Chapter Xiv Summary

In the preamble to the Federal Constitution we read that the Fathers ordained and established it “in order ... to establish justice ... promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.”

They believed that in order to accomplish these objects a government of “checks and balances” would be most likely to succeed and to survive. Consequently, they attempted to have the executive branch and the legislative branch and the judicial branch each distinct and yet each acting as a balance for the others. We have seen how the President checks Congress with the veto power, and how the Senate checks the President through the requirements of its approval for treaties and executive appointments. What the men who framed the Constitution probably did not foresee was the development by which the Supreme Court finally became the supreme check over both the President and Congress.

At present then, as we have seen, the three branches function lustily and vigorously, each to some extent doing for the others what was originally expected. But under the tremendous changes that time has wrought, each has also become vastly more powerful than the originators of this scheme of government ever dreamed.

However, executive branch, legislative branch, judiciary--they all serve, perhaps as well as any human machinery at present can in the United States to fulfill the purposes named in the preamble to the Constitution.

We have examined the ways in which the work of the government is done. We have watched the two Houses of Congress making laws, we have seen the President at his desk, we have seen the various executive departments and their bureaus operating to promote the general welfare, and we have seen the courts rendering justice.

It is not our task here to criticise and to evaluate. Shortcomings are apparent; and that there is room for improvement both from a material and from a human standpoint, there can be no doubt.

But when all is said and done, this outline rather shows after all that the government of the United States does work with fair efficiency. It is probably much better than its founders dared to hope and as good as those of us who are living today deserve.

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Punctuation has been made consistent.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have been corrected.