Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

Buckingham Palace, British Empire.

"What a great King William IV, what a great Kingdom of the Netherlands. With Bismarck and Seward teaming up with Lincoln, they actually chose to break through like this. It's really amazing."

Queen Victoria looked at the extremely detailed details of the reform of the Dutch Parliament and sighed after being silent for a long time.

Prime Minister Disraeli and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Creston were also shocked.

"The Netherlands actually chose to reform the suppression of power in the Senate and House of Representatives, staged a real drama in the political arena before us, and it fully demonstrated that the Netherlands, which controls the majority of votes in the House and Senate of the American Federation, and many ethnic groups They will use the demonstration effect brought by the Netherlands, which may soon be staged in the United States, to seize the external and domestic power of President Lincoln and the Secretary of State in the American cabinet government. It is really powerful."

Minister of Foreign Affairs Russell was also surprised by the large-scale reforms of the Netherlands. He had to admit that even the late British Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston, who had dominated European diplomacy for 30 years, would not have been able to do it during his lifetime. Because of this, he I feel incredible.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look at Queen Victoria, and then at Prime Minister Disraeli, "Your Majesty, the Netherlands is implementing parliamentary reform. Should the UK study it carefully?"

Careful study!

Disraeli's expression changed greatly, and he stared at Russell with some dissatisfaction.

This old guy, what does it mean to study carefully, obviously wants to take advantage of the influence of the Netherlands to launch reforms, and intends to implement actions in the British Empire that will restrict the cabinet government and benefit their Whig party.

The current political reality in Britain is that Disraeli's Tory party occupies the majority position in the House of Lords (the same as the Senate), while the Whigs control the House of Commons (i.e., the House of Representatives). This is why he originally invited Russell. The reason why the Whigs joined his cabinet government was so that some bills could be introduced in the House of Commons without being blocked by the Whigs.

If reforms like those in the Netherlands are implemented in the UK, the power of the House of Representatives will increase, and the cabinet government will be more restricted by Congress. At that time, the plan that the Netherlands plans to use to deal with the Lincoln government will be on him. It will also be "realized", how could this not make Disraeli angry.

Just when he was about to object, Queen Victoria said in front of him: "There is no rush, it is not too late to wait and see the reaction of Europe and the Commonwealth of America."

Hearing this, Disraeli breathed a sigh of relief.

But he didn't see that Queen Victoria gave Creston and Russell a calm look at the same time, which made them relieved.

Creston and Rose understood that the Queen was still closer to the Whigs.

Queen Victoria: "Such a move by the Netherlands has caused a headache for the royal families and governments of various European countries."

Disraeli felt the same way: "Why not? The Netherlands is the best at these things."

Old enemy Creston mocked: "Why didn't the Prime Minister say that the Netherlands is doing institutional innovation? Your Majesty, I think the Netherlands seems to be trying to seize the leading position in the advanced system. This makes us have to Defense, after all, the European system has always been based on Britain. If we lag too far behind, it will appear that our position has been replaced by the Netherlands, which will be detrimental to our international status."

Queen Victoria's eyes lit up, and she immediately said to Creston with approval: "It's good to think so. Maybe William IV had this idea. After the recent introduction of novel organizations one after another in the Netherlands, , the positive response from various countries shows that the Dutch method is quite clever. Prime Minister Disraeli, I think you, Lord Crichton and Lord Ross need to discuss carefully whether the British plan to implement the committee system is good or not. It’s feasible, how to change it, what needs to be changed, etc. Please give me a charter next week.”

Disraeli moved his mouth, and finally, looking at the Queen's eager but unquestionable expression, he finally wisely chose to say yes.

What happened in the UK has also happened in various European countries.

Among them, the French Empire was the most intense.

Napoleon III was originally forced to change from president to emperor, so many people in the French Empire were dissatisfied with this. In order to restrict Napoleon III, some people had long proposed various plans, but they were all rejected by Napoleon. The government vetoed it, which left many people helpless and at the same time helpless to Napoleon III.

However, the reforms currently being carried out in the Netherlands have given many people new ideas to fight against Napoleon III. So the anti-imperial rulers of the French Empire began to brew a movement against Napoleon III. The ambassadors of various countries in France hurriedly reported what was happening in France. Everything was sent back to their respective countries by telegram.

This has made European cabinet governments even more worried.

On April 3, 1868, the Belgian Senate and House of Representatives voted and finally passed a parliamentary reform modeled on that of the Netherlands. While restricting the prime minister, it also restricted the passage of King Leopold II's parliamentary reforms.

For a time, this reform once again aroused huge public opinion among the people and elites.

In the past, after countries such as Britain and France reformed, other countries followed suit. Now, it is the Netherlands that has stirred up this storm, and judging from the momentum, it is not weak at all. No, there will be new progress soon.

After Christian IX of Denmark and Karl XV of Sweden worked through the work, it was quickly passed through consultations between the opposition parties and the ruling parties in the two parliaments.

