Page:Works of John C. Calhoun, v1.djvu/251

 from which it was apprehended, and from which only it could possibly come. It would not be philosophical; because it would be against universal analogy. All organic action, as far as our knowledge extends — whether it appertain to the material or political world, or be of human or divine mechanism — is the result of the reciprocal action and reaction of the parts of which it consists. It is this which confines the parts to their appropriate spheres, and compels them to perform their proper functions. Indeed, it would seem impossible to produce organic action by a single power — and that it must ever be the result of two or more powers, mutually acting and reacting on each other. And hence the political axiom — that there can be no constitution, without a division of power, and no liberty without a constitution. To this a kindred axiom may be added — that there can be no division of power, without a self-protecting power in each of the parts into which it may be divided; or in a superior power to protect each against the others. Without a division of power there can be no organism; and without the power of self-protection, or a superior power to restrict each to its appropriate sphere, the stronger will absorb the weaker, and concentrate all power in itself.

The members, then, of the convention, which framed the constitution, and those who took an active part in the question of its adoption, were not wrong in looking to this reciprocal action and reaction, between the delegated and the reserved powers — between the government of the United