But I do not think the rule at all applicable to the executive
power. I clearly concur in opinion, in this particular, with a writer
whom the celebrated Junius pronounces to be "deep, solid, and
ingenious," that "the executive power is more easily confined when it is
ONE";[2] that it is far more safe there should be a single object for
the jealousy and watchfulness of the people; and, in a word, that all
multiplication of the Executive is rather dangerous than friendly to
liberty.
A little consideration will satisfy us, that the species of security
sought for in the multiplication of the Executive, is nattainable.
Numbers must be so great as to render combination difficult, or they are
rather a source of danger than of security. The united credit and
influence of several individuals must be more formidable to liberty,
than the credit and influence of either of them separately. When power,
therefore, is placed in the hands of so small a number of men, as to
admit of their interests and views being easily combined in a common
enterprise, by an artful leader, it becomes more liable to abuse, and
more dangerous when abused, than if it be lodged in the hands of one
man; who, from the very circumstance of his being alone, will be more
narrowly watched and more readily suspected, and who cannot unite so
great a mass of influence as when he is associated with others.
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