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Then freedom of

acteristic features of our Constitution. speech and of the press is another characteristic feature. It is to be observed, however, that these phrases are of necessity general and indefinite. Whether one has a right to utter his thoughts, depends on times and places, as well as on the thoughts themselves. The freedom of the platform or market-place cannot be tolerated in a garrison or camp. Words that are harmless or beneficial in time of peace, may be injurious in time of war. Mr. Hamilton said the liberty of the press could not be regulated by phrases or declarations, but "must depend altogether on public opinion, and on the general spirit of the people and of the government." The right to ask that grievances be redressed, or the right of petition as it is called, is found in the old English charters; the Colonists brought it with them from the old home; their descendants put it in the first State constitutions, and naturally desired to see it incorporated in the National Constitution.

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624 a. Sedition Law. This law enacted in 1798 forbade, under the penalty of a fine of not more than $2,000 and imprisonment of not more than two years, the publication or printing of any false, scandalous, and malicious writings of any sort against the Government of the United States, either House of Congress, or the President, with intent to defame them, or to bring them into contempt, or to stir up seditions, or to encourage unlawful combinations against the Government, etc. It was strongly opposed at the time as an abridgment of the liberty of speech and of the press, and it expired by limitation in 1801.

Article II.-A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

625. Right to Bear Arms.-Despotic rulers have generally been unfriendly to a citizen soldiery, rather preferring to rely upon regular troops. The friends of liberty, on the other hand, have commonly been unfriendly to large standing armies, and finally to a citizen soldiery. One of the charges made against the King in the Declaration of Inde

1 The Federalist, No. 84.

pendence was, that he had quartered large bodies of armed troops among the people. To deny the people the right of bearing arms, or even of having them in their possession, is one of the steps commonly taken by rulers seeking to establish or maintain arbitrary government. This Article throws the safeguard of the Constitution around the militia of the States.

Article III. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

626. No Billeting of Soldiers.-The objects of billeting soldiers upon the people, as it was formerly called in England, were to compel those in whose houses they were billeted to support them, and at the same time to overawe and intimidate them and their neighbors.

Article IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

627. Freedom from Searches, Etc.- Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the English people had, through great effort and sacrifice, extorted from royal power. The maxim, "every man's house is his castle," was thoroughly grounded in the English constitution. The American Colonists brought this immunity with them from the Mother Country; they cherished and protected it until the Revolutionary period, when they incorporated it in their State constitutions, and naturally desired to see it placed in the National Constitution.

[Articles V., VI., VII., and VIII. have been discussed in the chapters relating to the Judicial department.]

Article IX.-The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

628. The Enumeration of Rights.-The Constitution and Amendments expressly enumerate certain rights

as reserved or retained by the people. Amendments I., II., III., and IV. are examples. The force of this Article is, that the particular enumeration of such rights shall not in any way be construed as meaning that other rights not so enumerated, are surrendered or in any way impaired.

Article X.-The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

629. Powers Not Delegated.-As shown in Chaps. XII. and XXV., this Article is a formal statement of the theory on which the National Constitution was framed, viz., a government of delegated powers. When it was under consideration in the House of Representatives, two motions were made to insert the word "expressly " before delegated, but both failed, showing conclusively that the House was unwilling to sanction the doctrine of express delegation, or to deny implied delegation.

630. Amendments I.-X. a Bill of Rights. - The foregoing amendments were proposed mainly with reference to the controversy about a bill of rights; they are a bill of rights de facto, although not so called. Some said at the time that they were of no value, since they secured rights never endangered. They satisfied, however, a popular demand, and several of them have proved practical restraints on the Federal Government. We are so little familiar with the acts prohibited, as the abridgment of the freedom of speech, establishments of religion, the quartering of soldiers in private houses, etc., that we but poorly appreciate at what cost these immunities were originally obtained by our English ancestors. The men of 1789, who had themselves passed through a struggle with arbitrary power, had a more vivid conception of their value.

631. Application of the Amendments. It has sometimes been contended that several of these amendments apply to the States as well as the Nation. For example, it has been said that the Fifth Amendment extends

to all judicial tribunals in the United States, whether constituted by the Congress of the United States or the States individually. This view is incorrect. Chief Justice Marshall said of all the amendments made up to 1832, that they "contain no expression indicating an intention to apply them to State governments." And Chief Justice Chase held in 1868, that the Fifth and Sixth "were not designed as limits upon the State governments in reference to their own citizens, but exclusively as restrictions upon Federal power.

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[Article XI.-This Article has been quoted and discussd in dealing with the Judiciary.

Article XII.—This Article has been considered in connection with the election of the President and Vice-President.]

1 Twitchell v. the Commonwealth, 7 Wallace 321.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

SLAVERY AND RECONSTRUCTION.

AMENDMENTS XIII.-XV.

632. Slavery, North and South.-Under the Constitution, slavery continued to decline at the North until it came to an end without shock or violence. In 1787 it was generally expected that such would be the result at the South also at no distant day, but new causes gave to history a wholly different direction. In course of time, the whole industrial system of the South was adjusted to slavery as a center, which was followed, somewhat later, by the adjustment of politics to the same center.

633. Free and Slave States.-The question whether the virgin lands beyond the Alleghany Mountains should be devoted to slave labor or to free labor, was raised as early as 1784. In 1787 Congress prohibited slavery throughout the Northwest Territory forever; but when organizing the Southwest Territory, in 1792, refused to apply the same principle to the region now comprised in the States of Alabama and Mississippi. At first there were seven Northern and six Southern States. Moreover, physical causes and the desire of statesmen to preserve what they called the "balance of the Constitution " tended to keep the numbers of free and slave States equal. In 1819 the balance was perfect, II to II; moreover, up to that time slavery had not become a political, or at least a sectional, question.

634. The Missouri Compromise.-The feeling that no more slave States should be admitted into the Union, declared itself when Missouri applied for admission in 1818. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 embraced two main features; the admission of Missouri as a slave State, and the enacting of the following prohibition: "That in all that territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies North of 36° 30', north latitude, excepting only such part thereof as is within the limits of the State contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is, hereby forever prohibited."

635. The Admission of Texas.-After 1820 the political sig

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