Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/178

164 by the ſame electors, at the ſame time, and out of the ſame ſubjects, the choice falls of courſe on men of the ſame deſcription. The purpoſe of eſtabliſhing different houſes of legiſlation is to introduce the influence of different intereſts or different principles. Thus in Great-Britain it is ſaid their conſtitution relies on the houſes of commons for honeſty, and the lords for wiſdom; which would be a rational reliance if honeſty were to be bought with money, and if wiſdom were hereditary. In ſome of the American ſtates the delegates and ſenators are ſo choſen, as that the firſt repreſent the perſons, and the ſecond the property of the ſtate. But with us, wealth and wiſdom have equal chance for admiſſion into both houſes. We do not therefore derive from the ſeparation of our legiſlature into two houſes, thoſe benefits which a proper complication of principles is capable of producing, and thoſe which alone can compenſate the evils which may be produced by their diſſentions.

4. All the powers of government, legiſlative, executive, and judiciary, reſult to the legiſlative body. The concentrating theſe in the ſame hands is preciſely the definition of deſpotic government. It will be no alleviation that theſe powers will be exerciſed by a plurality of hands, and not by a ſingle one: 173 depoſits would ſurely be as oppreſſive as one. Let thoſe who doubt it turn their eyes on the republic of Venice. As little will it avail us that they are choſen by ourſelves. An elective deſpotiſm was not the government we fought for; but one which ſhould not only be founded on free principles, but in which the powers of government ſhould be ſo divided and balanced among ſeveral bodies of majeſtracy, as that no one could