destroy gradually, step by step, everything that, upon entering into our rights, we were obliged to introduce into government constitutions as a transition to the imperceptible abolition of all constitutions, when the time comes to convert all government into our autocracy.
The recognition of our autocrat may come even before the abolition of the constitution; the moment for this recognition will come when the people, tormented by dissension and the incompetency of their rulers, incited by us, will exclaim: Depose them, and give us one universal sovereign who will unite us and abolish the causes of dissension—national frontiers, religion, state indebtedness—and who will give us the peace and quiet which we cannot find with our rulers and representatives.
But you know well that to render such a universal expression of desire possible, it is necessary continuously to disturb the relationship between the people and the government in all countries, and so to exhaust everybody by the dissension, hostility, struggle, hatred, and even martyrdom, hunger, inoculation of diseases, and misery, as to make the Goys see no other solution than an appeal to our money and complete rule.
Should we give the people a rest, however, the longed for moment will probably never arrive.