Essays on the Constitution of the United States: Published during its Discussion by the People, 1787-1788
History
Essays on the Constitution of the United States: Published during its Discussion by the People, 1787-1788
Constitutional history -- United States -- Sources; United States. Constitution
The ninth provides “that the assembly shall be the judge of their own
members, and enjoy the same privileges, and proceed in doing business in
like manner as the assembly of the colony of New York of right formerly
did.”
The twelfth paragraph provides “that the senate shall, in like manner, be
judges of their own members,” etc.
The 31st describes even the stile of laws—that the stile of all laws shall
be as follows: “Be it enacted by the people of the state of New York
represented in senate and assembly,” and that all writs and proceedings
shall run in the name of the people of the state of New York, and tested
in the name of the chancellor or the chief judge from whence they shall
issue.
The third provides against laws that may be hastily and inadvertently
passed, inconsistent with the spirit of the constitution and the public
good, and that “the governor, the chancellor and judges of the supreme
court, shall revise all bills about to be passed into laws, by the
legislature.”
The powers vested in the legislature of this state by these paragraphs
will be weakened, for the proposed new government declares that “all
legislative powers therein granted shall be vested in a congress of the
United States, which shall consist of a senate and a house of
representatives,” and it further prescribes, that “this constitution and
the laws of the United States, which shall be made in pursuance thereof;
and all treaties made, or which shall be made under the authority of the
United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in
every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws
of any state to the contrary notwithstanding; and the members of the
several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both
of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or
affirmation to support this constitution.”
Those who are full of faith, suppose that the words in pursuance thereof
are restrictive, but if they reflect a moment and take into consideration
the comprehensive expressions of the instrument, they will find that their
restrictive construction is unavailing, and this is evinced by 1st art., 8
sect., where this government has a power “to lay and collect all taxes,
duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common
defence and general welfare of the United States,” and also “to make all
laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the
foregoing powers vested by this constitution in the government of the
United States, or in any department or office thereof.”
Art. 1st, sect. 7, provides a qualified negative, that is, that “every
bill which shall be passed [by] the house of representatives and the
senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the president of
the United States.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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