CHAPTER IX. THE DIVISION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE POWERS OF GOV ERNMENT. 1. HAVING explained the nature of a constitution, and shown how it is made and adopted, it will be next in order to show how the powers of government under a constitution are divided. The excellence of a form of government consists essentially in a proper separation and distribution of power. § 2. One of the chief excellencies of the American constitutions, is the separation of the political and civil powers. The words political and civil are generally used as having the same meaning. Thus, in speaking of the system of government and laws of a country, we use the general term, "political institutions," or "civil institutions;" either being deemed correct. But the words civil and political have also a particular signification. The same distinction is observed here as was made in a preceding chapter between the constitution, or political law, and the municipal or civil laws; the political power being that which is exercised by the people in their political capacity in adopting their constitution, and electing the officers of government; the civil power that which is exercised by the officers thus elected in administering the government. § 3. In an absolute government, no such distinction exists; all power being centered in the supreme ruler. There is no political law binding on him. The rules by which the powers of his government are exercised, consist of certain customs and usages for which his subjects have even a higher regard than for his own authority. Yet being himself subject to no positive laws or regulations that have been adopted by the people, or that may be altered by them, the people enjoy no political rights. 4. In a mixed government, or limited monarchy, political power is exercised to some extent. Although there is, in most governments of this kind, no written constitution adopted by the people, as in a republic, the members of one branch of the law-inaking power are elected by the people; and in such election they are said to exercise political power. 5. The civil power in well constructed governments, is divided into three departments, the legislative, the execu tive, and the judicial. The legislative department is that by which the laws of the state are made. The legislature is composed of two bodies, the members of which are elected by the people. In limited monarchies, or mixed governments, only one branch of the legislature is elective; the other being an aristocratic body, composed of men of wealth and dignity, as the British house of lords. 6. The executive department is that which is intrusted with the power of executing, or carrying into effect, the laws of the state. In each of the several states of this union, the executive department consists of a governor, assisted by a number of other officers, some of whom are elected by the people, and others are appointed in some manner prescribed by the constitution and laws. It is the duty of the governor to see that the laws are duly executed. He oversces the general business of the state, and recommends to the legislature such matters as he thinks ought to receive their attention. 7. The judicial department is that by which justice between citizens is administered, and embraces the several courts of the state. All judges and justices of the peace are judicial officers. It is their business to judge of and apply the laws in cases brought before them for trial. There are several courts in a state; some of lower, others of a higher order. The manner in which these courts are constituted, is not precisely the same in all the states; but their general powers, and the manner of conducting trials, are the same. 8. Experience has shown the propriety of the division. of the civil power of a state into these three departments, and of keeping them separate and distinct, and of confining the officers of each to the powers and duties belonging to their respective departments. Those who make the laws ought not to exercise the power of executing or enforcing them; nor should they who either make or execute the laws, sit in judgment over those who are brought before them for justice. A government in which the different powers of making, executing, and applying the laws should be united in the same hands, whether consisting of one man or a single body of men, however numerous, would be little better than an absolute despotism. It was one of the main defects of some of the ancient republics, that the powers of government were not properly divided and balanced. 9. Again, the law-making department of the civil power is divided into several branches. The plan of dividing the legislative power, which existed in some of the ancient republics and in Great Britain, and also in the American colonies while subject to that country, has been adopted and continued in the constitutions of all the states in this union, with some modifications in some of them. § 10. The best governments among the ancient republics, and those which existed longest, and were most firm and stable, were upon this plan. The law-making power was vested in a chief magistrate, lords, and a representative assembly. These several branches, holding a check upon each other, are more likely to enact good and wholesome laws, than if the whole power were in the hands of one man, or a single representative assembly. A government of this kind was constituted at Sparta by Lycurgus, which lasted above eight hundred years; whereas the govern ment established by Solon at Athens, which was a simple democracy, was of short duration, about one hundred years. Not only was the government of the Spartans more durable, but the citizens were better governed. § 11. Under the Roman constitution was formed the noblest people and the most powerful nation that had ever existed. The supreme power was vested in two consuls, (chief magistrates,) a senate, and the people. But if all the powers of these several branches had been united in a single assembly, whether consisting of the whole body of freemen, or of their representatives, it is not probable that the people would have been long free, or the nation ever great. The distribution of power, however, was never accurately and judiciously made in that constitution. The executive was never sufficiently separated from the legslative; nor was the control which these powers were to have upon each other defined with sufficient accuracy. § 12. The framers of our American constitutions, who had before them the various systems of government, ancient and modern, and were well acquainted with their nature and operation, have happily preserved what was good in those systems, and avoided their defects. And in nothing is the superiority of our plan of government more manifest, than in the wise division and distribution of its powers. § 13. There is another division of power. A single set of officers in each of the several departments, legislative, executive, and judicial, residing at the seat of government, can not regulate all the minute affairs of every neighborhood throughout the state. Business in which the people of a small community alone are interested can be better done by some local authority. For this purpose, a state is divided into counties and towns, in each of which there are officers elected to exercise certain powers of government. (See Towns and Counties.) § 14. There is another reason for the division of a state into small territories. The people, in the exercise of their political power, must act collectively, which can be done only in small districts, as towns. In all elections for choosing state, county, and town officers, and for voting upon the question of adopting a constitution, the people act in town meetings. CHAPTER X. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION, AND OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF OUR PRESENT FORM OF GOVERNMENT. § 1. THE people of the United States, as is probably known by the youngest reader of this work, have not always lived under their present excellent form of government. For more than one hundred and fifty years after the first settlement of this country, they were subject to the government of Great Britain. In 1776, the American colonies, now states, separated themselves from the parent country, and claimed the right to establish a government for themselves. 2. This country was first settled by the English, who claimed it by right of discovery, they having discovered it in 1497, about five years after Columbus had discovered the West India islands. The first permanent settlement, however, was not made until the year 1607, when a colony of 105 persons settled at Jamestown, in Virginia. A few years afterward, (1620,) a colony was planted in Plymouth, in Massachusetts. After this the number of colonies rapidly increased to twelve, the last of which, Pennsylvania, was settled in 1681. About fifty years thereafter, (1732,) Georgia was settled, the last of the thirteen colonies which declared themselves free and independent states. § 3. The governments of the colonies, during their connection with Great Britain, were not such as the colonists chose for themselves, but such as the king was pleased to prescribe for them in their charters. The word charter is from the Latin charta, which means paper. The instru ments of writing by which the king granted privileges to individuals or corporations, were written on paper or parchment, and called charters. The colonial charters granted to individuals and companies the right to trade and settle in this country, and prescribed the limits of the territory granted to each. And either the same or a separate charter contained rules for the government of the colony. § 4. The governments of the several colonies, though not alike in every particular, were on the same general plan. The powers of government were vested in a governor, a council, and an assembly of representatives chosen by the people. These three branches corresponded to the king, the nobles, and the commons in Great Britain. Power was therefore divided in those governments in nearly the same manner as it is in the states at present; there being in every state a governor, a senate, and a representative assembly. § 5. There is, however, an important difference between those governments and the present. The people of the colonies were not allowed to choose a constitution or form of government; nor had they the privilege of choosing the officers of the different departments of the government. The governors were appointed either by the king, or by such persons as had authority from the king to appoint them; and they were generally under the control of the king, by whom they might be kept in office or dismissed at plea sure. |