. 
 
 -:>■■■: ■ '■;;' ■ /■.'■ 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 JK291 .B78 
 
 Documents of the constitution of England 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 030 469 013 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030469013 
 
? ^&Z>z=£>r?*-z-^ 
 

 
 DOCUMENTS 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 ENGLAND AND AMERICA, 
 
 FROM MAGNA CHARTA 
 TO THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF 1789. 
 
 COMPILED AHV EDITED, "WITH NOTES, 
 
 By FRANCIS BOWEN, 
 
 ALFORD PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND CIVIL POLITY 
 IN HARVARD COLLEGE. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 JOHN BARTLETT. 
 
 1854. 
 
 \ ' i i 
 
 
Entered according to. Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 
 
 JOHN BARTLETT, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 METCALP AND- COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 While teaching the elements of Constitutional History 
 and Law to successive classes in college, I have felt the 
 want of a little manual, which should present in a form 
 convenient for reference, the text, not only of our own na- 
 tional Constitution, but of those state documents, whether 
 pertaining directly to the history of England or of America, 
 upon which some of the most important features of our 
 Constitution are based, and from which, both in the spirit 
 and the letter, it may be said to derive its parentage. The 
 word Constitution, in its largest sense, properly signifies the 
 aggregate of those fundamental laws, institutions, and 
 usages, which make up the whole polity of a state. It is 
 too extensive, therefore, to be accurately described and de- 
 fined in a single written instrument ; a great portion of it 
 is unwritten, forming a body of consuetudinary law, which 
 is equally valid with those other portions that have" been 
 specially recognized and enacted, or re-enacted rather, by 
 the supreme legislature. What is usually termed the Con- 
 stitution in this country, whether it be the Federal Consti- 
 tution of the whole Union, or the separate Constitution of 
 each State, is but a part, and a small part, of the funda- 
 mental law under which we live. Still more ; these two 
 specific constitutions are not, to any great extent, original 
 and fresh enactments, first devised and first made binding 
 when these were put together and formally accepted by the 
 people about three quarters of a century ago. Many of 
 the most important provisions in them constitute the origi- 
 nal inheritance of the American people, which they brought 
 over with them from England, which have always been in 
 force among them, and which would have continued in 
 force even if what we now call the National and the State 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 Constitutions had never been invented. The trial by jury, 
 the leading forms of representative government, the law of 
 evidence, the definition of treason, murder, and other crimes, 
 the distribution of local government between counties and 
 towns, the powers and functions of justices of the peace, 
 and many other particulars that might be enumerated, have 
 been a portion of American law ever since the first settle- 
 ments were formed at Jamestown and Plymouth. They 
 have not undergone any greater alteration here than in 
 England. The object of the American Revolution was not 
 to subvert, but to defend them. Some of them were spe- 
 cifically re-enacted in the written Constitutions that were 
 framed after the establishment of our independence, as if 
 to mark their importance and the measure of the people's 
 attachment to them. But the re-enactment was a mere 
 form, an act of supererogation ; they would have continued 
 in force without it. Thus the Constitution of the United 
 States provides, that " no State shall pass any law impair- 
 ing the obligation of contracts," and that " private property 
 shall not be taken for public use without just compensa- 
 tion " ; and there are similar provisions in most of the 
 State Constitutions. But it has been further decided in our 
 courts, that an act of a Colonial legislature, passed long 
 before these Constitutions were in being, which took away 
 the freehold of one man and vested it in another without 
 compensation, was null and void, " as being against com- 
 mon right and the principles of Magna Charta." Chancel- 
 lor Kent remarks, that the court " declared the act to be ipso 
 facto void, and that no length of time could give it validity. 
 This was not strictly a question arising upon any special 
 provision of the State Constitution; but the court proceeded 
 upon those great fundamental principles which support.all 
 government and property, and which have been supposed 
 by many judges in England to be sufficient to check and 
 control the regulations of an act of Parliament." * 
 
 According to the view here taken, there has been a grad- 
 ual accretion and development of the elements of the Eng- 
 lish and the American Constitutions. They had a common 
 origin in the usages of the Anglo-Saxons, in the principles 
 of the feudal system as introduced by the Normans, and in 
 the charters which the spirit of the English barons and the 
 
 * Kent's Commentaries, I. 451. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 English people compelled the Plantagenet kings to grant. 
 They have a common history down to the period of the 
 enactment of the Petition of Right and the settlement of 
 New England. Since that time, their progress has been in 
 different but parallel lines of development. The English 
 Constitution ripened at the Revolution of 1688, in the Dec- 
 laration and the Bill of Rights, which established the doc- 
 trine that the crown is held only by the will of Parliament, 
 and for the sake of the ancient liberties of the people ; and 
 there has been no material change in it since that period, 
 as even the Reform Bill of 1832 was not so much a new 
 recognition and guaranty of popular rights as a restora- 
 tion of the old Constitution, the proper balance of repre- 
 sentative power in it having been greatly impaired by the 
 lapse of time and the movement of the population. The 
 American Constitution culminated in the Declaration of 
 Independence and the formation of what is called the 
 Federal Constitution, which consolidated the union of the 
 States. The American Revolution was but one step, 
 though a very important one, in a long series of changes 
 or processes through which this Constitution has been 
 formed. Many of the institutions under which we now 
 live may be traced back to the ancient muniments of Eng- 
 lish freedom, — to the Great Charter, the Confirmation of 
 the Charters, the Statute of Treasons, the Petition of 
 Right, &c. 
 
 An important lesson, as it seems to me, is to be derived 
 from this view of the gradual development of our constitu- 
 tion. It is, that constitutions are not made, but they grow 
 by an inherent law of progress and adaptation to changing 
 circumstances. They are not contrivances of human wis- 
 dom, but are necessary products of men's habits and wants. 
 English institutions transplanted to an American soil grew 
 up naturally into a republican form of government ; while 
 the same institutions, continuing on English ground, were 
 developed just as naturally into the aristocratic limited 
 monarchy which still subsists there, though the infusion of 
 the popular element into it is daily increasing. In France, 
 on the other hand, an attempt has been repeatedly made to 
 sweep away every vestige of the old form of government, 
 and, on the tabula rasa thus formed, to build up a polity 
 entirely new, constructed on theoretical principles, and with 
 due attention to artistic unity and symmetry of plan. But 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 the result of each of these attempts has been a disastrous 
 failure. So it must ever be. Institutions which have no 
 root in the soil, no hold on the previous habits, associations, 
 and affections of the people, will be prostrated by the first 
 blast. 
 
 The documents contained in this volume have been 
 brought together to illustrate the rise and progress of the 
 English and the American Constitutions, — to show what 
 they are, and how they became what they are. They bear 
 an obvious relation to each other, and mark the successive 
 epochs in the progress of the liberty and the development 
 of the political institutions of the English race. Some 
 knowledge of them appears to be requisite for a proper un- 
 derstanding, not only of the origin and the history, but of 
 the meaning and spirit, of the forms of government which 
 are established in England and this country, and for a 
 proper comparison of these forms with each other. In the 
 notes and introductions, I have endeavored to give, as 
 briefly as possible, the necessary collateral information to 
 make the text intelligible even to young students, leaving 
 all the historical particulars, however, to be learned from 
 the ordinary works upon the history of the two countries. 
 
