RECORDS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION Z99 IFedn?sday MADISON ..tuguat Mr. Govr. Morris regretted that something like the pro- posed check could not be agreed to. He dwelt on the im- portance of public Credit, and the difficulty of supporting it without some strong barrier against the instability of legis- lative Assemblies. I-Ie suggested the idea of requiring three fourths of each house to repeal laws where the President should not concur. He had no great reliance on the revisionary power as the Executive was now to be constituted (elected by the Congress). The legislature will contrive to soften ddwn the President. He recited the history of paper emissions, and the perseverance of the legislative assemblies in repeating them, with all the distressing effects (of such measures) before their eyes. Were the National legislature �ormed, and a war was now to break out, this ruinous expedient would be again resorted to, if not guarded against. The requiring ? to repeal would, though not a compleat remedy, prevent the hasty passage of laws, and the frequency of those repeals which destroy faith in the public, and which are among our greatest calamities. -- Mr Dickenson was strongly impressed with the remark of Mr. Mercer as to the power of the 3udges to set aside the law. He thought no such power ought to exist. He was at the same time at a loss what expedient to substitute. The Justiciar� of Aragon he observed became by degrees the law- giver. Mr. Govr. Morris, suggested the expedient of an absolute negative in the Executive. I-Ie could not agree that the Judiciary which was part of the Executive, should be bound to say that a direct violation of the Constitution was law. A controul over the legislature might have its inconveniences. But view the danger on the other side. The most virtuous citizens will often as members of a legislative body concur in measures which afterwards in their private capacity they will be ashamed of. Encroachments of the popular branch of the Government ought to be guarded agst. The Ephori at Sparta became in the end absolute. The Report of the Council of Censors in Pennsylva points out the many invasions of the legislative department on the Executive numerous as the
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