enemy: and can we, I would ask, silently permit the lawless exercise of power at home when we have pledged our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honors, to repel it from abroad. The power of the Executive lo dissolve or adjourn the General Council at pleasure, without their consent, or to refuse lo correspond with them, is no where given; if it exists, it must be clearly and expressly defined, and not left lo implication or construction. Fortunately, this very important question, which has so direct a bearing on the very existence of the General Council, as a deliberative body, is susceptible of the most certain and unquestionable solution. Under our system, all who exercise powers are bound to show, when questioned, by what authority it- is exercised. I deny the right of the Executive to question the proceedings of the General Council; ulterly deny it, and challenge the advocates and support of the doctrine to exhibit his authority, to point out the article, the section, and the clause of the Constitution of Mexico of 1824, or the organic law, which contains it: to show, in a word, the express grant of the power. None other can fulfil the requirements of our Constitution and laws. I hold it an important and interesting truth, as an undeniable axiom, and not heretofore sufficiently understood, that the Governor has no right to exercise any implied or constructive power. He is the creation of the Constitution and the organic law, and derives all his authority from that source; and whatever power is not expressly granted, is reserved to the people. The assumption of power contained in the message, to dissolve the Council without, and contrary to, their expressed will, and questioning their proceedings and their motives, as corrupt, together with the opprobrious epithets freely applied to the members, is, in my opinion, an outrage upon the feelings of the members, and a dangerous invasion of the independence, the privileges, the rights, and powers of the General Council acknowledged by our laws, which the Executive is solemnly sworn lo obey, himself, and see the same executed. Neither the Executive, nor, I may add, any other department, can exercise powers not expressly granted by the Constitution, or by authority of law. An enduring monument of praise is the proud reward of the wisdom that devised the plan, and no less to the patriotic statesmen who carried it into successful execution. By it, ours is emphatically a constitutional,
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