If the principle insisted on be sound, then the Constitution should be
so changed that no bill shall become a law unless it is voted for by
members representing in each House a majority of the whole people of the
United States. We must remodel our whole system, strike down and abolish
not only the salutary checks lodged in the executive branch, But must
strike out and abolish those lodged in the Senate also, and thus
practically invest the whole power of the Government in a majority of
a single assembly--a majority uncontrolled and absolute, and which may
become despotic. To conform to this doctrine of the right of majorities
to rule, independent of the checks and limitations of the Constitution,
we must revolutionize our whole system; we must destroy the
constitutional compact by which the several States agreed to form a
Federal Union and rush into consolidation, which must end in monarchy or
despotism. No one advocates such a proposition, and yet the doctrine
maintained, if carried out, must lead to this result.
One great object of the Constitution in conferring upon the President
a qualified negative upon the legislation of Congress was to protect
minorities from injustice and oppression by majorities.
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