cry aloud for an immediate dissolution of all connexion with them as the
only rock of our salvation? Yes, the vital importance of a declaration of
Independence is as clearly indicated by them as if it were "written in
sunbeams on the face of heaven."

* * * * *


No. III.

ANALYSIS OF THE MEXICAN FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF 1824.


It has been wisely remarked by that great illustrator of the machinery
of governments, (Montesquieu) that there can be no liberty where the
legislative, executive, and judicial powers, or any two of them, are united
in the same person or body of persons. See Spirit of Laws, in reference to
the English Constitution. If any corroboration of this high authority is
needed, I will refer to Mr. Jefferson, and the writers of that invaluable
text book, the Federalist. Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, page
195, says the concentration of legislative, executive and judicial powers
in the same hands, is precisely the definition of despotism. And in the
Federalist, page 261, it is said, "the accumulation of these powers in
the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary,
self-appointed, or elective, is the very definition of tyranny." In the
same great work it is clearly demonstrated, that if each department is
not so fortified in its powers as to prevent infringement by the others,
the constitution which creates them all will be worth no more than the
parchment upon which it is written. So important was it deemed by all the
states of the Union to keep these departments distinct, and in different