 The Great Charter is the only document in this collec- 
 tion which needs much annotation. Though the original 
 Latin of this famous instrument has been repeatedly edited 
 with great care, and published in fac-simile, I could not find 
 any good English version of it, or any commentary upon it 
 suited for unprofessional students. The copy which is pre- 
 fixed to the Statutes at Large is a translation of the Great 
 Charter of Henry III., which differs in several important 
 respects from that of John, and is also inferior to its prede- 
 cessor in historical interest. It does not contain, for in- 
 stance, the article directing how the Great Council shall be 
 brought together to authorize the assessment of scutages. 
 But it was directly confirmed by Parliament, while the 
 Charter of John was never sanctioned by the formal consent 
 of the three estates of the realm. Henry's Charter is there- 
 fore still in force, as a portion of the existing law, and is 
 consequently printed in the general collection of the Stat- 
 utes ; while its great original, of which in truth it is only a 
 maimed and defective copy, has no legal validity, and is 
 an object of interest merely to the historical inquirer and 
 the student of political science. The only annotated ver- 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 sion of King John's Magna Charta which I had seen when 
 this collection was begun, is a very imperfect one in 
 Rapin's History of England ; it is awkward and inelegant 
 in expression, and on being compared with the original, it 
 appears both incorrect and defective. I have revised and 
 almost entirely rewritten it, using for this purpose the trans- 
 lation of Henry the Third's Charter as printed in the Stat- 
 utes at Large, the Latin text as it appears in one of Black- 
 stone's Law Tracts, and that also which is contained in 
 the recent and very correct edition of Rymer's Foedera, 
 for which we are indebted to the Record Commission. 
 
 Neither Professor Creasy's " Text-Book," nor his " Rise 
 and Progress of the English Constitution," was seen by me 
 till the first half of this volume was in print, or I should 
 have adopted his excellent translation of the Charter. But 
 I have been gratified to find that his version agrees in every 
 important respect with my own, and that he has adopted 
 in his commentary the same general views of the character 
 and meaning of the various clauses. The object of the 
 notes here given is only to render the text intelligible, by 
 explaining those technical peculiarities of the Feudal Sys- 
 tem which it is the glory of the Great Charter to have re- 
 moved or mitigated. 
 
 This volume is not designed for separate use, as a man- 
 ual of instruction, but as the natural accompaniment of 
 any text-book on the Constitutional History or Constitu- 
 tional Law of England and America ; or it may serve as 
 a kind of syllabus to a course of lectures upon these two 
 subjects. I have found the need of such a collection for 
 both these purposes, and have compiled it merely for my 
 own occasions ; but I hope it may also prove serviceable to 
 other instructors. 
 
 Cambridge, April 18, 1854. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 MAGNA CHAETA ..... 
 
 CONFIRMATIO CHARTAKTJM .... 
 
 THE STATUTE OF TREASONS 
 
 THE PETITION OF RIGHT .... 
 
 THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT 
 
 THE BILL OF RIGHTS 
 
 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES . 
 CONFEDERACY OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES 
 FRANKLIN'S PLAN OF UNION OF ,THE COLONIES 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE . 
 THE VIRGINIA BILL OF RIGHTS . 
 ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 
 
 THE MASSACHUSETTS DECLARATION OF RIGHTS 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES . 
 
 1215 
 
 1 
 
 1297 
 
 20 
 
 1350 
 
 24 
 
 1627 
 
 26 
 
 1679 
 
 31 
 
 1689 
 
 42 
 
 1641 
 
 52 
 
 1643 
 
 77 
 
 1754 
 
 86 
 
 1776 
 
 102 
 
 1776 
 
 106 
 
 1778 
 
 109 
 
 1780 
 
 118 
 
 1789 
 
 124 
 
THE 
 
 CHAETEE OF LIBERTIES, 
 
 THE GREAT CHAETEE, 
 
 GRANTED BY KING JOHN TO HIS SUBJECTS ON THE 15TH DAT OF JUNE, 
 
 A. D. 1215. 
 
 John, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, 
 Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Earl of Anjou : to the 
 archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciaries, foresters, 
 sheriffs, governors, officers, and to all bailiffs and his other faithful 
 subjects, greeting. Know ye, that we, in the presence Qf God, 
 and for the health of our soul and the souls of all our ancestors 
 and heirs, and to the honor of God and the exaltation of Holy 
 Church, and the amendment of our kingdom, by advice of our 
 venerable fathers, Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of 
 all England and Cardinal of the holy Roman Church ; Henry, 
 Archbishop of Dublin, William, Bishop of London, Peter, of Win- 
 chester, Jocelin, of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh, of Lincoln, 
 Walter, of Worcester, William, of Coventry, Benedict, of Koch- 
 ester, Bishops ; and master Pandulph, the Pope's subdeacon and 
 ancient servant, brother Aymerick, Master of the Temple in Eng- 
 land, and the noble persons, William Marescall, Earl of Pembroke, 
 William, Earl of Salisbury, William, Earl of Warren, William, 
 Earl of Arundel, Alan de Galoway, Constable of Scotland, Warin 
 Fitz Gerald, Peter Fitz Herebert, and Hubert de Burghe, Seneschal 
 of Poictou, Hugo de Nevill, Mathew Fitz Herebert, Thomas Basset, 
 Alan Basset, Philip de Albine, Robert de Roppele, John Marescall, 
 John Fitz Hugh, and others our liegemen ; have, in the first place, 
 1 
 
* MAGNA CHAETA. 
 
 granted to God, and, by this our present charter, have confirmed 
 for us and our heirs for ever : — 
 
 I. That the Church of England shall be free, and shall have her 
 whole rights and liberties inviolate. And we will have them so to 
 be observed ; which appears from hence, that the freedom of elec- 
 tions,* which is reckoned the greatest and most necessary liberty 
 for the Church of England, of our own free will and pleasure we 
 granted and confirmed by our charter, and obtained its confirma- 
 tion from Pope Innocent the Third, before the discord arose be- 
 tween us and our barons ; which charter we shall observe, and we 
 will it to be faithfully observed by our heirs for ever. 
 
 II. We have also granted to all the freemen of our kingdom, 
 for us and our heirs for ever, all the underwritten liberties, to have 
 and to hold to them and their heirs, of us and our heirs. 
 
 III. If any of our earls, or barons, or others who hold of us in 
 chief by military service,t shall die, and at the time of his death 
 
 * " According to the primitive custom of the Church," says Mr. Hallam, " an 
 episcopal vacancy was filled up by election of the clergy and people belonging 
 to the city or diocese." In such an election, of course, the clergy soon con- 
 trived to take a leading part, and the choice was virtually in their hands. But 
 when much political power and large landed possessions were annexed to the 
 bishoprics, the king naturally claimed a voice in the nomination to an office 
 which gave its possessor so much influence in the state. Though the clergy 
 might confer the spiritual power, the temporalities of the see were asserted to 
 be the gift of the king alone. But the Pope and the clergy steadfastly resisted 
 this pretension ; and the dispute which thus arose out of the conflicting claims 
 of the crown and the Church was a leading cause of the numerous disorders of 
 King John's reign. This weak and wicked monarch was overmatched by the 
 able and imperious Innocent III., under whom the papal power culminated in 
 Europe. John was obliged to yield everything ; and then, Langton, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, and Pandulph, the Pope's legate, who had been the chief in- 
 struments in forcing him to this submission, united with the barons in compel- 
 ling him to make the far more important concession of the Great Charter, the 
 foundation of the liberties of England. The rights of the clergy having been 
 sufficiently established two years before, by John's submission to Innocent, this 
 article of Magna Charta gives no new rights to ecclesiastical persons, but only 
 confirms what they had already acquired. 
 
 t The leading principle of the Feudal System, as it was established in Eng- 
 land after the Norman Conquest, was, that all the land in the kingdom was 
 considered to be vested in the crown. The possessor of an estate, which was 
 called a feud or fee, was not its absolute owner, but only its tenant or holder ; 
 and the holding was often called his tenement. The lands were granted only 
 
MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 his heir shall be of full age, and owe a'relief,* he shall have his 
 inheritance by the ancient relief; that is to say, the heir or heirs of an 
 earl, for a whole earl's barony, by one hundred pounds ; the heir or 
 heirs of a baron, for a whole barony, by one hundred pounds ; the 
 heir or heirs of a knight, for a whole knight's fee,t by one hun- 
 dred shillings at most ; and he that oweth less shall give less, ac- 
 cording to the ancient custom of fees. 
 
