that way, namely, by silent approaches and slight deviations from
legal modes of procedure. This can only be obviated by adhering to the
rule that constitutional provisions for the security of person and
property should be liberally construed. A close and literal
construction deprives them of half their efficacy and leads to gradual
depreciation of the right as if it consisted more in sound than in
substance. It is the duty of courts to be watchful for the
constitutional rights of the citizen and against any stealthy
encroachments thereon. Their motto should be _obsta principiis_."

A review of the cases in which the courts have been called upon to
decide whether a statute breaks over the constitutional limitation
will demonstrate to any dispassionate person that upon questions of
expediency, of the general welfare, or even of justice, the judges
rarely if ever oppose their opinion to that of the legislators. The
courts do not obstruct the current of progress; they only keep it from
overflowing its banks to the devastation of the constitutional rights
of the people.

CHAPTER IX

THE NECESSITY OF MAINTAINING UNDIMINISHED THE CONSTITUTIONAL
LIMITATIONS AND THE POWER OF THE COURTS TO ENFORCE THEM.--CONCLUSION

Despite the lessons of history showing the need of specified
limitations upon the legislative power to ensure personal liberty and
justice, it is still urged by the impatient that this check upon
legislative action should be removed, or at least that the legislature
should itself be the judge of the constitutionality of its acts, and
that the legislatures as the representatives of the people may be
trusted to observe constitutional requirements and limitations. From
the beginning, however, the people of this country have not fully
trusted their legislatures. They have not only set bounds to
legislative power, but within those bounds they have imposed in most
instances the check of an executive veto. They have also complained of
their legislatures far more loudly than they have of their courts, and
latterly have subjected them to the initiative and referendum and in
some instances to the recall.

Perhaps the judgment of those urging that the legislature should be
trusted not to trespass on the constitutional rights of the people may
be enlightened by recalling some instances of legislative action upon
constitutional questions left to its decision by the constitution
itself. It is hardly necessary to ci