Magna Carta, and Other Addresses

by William D. Guthrie

The privilege of nominating elective state officers by means of delegate conventions thus denied by the Election Law of the state of New York ought, in my judgment, to be recognized as essentially a constitutional right, which the legislature should not be at liberty to abridge. The right to assemble peaceably for the purpose of nominating candidates is certainly a political right of permanent importance and vital concern to all citizens, and it should be guaranteed by constitutional provision and not left to abridgment or denial by the legislature. The present state constitution regulates the qualifications of voters, the registration of citizens entitled to vote, and the creation of registration and election boards. But it does not contain a single provision in regard to nominations for office, even for the office of governor, although nominations for state offices are of far greater importance to the body politic than many of the matters now regulated by constitutional provision or recited in the bill of rights. I desire to urge upon your careful consideration the value of nominating conventions as a constitutional right.

The constantly increasing functions of the modern state have made the executive and administrative departments the most important and powerful branches of government, and the increasing complexity of governmental machinery has rendered it absolutely essential that competent and trained public officials should be chosen. Government has become an extremely difficult and scientific business, and special capacity, training and expert knowledge are more and more required in executive and administrative office. The test of a good government is more than ever its ability to produce good administration. If we are to have efficient and avoid wasteful administration, the greatest care must be exercised in selecting candidates. As Governor Throop said nearly a century ago, "there is perhaps no part of the duties of citizenship which requires more sound judgment and honesty and singleness of purpose than those relating to the nomination and election of executive and administrative officers." Indeed, good government depends in final results much more on the ability and character of the men who administer it than upon laws or institutions. The maxim, constantly on the lips of so many, that a government of laws and not of men is the controlling desideratum, may be grossly misleading, for the best system of laws in the hands of incompetent, inefficient and dishonest administrators will produce far worse results than an inferior system in the hands of competent, efficient and honest public officials. The most difficult task and the highest duty that our electorate are ever called upon to perform is, therefore, the selection of candidates for elective state office. In order to perform that duty, it is imperative that there should be adequate and reliable means of information, full opportunity for conference, exchange of views, debate and criticism as to the capacity and character of candidates, and effective methods of cooperation and organization in support of qualified candidates.

The selection of a governor for the great state of New York, containing more than 10,250,000 inhabitants and comprising a political constituency larger than any other in this country, is certainly a matter of vital and profound concern to the whole body politic, to every citizen, to every community, to every party, to every class, to every interest. If the short ballot be now adopted, the successful administration of the whole state government will practically be staked upon the selection of qualified candidates for governor. All hope of governmental reform, efficiency and economy will then necessarily depend upon the statesmanship and character of one man, who will be vested with full executive and administrative powers over a population and a territory larger than some of the nations of the world. A wise and safe choice will be infinitely more essential and more difficult than in the past. In fact, if the views of certain advocates of the short ballot prevail, we are to vest all this power in the governor for a term of four years, without restraint of any kind except his sense of responsibility to the people, and without any effective check upon his will or caprice. We should have to trust him absolutely. We should, in truth, have precisely the definition of an elective despotism and tyranny—beneficent if we are so fortunate and blessed as to secure an exceptionally able and high-minded statesman for governor, baneful if an incompetent, untrained, or scheming politician or demagogue should be elected. The governor would then have it immediately within his power to become an absolute state boss through the use of an enormous and constantly increasing patronage, directly or indirectly reaching and touching every election district in the state. He would be able to break party lines asunder, to promote the interests of any group or faction, to punish adversaries, to cater to any class, to sacrifice the rights of minorities, to substitute his will or caprice for the policy of his party, to permit waste and extravagance, to dictate who should be his successor. A competent candidate for governor who would be so well known and tested as to be safely relied upon to resist this temptation would indeed be a phenomenon. If history teaches us that there is anything certain in human nature, if experience, which is of far more value than any mere reasoning or theorizing, has again and again demonstrated any practical and eternal truth in politics, it is that unrestrained power inevitably leads sooner or later to abuse and tyranny, and that no one official, be he emperor, king, president, or governor, can safely be entrusted with any such power.

We should bear in mind that the extreme advocates of the short ballot, by eliminating all requirements for the approval and consent of the senate in regard to the appointment of heads of the great state departments, would make the governor supreme and independent of the legislature, even more independent and powerful than is the President under the Constitution of the United States. I sincerely hope that the Convention will not make this grave mistake. The number of state elective officers should not be reduced to less than four, namely, governor, lieutenant-governor, comptroller and attorney-general. The comptroller should be made an auditing officer charged with supervision as such over the various departments of the state and independent of the appointing power. The attorney-general should be made the head of a department of justice and the responsible legal adviser of the governor and of every state official. And the heads of all the great departments should be appointed by the governor with the approval and consent of the senate. No governor should be given the unrestrained power to appoint or to remove the heads of all departments. The requirement of the consent of the senate is a necessary and salutary restraint upon all governors, good or bad. It is better and safer that governors should be compelled to submit to some restraints than that absolute power should be vested in even the best and ablest and purest of men. The principle of a short ballot is the decrease of elective offices, but not necessarily the placing of absolute and unrestrained power in the hands of one man.

It is quite true that a state constitution should deal only with permanent and fundamental provisions and should not attempt to regulate matters of detail which can be adequately dealt with by ordinary legislation and which are in their nature and operation readily changeable. I am in full accord in this, as in other respects, with the state platform adopted by the Republican party last year and on which the Republican delegates to the Constitutional Convention were elected. Subordinate and non-essential matters of mere regulation and detail ought not to be embodied in constitutions. But I venture to assert that in reason and sound policy there can be no more important, permanent, or fundamental constitutional provision than one relating to the manner of selecting the highest state officers in whom all the executive and administrative powers of our state government are to be vested. This is a subject eminently fit and proper for a constitution to regulate. If this convention cannot solve the problem of establishing a sound system of nomination for elective state offices, at least in outline and cardinal features, no legislature can be expected to do so. In any event, the new Constitution should emphatically declare that the right peaceably to assemble in a political convention composed of duly elected delegates or representatives for the purpose of nominating candidates for public office, state or local, should not be abridged, as it is abridged by the present Election Law.

I further venture to assert that the question of nominating candidates by delegate conventions involves in its essence the perpetuation of the fundamental principles of representative government and of the republican form of government which the founders intended to establish and to guarantee to each state of the Union.

The one great contribution which the English-speaking race has made to the science of politics has been the representative principle. It has been truly declared that every lasting liberty secured for the individual, every lasting reform towards stability in government and permanent effectiveness in administration, every lasting advancement made in politics during the past two centuries, has been by and through the representative system. The subordination of public officials to the law, and their liability under the law for every illegal act, sprang from the representative principle. The independence of the judiciary, that great bulwark of liberty and of the rights of the individual, has followed upon the growth and success of the representative principle. The vivifying spirit or essence of the representative principle is the determination of all questions of practical government by delegates or representatives chosen by the people, who it is assumed can act more intelligently and better discern the true interests of their country than a multitude of voters dispersed over an extensive territory. Government under the representative principle includes not merely legislation by the chosen representatives of the people, but the practical conduct of the executive department and its administrative branches by officials selected or nominated by representatives of the people. Despite all attacks upon our political institutions and all instances of mistakes and maladministration, the sound common sense of thoughtful citizens still confirms the judgment of the founders of our government that the only safe course is to follow the representative principle. This is as true to-day as it was when the "Federalist" was written. The direct nomination of executive or judicial officers is in utter disregard of that principle.