 IV. But if the heir of any such shall be under age, and shall be 
 in ward, f when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance with- 
 out relief and without fine. 
 
 V. The guardian of the land of such heir, who shall be under 
 age, shall take of the land of such heir only reasonable issues, 
 reasonable customs, § and reasonable services ; and that without 
 
 on condition of the tenant's performing certain services, the chief of which 
 was military service, or the duty of following the king to the wars for a certain 
 number of days in each year. " All the lands and tenements in England, in 
 the hands of subjects," says Coke, " are holden mediately or immediately of the 
 king." Those who received their grants directly from the king were called 
 tenants in capite, or in chief. The practice of subinfeudation being introduced, 
 the great lords or barons, who were themselves vassals of the crown, granted 
 out their lands in a similar manner to inferior tenants; who were then known 
 as immediate vassals of the baron, and as arriere vassals of the crown. 
 
 * When any of the king's tenants in chief died, the king, as guardian to the 
 heir, seized the estate, and the heir conld only obtain it by doing homage to the 
 king, and paying a certain sum, called a relief, which at first was determined at 
 a fixed amount, according to every man's degree, from an earl to the humblest 
 tenant. But the sovereign soon came to demand more or less, according to 
 circumstances ; and the exactions practised under this pretence, both upon 
 superior and inferior vassals, ranked among the greatest abuses of the feudal 
 policy. 
 
 t William the Conqueror divided all England into about 60,000 knights' 
 fees, and the annual value of such a fee was fixed at 20Z. Every estate sup- 
 posed to be of this value was bound to furnish the service of one soldier for 
 the king's wars, for the appointed period. 
 
 j: As long as the heirs of the king's tenants in chief were under age, they were 
 said to be in ward. 
 
 § By issues, are meant the rents and profits of the land and its appurte- 
 nances ; by customs, things due by usage and prescription. As the lord had the 
 wardship of the tenant during minority, he received for his own use the profits 
 of the estate. " By a gross abuse of this custom in England, the right of 
 guardianship in chivalry, or temporary possession of the lands, was assigned 
 over to strangers," who practised every kind of extortion. 
 
* MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 destruction or waste of the men or things ; and if we shall com- 
 mit the custody of any such lands to the sheriff, or any other who 
 is answerable to us for the issues of the land, and if he shall make 
 destruction or waste upon the ward lands, we will compel him to 
 give satisfaction, and the land shall be committed to two lawful and 
 discreet men of that fee, who shall be answerable for the issues to 
 us, or to him whom we shall assign. And if we shall give or sell 
 the wardship of any such lands to any one, and he therein makes 
 destruction or waste, he shall lose the wardship, which shall be 
 committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall in 
 like manner be answerable to us, as aforesaid. 
 
 VI. The warden, moreover, so long as he shall have the ward- 
 ship of thejand, shall keep up and maintain the houses, parks, 
 warrens,* ponds, mills, and other things pertaining to the land, out 
 of the revenues of the same land ; and shall restore to the heir, 
 when he comes of full age, his whole land stocked with ploughs 
 and carriages, according as the time of wainage shall require, and 
 the rents and profits of the land can reasonably bear. 
 
 VII. Heirs shall be married without disparagement^ but so that, 
 before matrimony shall be contracted, those who are kindred to the 
 heir in blood shall be made acquainted with it. 
 
 VIII. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith, 
 and without any difficulty, have her inheritance, and liberty to 
 marry as she pleases ; nor shall she give anything for her dower 
 or her marriage, or for the inheritance which her husband and 
 she held at the day of his death ; and she may remain in the 
 mansion-house of her husband forty days after his death, within 
 which term her dower shall be assigned to her. 
 
 * Warrens may be briefly described as game-preserves. A person may have 
 the right of warren in another man's land, — that is, the right of pursuing and 
 taking game upon it. 
 
 t " Another right given to the lord by the English and Norman laws was that 
 of marriage, or of tendering a husband to his female wards, while under age, 
 whom they could not reject without forfeiting the value of the marriage ; that 
 is, as much as any one would give to the guardian for such an alliance. This 
 was afterwards extended to male wards [and widows], and became a very lu- 
 crative source of extortion to the crown, as well as to mesne lords," as those 
 were termed who granted their lands to sub-tenants, or arriere vassals. Dis- 
 paragement was used for matching an heir in marriage under his or her degree, 
 or against decency. 
 
MAGNA CHARTA. 5 
 
 IX. No widow shall be compelled by the forfeiture of her goods 
 to marry herself, so long as she has a mind to live without a hus- 
 band. But yet she shall give security that she will not marry 
 without our assent, if she holds her lands of us, or without the 
 consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she holds of another. 
 
 X. Neither we nor our bailiffs will seize any land or rent for any 
 debt, so long as there shall be chattels of the debtor's sufficient to 
 pay the debt. Nor shall the sureties of the debtor be distrained,* 
 so long as the principal debtor is sufficient for the payment of the 
 debt. 
 
 XI. And if the principal debtor fail in the payment of the debt, 
 not having wherewithal to discharge it, then the sureties shall an- 
 swer the debt ; and if they will, they shall have the lands and 
 rents of the debtor, until they shall be satisfied for the debt which 
 they paid for him ; unless the principal debtor can show himself 
 acquitted thereof, against the said sureties. 
 
 XII. If any one has borrowed anything of the Jews, more 
 or less, and dies before the debt is satisfied, there shall be no in- 
 terest paid for that debt, so long as the heir is under age, of whom- 
 soever he may hold. And if the debt falls into our hands, we will 
 take only the chattel mentioned in the bond or instrument. 
 
 XIII. And if any one shall die indebted to the Jews, his wife 
 shall have her dower, and pay nothing of that debt ; and if the de- 
 ceased left children under age, they shall have necessaries pro- 
 vided for them according to the tenement (or real estate) of the 
 deceased ; and out of the residue the debt shall be paid ; saving, 
 however, the service due to the lord of the fee. In like manner 
 let it be with debts due to other persons than the Jews. 
 
 XIV. No scutage or aidt shall be imposed in our kingdom, 
 unless by the Great Council of our kingdom, | except to redeem 
 
 * To distrain is to seize the goods and chattels of a tenant for rent in arrear 
 or duty unperformed. 
 
 t Scutage (escuage), or aid, was the pecuniary compensation paid by the 
 tenant in lieu of the military service which he was bound to render. It came 
 to signify, also, the tax which was imposed on each vassal €or the public ser- 
 vice. Under the Norman kings, the practice had grown up of levying such 
 aids at pleasure, and to an extortionate amount. 
 
 t The Commune Concilium, or Great Council of the realm, answering, though 
 very imperfectly, to the Parliament of later times, was, for about two centuries 
 
MAGNA CHAKTA. 
 
 our person, and make our eldest son a knight, and once to marry 
 our eldest daughter ; and for this there shall only be paid a reason- 
 able aid. 
 
 XV. In like manner it shall be concerning the aids of the city 
 of London ; and the city of London shall have all its ancient liber- 
 ties and free customs, by land as well as by water. 
 
 XVI. Furthermore, we will and grant that all other cities, and 
 boroughs, and towns, and ports, shall have all their liberties and 
 free customs. 
 
 XVII. In respect to the Great Council of the kingdom, to be held 
 for the assessment of aids, except in the three cases aforesaid, and 
 for the assessing of scutages, we will cause to be summoned the 
 archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and great barons of the realm, 
 singly, by our letters. 
 
 XVIII. And furthermore, we will cause to be summoned in gen- 
 eral, by our sheriffs and bailiffs, all others who hold of us in chief, 
 at a certain day, that is to say, at least forty days before the meet- 
 ing, to a certain place ; and in all letters of such summons we will 
 declare the cause of the summons.* 
 
 XIX. And summons being thus made, the business shall proceed 
 on the day appointed, according to the advice of such as shall be 
 present, although all do not come that were summoned. 
 
