Legislature

“ I am fully convinced that the country possesses at the present moment a legislature which answers all the good purpose of legislation, and this to a greater degree than any legislature ever has answered in any country whatever. I will go further, and say, that the legislature and the system of representation possess the full and entire confidence of the country—deservedly possess that confidence—and the discussions in the legislature have a very great influence over the opinions of the country. ”

“ Your Legislature is not only supreme in the usual sense of the word, but they have literally, all the powers of society. Can you—can you possibly grant anything new? Have you any power which is not already granted to your General Assembly? ”

“ A Legislature is supposed to consist of men whom the people judge best qualified to superintend their interests; a convention cannot be composed of better men; and in fact we find it generally composed of the same men. ”

“ It must be recollected, sir, that we have repeatedly admitted the right of the Legislature to change, alter, modify, and amend the judiciary system, so as best to promote the interests of the people. We only contend that you shall not exceed or contravene the authority by which you act. But, say gentlemen, you forced this new office on the district judges, and this is in effect a new appointment. ”

“ Has any man said that the legislature can deviate from this Constitution? The legislature is to be guided by the Constitution. They cannot travel beyond its bounds. The reverend gentleman says, that, though the representatives are to be elected for two years, they may pass an act prolonging their appointment for twenty years, or for natural life, without any violation of the Constitution. ”

“ The government being divided into branches, executive and legislative, in all contests between them the people have divided into the favorers of one or the other. From their dread of the executive, and affection to their representatives, they have always sided with the legislature. ”

“ The nation, my lords, in the mean time, justly applies for redress to the power of the legislature, and to its wisdom for methods of procuring it by law. The commons have complied with their importunities, and propose to your lordships the bill before you, a bill for making a publick inquiry possible, and for bringing a minister within reach of the law. ”

“ Here are provisions determining the main features of the Government, the distribution of powers in the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial departments, and the manner in which they shall be respectively constituted,—securing to the President, with the consent of the Senate, the appointment of Governor, Secretary, and Judges, and to the people only the election of the Legislature,—and even ordaining the qualifications of voters, the salaries of the public officers, and the daily compensation of the members of the Legislature. ”

“ In a state government, I consider all power flowing immediately from the people in their individual capacity, and that the people, in their individual capacity, have, and ought to have the right of choosing delegates in a state legislature, the business of which is to make laws, regulating their concerns, as individuals, and operating upon them as such ”

“ When the first drafts of the Constitution were made, instead of saying "in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives," they called it "the Legislature." What is a Legislature? A law-making body organized, not a mob, but an organized body to make laws; and so the law-making power of this Union, consisting of these two houses, is brought together. But it seems to me a most unreasonable proposition to withhold from the law-making power of this government the authority to regulate this subject and yet be willing to intrust it to a single hand. ”

“ The regular distribution of power into distinct departments; the introduction of legislative balances and checks; the institution of courts composed of judges holding their offices during good behavior; the representation of the people in the legislature by deputies of their own election: these are wholly new discoveries, or have made their principal progress towards perfection in modern times. They are means, and powerful means, by which the excellences of republican government may be retained and its imperfections lessened or avoided. ”

“ When the action of a Legislature is within the scope of its power, fairly debatable questions as to its reasonableness, wisdom, and propriety are not for the determination of courts, but for the legislative body, on which rests the duty and responsibility of decision. ”

“ As we have found it necessary to give very extensive powers to the federal government both over the persons and estates of the citizens, we thought it right to draw one branch of the legislature immediately from the people, and that both wealth and numbers should be considered in the representation. ”

“ Where the will of the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the courts, designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, are to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their authority. ”

“ Article third, dividing the legislature into two distinct bodies, a House of Representatives and Senate, with a mutual negative in all cases, and to meet on a fixed day — Motion to confine the negative to legislative acts — Disagreed to — Motion to strike out the clauses giving a mutual negative — Agreed to — Motion to add that a different day of meeting may be appointed by law — Agreed to — Motion to give the executive an absolute negative on the legislature — Disagreed to. ”

“ The legislative lion will not be entangled in the meshes of a logical net. The legislature will always make the power which it wishes to exercise, unless it be so organized as to contain within itself the sufficient check. ”

“ The Legislature, under this Constitution, consists of a Governor, a Legislative Council, composed of life members nominated by the Crown, and a House of Representatives elected by the people, under a franchise which practically amounts to household suffrage. ”

“ The authority of the Legislature, says the same author who is quoted by your Excellency, "does not extend so far as the fundamentals of the constitution. They ought to consider the fundamental laws as sacred, if the nation has not in very express terms, given them the power to change them. For the constitution of the state ought to be fixed; and since that was first established by the nation, which afterwards trusted certain persons with the Legislative power, the fundamental laws are excepted from their commission." ”

“ It becomes the duty of the General Government, by which we will suppose the Vice-President to mean the Legislature, to apply to the States for a grant of the disputed power. But what is the Legislature? The Legislature is a complex being, composed of the President and two elective assemblies, comprehending two hundred and eighty-five persons. It is the duty, it seems, of these two hundred and eighty-five persons, in their political capacity, to apply to the States for a grant of new powers. ”

