Gwen Graham: “This is a fundamental issue in our democracy. One of the great figures in the development of the structure of our…”

“This is a fundamental issue in our democracy. One of the great figures in the development of the structure of our Nation's Government stands over us every day we are in session in this Chamber; that is, the first Vice President of the United States, John Adams. Concerned about the structure of government, preceding the War for Independence and anticipating there would soon be a new nation which would be striving to develop the appropriate structures to maintain its democracy, John Adams wrote a series of his thoughts on government. These became the essential ideas first for the constitutions of the newly independent Colonies and State constitutions, and then in Philadelphia the development of the U.S. Constitution. One of the central points of John Adams's thoughts on government was the essential role which was played by an independent judiciary. He said, as quoted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of John Adams by David McCollough: Essential to the stability of government and to 'enable an impartial administration of justice,' Adams stressed the separation of judicial power from both the legislative and the executive.”