 XX. We will not for the future grant to any one that he may 
 ' take aid from his own free tenants, unless to redeem his body, and 
 
 after the Conquest, composed only of the tenants in chief, or immediate vassals 
 of the king. Of these, according to Domesday Book, there were only about 
 400 in the kingdom. But the survey which is recorded in this celebrated book 
 did not extend over all the counties. The chief business of the Great Council 
 seems to have been, to authorize the levying of scutages or aids, which, how- 
 ever, were frequently imposed without their knowledge or consent. 
 
 * This article and the preceding one give a very clear account of the consti- 
 tution of the Great Council, which, down to the 49th year of the reign of 
 Henry III. (A. D. 1265), and perhaps even to the times of Edward I., was the 
 only body that performed any part of the functions of a Parliament. It was 
 not a representative assembly ; it was not divided into two houses ; and it was not, 
 properly speaking, a legislative body. The assessment of aids and scutages 
 was its principal, if *ot its only, business ; and all those had a right to be sum- 
 moned to it who held their lands directly of the king. In all its great charac- 
 teristics, it was strictly a feudal body ; and it passed naturally, and by several 
 successive steps, into a Parliament, as the Peudal System itself, of which it 
 was the offspring, waned and finally disappeared. 
 
MAGNA CHARTA. 7 
 
 to make his eldest son a knight, and once to marry his eldest 
 daughter ; and for these purposes, there shall only be paid a rea- 
 sonable aid.* 
 
 XXI. No man shall be compelled on pain of forfeiture to perform 
 more service for a knight's fee, or other free tenement, than is due 
 from thence. 
 
 XXII. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be 
 holden in some certain place. t Assizes upon the writs of novel 
 disseisin, and of mort d'' ancestor, and of darreine presentment, shall 
 be held only in their proper counties, f and after this manner : — 
 We, or if we should be out of the realm, our chief justiciary, 
 shall send two justiciaries through every county four times a year ; 
 who, with the four knights chosen out of every shire by the people, 
 shall hold the said assizes in the county, on the day and at the 
 place appointed. 
 
 * The provisions of this article and the next are important, and evince a very 
 liberal spirit on the part of the confederated barons, who compelled the reluc- 
 tant monarch to grant the Great Charter. These barons, in their capacity as 
 mesne lords, bound themselves to observe the same restrictions with respect to 
 their own vassals, which they enforced upon the crown with respect to the 
 tenants in capite. They took care, also, in the 15th and 16th articles, to obtain 
 a guaranty of all the ancient rights and liberties of the city of London and 
 the other municipalities of the realm. 
 
 t The king's court or palace was anciently the great and principal seat of 
 judicature for the whole realm ; and suitors were thus put to great trouble and 
 inconvenience, by the necessity of maintaining their actions in a court which 
 followed the king in all his peregrinations. This article contains the guaranty 
 if it was not the foundation, of the modern system, according to which, the 
 court of last resort, or of final appeal, was held in some fixed place, as at 
 Westminster ; while the judges were sent upon their circuits through all the 
 counties in the kingdom, so that every man might have justice rendered to 
 him as nearly as possible at his own door. The assizes may be loosely de- 
 scribed as the sessions of these circuit courts in the respective counties. 
 
 X A writ of novel disseisin was the mode of action whereby one who had 
 been unjustly ousted of his tenement sought to recover possession of it ; that 
 of mort d'ancestor lay when the legal heirs of a person deceased squght to obtain 
 their inheritance from a stranger into whose hands it might have passed ; while 
 that of darreine presentment was the mode of recovering the advowson, or right 
 of presentation to a clerical benefice, from any one who might have unjustly 
 occupied it. The general purpose of this article is, evidently, to save incon- 
 venience and charges to the parties concerned in an attempt to recover property 
 of which they had been deprived. The king engages to give them an oppor^ 
 tunity of doing so, four times a year, within the limits of their own county. 
 
8 MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 XXIII. And if, on the day appointed, the said assizes for the 
 county cannot be held, so many of the knights and freeholders 
 
 • who were present on that day shall remain as may be necessary 
 for making sufficient judgments, according as there is more or 
 less business.* 
 
 XXIV. A freeman shall not be amerced for a small fault, but 
 according to the degree of the fault ; and for a great crime, in 
 proportion to the heinousness of it, saving to him his contenement ; t 
 and after the same manner, a merchant, saving to him his mer- 
 chandise. 
 
 XXV. And a villein \ shall be amerced after the same manner, 
 saving to him his wainage, if he falls under our mercy ; and none 
 of the aforesaid amerciaments § shall be assessed but by the oath 
 of honest men of the neighborhood. 
 
 XXVI. Earls and barons shall not be amerced but by their 
 peers, and according to the quality of the offence. 
 
 XXVII. No ecclesiastical person shall be amerced but from his 
 lay tenement, according to the proportion aforesaid, and not ac- 
 cording to the value of his ecclesiastical benefice. 
 
 XXVIII. Neither a town, nor any person, shall be distrained to 
 
 * The meaning of this provision seems to be, that if the king's judges failed 
 to appear at the time and place appointed, then the knights and freeholders 
 who had assembled to meet them (four of whom, chosen by the county, were 
 to be the assessors or assistant judges) might proceed to hold a court with- 
 out them, at least so far as to render judgment in all cases in which delay 
 would be perilous or highly inconvenient. 
 
 t Contenement expresses the means of a person's livelihood, as the arms of a 
 gentleman, the merchandise of a trader, the tools of a mechanic, and the 
 plough and wagons (called in the next article the wainage) of a peasant. By 
 freeman in this clause, and elsewhere, we are to understand any one who was 
 not a villein or serf, 
 
 % There were two classes of villeins or serfs in England ; villeins in gross were 
 immediately attached to the person of their lord and his heirs, and their condi- 
 tion was not unlike that of slaves ; villeins regardant were adscripti glebm, or at- 
 tached to the soil. They could not be separated from the manor or estate to 
 which they originally belonged, but when the estate changed hands, the villeins 
 were transferred along with it. 
 
 § An amerciament was the pecuniary punishment of an offender. The word 
 is derived from the French merci, and differs from a fine, which is a punishment 
 determined in amount by some statute, while amerciaments are such as are ar- 
 bitrarily imposed, and are esteemed more merciful than fines. 
 
MAGNA CHARTA. 9 
 
 make bridges over rivers, unless that anciently and of right they 
 are bound to do it. 
 
 XXIX. No sheriff, constable, coroners, or other bailiffs of ours, 
 shall hold pleas of the crown.* 
 
 XXX. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trethings shall 
 stand at the old rents, without any increase, except in our demesne 
 lands.t 
 
 XXXI. If any one that holds a lay-fee £ of us dies, and the 
 sheriff or our bailiff show our letters patent of summons concern- 
 ing a debt due to us from the deceased, it shall be lawful for the 
 sheriff or our bailiff to attach and register the chattels of the de- 
 ceased found upon his lay-fee, to the value of the debt, by the 
 view of lawful men, so that nothing be removed until our whole 
 debt be paid ; and the rest shall be left to the executors to fulfil 
 the will of the deceased ; and if there be nothing due from him to 
 us, all the chattels shall remain to the deceased, saving to his wife 
 and children their reasonable shares. 
 
 XXXII. If any freeman dies intestate, his chattels shall be dis- 
 tributed by the hands of his nearest relations and friends, by the^ 
 view of the Church, saving to every one the debts which the de- 
 ceased owed him. 
 
 XXXIII. No constable or bailiff of ours shall take corn or other 
 chattels of any man, unless he presently give him money for it, 
 or hath respite of payment by consent of the seller. 
 
