What
was intended as the medicine of the Constitution in extreme cases can
not be frequently used without changing its character and sooner or
later producing incurable disorder.
Every election by the House of Representatives is calculated to
lessen the force of that security which is derived from the distinct and
separate character of the legislative and executive functions, and while
it exposes each to temptations adverse to their efficiency as organs
of the Constitution and laws, its tendency will be to unite both in
resisting the will of the people, and thus give a direction to the
Government antirepublican and dangerous. All history tells us that
a free people should be watchful of delegated power, and should never
acquiesce in a practice which will diminish their control over it.
This obligation, so universal in its application to all the principles
of a republic, is peculiarly so in ours, where the formation of parties
founded on sectional interests is so much fostered by the extent of
our territory. These interests, represented by candidates for the
Presidency, are constantly prone, in the zeal of party and selfish
objects, to generate influences unmindful of the general good and
forgetful of the restraints which the great body of the people would
enforce if they were in no contingency to lose the right of expressing
their will.
Pages:
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422