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A Senate of the States: June 1st – June 6th, 1787
Article V Blog ^ | October 12th, 2017 | Rodney Dodsworth

Posted on 10/12/2017 1:25:09 AM PDT by Jacquerie

On the first and second days of June 1787, the Committee of the Whole grappled with the 7th Resolution of the Virginia Plan: "that a national Executive be instituted, to be chosen by the national Legislature-for the term of ------ years &c to be ineligible thereafter, to possess the executive powers of Congress &c." Along the way of debate on the executive, John Dickinson (DE) would segue into the composition of the second house of congress, the infant United States Senate.

The Framers’ starting point was the British monarchy. It could not be otherwise. While a chief executive armed with prerogatives from time out of mind history would never do in a representative federal republic, delegates sought to keep the appropriate powers of British monarchs, and dispose of those powers unsuited in republican government. Should the office consist of, as in Rome, multiple executives? What institution was to elect or appoint the man/men to this office? Was the national executive to simply serve as an administrator, an executor of the laws? Above all, the Framers sought to avoid what may, in time, be the “fetus of a monarchy,” meaning the denial of prerogative powers.

John Dickinson explained how the famous stability of the British government depended in large part on the “attachments which the Crown draws to itself, & not merely from the force of its prerogatives.” By ‘attachments’, Dickinson meant the king’s influence over legislation. Through the king’s power of appointments, he could offer noble titles, and profitable offices to members of Parliament. While recognized as a corruption of separation of powers, and is banned under the US Constitution, the practice promoted a stability in legislation unknown in other European monarchies.

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TOPICS: Government; History; Reference
KEYWORDS: constitution; senate

1 posted on 10/12/2017 1:25:09 AM PDT by Jacquerie
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To: Jacquerie

A few tyrants in positions of authority is all that is required for the gears of government to grind to a halt. Trow de bums out.


2 posted on 10/12/2017 2:14:15 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (Progressivism is 2 year olds in a poop fight.)
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