duties of judicial officers, and the manner of conducting trials in
courts of justice, will be given elsewhere. (Chap. XVII-XX.)

§7. Experience has shown the propriety of dividing the civil power into
these three departments, and of confining the officers of each
department to the powers and duties belonging to the same. Those who
make the laws should not exercise the power of executing them; nor
should they who either make or execute the laws sit in judgment over
those who are brought before them for trial. A government in which the
different powers of making, executing, and applying the laws should be
united in a single body of men, however numerous, would be little better
than an absolute despotism.

§8. Again, the legislative department of the civil power is divided.
Under all our state constitutions, the legislature consists of two
branches, both of which must agree to a proposed measure before it
becomes a law; and in many of the states, it must also be approved by
the governor. This is making the chief executive officer a third branch
of the law-making power; and is not in accordance with the principle of
keeping the several departments of the civil power separate and distinct
from each other. The reason for this departure from the general
principle mentioned, will be stated in another chapter. (Chap. XI. §16.)




Chapter IX.

State Legislatures--how constituted.