Page:Federalist, Dawson edition, 1863.djvu/660

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516
The Fœderalist.

might by degrees be cemented between the Executive and Judiciary departments. It is impossible to keep the Judges too distinct from every other avocation than that of expounding the laws. It is peculiarly dangerous to place them in a situation to be either corrupted or influenced by the Executive.

PUBLIUS.


[From the New York Packet, Tuesday, March 25, 1788.]


THE FŒDERALIST. No. LXXIII.



To the People of the State of New York:

THE President of the United States is to be "Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States." The propriety of this provision is so evident in itself, and it is, at the same time, so consonant to the precedents of the State Constitutions in general, that little need be said to explain or enforce it. Even those of them which have, in other respects, coupled the Chief Magistrate with a Council, have for the most part concentrated the military authority in him alone. Of all the cares or concerns of Government, the direction of war most peculiarly demands those qualities which distinguish the exercise of power by a single hand. The direction of war, implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength, forms a usual and essential part in the definition of the Executive authority.

"The President may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the Executive de-