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a national government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme legislative, judiciary, and executive."

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§ 61. In the establishment of free governments, the division of the three great powers of government, ecutive, the legislative, and the judicial, among different functionaries, has been a favorite policy with patriots and statesmen. It has by many been deemed a maxim of vital importance, that these powers should for ever be kept separate and distinct. And, accordingly, we find it laid down, with emphatic care, in the Bill of Rights of several of the State Constitutions.

§ 62. The general reasoning, by which the maxim is supported, independently of the just weight of the authority in its support, seems entirely satisfactory. What is of far more value than any mere reasoning, experience has demonstrated it to be founded in a just view of the nature of government, and of the safety and liberty of the people. It is no small commendation of the Constitution of the United States, that, instead of adopting a new theory, it has placed this practical truth, at the basis of its organization. It has placed the legislative, executive, and judicial powers in different hands. It has, as we shall presently see, made the term of office and the organization of each department different. For objects of permanent and paramount importance, it has given to the judicial department a tenure of office during good behavior; while it has limited each of the others to a term of years.

§ 63. But when we speak of a separation of the three great departments of government, and maintain, that that separation is indispensable to public liberty, we are to understand this maxim in a limited sense. It is not meant to affirm, that they must be kept wholly and entirely separate and distinct, and have no common link of connection or dependence, the one upon the other, in the slightest degree. The true meaning is, that the whole power of one of these departments should not be exercised by the same hands, which possess the whole power of either of

whole by the same hands would subvert the principles of a free constitution.

$64. How far the Constitution of the United States, in the actual separation of these departments, and the occasional mixtures of some of the powers of each, has accomplished the great objects of the maxim, which we have been considering, will appear more fully, when a survey is taken of the particular powers confided to each department. But the true and only test must, after all, be experience, which corrects at once the errors of theory, and fortifies and illustrates the eternal judgements of Nature.

§ 65. The first section, of the first article, begins with the structure of the Legislature. It is in these words :

"All legislative powers, herein granted, shall be vested in a Congress of the United States; which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." Under the Confederation, the whole legislative power of the Union was confided to a single branch; and, limited as that power was, this concentration of it, in a single body, was deemed a prominent defect. The Constitution, on the other hand, adopts, as a fundamental rule, the exercise of the legislative power by two distinct and independent branches. The advantages of this division are, in the first place, that it interposes a great check upon undue, hasty, and oppressive legislation. In the next place, it interposes a barrier against the strong propensity of all public bodies to accumulate all power, patronage, and influence in their own hands. In the next place, it operates, indirectly, to retard, if not wholly to prevent, the success of the efforts of a few popular leaders, by their combinations and intrigues in a single body, to carry their own personal, private, or party objects into effect, unconnected with the public good. In the next place, it secures a deliberate review of the same measures, by independent minds, in different branches of government, engaged in the same habits of legislation, but organized upon a different system of elections. And, in the last place, it affords great securities to public liberty, by requiring the co-oper ation of different bodies, which can scarcely ever, if prop

erly organized, embrace the same sectional or local interests, or influences, in exactly the same proportion, as a single body. The value of such a separate organization will, of course, be greatly enhanced, the more the elements, of which each body is composed, differ from each other, in the mode of choice, in the qualifications, and in the duration of office of the members, provided due intelligence and virtue are secured in each body. All these considerations had great weight in the Convention, which framed the Constitution of the United States. We shall presently see, how far these desirable modifications have been attained in the actual composition of the Senate and House of Representatives.

CHAPTER IX.

The House of Representatives.

§ 66. THE second section, of the first article, contains the structure and organization of the House of Representatives. The first clause is "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States; and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications, requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature."

§ 67. First, the principle of representation. The Representatives are to be chosen by the people. No reasoning was necessary, to satisfy the American people of the advantages of a House of Representatives, which should emanate directly from themselves, which should guard their interests, support their rights, express their opinions, make known their wants, redress their grievances, and introduce a pervading popular influence throughout all the operations of the national government. Their own experience, as colonists, as well as the experience of the parent country, and the general deductions

free government, and especially of a republican government, that no laws ought to be passed without the consent of the people, through representatives, immediately chosen by, and responsible to them.

§ 68. The indirect advantages, from this immediate agency of the people in the choice of their Representatives, are of incalculable benefit, and deserve a brief mention in this place, because they furnish us with matter for most serious reflection, in regard to the actual operations and influences of republican governments. In the first place, the right confers an additional sense of personal dignity and duty upon the mass of the people. It gives a strong direction to the education, studies, and pursuits of the whole community. It enlarges the sphere of action, and contributes, in a high degree, to the formation of the public manners, and national character. It procures to the common people courtesy and sympathy from their superiors, and diffuses a common confidence, as well as a common interest, through all the ranks of society. It awakens a desire to examine, and sift, and debate all public proceedings; and it thus nourishes a lively curiosity to acquire knowledge, and, at the same time, furnishes the means of gratifying it. The proceedings and debates of the legislature; the conduct of public officers, from the highest to the lowest; the character and conduct of the Executive and his ministers; the struggles, intrigues, and conduct of different parties; and the discussion of the great public measures and questions which agitate and divide the community;-are not only freely canvassed, and thus improve and elevate conversation; but they gradually furnish the mind with safe and solid materials for judgement upon all public affairs, and check that impetuosity and rashness, to which sudden impulses might otherwise lead the people, when they are artfully misguided by selfish demagogues, and plausible schemes of change.

§ 69. Secondly, the qualifications of electors. These were various in the different States. In some of them, none but freeholders were entitled to vote; in others,

freemen; in others, a qualification of property was required of voters; in others, the payment of taxes; and in others, again, the right of suffrage was almost universal. This consideration had great weight in the Convention; and the extreme difficulty of agreeing upon any uniform rule of voting, which should be acceptable to all the States, induced the Convention, finally, after much discussion, to adopt the existing rule in the choice of Representatives in the popular branch of the State legislatures. Thus, the peculiar wishes of each State, in the formation of its own popular branch, were consulted; and some not unimportant diversities were introduced into the actual composition of the national House of Representatives. All the members would represent the people, but not exactly under influences precisely of the same character.

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§ 70. Thirdly, the term of service of the Representatives. It is two years. This period, with reference to the nature of the duties to be performed by the members, to the knowledge and experience essential to a right performance of them, and to the periods, for which the members of the State legislatures are chosen, seems as short as an enlightened regard to the public good could require. very short term of service would bring together a great many new members, with little or no experience in the national business; the very frequency of the elections would render the office of less importance to able men; and some of the duties to be performed would require more time, and more mature inquiries, than could be gathered, in the brief space of a single session, from the distant parts of so extensive a territory. What might be well begun by one set of men, could scarcely be carried on, in the same spirit, by another. So that there would be great danger of new and immature plans succeeding each other, without any well-established system of operations.

§ 71. But the very nature and objects of the national government require far more experience and knowledge, than what may be thought requisite in the members of a State legislature. For the latter, a knowledge of local

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