The Founding Fathers clearly intended for the legislative branch of government to be predominant. James Madison in Federalist Paper 51 expressed this when he wrote, "But it is not possible to give to each department an equal power of self defense. In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates" (Madison, 1961). The Constitution reflected this sentiment by assigning a wide range of formal legislative powers to the Congress. In Article 1, Section 8, Congress is given the power to collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce, establish rules governing naturalization, coin currency, establish post offices, secure patents, create courts, raise and support armed forces, declare war, and "make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof." In addition to these positive legislative powers, Congress is also assigned negative powers, such as the power of confirmation over executive appointments and impeachment, which allow it to check the power of the president.
James Madison, in Federalist Paper 51, spoke for both the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists when he wrote, "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuse of government. But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." (Madison, 1961)
Nothing may be more American than distrust of government, but in his book, A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government, Garry Wills says there is something deeply wrong with this tradition.........
