Debates in the Several State Conventions/Volume 4/Petition of Matthew Lyon
The Petition of Matthew Lyon.
Senate, March, 1821.
Mr. SMITH, (of South Carolina.) The Constitution of the United States is not the production of Congress; it is not the property of Congress. It is the production of the people, and the property of the people. It is their shield against the abuse of powers, as well as against the usurpation of powers, both by Congress and the judges. Your powers are limited. All legislative powers are granted to Congress, and all judicial powers are granted to the judges. You have, therefore, the power to enact laws, but no power to sit in judgment upon those laws. It is expressly and exclusively given to the judges to construe the laws, and to decide upon their constitutionality. The judges are an independent and coördinate branch of the government, deriving their authority from the Constitution, and not from Congress. They are accountable to the sovereign people; and if guilty of malpractice in administering the laws, they can and ought to be impeached; and you are the tribunal before which they are to answer, but there your powers cease. You have powers to punish judges for corruption, but none to revise or correct their decisions.
Mr. S. added, within three years after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, Mr. President Madison, in debate upon a proposition to incorporate the former Bank of the United States, opposed it, on the ground of its being unconstitutional. He said,—
"In making these remarks on the merits of the bill, he had reserved to himself the right to deny the authority of Congress to pass it. He had entertained this opinion from the date of the Constitution. His impression might, perhaps, be the stronger, because he well recollected that a power to grant charters to incorporations had been proposed in the General Convention, and rejected."
But when a bill to incorporate the present United States' Bank was submitted for his approval, and when he could have put it down forever, he found means to get over all his constitutional scruples, and approved the act.