CHAPTER VIII.
THE LEGISLATURE.
§ 544. The first article of the constitution contains the structure, organization, and powers, of the legislature of the Union. Each section of that article, and indeed, of every other article, will require a careful analysis, and distinct examination. It is proposed, therefore, to bring each separately under review, in the present commentaries, and to unfold the reasons, on which each is founded, the objections, which have been urged against it, and the interpretation, so far as it can satisfactorily be ascertained, of the terms, in which each is expressed.
§ 545. The first section of the first article is in the following words: "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a congress of the United States, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives."
§ 546. This section involves, as a fundamental rule, the exercise of the legislative power by two distinct and independent branches. Under the confederation, the whole legislative power of the Union was vested in a single branch. Limited as was that power, the concentration of it in a single body was deemed a prominent defect of the confederation. But if a single assembly could properly be deemed a fit receptacle of the slender and fettered authorities, confided to the federal government by that instrument, it could scarcely be consistent with the principles of a good government to entrust it with the more enlarged and vigorous powers delegated in the constitution.[1]
- ↑ The Federalist, No. 22.
