1. The Federalist, No. 22.
2. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, 194; 1 Kent's Comm. 208; DeLolme on the Constitution of England, B. 2, ch. 3; 3 Amer. Museum, 62, 66, Gov. Randolph's Letter.
3. 1 Adams's Defence of American Constitution, 105, 106; 2 Pitk. Hist. 294, 305, 316.
4. Kent's Comm. 208; 2 Pitk. Hist. 315.
5. 2 Pitk. Hist. 314, 316; Const. of Vermont, 1793, ch. 2, §2, 16.
6. President J. Q Adams's Oration, 4th July, 1831. See also Adams's Defence of American Constitution, per tot; 1 Kent's Comm. 208, 209, 210; 2 Pitk. Hist. 233, 305; Paley's Moral Phil. B. 6, ch. 7.
7. 1 Adams's Defence American Constitution, 3; Id. 105; Id. 366; 2 Pitk. Hist. 233.
8. Mackintosh on the French Revolution, (1792) 4 edit. p. 266 to 273.
9. 1 Kent's Comm. 209, 210.
10. 1 Kent's Comm. 208 to 210.
11. Mr. Tucker, the learned author of the Commentaries on Blackstone, seems to hold the doctrine, that a division of the legislative power is not useful or important. See Tuck. Black. Comm. App. 226, 227.
12. 1 Kent's Comm. 208, 209; 3 Amer. Museum, 66.
13. The facility, with which even great men satisfy themselves with exceeding their constitutional powers, was never better exemplified, than by Mr. Jefferson's own practice and example, as stated in his own correspondence. In 1802, he entered into a treaty, by which Louisiana was to become a part of the Union, although (as we have seen) in his own opinion, it was unconstitutional.a And, in 1810, he contended for the right of the executive to purchase Florida, if, in his own opinion, the opportunity would otherwise be lost, notwithstanding it might involve a transgression of the law.b Such are the examples given of a state necessity, which is to supersede the constitution and laws. Such are the principles, which he contended, justified him in an arrest of persons not sanctioned by law.c a. 4 Jefferson's Corresp. 1, 2, 3, 4 .
b. Id. 149, 150 .
c. Id. 151.
14. 1 Hume's Essays, Essay 6; Id. Essay 16. -- Mr. Jefferson has said, that " the functionaries of public power rarely strengthen in their dispositions to abridge it." 4 Jefferson's Corresp. 277.
15. See 1 Adams's Defence of American Constitution, p. 121, Letter 26, etc.; Id. Letter, 24; Id. Letter 55; 1 Hume's Essays, Essay 16; 1 Wilson's Law Lect. 394 to 397; 3 Adams's Defence of American Constitution, Letter 6, p. 209, etc.
16. Mr. Hume's thoughts are often striking and convincing; but his mode of a perfect commonwealthd contains some of the most extravagant vagaries of the human mind, equalled only by Locke's Constitution for Carolina. These examples show the danger of relying implicitly upon the mere speculative opinions of the wisest men.
d. 1 Hume's Essays, Essay 16.
17. Mr. John Adams.
18. 3 Adams's Defence of American Constitution, Letter 6, p. 215, 216. See North American Review, Oct 1827, p. 263.
19. 3 Adams's Defence of American Constitution, 284 to 286.
20. 1 Wilson's Law Lect. 393 to 405; The Federalist, No. 22.
21. See Sidney on Government, ch. 3, §45.
22. "Look," says an intelligent writer, "into every society, analyze public measures, and get at the real conducters of them, and it will be found, that few, very few, men in any government, and in the most democratical perhaps the fewest, are, in fact, the persons, who give the lead and direction to all, which is brought to pass." Thoughts upon the Political Situation of the United States of America, printed at Worcester, 1788.
23. Sidney's Disc. on Government, ch. 3, §45.
24. The Federalist, No. 15.
25. Id. No. 62, 15.
26. 1 Wilson's Law Lect. 396; The Federalist, No. 62, 63. -- Mr. Jefferson was decidedly in favour of a division of the legislative power into two branches, as will be evident from an examination of his Notes on Virginia, (p. 194,) and his Correspondence at the period, when this subject was much discussed.e De Lolme, in his work on the constitution of England, has (ch. 3, p. 214, etc.) some very striking remarks on the same subject, in the passage already cited. He has added: "The result of a division of the executive power is either a more or less speedy establishment of the right of the strongest, or a continued state of war; that of a division of the legislative power is either truth, or general tranquillity." See also Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy, B. 6, ch. 6, 7.
e. 2 Pitk. Hist. 283.
27. Journal of the Convention, 85; 2 Pitk. Hist. 233.
28. Journal of the Convention, 140.
29. Yates's Minutes, 4 Elliot's Debates, 59, 75, 76; Id. 87, 88, 89; Id. 124, 125.
30. The Federalist, No. 22, 62, 63.
31. The Federalist, No. 22; Id. No. 37, 38; Id. No. 39; Id. No. 62.
32. The Federalist, No. 62.
33. The Federalist, No. 62; Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy, B. 6, ch. 7, 7; 2 Wilson's Law Lect. 144 to 148.
34. The Federalist, No. 62.Id. No. 62.
35. Id. No. 62.
36. The Federalist, No. 63.
37. Id. No. 63.
38. The Federalist, No. 63.
39. The Federalist, No. 63. -- There are some very striking remarks on this subject in the reasoning of the convention, in the county of Essex, called to consider the constitution proposed for Massachusetts, in 1778,f and which was finally rejected. "The legislative power," said that body, "must not be trusted with one assembly. A single assembly is frequently influenced by the vices, follies, passions, and prejudices of an individual. It is liable to be avaricious, and to exempt itself from the burthens it lays on its constituents. It is subject to ambition; and after a series of rears sill be prompted to vote itself perpetual. The long parliament in England voted itself perpetual, and thereby a for a time destroyed the political liberty of the subject. Holland was governed by one representative assembly, annually elected. They afterwards voted themselves from annual to septennial; then for life; and finally exerted the power of filling up all vacancies, without application to their constituents. The government of Holland is now a tyranny, though a republic. The result of a single assembly will be hasty and indigested; and their judgments frequently absurd and inconsistent. There must be a second body to revise with coolness, and wisdom, and to control with firmness, independent upon the first, either for their creation, or existence. Yet the first must retain a right to a similar revision and control over
the second."
f. It is contained in pamphlet, entitled "The Essex Result," and was printed in 1778, I quote the passage from Mr. Savage's valuable Exposition of the Constitution of Massachusetts, printed in the New England Magazine for March, 1832, p. 9. See also on this subject Paley's Moral Philosophy, B. 6, ch. 7, p. 383; The Federalist, No 63, 63.
40. The Federalist, No. 62, 63.
41. The Federalist, No. 34.
