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der due restrictions, of the natural right of resistance and self-preservation.

34. Upon the establishment of independent Governments, the several States provided for the secure and permanent enjoyment by their respective citizens of their natural rights, and of the civil privileges designed for their maintenance, or substituted as their equivalents.

35. As additional safeguards, they secured to every individual freedom of speech, and the liberty of the press, uncontrolled by any but proper moral restraints.

36. Some of the States expressly recognized, and others tacitly adopted, the English Common Law as further modified by the change of Government; but they universally abolished that feature of the system, which is essentially political,-the right of primogeniture.

37. The same natural, political, and civil rights and privileges which had been declared to be the inalienable inheritance of the People as citizens of the respective States, were, on their becoming parties to the federal compact, expressly asserted to belong to them as citizens of the Union.

38. The Common Law, in its modified form, constitutes, therefore, the basis of the laws of all the original members of the Union; and the Constitution of the United States, as well as the Constitutions and Laws of the several States, were made in reference to the pre-existing validity of that system, both under the Colonial and State Governments.

39. Although the existence of the Common Law

is presupposed by the Constitution of the United States, and referred to for the construction of its powers, yet it seems, that under the Federal Government, the Common Law, considered as a source of jurisdiction, never was in force; but, considered as the means or instrument of exercising jurisdiction, that system of municipal jurisprudence does exist in full validity.

40. The Constitution, founded on this basis and on these principles, and formed from these materials, was "ordained and established" by "the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to them and their posterity."

41. By the terms of the compact, the States, as members of the Union, are no longer regarded in their sovereign and corporate capacities, as they surrendered such portions of their sovereignties as were requisite for the purposes of National Government; retaining, however, their previous organization and the exclusive control of their local concerns.

42. The former compact between the States, was annulled; and the People of the several States, by their ratification and adoption, in their respective conventions, of the new Constitution proposed to them by the General Convention who framed that instrument,-united with each other in establishing a permanent system of National Government, operating directly upon individuals, for the attainment of specific objects, for which neither the States separately, nor the former confederation between them, had proved competent.

43. The principle of representation is nevertheless applied in this Constitution, not only to the individual citizens of the United States, but also to the individual States of the Union; and it pervades the three great departments amongst which the powers of Government are distributed and apportioned.

44. The Constitution of the United States contains a general delegation of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial powers to distinct departments, and defines the powers and duties of each branch respectively.

45. It may therefore be most conveniently examined; first, with regard to the particular structure and organization of the Government, and the distribution of its powers amongst its several departments; and, secondly, in relation to the nature, extent, and limitation of the powers vested in the National Government, and the restraints imposed on the States.

PART FIRST.

ON THE STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT, AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF ITS POWERS AMONGST ITS SEVERAL BRANCHES.

46. The Legislative power, granted by the Federal Constitution, is vested in a Congress of the United States, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives; both chosen periodically, the former by the States, the latter by the People.

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47. The Executive power is vested in a President of the United States, elected, with a Vice President,

for a term of years, in a mode and upon a principle which in effect combine the suffrages of the People with those of the States.

48. The Judicial power is vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as Congress may from time to time establish,-the Judges of which hold their offices for life, unless sooner removed on conviction for misbehaviour.

49. The rule inculcating the separation of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial departments, is not understood to require, in its application, that those branches should be wholly unconnected with each

other.

50. For unless they be so far connected and blended as to give to each one a constitutional check upon both the others, the degree of separation which the rule requires cannot in practice be maintained.

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51. The powers proper to one department should not be directly and completely administered by another, nor should either branch possess, directly or indirectly, an overruling influence or control in the administration of the powers of both or either of the others.

52. In order to maintain the requisite partition of power amongst the respective departments, the interior structure of the Government should be so contrived as to render its several constituent parts, by their mutual relations, the means of keeping each other within their proper spheres.

53. The Constitution of the United States renders the mutual participation, to a limited extent, of the several branches of the Government in each other's

power, subservient to their mutual independence; and thus the apparent violation of a fundamental principle affords the best security for its preservation.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER.

54. Under this head may be considered: First, The constituent parts of the Legislature, and the modes of their appointment: Secondly, Their joint and several powers and privileges: and Thirdly, Their method of enacting Laws, with the times and modes of their assembling and adjourning.

I. Of the constituent parts of the Legislature, and the modes of their appointment.

55. All Legislative powers granted by the Constitution, are vested in a Congress of the United States. consisting of a Senate, and a House of Representatives.

56. This division of the Legislature into two coordinate branches, was meant to guard against the evil consequences of sudden and strong excitement and precipitate measures, which had been found to prevail in single legislative bodies.

57. A hasty decision is by no means so likely to be made, when a measure is liable to be arrested in its progress; and after its adoption by one branch of the Legislature, to be again subjected to the same forms and solemnities of deliberation, and to the jealous and critical revision of another body sitting in a different place, and from the delay thus induced, if from no other cause, enabled to avoid the prepossessions and correct the errors of the first.

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