Of the Executive Branch

“Your executive should consist of a single Person.”

On this I would ask, Is he to have no Council? How is he to be informed of the State and Circumstances of the different Counties, their Wants, their Abilities, their Dispositions, and the Characters of the principal People, respecting their Integrity, Capacities and Qualifications for Offices? Does not the present Construction of our Executive provide well for these particulars? And during the Number of Years it has existed, has its Errors or Failures in answering the End of its Appointment been more or greater than might have been expected from a single Person?

“But an Individual is more easily watched and controlled than any greater Number.”

On this I would ask, Who is to watch and controul him? And by what Means is he to be controuled? Will not those Means, whatever they are, and in whatever Body vested, be subject to the same Inconveniencies of Expence, Delay, Obstruction of good Intentions, &c., which are objected to the present Executive?

The Duration of the Appointment

“This should be governed by the following Principles— – —the Independency of the Magistrate, and the Stability of his Administration; neither of which can be secured but by putting both beyond the Reach of every annual Gust of Folly and of Faction.