Monday, April 21, 2008

In Support of the Unitary Presidency?

I get a quote from the founding fathers sent to my e-mail every day from Patriot Post. This morning's quote seems to support the claims of George W. Bush to the unitary presidency.

"My construction of the constitution is very different from that
you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of the
others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the
meaning of the constitution in the cases submitted to its action;
and especially, where it is to act ultimately and without appeal."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Samuel Adams Wells, 12 May 1819)

John Marshall stomped all over this idea in Marbury v. Madison. But it's always interesting to read what the founding fathers thought government should be like.