On April 6, 1868, Speaker of the House of Representatives Schuyler Colfax announced that he would launch a congressional reform modeled on that of the Netherlands, adding 16 permanent special committees.

On the same day, Senate President Andrew and Vice President also expressed his intention to follow the example of the Netherlands. He said that the Senate will also establish 16 committees. Each committee will have jurisdiction over specific ministries such as the Treasury or Foreign Affairs Department of the Commonwealth of America. Each standing committee will The functions of committees are similar to those of the House of Representatives. However, in addition to reviewing, revising and announcing relevant bills, the standing committees of the Senate are also different. That is, they will review presidential personnel nominations for ministries with relevant jurisdiction, that is, the president's Nominations of cabinet members need to be approved by the respective ministry committees before they are approved and recognized for taking office.

Vice President Andrew Johnson also gave an example. For example, the Senate Judiciary Committee has the power to review the judicial qualifications of the nominee for attorney general nominated by the president. Of course, it is good to pass. If not, the president needs to nominate another candidate for review.

The same applies to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee's review of the qualifications of the nominee for the Secretary of State, the president's foreign affairs chief.

Senate President and Vice President Andrew also proposed that the committee has additional powers over bills and personnel with concerns, and they can prevent bills or personnel cases from entering the Senate for consideration.

At the same time, Andrew also said that in order to authorize senators to supervise the power and trust of administrative agencies on behalf of the people, the Standing Committee will also implement the supervision of various departments of the executive branch and their officials. If they want to remove (and expel) officials from their posts, the Standing Committee has the power to hold hearings. Witnesses and evidence will be called.

Andrew and Skylar Colfax also said that they will follow the example of the Dutch Parliament and establish joint committees in the Federal Congress of the United States, with members including members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Some joint committees will not provide oversight. A government organization within a cabinet government.

Andrew and Skyler Colfax had just announced that they were going to reform, and Lincoln stood up to express opposition. Naturally, he didn't want to see his power cake being touched, let alone two opponents who were already at odds with him.

Seward jumped up and down, using the resources in his hands to attack Andrew and the two, and even "confessed" in a German-controlled newspaper that these two responsible members of Congress were rebelling and seizing power.

I urge people not to be fooled by these two.

However, Secretary of State Seward's statement was quickly slapped in the face.

"He cannot fully represent the voice of the Confederate States of America, because he only represents the Lincoln cabinet government. Our foreign policy is extremely inclusive, including the development of friendly relations with countries around the world."

Speaker of the House of Representatives Skyler Colfax was very dissatisfied with Seward's statement. For this reason, he proposed the need to limit the foreign power of the Secretary of State to prevent foreign policy from being "exclusively monopolized" by the Secretary of State.

And Senate President and Vice President Andrew Johnson is not a person who won't fight back.

"People's eyes are sharp. Some people should not think that people are stupid, because sometimes they can see the truth better than you."

Andrew bluntly criticized Seward in a Dutch-controlled newspaper: "If your Excellency the Secretary of State thinks that increased supervision undermines your power, I can understand that, and that is true.

But if you think that we have deceived the people, I think this is a big mistake, because cabinet government is not President Lincoln’s lifelong career, and the position of Secretary of State is not fixed for you. They will change in every term or even in one term. Under such circumstances, I don’t think there is anything wrong with the members of Congress being elected by the people to supervise the current cabinet and government officials on behalf of the people.

If you think it is wrong, please ask Secretary Seward and President Lincoln to stand up and explain to the people of the Commonwealth of America that supervision has turned into guilt? Is this the truth? "

Vice President Andrew's rebuttal immediately silenced Seward, but the citizens of the American Commonwealth stood on Andrew's side.

The Commonwealth of America is originally a country with a large number of immigrants. Many of them came here at the risk of leaving their hometowns. Who would come here if they could live a good life? Because of this, they particularly cherish their current life.

At the same time, it also prevents one family from becoming dominant.

The alliance between Irish and Germans has threatened the lives of other ethnic groups. Prussia, under the propaganda of Dutch newspapers, has spread the European Prussian move and ambition to annex the German Confederation throughout the United States, so it is very hostile to Prussia. Be wary, Seward promoted the relationship between America and Prussia more and more, but what he didn't know was that it was going in the opposite direction of what he wanted.

Although the influence of the Netherlands is not small, even more powerful than that of the Germans, the population of the Netherlands is only that large, 1.1 million people compared to the population of the Commonwealth of America of 23 million. Less than 5%, but the number of Germans is 4 million, 17%, more than three times that of Dutch. For other ethnic groups, the Germans naturally make them even more uneasy.

Plus more than 25% are Irish.

It can be said that this was full of threats. Although Lincoln wanted to stop it in the end, he finally chose to give up in the face of public opinion.

Therefore, after state legislators and the Senate received public opinion from each state one after another, in the end, the Senate and House of Representatives reforms were also passed.