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tive, or the legislative, and judicial branches be united in the same hands, the combination would be dangerous to public liberty, and the evils to be apprehended would be the same, whether the powers in question were devolved on a single magistrate, or vested in a numerous body. If, moreover, the principle of representation be applied only to a part of the government, where other parts exist independently of that principle, with an equal or superior weight to that constituted in conformity to it, the benefits of the one must obviously be partial, and the danger to be apprehended from the others, in proportion to their predominance.

As representation may thus be partial in respect to the powers of the government, so it may be confined to a portion only of the governed; and in this case, the restriction is objectionable in exact proportion to the number of those excluded from representation, or from the exercise of a fee and intelligent voice in the choice of their rulers. In some countries possessing constitutions, the right or power of election is variously limited. In Venice, it was formerly, and in some of the aristocratical republics of Switzerland, it still is, the exclusive privilege of a few families. In the limited or mixed monarchies of England, France, Holland, and Belgium, it is confined to persons possessing property of a certain description or amount. With us, the rights of representation and suffrage are, according to the theory of the Constitution, universal; but in practice they are both qualified-without, however, impairing the general principle.

It is in defining the limits of the three great departments of government, and, by proper checks and securities, preserving the principle of representation in regard both to the exercise of the power, and the enjoyment of the right, that a written constitution

possesses great and manifest advantages over those which rest on traditionary information, or which are to be collected from the acts of the government itself. If the people can refer only to the ordinances and decrees of their rulers to ascertain their rights, it is obvious that, as every such act may introduce a new principle, there can be no stability in the Constitution. The powers of the representative and of the constituent are inverted; and the Legislature is, from its omnipotence, enabled to alter the Constitution at its pleasure. Nor can such laws be questioned by individuals, or declared void by the courts of justice, as they may with us, where the power of the Legislature itself, is controlled by the Constitution.

A written constitution, therefore, which may thus be appealed to by the people, and construed and enforced by the judicial power, is most conducive to the happiness of the citizen, and the safety of the commonwealth; and it was reserved for the present age, and the citizens of this country, fully to appreciate and soundly to apply the great principle of popular representation, and to afford the first practical example of a "SOCIAL CONTRACT." In England, one only of the co-ordinate branches of government is supposed, by the Constitution, to represent the people; and the provincial constitutions of the American Colonies (with but few exceptions) had, at the period of our Revolution, been modelled in conformity with the same theory. Their charters were originally framed, or subsequently modified, so as to exclude the principle of representation from the executive department, of which, as in England, the judicial was considered as a subordinate branch. The solid foundations of popular government had, nevertheless, been laid; and the institutions received from the mother-country were admirably adapted to prepare

the way for a temperate and rational Democratical Republic.

As the discoveries which had been made in America by European navigators were deemed to confer the exclusive right of occupancy upon their respective sovereigns, those parts of the Continent which had been claimed as the reward of English enterprise, were appropriated as British colonies, either by extensive grants of territory and jurisdiction to favoured individuals, or by encouraging settlers at large by limited territorial grants, reserving the general domain of the province to the crown, and providing for the exercise of the whole jurisdiction, under its authority. Hence two sorts of provincial governments had arisen: first, those denominated royal governments, in which the general domain continued in the crown; and, secondly, proprietary governments, in which both the territory and jurisdiction were granted by the king to one or more of his subjects. In the former case, the chief executive magistrate was appointed by the crown: in the latter, by the proprietaries in both, the legislative power was vested, wholly or partially, in the people; subject, in the one case, to the control of the king in council, and in the other, to that of the proprietary. In some few of the colonies, indeed, the power of legislation was uncontrolled, as we have seen, by the parent-state; so that, previously to the Revolution, the colonists had long been accustomed to elect representatives to compose the more numerous branch of their Legislature, and in some instances the second, or less numerous branch, and even their chief executive magistrate. No hereditary powers had ever existed in the colonial governments, and all political power ex ercised in them was derived either from the people or from the king,

The powers of the crown being abrogated by the successful assertion of our independence, the people remained the only source of legitimate authority; and when the citizens of the several states proceeded to form their respective constitutions, the materials in their possession, as well as their former habits, and modes of thinking and acting on political subjects, were peculiarly favourable to governments representative in all the three departments; and, accordingly, such governments were universally adopted. Under various modifications and forms, produced in a great degree by ancient habits, the same general principles were established in every state In general, the legislative, executive, and judicial powers were kept distinct, with the manifest intention of rendering them essentially independent of each oth

er.

The Legislature was, for the most part, divided into two branches, and all persons holding offices of trust or profit were excluded from it. The supreme executive magistrate was also rendered elective, and a strong jealousy of his power was everywhere apparent. The superior judges received their appointments from the Legislature or the executive, and in most instances the tenure of their offices was during good behaviour.

These principles formed the common and original basis of the American Republics, and were adhered to in the Federal Constitution, which, while it unites them as one nation, guaranties their separate and residuary sovereignty. The same fundamental principles have also been recognised and adopted in the new states since erected from the territory ceded by individual states for the common benefit, or acquired by negotiation or purchase, and subsequently admitted into the Union. There were, however, several departures from this general outline,

which in some instances have been superseded by subsequent amendments, and in others retained in the original Constitution, and imitated in some of those which have been more recently established. In some cases the Legislature consisted of a single body; but this peculiarity was soon very generally abandoned, and, except in Vermont, no longer exists. In some of the states the tenure of judicial office is for a term of years; and in Connecticut, until the adoption of a new Constitution in 1818, the judges were elected annually, and formed one branch of the Legislature; as is still the case in Rhode Island, whose colonial charter has even been copied in the first of these particulars by some of the younger members of the National Union.* The qualifications requisite to confer the priviléges of an elector, and to constitute eligibility to office, are also various; and the second branch of the Legislature is frequently differently constituted in different states. On some, a greater on others, a less effect is discernible, to render it an effectual check upon the more numerous or popular branch, either by prolonging the term for which its members are elected, or requiring higher qualifications in them, or their constituents.

In constituting the executive power, there appears equal variety. It is now, however, uniformly vested, either wholly or restrictively, in a single person. In some states he is eligible for longer, and in others for shorter periods. In some he is invested with a qualified negative upon the laws, which in others is withheld from him. In some few of the states he is intrusted with power to make appointments to office, either absolutely, or subject to the approval of a coun

* Since this work was sent to the press, a new Constitution has been established in that state, by which the usual division is de of the Legislature into two branches.

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