ABSTRACT
In the traditional American system, power has been widely diffused among both private and governmental institutions. Within the complex equilibrium of the governmental structure, power has been divided between central and local governments, and diffracted among legislature, executive, judiciary, and the bureaucracy both civil and military. In the series of articles that he published the following year as The Continentalist, he proposed a national government consisting of a one-house Congress possessing full power. In the Virginia Plan, submitted by Randolph and accepted as the basis for discussion, Congress was allotted an even more predominant share in the power than it finally got. There are a number of passages, quoted in recent years by critics of Congress, wherein the Fathers warn against the chance of "legislative tyranny". All officers of both executive and judiciary are subject to congressional impeachment; but for their own official conduct the members of Congress are answerable only to themselves.
