ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES; WITH A PRELIMINARY REVIEW OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE COLONIES AND STATES, BEFORE THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. BY JOSEPH STORY, LL. D., DANE PROFESSOR OF LAW IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY. IN THREE VOLUMES. "Magistratibus igitur opus est; sine quorum prudentiâ ac diligentiâ esse civitas non potest; CICERO DE LEG. lib. 3. cap. 2. "Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants." Entered according to the act of Congress in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, by JOSEPH STORY, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: E. W. METCALF AND COMPANY; Printers to the University. COMMENTARIES. CHAPTER VII. DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS. §517. In surveying the general structure of the constitution of the United States, we are naturally led to an examination of the fundamental principles, on which it is organized, for the purpose of carrying into effect the objects disclosed in the preamble. Every government must include within its scope, at least if it is to possess suitable stability and energy, the exercise of the three great powers, upon which all governments are supposed to rest, viz. the executive, the legislative, and the judicial powers. The manner and extent, in which these powers are to be exercised, and the functionaries, in whom they are to be vested, constitute the great distinctions, which are known in the forms of government. In absolute governments the whole executive, legislative, and judicial powers are, at least in their final result, exclusively confined to a single individual; and such a form of government is denominated a despotism, as the whole sovereignty of the state is vested in him. If the same powers are exclusively confided to a few persons, constituting a permanent sovereign council, the government may be appropriately denominated an absolute or despotic Aristocracy. If they are exercised by the people at large in their original sovereign assemblies, the government is a pure and absolute Democracy. But it is more common to find these powers divided, and separately exercised by independent functionaries, the executive power by one department, the legislative by another, and the judicial by a third; and in these cases the government is properly deemed a mixed one; a mixed monarchy, if the executive power is hereditary in a single person; a mixed aristocracy, if it is hereditary in several chieftains or families; and a mixed democracy or republic, if it is delegated by election, and is not hereditary. In mixed monarchies and aristocracies some of the functionaries of the legislative and judicial powers are, or at least may be, hereditary. But in a representative republic all power emanates from the people, and is exercised by their choice, and never extends beyond the lives of the individuals, to whom it is entrusted. It may be entrusted for any shorter period; and then it returns to them again, to be again delegated by a new choice. § 518. In the convention, which framed the constitution of the United States, the first resolution adopted by that body was, that "a national government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme legislative, judiciary, and executive." And from this fundamental proposition sprung the subsequent organization of the whole government of the United States. It is, then, our duty to examine and consider the grounds, on which this proposition rests, since it lies at the bottom of all our institutions, state, as well as national. § 519. In the establishment of a free government, the division of the three great powers of government, the executive, 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. In the constitution of Massachusetts, for example, it is declared, that "in the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them; the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them; the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them; to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men. "1 Other declarations of a similar character are to be found in other state constitutions." 1 Journals of Convent. 82, 83, 139, 207, 215. § 520. Montesquieu seems to have been the first, who, with a truly philosophical eye, surveyed the political truth involved in this maxim, in its full extent, and gave to it a paramount importance and value. As it is tacitly assumed, as a fundamental basis in the constitution of the United States, in the distribution of its powers, it may be worth inquiry, what is the true nature, object, 1 Bill of Rights, article 30. 2 The Federalist. No. 47. - It has been remarked by Mr. J. Adams, that the practicability or the duration of a republic, in which there is a governor, a senate, and a house of representatives, is doubted by Tacitus, though he admits the theory to be laudable. Cunctas nationes et urbes populus, aut priores, aut singuli regunt. Delecta ex his et constituta reipublicæ forma laudari facilius quam inveniri, vel si evenit, haud diuturna esse potest. Tacit. Ann. lib. 14. Cicero asserts, " Statuo esse optime constitutam rempublicam, quæ ex tribus generibus illis, regali, optimo, et populari, modice confusa." Cic. Frag. de Repub.* The British government perhaps answers more nearly to the form of government proposed by these writers, than what we in modern times should esteem strictly a republic. * 1 Adams's Amer. Constitutions, Preface, 19. |