The Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer's 1886 Protest Against Executive Overreach
A fiery editorial argues that the Cabinet, led by Secretary Bayard, is systematically ignoring acts of Congress and undermining democracy itself.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The administration of Mr. Cleveland, like that which preceded it, is almost bent on taking the power of legislation entirely out of the hands of Congress. Scarcely a week passes in which the public is not made aware of an instance of the nullification of some law by a stroke of a secretary’s pen. Each one of the Executive departments has assumed to itself some of the powers that properly belong to Congress alone. The State Department is not behind in this race. Secretary Bayard, by instructions recently issued, has authorized our consuls in China and Japan to issue certificates empowering Chinese to land in the United States. Only this week news was received from San Francisco of the arrival there of Chinamen with certificates from the Chinese consul at Yokohama countersigned by the Consul General of the United States in Japan. Such a cold assumption of authority as this is unprecedented in the history of the United States. What right has the Secretary of State to issue instructions authorizing representatives of the United States abroad to issue certificates for Chinamen to land in this country when the law distinctly dictates the method in which such certificates shall be issued?
“Scarcely a week passes in which the public is not made aware of an instance of the nullification of some law by a stroke of a secretary’s pen.”
This 1886 editorial captures a perennial American anxiety regarding the balance of power between the Executive and Legislative branches. While the specific grievance—regarding Chinese immigration documentation—is rooted in the exclusionary politics of the late 19th century, the broader concern over administrative 'nullification' of laws by executive order remains a central theme in modern political discourse.
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