 XXXIV. No constable shall distrain any knight to give money 
 for castle-guard, § if the knight himself shall keep ward in his 
 
 * Pleas of the crown are what we should call criminal prosecutions, instituted 
 in the king's name for offences against his person or for breaches of the peace ; 
 common pleas are civil suits between man and man. 
 
 t Counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trethings are ancient Saxon divisions of 
 the territory or population, the precise extent of each of which is not certainly- 
 known. The " old rents " (Jirmai antiqum) were the feudal dues from each of 
 these territorial divisions, the amount of which had been determined by usage, 
 though the king had often arbitrarily increased them. The demesne lands are 
 those which the lord keeps in his own possession or occupation, as distinguished 
 from those occupied by the various ranks of his tenants. The demesne lands 
 of the crown, under the Norman and Plantagenet lines, were very considerable 
 in extent. 
 
 % A lay-fee is so called to distinguish it from an ecclesiastical benefice. 
 
 § Castle-guard was an imposition laid upon all persons who dwelt withiD a 
 2 
 
10 MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 own person, or by another able man, in case he shall be hin- 
 dered by any reasonable cause. And if we shall lead him, 
 or if we shall send him into the army, he shall be free from 
 castle-guard for the time he shall be in the army by our com- 
 mand. 
 
 XXXV. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other person, shall 
 take horses or carts of any freeman, for carriage, except by consent 
 of the owner. 
 
 XXXVI. Neither we nor our officers shall take any other man's 
 timber for our castles, or other uses, unless by the consent of the 
 owner of the timber. 
 
 XXXVII. We will retain the lands of those that are convicted 
 of felony but one year and one day, and then the lands shall be 
 delivered to the lords of the fee. 
 
 XXXVIII. All wears * from henceforth shall be demolished in the 
 rivers Thames and Medway, and throughout all England, except 
 upon the sea-coast. 
 
 XXXIX. The writ which is called pracipe t shall not henceforth 
 be granted to any one of any tenement, whereby a freeman may 
 lose his court. 
 
 XL. There .shall be one measure of wine and one of ale through 
 our whole realm, and one measure of corn, that is to say, the Lon- 
 don quarter ; and one breadth of dyed cloth and russets and haber- 
 jects, % that is to say, two ells within the list ; and the weights shall 
 be as the measures. 
 
 XLI. Nothing shall henceforth be given or taken for a writ of 
 
 certain distance of a castle or fortress, for the maintenance of those who kept 
 watch and ward in it. Like all other feudal dues, it had been made a pretence 
 for much extortion. 
 
 * Wears are dams and similar contrivances erected in rivers, for the purpose 
 of taking fish or conveying water to a mill. According to the present English 
 law, wears cannot be maintained to the prejudice of the public or of individuals, 
 except such as have existed from time immemorial, or are sanctioned by act of 
 Parliament. 
 
 t The writ prwcipe quod reddat signifies usually an order from the king, or 
 some court of justice, to put in possession one wbo complains of having been 
 unjustly ousted. The intention of this article seems to be, that the person dis- 
 possessed by such an order should still have opportunity to try his title in a 
 court of law. 
 
 } A sort of coarse cloth. 
 
MAGNA CHARTA. 11 
 
 inquisition * of life or limb, but it shall be granted gratis, and not 
 denied. 
 
 XLII. If any one holds of us by fee-farm, or socage, or burg- 
 age^ and holds lands of another by military service, we will not 
 have the wardship of the heir, or of land which belongs to another 
 man's fee, by reason of what he holds of us by fee-farm, socage, 
 or burgage ; nor will we have the wardship of the fee-farm, soc- 
 age, or burgage, unless the fee-farm itself is bound to perform 
 military service. 
 
 XLIII. We will not have the wardship of an heir, nor of any 
 land which he holds of another by military service, by reason of 
 any petit sergeanty | he holds of us, as by the service of giving us 
 knives, arrows, or the like. 
 
 XLIV. No bailiff for the future shall put any man to his law, § 
 upon his mere accusation, without credible witnesses produced to 
 prove it. 
 
 XLV. No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized, 
 or outlawed, or banished, or anyways injured ; nor will we pass 
 upon him, nor send upon him, || unless by the legal judgment of 
 his peers, or by the law of the land. 
 
 * A writ to inquire whether a man committed to prison on suspicion of mur- 
 der was committed on just cause of suspicion, or only out of malice and ill- 
 will, is called a writ of inquisition. 
 
 t " One of the earliest and most important changes in the condition of the 
 burgesses," says Mr. Hallam, " Was the conversion of their individual tributes 
 into a perpetual rent for the whole borough. The town was then said to be af- 
 fermed, or let in fee-farm, to the burgesses and their successors for ever.'' If 
 no such conversion has been made, then the tenure by which the individual in- 
 habitants of the borough hold their land, as by the payment of a certain rent, 
 is called a burgage tenure. Socage has nearly the same meaning with reference 
 to land in the country, that burgage has with respect to land in a, borough or 
 town. It is a tenure whereby one holds a tenement on condition, anciently, of 
 ploughing the land of his lord, or performing other inferior services in hus- 
 bandry. These services were afterwards commuted into a fixed money rent, 
 and then the tenure was called free socage. 
 
 t Sergeanty is held to be a service that cannot be due from » tenant to any 
 lord, except the king only. Grand sergeanty is when a tenant holds on con- 
 dition of performing some personal service, either at the king's coronation or in 
 things military ; petit sergeanty is when one is bound to give the king annually 
 some small thing for the wars, and is in effect payable as rent. 
 
 § " To put any man to his law '' is, in general terms, to subject him to trial. 
 
 || Nee super euro, ibimus, nee super eum mittemus ; " we will neither pass upon 
 him, nor send upon him." These words have been variously explained ; but 
 
12 
 
 MAGNA CHAKTA. 
 
 XL VI. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or delay to 
 any man, right or justice. 
 
 » XLVII. All merchants shall have safe and secure conduct to ' 
 go out of and to come into England, and to stay there, and to pass, 
 as well by land as by water, to buy and sell by the ancient and al- 
 lowed customs, without any extortion, except in time of war, or 
 when they shall be of any nation at war with us. 
 
 XL VIII. And if there shall be found any such in our land in the 
 beginning of a war, they shall be attached, without damage to 
 their bodies or goods, until it may be known unto us, or our chief 
 justiciary, how our merchants are treated who happen to be in the 
 country which is at war with us ; and if ours be safe there, theirs 
 shall be-safe in our lands. 
 
 XLIX. It shall be lawful henceforth for any one to go out of our 
 kingdom, and return, safely and securely, by land or by water, 
 saving his allegiance to us ; unless in time of war, by some short 
 space, for the common good of the kingdom ; except those who 
 are prisoners and outlaws according to the law of the land, and 
 people at war with us, and merchants who may be in such condi- 
 tion as is above mentioned. 
 
 L. If any man holds of any escheat,* as of the honor t of 
 
 Coke's interpretation of them seems the plainest and most authoritative. He 
 says the meaning is, " No man shall be condemned at the king's instance, either 
 in, the Court of King's Bench, where the king is supposed to be always present 
 and to render judgment in his own person (nee super eum ibimus) ; nor be- 
 fore any commissioner or judge whatever, whom the king may delegate and 
 appoint to try him (nee super eum mittemus)." 
 
 This article, with the one which precedes and that which follows it, may be 
 said to constitute the essence and the glory of the Great Charter ; for in a few 
 plain and weighty words, very comprehensive in signification, and now ren- 
 dered solemn by the lapse of many ages and by the many great occasions on 
 which they have been cited, they afford an effectual guaranty of what are so 
 often proudly called " the liberties of Englishmen." They fully justify the 
 grand eulogium passed upon Magna Charta by Mr. Hallam, when he calls it 
 " still the keystone of English liberty. All that has since been obtained is little 
 more than as confirmation or commentary ; and if every subsequent law were 
 to be swept away, there would still remain the bold features that distinguish a 
 free from a despotic monarchy." 
 
