warning, it should consume.

"It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free
country should inspire caution in those intrusted with its
administration, to confine themselves within their respective
constitutional spheres, avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of
one department, to encroach upon another. The spirit of
encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments
in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a
real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and
proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is
sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The
necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power,
by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and
constituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal against invasions
of the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern:
some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve
them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion
of the people, the distribution or modification of the
constitutional powers be, in any particular, wrong, let it be
corrected by an amendment in the way, which the constitution
designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though
this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the
customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The
precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any
partial or transient benefit, which the use can, at any time,
yield.

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political
prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In
vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should
labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these
firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere
Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to
cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with
private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of
religious obligation _desert_ the oaths, which are the instruments
of investigation in Courts of Justice; and let us with caution
indulge the supp