Book Description

Excerpt from The Relation of the Executive, Power to Legislation The framers of the Constitution of the United States and of the contemporary state constitutions firmly believed that the preservation of liberty required a careful separation and delimitation of powers between the three great branches or departments of government, and made provision accordingly. In one respect, at least, their expectations have been frustrated and their plans have gone awry. For a survey of the course of our political history and of the development of political forces and methods shows that, as between the executive authority and the legislative power, the balance originally intended to be maintained has, both in the Union and the states, been very gravely disturbed. The President of the United States has grown into a position of overmastering influence over the legislative department of the government. He presents and procures the enactment of such measures as he desires, and prevents the passage of those which he disapproves. Congress is subservient to his will; its independence is in eclipse. On the other hand, many of the state governments are working ineffectively, and the states are losing their rightful jurisdiction and influence in our federated government, chiefly because they have stripped their governors of much of the authority which their responsibility to public and political opinion properly demands. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.