hands, that it has been specially provided for in all their constitutions.
See the constitutions of the different States. And yet in the face of all
this wisdom and experience, and contrary to every thing that is republican
in its nature, the framers of the Mexican constitution have reserved to
Congress the sole power of construing the constitutionality of its acts.
This, it will be readily seen, is an entire nullification of the judiciary
in all constitutional matters, and leaves the rights of the people and the
constitution itself without any other security than what is to be found
in the virtue, patriotism and intelligence of Congress. What slender
reliances, where the liberties and happiness of a nation are concerned! If
in the United States Congress should transcend its powers in the passage
of a law, the courts would declare it null and void, and bring back
Congress to a constitutional discharge of its duties. But if the same
thing were attempted in Mexico, Congress would re-enact the law, declare
it constitutional, and imprison the judge for his presumption. It appears
then, that the Mexican constitution of 1824 contains within itself the
seeds of its own destruction,--for the accumulation of legislative and
judicial powers in Congress, and the enabling of that body to violate the
constitution at will, renders it of no more avail than "a sounding brass
or tinkling cymbal." It will be no alleviation, says Mr. Jefferson, in his
work above quoted, page 195, that in the case of Congress unlimited powers
are vested in a plurality of hands. One hundred or two hundred despots are
surely as oppressive as one. Let those who doubt it turn their eyes on the
republic of Venice. In the next place I will show, that independent of this
objection, the Mexican constitution contains principles and provisions 500
years behind the liberalized views of the present age, and at war with
every thing that is akin to civil or religious liberty. In that instrument
the powers of government, instead of being divided as they are in the
United States, and other civilized countries, into legislative, executive
and judicial, are divided into military, ecclesiastical and civil,