Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/81

 CH. IX.] felt, that legislation, to be wise or sate, must be slow and cautious; that knowledge, as well as power, was indispensable for the true government of her provinces.

§ 591. Again; the local position of a nation in regard to other nations may require very different courses of legislation, and very different intervals of elections, from what would be dictated by a sense of its own interest and convenience under other circumstances. If it is surrounded by powerful and warlike neighbours, its own government must be invested with proportionately prompt means to act, and to legislate, in order to repel aggressions, and secure its own rights. Frequent changes in the public councils might not only leave it exposed to the hazard of having no efficient body in existence to act upon any sudden emergency, but also, by the fluctuations of opinion, necessarily growing out of these changes, introduce imbecility, irresolution, and the want of due information into those councils. Men, to act with vigour and effect, must have time to mature measures, and judgment and experience, as to the best method of applying them. They must not be hurried on to their conclusions by the passions, or the fears of the multitude. They must deliberate, as well as resolve. If the power drops from their hands before they have an opportunity to carry any system into full effect, or even to put it on its trial, it is impossible, that foreign nations should not be able, by intrigues, by false alarms, and by corrupt influences, to defeat the wisest measures of the best patriots.

§ 592. One other consideration of a general nature deserves attention. It is, that while, on the one hand, constantly recurring elections afford a great security to public liberty, they are not, on the other hand, without some dangers and inconveniences of a formidable 10