Constitutional history -- United States -- Sources; Constitutional law -- United States
respectable and received opinions on the subject, the members of the
judiciary department are to retain their offices by the firm tenure of
good behavior.
On comparing the Constitution planned by the convention with the
standard here fixed, we perceive at once that it is, in the most rigid
sense, conformable to it. The House of Representatives, like that of one
branch at least of all the State legislatures, is elected immediately by
the great body of the people. The Senate, like the present Congress,
and the Senate of Maryland, derives its appointment indirectly from
the people. The President is indirectly derived from the choice of the
people, according to the example in most of the States. Even the judges,
with all other officers of the Union, will, as in the several States,
be the choice, though a remote choice, of the people themselves, the
duration of the appointments is equally conformable to the republican
standard, and to the model of State constitutions The House of
Representatives is periodically elective, as in all the States; and for
the period of two years, as in the State of South Carolina. The Senate
is elective, for the period of six years; which is but one year more
than the period of the Senate of Maryland, and but two more than that
of the Senates of New York and Virginia. The President is to continue
in office for the period of four years; as in New York and Delaware, the
chief magistrate is elected for three years, and in South Carolina for
two years. In the other States the election is annual. In several of the
States, however, no constitutional provision is made for the impeachment
of the chief magistrate. And in Delaware and Virginia he is not
impeachable till out of office. The President of the United States is
impeachable at any time during his continuance in office. The tenure
by which the judges are to hold their places, is, as it unquestionably
ought to be, that of good behavior. The tenure of the ministerial
offices generally, will be a subject of legal regulation, conformably to
the reason of the case and the example of the State constitutions.
Could any further proof be required of the republican complexion of this
system, the most decisive one might be found in its absolute prohibition
of titles of nobility, both under the federal and the State governments;
and in its express guaranty of the republican form to each of the
latter.
"But it was not sufficient," say the adversaries of the proposed
Constitution, "for the convention to adhere to the republican form.
They ought, with equal care, to have preserved the FEDERAL form, which
regards the Union as a CONFEDERACY of sovereign states; instead of
which, they have framed a NATIONAL government, which regards the Union
as a CONSOLIDATION of the States." And it is asked by what authority
this bold and radical innovation was undertaken? The handle which has
been made of this objection requires that it should be examined with
some precision.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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