Yet rarely have any such guards been applied,
and every attempt to introduce them has been resisted with a pertinacity
which demonstrates how slow popular leaders are to introduce checks upon
their own power and how slow the people are to believe that the
judiciary is the real bulwark of their liberties. * * *
* * * * *
* * * If any department of the Government has undue influence or
absorbing power, it certainly has not been the executive or judiciary.
In addition to what has been said by these distinguished writers,
it may also be urged that the dominant party in each House may, by the
expulsion of a sufficient number of members or by the exclusion from
representation of a requisite number of States, reduce the minority to
less than one-third. Congress by these means might be enabled to pass a
law, the objections of the President to the contrary notwithstanding,
which would render impotent the other two departments of the Government
and make inoperative the wholesome and restraining power which it was
intended by the framers of the Constitution should be exerted by them.
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