“ First, then, that the Judiciary are a check on the Legislature. In the constitution, we find certain powers delegated to Congress; we also find they are prohibited from exercising certain powers; among which are, they shall pass no ex post facto law, no bill of attainder, no law respecting religion, &c. Should, unhappily, a Legislature be found who, from weakness or wickedness, or the union of both, should transgress the bounds prescribed, what is the security of the citizen? ”

“ The Legislature cannot transfer its essential powers, nor evade them; the exercise of its privileges it may dispense with, but if it may dispense with or transfer any one Legislative power, it may, on the same principle, dispense with or transfer every power with which it is vested, and for the exercise of which the Legislature only are responsible. ”

“ And it is further ordained, that all persons now holding any office of honor, profit, or trust, civil or military, under this State (members of the legislature excepted) , shall, within such time, and in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe, take an oath well and truly to obey, execute, and enforce this ordinance, and such act or acts of the legislature as may be passed in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and meaning of the same ”

“ The national legislature will be the first to perceive, and will be most sensible to, the necessity of amendments; and ought also to be empowered, whenever two-thirds of each branch should concur, to call a convention. ”

“ In order to make them more particularly acquainted with these objects, the democratic branch of the Legislature consisted of a greater number, and were chosen for a shorter period, so that they might revert more frequently to the mass of the People. ”

“ The legislature is the proper guardian of the public faith, and in its action with respect to its own obligations we are bound to assume that it will be guided, not only by its present necessity for revenue, but by consideration of its possible future needs. ”

“ The supreme legislative power of the United States of America to be vested in two distinct bodies of men, the one to be called the Assembly, the other the Senate, who, together, shall form the legislature of the United States, with power to pass all laws whatsoever, subject to the negative hereafter mentioned. ”

“ In creating such an administrative agency, the Legislature, to prevent its being a pure delegation of legislative power, must enjoin upon it a certain course of procedure and certain rules of decision in the performance of its function. ”

“ To the legislature all legislative power is granted, but the question whether the act of transferring the property of an individual to the public is in the nature of a legislative power is well worthy of serious reflection. ”

“ One or two representatives to each legislature would be the utmost that the District could send, and these placed among men of different interests, what could be expected compared to a body such as is prescribed by this bill, drawn from among the people themselves? In these legislatures, the numerous local circumstances which must call for attention in a newly planted and rapidly growing capital, never can receive due attention. ”

“ As the particular representatives of the people are in their public character above the control of the courts of law, they must be subject to the jurisdiction of the House, and as the House, in the exercise of its authority, can be neither directed nor restrained, its own resolutions must be its laws, at least, if there is no antecedent decision of the whole legislature. ”

“ The members of Congress being more numerous than the other departments, do not individually incur a proportionate degree of responsibility. What a Legislature does is done by many, or rather by no one ”

“ That is easier in some cases than in others. But in every case we must respect the role of the Legislature, and take care not to undo what it has done. A fair reading of legislation demands a fair understanding of the legislative plan. ”

“ Says an eminent American author: 'As the power to take is universal, so it is absolute; that is to say, the Legislature are the sole judges of the existence of the exigency which demands the sacrifice of the rights of individuals.' 'I admit,' says Mr. ”

“ Among the earliest acts of the provincial legislature, which were approved, were an act for the prevention of frauds and perjuries, conform able to that of Charles II.; an act for the observance of the Lord’s day; an act for solemnizing marriages by a minister or a justice of the peace; an act for the support of ministers and schoolmasters; an act for regulating towns and counties; and an act for the settlement and distribution of the estates of persons dying intestate. ”

“ By mandate of the people the power to govern will be shared. Control of the Legislature rests with representatives of one party and most of the constitutional officers and executive branch are of the other. ”

“ The legislature are the sole and final judges of the necessity of taking property in this manner; on the ground, that it is their duty, as the representatives of the people, to provide for the public wants. Ibid. ”

“ The law making power of each of these governments resides in a legislature composed of the number of members which may be determined by its separate constituency, all of whom shall be elected by the people and removable at the time and in the manner they may think proper to decree. ”

“ It will readily be comprehended, that a man who had himself the sole disposition of offices, would be governed much more by his private inclinations and interests, than when he was bound to submit the propriety of his choice to the discussion and determination of a different and independent body, and that body an entire branch of the Legislature. ”

“ The first thing a legislature does is to convene in an impressive legislative attitude, and get itself photographed. Each member frames his copy and takes it to the woods and hangs it up in the most aggressively conspicuous place in his house ”

“ That the committee of detail be instructed to receive a clause, requiring certain qualifications of landed property, and citizenship of the United States, in members of the national legislature; and disqualifying persons having unsettled accounts with, or being indebted to, the United States, from being members of the national legislature. ”

“ In effect, to follow, not to force, the public inclination,—to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature. ”

“ THE number of which the House of Representatives is to consist, forms another, and a very interesting point of view, under which this branch of the Fœderal Legislature may be contemplated. ”