The leading object which I had
in view was the adoption of some new provisions which would secure to
the people the performance of this high duty without any intermediate
agency. In my annual communications since I have enforced the same
views, from a sincere conviction that the best interests of the country
would be promoted by their adoption. If the subject were an ordinary
one, I should have regarded the failure of Congress to act upon it as an
indication of their judgment that the disadvantages which belong to the
present system were not so great as those which would result from any
attainable substitute that had been submitted to their consideration.
Recollecting, however, that propositions to introduce a new feature in
our fundamental laws can not be too patiently examined, and ought not to
be received with favor until the great body of the people are thoroughly
impressed with their necessity and value as a remedy for real evils,
I feel that in renewing the recommendation I have heretofore made on
this subject I am not transcending the bounds of a just deference to
the sense of Congress or to the disposition of the people.
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