Quote 1: "By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."
Quote 2: "No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time; yet what are many of the most important acts of legislation, but so many judicial determinations, not indeed concerning the rights of single persons, but concerning the rights of large bodies of citizens? And what are the different classes of legislators but advocates and parties to the causes which they determine? Is a law proposed concerning private debts? It is a question to which the creditors are parties on one side and the debtors on the other. Justice ought to hold the balance between them. Yet the parties are, and must be, themselves the judges; and the most numerous party, or, in other words, the most powerful faction must be expected to prevail."
Response: As represented by these quotes, the new system of government in America was successful because the American citizens are united behind a common cause. Not only were they united behind the American Revolution, but they're behind the common interest of individual rights for each citizen and their country as a whole. Additionally, the American government realized certain issued that had to be determined for success as a nation, such as establishing a difference between judges and parties, legislators and advocates, and these determinations help with the order and beginning stages of the American government.
Federalist Essay No. 51:
Quote 1: In order to lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of liberty, it is evident that each department should have a will of its own; and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others.
Quote 2: But it is not possible to give to each department an equal power of self-defense. In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit. It may even be necessary to guard against dangerous encroachments by still further precautions. As the weight of the legislative authority requires that it should be thus divided, the weakness of the executive may require, on the other hand, that it should be fortified.
Response:: In the 1st quote, the American government is displayed as the beginning of separation of powers. The essay lays out the fact that there should be different powers of government, each with different roles, and that they should not remain connected in how each is appointed. The 2nd quote details the system of checks and balances, in which it says that since things need to be balanced, and each branch has different powers starting off, the checks have to be in varying defense levels. For example in legislation it is split into 2 houses with different connections, and is thus divided. On the other hand, the executive branch has to be fortified to keep it balanced.
I like how you talked about how segregation of powers goes past the three branches of government and how you actually see checks and balances within the legislative branch alone, with Congress an the House of Representatives.
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