CAMPBELL'S CASE. 231

have no superior, and who hold the supremacy, the highest
authority at discretion and without responsibility. In England
the monarch alone wears 'the golden yoke of sovereignty.' All
discretionary and irresponsible power belongs to him only; except
in so far as it has been expressly chartered out by him to the par-
liament or the judiciary, (k) When the king and the parliament,
however, unite, they are indeed clothed with a sovereignty which
is, to the extent of all human power within the range of their
jurisdiction, altogether omnipotent. Yet it has been held in Eng-
land, as well as in this country, that if a legislative enactment,
owing to some oversight or mistake of its makers, directs that to
be done which is palpably absurd, unnatural, unjust or impractica-
ble; as that a party should sit as judge in his own cause; or that
a penalty should be imposed upon those who should not propagate
slander, instead of upon those who should do so; (I) or that those
should be punished who should pass as true a forged note issued
by a bank, instead of those who should pass a forged note purport-
ing to be a note issued by a bank; (m) apart from any constitu-
tional restriction, must be regarded as absolutely void; on the
ground of its being impracticable innocently to execute it; because
of its obscurity, absurdity, repugnance or injustice, (n)

But the government of this republic has been clothed with no
such sovereign power, or sovereignty as that of England, either
altogether, or in any of its departments. Taken collectively, or in
any of its several parts, it is most truly and strictly made up of
responsible and delegated power; it is not, in any sense, sovereign,
or a sovereignty. For, wherever the law expresses its distrust of
abuse of power, it always vests a superior coercive authority in
some other hand to correct it; the very notion of which destroys
the idea of sovereignty, (o) Our's is a government assumed under
the authority of the people; it originated from the people, is
founded in compact only, and instituted solely for the good of the
whole; and all persons invested with the legislative or executive
powers of government are the trustees of the public, and as such

(k) Bac. Abr. tit. Prerogative, 487; Hallam's Mid. Ages, ch. 8, pt. 3, p. 183.—
(I) The Lord Cromwell's case, 4 Co. 12.—(m) The United States v. Cantril, 4
Cran. 167.—(n) The Lord Cromwell's case, 4 Co. 13; Dr. Bonham's case, 8 Co.
236; Dr. Foster's case, 11 Co. 63; Day v. Savage, Hob. 87; The City of London
v. Wood, 12 Mad. 687; Weale v. West Middlesex Water Comp. 1 Jac and Wel.
371; Dwarris' Statutes, 643; Montesq. Spirit Laws, b. 26, ch. 3.—(o) 1 Blac. Com.
244.

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