from any effective party
control as in the case of the Supreme Court. The division of authority
under our Constitution makes it possible for either house of Congress to
give the appearance of support to a measure which public opinion demands
and at the same time really accomplish its defeat by simply not
providing the means essential to its enforcement. The opportunity thus
afforded for the exercise of a covert but effective veto on important
legislation is a fruitful source of corruption. The extreme diffusion
of power and responsibility is such as to make any effective party
control and responsibility impossible. This would be the case even if
the party were truly representative of public opinion. But when we
consider that the party is organized on a plan which in some measure at
least defeats both the popular choice of candidates and the expression
of public opinion in party platforms, it is readily seen that the slight
degree of party control permitted under our system is in no true sense a
popular control.

CHAPTER IX

CHANGES IN THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS AFTER 1787

The effects of the conservative reaction were not confined to the
general government. The movement to limit the power of the popular
majority was felt in the domain of state as well as national politics.
Even before the Constitutional Convention assembled the political
reaction was modifying some of the state constitutions. This is seen
especially in the tendency to enlarge the powers of the judiciary which
was the only branch of the state government in which life tenure
survived. This tendency received powerful encouragement and support in
the adoption of the Federal Constitution which secured to the judiciary
of the general government an absolute veto on both federal and state
legislation. For as the state courts were not slow in following the
precedent set by the Federal courts, what had been before the adoption
of the Constitution a mere tendency soon became the practice in all the
states. This in reality accomplished a revolution in the actual working
of the state governments without any corresponding change in their
outward form. It effected a redistribution of political powers which
greatly diminished the influence of the popularly elected and more
responsible branches of the state government and gave a controlling
influence to that branch over which the people had least control.

Not only was the state judiciary allowed to assume the