 * According to the fundamental principle of the feudal system, that all the 
 land in the realm belongs to the king, when a man died without heirs, or when 
 he forfeited his tenancy by treason or any other crime, his estate reverted, by 
 escheat, as it was called, to the crown. 
 
 t Honor is particularly used for a more noble seigniory or lordship, on which 
 
MAGNA CHARTA. 13 
 
 Wallingford, Nottingham, Bologne, Lancaster, or of other escheats 
 which are in our hands, and are baronies, and he dies, his heir 
 shall not give any other relief, or perform any other service, to us 
 than he would to the baron, if the barony were in possession of 
 the baron ; we will hold it after the same manner in which the 
 baron held it. 
 
 LI. Those men who dwell without the forest * henceforth shall 
 not come before our justiciaries of the forest upon ordinary 
 summons, unless they are impleaded, or are pledges for any that 
 were attached, for something concerning the forest. 
 
 LII. We will not make justiciaries, constables, bailiffs, or 
 sheriffs, except of such persons as are knowing in the laws of the 
 realm, and disposed duly to observe them. 
 
 LIII. All barons who are founders of abbeys, and have charters 
 of the kings of England for the advowson,t or are entitled to it by 
 , « 
 
 inferior lordships and manors depend, by performance of customs and services ; 
 and no lordships were originally honors, but such as belonged to the king ; 
 though afterwards they were granted infee to noblemen. 
 
 # " The forest " is, here and elsewhere, used technically for the Icing's forest. 
 It signifies a certain territory of wooded grounds and pastures, within proper 
 marks and boundaries, which are known either as matter of record or by pre- 
 scription, privileged by royal authority for the peaceful abiding and nourish- 
 ment of the beasts and birds which are the king's game, and are reserved for 
 the king's pleasure. To preserve the game and keep up the privileges of the 
 place, there were particular laws, courts, and officers belonging to the forest. 
 That passion for the chase, which seems to have characterized the kings and 
 the nobility of England from time immemorial, caused these forests to be ar- 
 bitrarily enlarged by taking in adjacent lands, and the game to be preserved by 
 very rigorous enactments. The enforcement of these laws, and the frequent 
 disputes as to the proper boundaries of these great game-preserves, were a 
 fruitful source of popular and baronial discontent and rebellion. Lands and 
 tenements, which had long been held by particular families, were often arbi- 
 trarily afforested, as the phrase was, or annexed to the fonest, under the pretext 
 that they had anciently formed a part of it. Vexatious suits were multiplied, 
 and cruel punishments inflicted, for breaches of the forest laws. The barons 
 who compelled King John to grant the Great Charter were thus induced to 
 obtain afterwards the grant of another instrument, called the Charter of 
 the Forest, which, though now obsolete, was probably quite as effective at the 
 time in adding to the happiness and security of the people, as Magna Charta 
 itself. Yet in this article, and several others which follow, provision is made 
 to rectify some of the most flagrant abuses connected with the forests, as if to 
 take double assurance against them. 
 
 t Advowson is the right of presentation to a clerical benefice 
 
14 MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 ancient tenure, may have the custody of them, when vacant, as 
 they ought to have. 
 
 LIV. All woods that have been afforested in our own time shall 
 forthwith be disforested, and the like shall be done with the banks 
 of rivers that have been inclosed by us, during our reign. 
 
 LV. All evil customs concerning forests, warrens, and forest- 
 ers, warreners, sheriffs, and their officers, river-banks and their 
 keepers, shall forthwith be inquired into in each county ^ by twelve 
 sworn knights of the same shire, chosen by fair persons in the 
 same county ; and within forty days after the said inquest, they 
 shall be utterly abolished by the same, so as never to be restored. 
 
 LVI. We will immediately give up all hostages and engage- 
 ments delivered unto us by our English subjects, as securities for 
 their keeping the peace, and yielding us faithful service. 
 
 LVII. We will entirely remove from our bailiwicks the rela- 
 tions of Gerard de Athyes, to that henceforth they shall have no 
 bailiwick in England. We will also remove Engelard de Cy- 
 gony, Andrew, Peter, and Gyon, from the chancery, Gyon de Cy- 
 gony, Geoffrey de Martyn and his brothers, Philip Mark and his 
 brothers, and his nephew Geoffrey, and their whole retinue.' 
 
 LVIII. And as soon as peace is restored, we will send out of the 
 kingdom all foreign soldiers, crossbowmen, and stipendiaries, who 
 are come with horses and arms, to the injury of our people. 
 
 LIX. If any one hath been dispossessed or deprived by us, with- 
 out the legal judgment of his peers, of his lands, castles, liberties, 
 or right, we will forthwith restore them to him ; and if any dispute 
 arises upon this head, let the matter be decided by the five-and- 
 twenty barons hereafter mentioned for the preservation of the 
 peace. 
 
 LX. As for all those things of which any person has, without 
 the legal judgment of his peers, been dispossessed or deprived, 
 either by King Henry, our father, or our brother, King Richard, and 
 which we have in our hands, or are possessed by others, and which 
 we are bound to warrant and make good, we shall have a respite 
 for the termusually allowed to Crusaders; excepting those things 
 about which there is a suit depending, or whereof an inquest hath 
 been made by our order, before we undertook the Crusade.* But 
 
 * Certain privileges were assigned, through the influence of the Church, to 
 
MAGNA CHAETA. 15 
 
 when we return from our pilgrimage, or if we do not perform it, 
 we will immediately cause full justice tp be administered therein. 
 
 LXI. We shall have the same respite, and the same rules shall 
 be observed, for disforesting or continuing the forests which 
 Henry, our father, or our brother Richard, have afforested ; and 
 for such wardships of lands which are in another's fee, as we 
 have hitherto enjoyed by reason of a fee held of us by knight's 
 service ; and for the abbeys founded in any other fee than our own, 
 in which the lord of the fee claims a right. And when we return 
 from our pilgrimage, or if we should not perform it, we will im- 
 mediately do full justice to all the complainants in this behalf. 
 
 LX1I. No man shall be taken or imprisoned upon the appeal of 
 a woman,* for the death of any other man than her husband. 
 
 LXIII. All unjust and illegal fines, and all amerciaments im- 
 posed unjustly and contrary to the law of the land, shall be entirely 
 remitted, or else left to the decision of the five-and-twenty barons 
 hereafter mentioned for the preservation of the peace, or of the 
 major part of them, together with the aforesaid Stephen, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, if he can be present, and others whom he 
 shall think fit to take along with him ; and if he cannot be present, 
 the business shall nevertheless, go on without him ; but so that if 
 one or more, of the five-and-twenty barons aforesaid be plaintiffs 
 in the same cause, they shall be set aside as to what concerns this 
 particular affair, and others be chosen in their room out of the 
 said five-and-twenty, and sworn by the rest to decide that matter. 
 
 LXIV. If we have disseized or dispossessed the Welsh of any 
 lands, liberties, or other things, without the legal judgment of their 
 peers, these shall be immediately restored to them. And if any 
 
 those who assumed the cross and went to the holy war in Palestine, among 
 which was an exemption, for a certain period, from all claims against them. 
 Of this pretext the cowardly and hypocritical John made frequent use, though 
 in fact he never joined the Crusade. 
 
 # Appeal, according to its primitive legal meaning, signifies the accusation of 
 a murderer by a person who had interest in the party killed, or of a felon by 
 one of his accomplices. Thus the heir male may bring an appeal for the death 
 of him from whom he received his estate, or a wife for the death of her hus- 
 band. Such an appeal must be commenced within a year and a day after*the 
 death of the person murdered, and within the county where the crime was com- 
 mitted, or where the person died. 
 
