Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/369

 CH. XXXVII.] their ruin, and endanger, or destroy their liberties. Without supposing a case of utter indifference, or utter corruption in the people, it would be impossible, that the senate should be so constituted at any time, as that the honour and interests of the country would not be safe in their hands. When such an indifference, or corruption shall have arrived, it will be in vain to prescribe any remedy; for the constitution will have crumbled into ruins, or have become a mere shadow, about which it would be absurd to disquiet ourselves.

§ 1508. Although the propriety of this delegation of the power seems, upon sound reasoning, to be incontestable; yet few parts of the constitution were assailed with more vehemence. One ground of objection was, the trite topic of an intermixture of the executive and legislative powers; some contending, that the president ought alone to possess the prerogative of making treaties; and others, that it ought to be exclusively deposited in the senate. Another objection was, the smallness of the number of the persons, to whom the power was confided; some being of opinion, that the house of representatives ought to be associated in its exercise; and others, that two thirds of all the members of the senate, and not two thirds of all the members present, should be required to ratify a treaty.

§ 1509. In relation to the objection, that the power ought to have been confided exclusively to the president, it may be suggested in addition to the preceding remarks, that, however safe it may be in governments, where the executive magistrate is an hereditary monarch, to commit to him the entire power of making 46