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to the division of the Sovereign Power which has been before stated, into the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Departments; and that the provisions of those Sections in which either of those terms occurs, were introduced for the purpose of guarding against the danger of encroachment by one Department upon the proper province of another: It is believed that the correctness of this remark will be seen by an examination of the second, fourth, fifth and sixth Sections of the sixth article of the fourth part of the Constitution, and also the second, fifth and sixth sections of article ninth of the same part. The same idea seems embraced in the section of the Constitution submitted to our consideration, and also in the Section next following; which also contains a provision intended as a guard against any improper influence on the part of the General Government, by excluding from the Government of this State, al persons, except Post Officers, holding any office under the United States; By thus ascertaining the object which the framers of the Constitution had in view in the distribution of powers or division of the Sovereign Power, We apprehend the true construction to be given to the terms “Office” and “Offices” as used in the Constitution may also be ascertained.

There is manifest difference between an Office and an Employment under the Government. We apprehend that the term “Office” implies a delegation of a portion of the Sovereign Power to, and possession of it by the person fitting the office: and the exercise of such power within legal limits, constitutes the correct discharge of the duties of such office. The power thus delegated and professed, may be a portion belonging sometimes to one of the three great Departments, and sometimes to another; still it is a legal power, which may be rightfully exercised, and in its effects it will bend the rights of others, and be subject to revision and correction only according to the standing Laws of the State. An Employment merely has none of these distinguishing features: A Public Agent acts only on behalf of his principal, the Public, whose sanction is generally considered as necessary to give to the Acts performed the authority and power of a public Act or Law and if the Act be such as not to require such subsequent sanction, still it is only a species of service performed under the public authority and for the public good, but