the executive and senate can destroy the
independence of the majority in the house of representatives, then where
is your security? They are so intimately connected, that their interests
will be one and the same; and will the slow increase of numbers be able to
afford a repelling principle? But you are told to adopt this government
first, and you will always be able to alter it afterwards; this would
first be submitting to be slaves and then taking care of your liberty; and
when your chains are on, then to act like freemen.

Complete acts of legislation, which are to become the supreme law of the
land, ought to be the united act of all the branches of government; but
there is one of the most important duties may be managed by the Senate and
executive alone, and to have all the force of the law paramount without
the aid or interference of the House of Representatives; that is the power
of making treaties. This power is a very important one, and may be
exercised in various ways, so as to affect your person and property, and
even the domain of the nation. By treaties you may defalcate part of the
empire; engagements may be made to raise an army, and you may be
transported to Europe, to fight the wars of ambitious princes; money may
be contracted for, and you must pay it; and a thousand other obligations
may be entered into; all which will become the supreme law of the land,
and you are bound by it. If treaties are erroneously or wickedly made who
is there to punish,--the executive can always cover himself with the plea
that he was advised by the senate, and the senate being a collective body
are not easily made accountable for mal-administration. On this account we
are in a worse situation than Great Britain, where they have secured by a
ridiculous fiction, the king from accountability, by declaring that he can
do no wrong, by which means the nation can have redress against his
minister; but with us infallibility pervades every part of the system, and
neither the executive nor his council, who are a collective body, and his
advisers, can be brought to punishment for mal-administration.

CATO.

Cato, VII.

The New York Journal, (Number 2181)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1788.

For the New York Journal, &c.

TO THE CITIZENS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

That the president and senate are further improperly connected will
appear, if it is considered that their dependence on each other will
prevent either from being a ch