


	James Madison (1751-1836). Courtesy of American Memory at the Library of Congress.

Balancing Three Branches at Once: Our System of Checks and Balances

Constitution Day >Learn More > Balancing Three Branches

Introduction

One of the most persistent and overarching complaints the American colonists had about the rule of the British monarchy was the extent of its power. One of the most persistent and overarching complaints about the early government of the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation was the weakness of the federal government. Attempting to form a more perfect union, the framers of the Constitution designed a government that clearly assigned power to three branches, while at the same time guaranteeing that the power of any branch could be checked by another.

What are some ways the three branches of our government check one another?

Part I of this unit uses archival documents to review the structure of our constitutional government and the problems it was designed to surmount.
Part II uses primary source material to demonstrate how one branch of our government checks another.

Background Information on the Constitution:

As indicated by the long list of complaints in the Declaration of Independence, the unlimited power of the British monarch was a focus of colonists' concerns in 1776. In response to the abuses of the unchecked king, the fledging government under the Articles of Confederation featured a very weak central government. In the power vacuum that developed as a result, state legislatures (whose power had been extended originally as a response to fears about a tyrannical king) began to exert themselves. By 1787, the overreaching and abuses of the state legislatures were causing increasing concern among Americans. While one may understand more readily the complaints the colonists had against the king, it is important not to get the impression that the only motive for the checks and balances system was animosity toward George III. Suspicions about the potential abuse of power extended to legislative as well as executive branches. Because the potential for abuse is present in any branch of government, each needs sufficient power to check the other.

This is exactly the point James Madison makes in Federalist Papers No. 48. He notes that "the legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity, and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex." The founders of the American states, he says, "seem never for a moment to have turned their eyes from the danger to liberty from the overgrown and all-grasping prerogative of an hereditary magistrate" and therefore overlooked "the danger from legislative usurpations, which, by assembling all power in the same hands, must lead to the same tyranny as is threatened by executive usurpations."

(NOTE: The entire text of the Federalist Papers No. 48 is accessible through the EDSITEment resource The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School.)

Background information on checks and balances is available from several EDSITEment-reviewed resources.
An interactive teaching unit, Our Three Branches of Government & Balance of Power, designed for grades 5-8, is available on Project Whistlestop, housed at The Truman Library.
The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School has a feature entitled The American Constitution - A Documentary Record that includes texts of many documents relating to the development of the Constitution. An annotated text of the Constitution is available through Congresslink. The links it provides to Articles I, II, III of the Constitution contain useful summaries of the various powers given to each branch of government.

Article I Legislative Branch Section 1, 2, 3, 7, 8

Article II The Executive Branch Section 1, 2, 3

Article III The Judicial Branch Section 1, 2
Congresslink also features 10 Things Every Student Should Know About Congress
This unit is one of a series of complementary EDSITEment plans for intermediate-level students about the foundations of our government. You might want to review the entire sequence in order:

The following outline will direct you to the primary documents and sources that tell us how and why we developed the system of checks and balances we now have.

The Colonies Complained

Review some or all of the complaints against Great Britain spelled out in the Declaration of Independence. A good place to start is George Washington's Copy of the Declaration of Independence, available through a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed resource, American Memory (a full transcript of the Declaration of Independence is available through National Archives).

This is the only surviving fragment of the broadside of the Declaration of Independence printed by John Dunlap and sent on July 6, 1776, to George Washington by John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. General Washington had this Declaration read to his assembled troops on July 9 in New York, where they awaited the combined British fleet and army. Later that night, American troops destroyed a bronze-lead statue of Great Britain's King George III that stood at the foot of Broadway on the Bowling Green. The statue was later molded into bullets for the American Army.

Most of this page consists of complaints directed to the king of England. What are some of the complaints? Keep these complaints in mind as you consider how the government developed by the Founders attempted to avoid such problems.