16 
 
 MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 dispute arises upon this head, the matter shall be determined in the 
 Marches,* by the judgment of their peers ; for tenements in Eng- 
 land, according to the law of England ; for tenements in Wales, 
 according to the law of Wales ; for tenements in the Marches, ac- 
 cording to the law of the Marches ; the same shall the Welsh do 
 to us and our subjects. 
 
 LXV. As for all those things of which any Welshman hath, 
 without the legal judgment of his peers, been disseized or deprived 
 by King Henry, our father, or our brother, King Eichard, and 
 which we either have in our hands, or others are possessed of, and 
 which we ought to warrant, we shall have a respite for the term 
 generally allowed to Crusaders ; excepting those things about 
 which a suit is pending, or whereof an inquest has been made by 
 our order, before we undertook the Crusade. But when we re- 
 turn, or if perchance we stay at home and do not perform our 
 pilgrimage, we will immediately do them full justice, according to 
 the laws of the Welsh, and of the countries or districts aforemen- 
 tioned. 
 
 LXVI. We will without delay dismiss the son of Llewellin, and 
 all the Welsh hostages, and release them from the engagements 
 they entered into with us for the preservation of the peace. 
 
 LXVII. We will treat with Alexander, King of Scots, concern- 
 ing the restoring of his sisters, and hostages, and rights and liber- 
 ties, in the same form and manner as we shall do to the rest of our 
 barons of England ; unless, by the engagements which his father 
 William, late King of Scots, hath entered into with us, it ought to 
 be otherwise ; and this shall be left to the determination of his 
 peers in our court. 
 
 LXVIII. All the aforesaid customs and liberties which we have 
 granted to be holden in our kingdom, as much as it belongs to us 
 towards our people, shall be observed also by all our subjects, as 
 well clergy as laity, as far as they are concerned, towards their 
 dependents.t 
 
 * The Marches signify the limits, or the border districts, as between England 
 and Wales, or England and Scotland. 
 
 t In this article, again, we perceive that the intention of the barons who im- 
 posed Magna Charta upon the king was to guard the rights of the people gen- 
 erally, not only against the monarch, but against all the lords who might be 
 disposed to use their feudal power oppressively. 
 
MAGNA CHAETA. 17 
 
 LXIX. And whereas, for the honor of God and the amendment 
 of our kingdom, and for quieting the discord that has arisen be- 
 tween us and our barons, we have granted all the things afore- 
 said ; willing to render them firm and lasting, we do give and 
 grant our subjects the following security, namely : that the barons 
 may choose five-and-twenty barons of the kingdom, whom they 
 shall think proper, who shall take care with all their might to hold 
 and observe, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties 
 which we have granted them, and by this our present charter con- 
 firmed. So that if we, our justiciary, our bailiffs, or any of our 
 officers, shall in any case fail in the performance of them towards 
 any person, or shall break through any of these articles of peace 
 and security, and the offence is notified to any four barons out of 
 the five-and-twenty aforementioned, the said four barons shall re- 
 pair to us, or to our justiciary if we are out of the realm, and, 
 laying open the grievance, shall petition to have it redressed with- 
 out delay ; and if it is not redressed by us, or, if we should chance 
 to be out of the realm, if it is not redressed by our justiciary, within 
 forty days, reckoning from the time when it was notified to us, or 
 to our justiciary if we should be out of the realm, the four barons 
 aforesaid shall lay the cause before the rest of the five-and-twenty 
 barons, and the said five-and-twenty barons, together with the 
 community of the whole kingdom, shall distrain and distress us in 
 all the ways possible ; namely, by seizing our castles, lands, pos- 
 sessions, and in any other manner they can, till the grievance is 
 redressed to their pleasure, saving harmless our own person, and 
 the persons of our queen and children ; and when it is redressed, 
 they shall obey us as before. 
 
 LXX. And any person whatsoever in the kingdom may swear 
 that he will obey the orders of the five-and-twenty barons afore- 
 said, in the execution of the premises, and that he will distress us, 
 jointly with them, to the utmost of his power ; and we give public 
 and free liberty to any one that he may swear to them, and we 
 never will hinder any person from taking the same oath. 
 
 LXXI. As for all those of our subjects who will not, of their 
 own accord, swear to join the five-and-twenty barons in distraining 
 and distressing us, we will issue our order to make them take the 
 same oath as aforesaid. 
 
 LXXII. And if any one of the five-and-twenty barons dies, or 
 3 
 
18 
 
 MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 goes out of the kingdom, or is hindered in any other way from 
 putting the things aforesaid in execution, the rest of the said five- 
 and-twenty barons may choose another in his place, at their discre- 
 tion, who shall be sworn in like manner as the rest. 
 
 LXXIII. In all things that are committed to the charge of these 
 five-and-twenty barons, if, when they are all assembled together, 
 they should happen to disagree about any matter, or some of them, 
 when summoned, will not or cannot come, whatever is agreed upon 
 or enjoined by the major part of those who are present shall be 
 reputed as firm and valid as if all the five-and-twenty had given 
 their consent ; and the aforesaid five-and-twenty shall swear, that 
 all the premises they will faithfully observe, and cause with all 
 their power to be observed. 
 
 LXXIV. And we will not, by ourselves or others, procure any- 
 thing from any person whereby any of these concessions and liber- 
 ties may be revoked or lessened ; and if any such thing be ob- 
 tained, let it be null and void ; neither shall we ever make use of 
 it, either by ourselves or any other.* 
 
 LXXV. And all the ill-will, anger, and malice that hath arisen 
 between us and our subjects of the clergy and laity, from the first 
 breaking out of the dissension between us, we do fully remit and 
 forgive. Moreover, all trespasses occasioned by the said dissen- 
 sions, from Easter, in the sixteenth year of our reign, till the res- 
 toration of peace and tranquillity, we hereby entirely remit to all, 
 clergy as well as laity, and, as far as in us lies, do fully forgive. 
 
 LXXVI. We have moreover granted them our letters patent 
 testimonial of Stephen, Lord-Archbishop of Canterbury, of Henry, 
 Lord-Archbishop of Dublin, and the Bishops aforesaid, as also of 
 master Pandulph, for the security and concessions aforesaid. 
 
 LXXVII. Wherefore we will, and firmly enjoin, that the Church 
 of England be free, and that all men in our kingdom have and 
 hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, truly and 
 peaceably, freely and quietly, fully and wholly, to themselves and 
 
 * This article is a curious one, as it shows that the barons foresaw, and 
 so far as was in their power, provided against, the trick which the perjured 
 John very soon put upon them, by inducing the Pope, whom in his baseness 
 he had recognized as lord paramount of England, to release him from his 
 oath, to annul the Charter, and to threaten with excommunication any who 
 should claim the benefit of its provisions. 
 
MAGNA CHARTA. 19 
 
 their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all things and places for ever, 
 as aforesaid. 
 
 LXXVIII. It is also sworn, as well on our part as upon the part of 
 the barons, that all the things aforesaid shall faithfully and sincere- 
 ly be observed. 
 
 Given under our hand, in the presence of the witnesses above 
 , named, and many others, in the meadow called Kunningmede, be- 
 tween Windsor and Staines, the 15th day of June, in the 17th year 
 of our reign. 
 
