Government of power not granted by the people, but by the accumulation
in one of the departments of that which was assigned to others. Limited
as are the powers which have been granted, still enough have been
granted to constitute a despotism if concentrated in one of the
departments. This danger is greatly heightened, as it has been always
observable that men are less jealous of encroachments of one department
upon another than upon their own reserved rights. When the Constitution
of the United States first came from the hands of the Convention which
formed it, many of the sternest republicans of the day were alarmed at
the extent of the power which had been granted to the Federal
Government, and more particularly of that portion which had been
assigned to the executive branch. There were in it features which
appeared not to be in harmony with their ideas of a simple
representative democracy or republic, and knowing the tendency of power
to increase itself, particularly when exercised by a single individual,
predictions were made that at no very remote period the Government
would terminate in virtual monarchy. It would not become me to say that
the fears of these patriots have been already realized; but as I
sincerely believe that the tendency of measures and of men's opinions
for some years past has been in that direction, it is, I conceive,
strictly proper that I should take this occasion to repeat the
assurances I have heretofore given of my determination to arrest the
progress of that tendency if it really exists and restore the
Government to its pristine health and vigor, as far as this can be
effected by any legitimate exercise of the power placed in my hands.

I proceed to state in as summary a manner as I can my opinion of the
sources of the evils which have been so extensively complained of and
the correctives which may be applied. Some of the former are
unquestionably to be found in the defects of the Constitution; others,