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CONSTITUTION OF THE U. STATES.
[BOOK III.
less the temperate exercise of those powers. As it prescribes its own rules for its own deliberations, it easily relaxes them, whenever any pressure is made for an immediate decision. If it feels no check but its own will, it rarely has the firmness to insist upon holding a question long enough under its own view, to see and mark it in all its bearings and relations on society.[1]
§ 550. But it is not merely inconsiderate and rash legislation, which is to be guarded against, in the ordinary course of things. There is a strong propensity in public bodies to accumulate power in their own hands, to widen the extent of their own influence, and to absorb within their own circle the means, and the motives of patronage. If the whole legislative power is vested in a single body, there can be, practically, no restraint upon the fullest exercise of that power; and of any usurpation, which it may seek to excuse or justify, either from necessity or a superior regard to the public good. It has been often said, that necessity is the plea of tyrants; but it is equally true, that it is the plea of all public bodies invested with power, where no check exists upon its exercise.[2] Mr. Hume has remarked with- ↑ 1 Kent's Comm. 208, 209; 3 Amer. Museum, 66.
- ↑ The facility, with which even great men satisfy themselves with exceeding their constitutional powers, was never better exemplified, than by Mr. Jefferson's own practice and example, as stated in his own correspondence. In 1802, he entered into a treaty, by which Louisiana was to become a part of the Union, although (as we have seen) in his own opinion, it was unconstitutional.[a 1] And, in 1810, he contended for the right of the executive to purchase Florida, if, in his own opinion, the opportunity would otherwise be lost, notwithstanding it might involve a transgression of the law.[a 2] Such are the examples given of a state necessity, which is to supersede the constitution and laws. Such are the principles, which he contended, justified him in an arrest of persons not sanctioned by law.[a 3]
