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two brief selections from that document, because it seems
to me this puts at rest once and for all this question
of the necessity for checks and balances within a single
branch of government. Hamilton wrote: It is evident
from these considerations that the plurality of the Execu-
tive tends to deprive the people of the two greatest
securities they can have for the faithful exercise of
any delegated power. First, the restraints of public
opinion, and secondly, the opportunity of discovering with
facility and clearness the misconduct of the persons they
trust.
If you have clear line of authority, if you
have frequent opportunities to call those people to ac-
count, then you have true democratic government.
Finally, Hamilton says: The executive power
is more easily confined when it is won; that it is far more
safe, there should be a single object for the jealousy
and watchfulness of the people and in a word, that all mul
Pl??. of the Executive is rather dangerous than
friendly to liberty."
I urge this Convention to consider carefully the