§  182.  Among  these  three  departments  there  will  always
be  a  tendency  in  each  to  encroach  upon  the  special  province
of  the  others,  or  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of  its  own  governmental
action.  The  Constitution  endeavors  to  draw  the  lines  of  de-
marcation between  them  ;  they  are  placed  as  checks  upon  each
other ;  the  whole  system  was  carefully  planned  so  as,  if  pos-
sible, to  prevent  any  and  all  acts  of  usurpation,  by  making  one
department  necessary  to  the  others.  But  the  organic  law
must,  of  necessity,  use  general  terms  ;  it  cannot  descend  to
any  minuteness  of  detail  without  becoming  a  code  of  special
precepts  rather  than  a  guide  to  the  government  in  its  work  of
legislation.  The  checks  and  counterpoises  of  the  Constitu-
tion, are  also,  in  a  great  measure,  moral ;  the  sanctions  are
slow  in  their  operation,  and  may  never  be  put  in  motion.  Ad-
mirable, therefore,  as  is  the  system,  it  cannot  entirely  prevent
those  results  which  naturally  flow  from  the  possession  of  power ;
each  department  will  strive  to  increase  the  scope  of  its  own
functions,  even  at  the  expense  of  the  others.
§  183.  In  this  inevitable  struggle  the  popular  branch  —  the
legislature  —  will  always  obtain  and  hold  the  ascendant.  The
superiority  which  thus  belongs  to  Congress  results  from  two
causes,  —  the  greater  power  of  that  body,  and  its  greater  incli-
nation to  use  that  power.  It  is  in  itself  plainly  the  most  power-
fill  in  that  the  function  of  creating  law  is  higher,  and  more

1  Const.  Art  H.  Sec.  I.  §  3.
