William Rawle Quotes
The legislative body possesses with us a great advantage over that of those countries where it may be adjourned or dissolved at the pleasure of the executive authority. It is self-moving and self-dependent. Although it may be convened by the executive, it cannot be adjourned or dissolved by it.
The founding fathers, were well aware of one very ugly aspect of England’s parliamentary system. The King or Queen who does not care for legislation that was being debated, would, if they thought the offensive legislation would pass, would simply dissolve Parliament. The Constitution was written so that this can never happen.
William Rawle, 1759–1836, Attorney & Constitutional Scholar, A View of the Constitution of the United States, 1825
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In 1628 Parliament, in response to abuses by King Charles I, was about to pass The Petition of Rights–-a type of Bill of Rights. The King gave assurances that the practices—such as forcing nobles to lend him money—would not continue and didn't want to be embarrassed by passage of a law which he claimed would indicate that the Parliament did not trust him and weaken the dignity of the monarchy. The Petition of Rights passed with Cole’s leadership.
This constitution was written 7 years before the national constitutional convention. It shows that there was concern about the separation of powers in United States even before the Constitution was drafted. See {616750} for an even clearer statement of the separation of powers principle.
At the time there was no concept of serious separation of powers. For all practical purposes, the King ruled and he shared some of his powers with the Parliament. The next centuries in England would see the great battle for governmental power between the monarch and the Parliament. Today, the British monarch has no power but still retains a great deal of influence in England but largely because Queen Elisabeth is so well loved and respected.
If a party controls one of the two houses of Congress, they can block any legislation. But governing involves passing legislation, and in our bi-cameral Congress, control of one house is not sufficient to pass legislation.
Ironically three decades later Wilson got tangled up with Congress over the League of Nations. He had forgotten what he had written about how Congress having supremacy over the Presidency.
William Rawle was an American lawyer in Philadelphia, who in 1791 was appointed as United States district attorney in Pennsylvania. He was a founder and first president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and for 40 years a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.
