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Fiske, John, 1842-1901

"Volume 4, part 3: James Knox Polk"


It is obvious that to preserve the system established by the
Constitution each of the coordinate branches of the Government--the
executive, legislative, and judicial--must be left in the exercise of
its appropriate powers. If the executive or the judicial branch be
deprived of powers conferred upon either as checks on the legislative,
the preponderance of the latter will become disproportionate and
absorbing and the others impotent for the accomplishment of the great
objects for which they were established. Organized, as they are, by the
Constitution, they work together harmoniously for the public good. If
the Executive and the judiciary shall be deprived of the constitutional
powers invested in them, and of their due proportions, the equilibrium
of the system must be destroyed, and consolidation, with the most
pernicious results, must ensue--a consolidation of unchecked, despotic
power, exercised by majorities of the legislative branch.
The executive, legislative, and judicial each constitutes a separate
coordinate department of the Government, and each is independent of
the others.


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