Thomas Paine wrote the following regarding a constitution:
A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact.
It has not an ideal, but a real existence; and wherever it cannot be produced in a visible form, there is none.
A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution.
The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people constituting its government.
It is the body of elements, to which you can refer, and quote article by article;
and which contains the principles on which the government shall be established, the manner in which it shall be organised, the powers it shall have, the mode of elections, the duration of Parliaments, or by what other name such bodies may be called;
the powers which the executive part of the government shall have;
and in fine, everything that relates to the complete organisation of a civil government, and the principles on which it shall act, and by which it shall be bound.
A constitution, therefore, is to a government what the laws made afterwards by that government are to a court of judicature.
The court of judicature does not make the laws, neither can it alter them; it only acts in conformity to the laws made: and the government is in like manner governed by the constitution.
It is worth recalling these things from time to time.
A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact.
It has not an ideal, but a real existence; and wherever it cannot be produced in a visible form, there is none.
A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution.
The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people constituting its government.
It is the body of elements, to which you can refer, and quote article by article;
and which contains the principles on which the government shall be established, the manner in which it shall be organised, the powers it shall have, the mode of elections, the duration of Parliaments, or by what other name such bodies may be called;
the powers which the executive part of the government shall have;
and in fine, everything that relates to the complete organisation of a civil government, and the principles on which it shall act, and by which it shall be bound.
A constitution, therefore, is to a government what the laws made afterwards by that government are to a court of judicature.
The court of judicature does not make the laws, neither can it alter them; it only acts in conformity to the laws made: and the government is in like manner governed by the constitution.
It is worth recalling these things from time to time.
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