John Locke Quotes
[Legislators] can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws and place it in the hands of others.
John Locke, 1632-1704, English Political Philosopher, Second Treatise on Government, 1690
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The "administrative state" was the term used for a government had had powers and used them to regulate things and areas of society without each specific regulation being voted upon by the legislature. In America sicne the New Deal there have been so many areas that have regulations that a single agency like the Environmental Protection Agency might issue in a year more regulations than the entire Congress considers in all areas put together. All these regulatory powers are delegated by Congress passing legislation authorizing it, and Congress can legislate any change in any regulation it wants, but the modern state is so complesx and areas so specialzied that Congress has preferred to delegate. There are a few who legal scholars and politicians who believe that it is unconstitutional for the legislature to delegate powers to the executive branch and no regulations have validity unless specifically passed by Comgress. There are some others who have not taken a position on this point but who believe that of an administrative state can regulate phases of citizens lives it is bound to circumscribe personal freedom as all legislation does to some extent. This quotation was used by opponents of Judge Gorsuch in arguing that he was unfit for the Supreme Court as he was out of touch with the Administrative State which America gradually became and rapidly in the New Deal and in the 80 years thereafter a very extensive administrative state. Gorsuch's views were based on classic political pholosophy but there were some ultra conservatives who did not want any regulation of business by Congress or Administrative Agencies and therefore supported Gorsuch and the few others with this view as if Agencies were not able to issue regulations there was no practical way that Congress could issue as many and regulation would be reduced which is what they desired.
Though not very dramatic or succinct, this is a very important quotation in American History. The original drafters of the Constitution concentrated on limiting the powers of the executive—the role of the King. But the Congress had no limits placed on them. In Britain, to this day, the Parliament can do whatever they wish as there is no restraint on them other than their prudence and reasonableness. Madison used the example of the Alien and Sedition Acts—huge infringements on the rights of Americans—to show why the legislative branch must also be more restrained and limited. And that was the logic behind adding the Bill of Rights to our Constitutions.
If the executive can select the legislators, there is really no separation of powers and the checks are only one way—the executive can check the legislature but not the other way around.
President Abraham Lincoln had pocket vetoed his own party's reconstruction bill in the midst of an election year.
John Locke FRS was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon, Locke is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American Revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.