Three Ring Government

You may want to review the three branches of government and their basic functions. A good source of information, designed for grades 3-5, is Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Internet Public Library.

A lesson plan on the three branches of government, designed for grades 5-8, but with material adaptable for lower grades, is available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website The Truman Library. Particularly pertinent is a summary of the checks and balances in the system.

If you wish to explore more deeply the origins of our government, you can analyze a digital image of The Virginia Plan, as amended, June 13, 1787, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource The Digital Classroom. The Virginia Plan was the first of a number of proposals offered to the Constitutional Convention for the organization of the government. Here, it serves to demonstrate that our federal system as it now stands developed as a result of thoughtful debate and compromise; parts, but not all, of the Virginia Plan can be found in the Constitution. As you read the document, consider:

what parts of the plan are different from our government as it now stands?

and
which parts of the plan are similar to our government as it now stands?

Also noteworthy is how the makers of the Virginia Plan (the document composed primarily by James Madison) were planning to avoid the abuses of a monarchy.

Accounts of Checking and Balancing

The issue is writ large in our history. The documents that follow make this self-evident.

FDR Cartoon Archive: 1937—The Supreme Court, available via a link from The New Deal Network
FDR in the cartoon (the policeman) was President at the time the cartoon was drawn. The President's actions can be (and have been) blocked by the Supreme Court.
President Requests that Congress Declare War, available on The Digital Classroom
One day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his famous "Day of Infamy" speech to Congress. Note that the President says, "I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire" Congress must approve a declaration of war.

Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy
Search in American Memory for "McNary-Haugen Bill." Choose View this item and then move down the page to select Page Images. Turn to the image of p. 286 of the Calvin Coolidge Papers, 1923-28, the title page for the veto document. The President can check Congress by vetoing a bill it has passed.

Images of the veto message of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the House of Representatives returning H.R. 3687, "An act to provide revenue, and for other purposes" and a House resolution stating that two-thirds of the House agreed to pass the act over the President's veto.
Search the Archival Research Catalog, available on the Digital Classroom. Search for "H.R. 3687." Click "Digital Copy Available." Choose page six. Congress checks the President by passing a law over a President’s veto.

The Oregon Treaty of 1846
Search the Archival Research Catalog, available on the Digital Classroom, for "Oregon Treaty." This treaty divided the Oregon country between the U.S. and Canada at the 49th parallel. It granted to the United States land that would later comprise the entire states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, as well as portions of Montana and Wyoming. Of particular interest is the second paragraph of the right hand page.
The treaty says, "whereas the Senate of the United States ... did advise and consent to the ratification of the said treaty." The Senate can check the President by refusing to ratify a treaty the President has signed.

Message of President Abraham Lincoln nominating Salmon P. Chase to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Search the Archival Research Catalog, available on the Digital Classroom, for "Lincoln" and "Chase." The President nominates judges to federal courts. Of course, once appointed, a judge can vote however s/he wants. In cases of abuse by judges, the Legislative branch can check the Judicial branch.

Image of a ticket to the gallery during the impeachment of President Johnson, April 1, 1868, available on American Memory
Congress can check the President by using the impeachment powers to remove the President from office.
Judgment, Brown v. Board of Education
Search the Archival Research Catalog, available on the Digital Classroom, for "Judgment" and "Brown." The courts can check the Legislative branch by declaring a law unconstitutional. Focus on the words "admit to public schools on a racially nondiscriminatory basis with all deliberate speed the parties to this case. Segregation laws were overturned."

Historic events involving conflicts between branches include:

Supreme Court cases such as Marbury vs. Madison (1803), the Dred Scott Decision (1857) and McCulloch v. Maryland (1819).
President Andrew Jackson's conflict with Congress over the Second National Bank.
The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.
The conflict over Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to add six seats to the Supreme Court.
The Watergate incident during Richard Nixon's tenure in office.
The impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

Selected EDSITEment Websites

Ben's Guide to Government for Kids