A constitutional government will always be a weak government when compared to an arbitrary one. There will be many desirable things, as well as undesirable, which are easy for a despotism but impossible elsewhere. Constitutionalism suffers from the defects inherent in its own merits. Because it cannot do some evil, it is precluded from doing some good. Shall we, then, forgo the good to prevent the evil, or shall we submit to the evil to secure the good? This is the fundamental practical question of all constitutionalism.
- Charles Howard McIllwain, Constitutionalism Ancient and Modern (1940)
Written more than eight decades ago, accurately reflecting the choices made at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and the same question that confronts us today.
Charles McIllwain (1871-1968) was professor of history and government at Harvard from 1911 to 1946.
Elihu Root considered the same question in his lectures at Princeton in 1913; see Elihu Root and 21st Century America.
The issues may change over time but the question remains unchanged.
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