[Abiong the numerous ratifications of the Great Charter, far 
 the most important is that which Edward I. was compelled to 
 grant, in 1297. Mr. Hallam calls it " that famous statute, inade- 
 quately denominated the Confirmation of the Charters, because it 
 added another pillar to our constitution, not less important than the 
 Great Charter itself." After providing for the effectual promulga- 
 tion of the two Charters, that of the Forest being then reckoned of 
 at least equal importance with the main instrument, after denoun- 
 cing a solemn sentence of excommunication against all who should 
 infringe them, and particularly directing them to be allowed in all 
 points as the law of" the land, it went much further. " Hitherto 
 the king's prerogative of levying money, by name of tallage or 
 prise, from his towns and tenants in demesne, had passed unques- 
 tioned. Some impositions, that especially on the export of wool, 
 affected all the king's subjects. It was now the moment to en- 
 franchise the people, and give that security to private property 
 which Magna Charta had given to personal liberty." According 
 to this statute, all such " aids, tasks, and prises " before taken are 
 renounced as precedents, and the king binds himself never to take 
 them in future but by the common assent of the -realm. Hence 
 the Confirmation of the Charters, or an abstract of it under the 
 form of a supposed statute de iallagio non concedendo, was more 
 frequently cited than any other enactment, by those who resisted 
 the illegal exactions of Charles I. 
 
 The original of the Confirmatio Chartarum is still in existence, 
 though considerably shrivelled by the fire which damaged so many 
 of the Cottonian manuscripts in 1731. It is in old Norman French. 
 The translation here given is that which accompanies the original 
 in Ruffhead's Statutes at Large ; but it has been carefully com- 
 pared with the original, and slightly amended.] 
 
CONFIRMATIO CHAETARUM. 21 
 
 CONFIRMATIO CHAETARUM. 
 
 CONFIRMATION 
 THE GREAT CHARTER AND THE CHARTER OF THE FOREST, 
 
 PASSED IN THE 25TH TEAK OF EDWARD I., A. D. 1297. 
 
 Edward, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ire- 
 land, and Duke of Aquitaine, to all who shall see or hear these 
 present letters, greeting : — 
 
 I. Know ye that we, to the honor of God and of Holy Church, 
 and to the profit of all our realm, have granted, for us and our 
 heirs, that the Charter of Liberties and the Charter of the Forest, 
 which were made by common assent of all the realm, in the time 
 of King Henry our father,* shall be kept in every point without 
 breach. And we will that the same Charters shall be sent under 
 our seal, as well to our justices of the forest as to others, and to 
 all sheriffs of shires, and to all our other officers, and to all our 
 cities throughout the realm, together with our writs, in the which 
 it shall be contained, that they cause the aforesaid charters to be 
 published, and declare to the people that we have confirmed them 
 in all points ; and that our justices, sheriffs, mayors, and other 
 ministers, who, under us, have the laws of our land to guide, 
 
 * The Confirmation of the Charters is hereby rendered directly applicable 
 only to the Great Charter and the Charter of the Forest as they were granted 
 by Henry HI., in 1224, and which are now, consequently, a part of the existing 
 law in England. Henry's Charter differs in several respects from that of John, 
 one variation being of singular importance, and of such a nature as we should 
 be least prepared to expect. The prohibition of levying aids or escuages with- 
 out consent of the Great Council is not found in the later instrument, — " an 
 omission," says Mr. Hallam, "for which we cannot assign any other motive 
 than the disposition of his ministers to get rid of that restriction." 
 
22 
 
 C0NFIRMATI0 CHARTARUM. 
 
 shall allow the said Charters pleaded before them in judgment in 
 all their points, — that is, to wit, the Great Charter as the Common 
 Law, and the Charter of the Forest according to the assize of the. 
 forest, for the amendment of our people. 
 
 II. And we will, that if any judgment be given from henceforth 
 contrary to the points of the Charters aforesaid by the Justices, or 
 by any other our ministers that hold plea before them against 
 the points of the Charters, it shall be undone, and holden for 
 naught. 
 
 III. And we will, that the same Charters shall be sent, under our 
 seal, to cathedral churches throughout our realm, there to remain, 
 and shall be read before the people two times by the year. 
 
 IV. And that all archbishops and bishops shall pronounce the 
 sentence of excommunication against all those who, by word, deed, 
 or counsel, do contrary to the aforesaid Charters, or who in any 
 point break or undo them. And that the said curses be twice a 
 year denounced and published by the prelates aforesaid. And if 
 the same prelates, bishops, or any of them, be remiss in the de- 
 nunciation of the said sentences, the Archbishops of Canterbury 
 and York for the time being shall compel and distrain them to the 
 execution of their duties in form aforesaid. 
 
 V. And for so much as divers people of our realm are in fear 
 that the aids and tasks which they have given to us beforetime 
 towards our wars and other business, of their own grant and good- 
 will, (howsoever they were made,) might turn to a bondage to tliem 
 and their heirs, because they might at another time be found in the 
 rolls, and likewise for the prises taken throughout the realm by 
 our ministers in our name : We have granted for us and our 
 heirs, that we shall not draw such aids, tasks, nor prises * into a 
 
 * The tasks and prises here spoken of may be included under the general 
 name of tallages, of which Mr. Hallam gives the following explanation. " None 
 but military tenants could be liable for escuage ; but the inferior subjects of the 
 crown were oppressed by tallages. The demesne lands of the king and all 
 royal towns were liable to tallage, an imposition far more rigorous and irreg- 
 ular than those which fell upon the gentry. Tallages were continually raised 
 upon different towns during all the Norman reigns, without the consent of 
 Parliament, which neither represented them nor cared for their interests. The 
 itinerant justices in their circuit usually set this tax. Inferior lords might 
 tallage their own tenants and demesne towns, though not, it seems, without the 
 king's permission. Customs upon the import and export of merchandise, of 
 
CONFIRMATIO CHARTARUM. 23 
 
 custom, for anything that hath been done heretofore, be it by roll 
 or any other precedent that may be found. 
 
 VI. Moreover, we have granted for us and our heirs, as well to 
 archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and- other folk of Holy Church, 
 as also to earls, barons, and to all the commonalty of the land, 
 that for no business from henceforth we shall take such manner of 
 aids, tasks, nor prises, but by the common assent of all the realm, 
 and for the common profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and 
 prises due and accustomed. 
 
 VII. And for so much as the greater part of the commonalty of 
 the realm find themselves sore grieved with the maletent* of 
 wools, that is to wit, a toll of forty shillings for every sack of 
 wool, and have made petition to us to release the same : We at 
 their requests have clearly released it, and have granted that we 
 shall not take that, or any other, without their common assent and 
 good-will, saving to us and our heirs the custom of wools, skins, 
 and leather, granted before by the commonalty aforesaid. In wit- 
 ness of which things, we have caused these our letters to be made 
 patent. Witness Edward, our son, at London, the tenth day of 
 October, the five-and-twentieth year of our reign. 
 
 which the prisage of wine, that is, a right of taking two casks out of each 
 vessel, seems the most material, were immemorially exacted by the crown." 
 
 * Maletent, otherwise called maletolt, is explained by Dufresne as male tolta, res 
 injuste ablata, an unjust exaction. A new tax, of forty shillings on every wool- 
 sack exported, had been irregularly granted, and therefore illegally taken, only 
 the year before, instead of the tax of one noble, granted to the king in 1275. 
 
[The Statute of Treasons, enacted in the 25th year of Edward 
 III., A. D. 1350, occupies a high place among the age-hallowed 
 muniments of English liberty. The crime of high treason seems 
 to have been of a very vague and indefinite nature, determined 
 only by the arbitrary construction of the courts, which sought 
 chiefly to gratify the malice or vengeance of the king. No peo- 
 ple can be free unless their laws provide security against the dis- 
 cretion of the judges in a matter which so nearly concerns the 
 government and its subjects. The Parliament of Edward III., de- 
 claring that " the king's judges in different counties adjudge men 
 indicted before them to be traitors for diverse matters not known 
 by the Commons to be treasonable," petitioned that the king would 
 " declare in Parliament what should be held for treason." This 
 petition caused the enactment of a statute which has, ever since, 
 been the strongest safeguard of those whom the king wished to 
 punish as traitors. I insert only an extract from it, which con- 
 tains all the essential portion of the statute.] 
 
THE STATUTE OF TREASONS. 25 
 
 EXTRACT 
 
 FK03I 
 
 THE STATUTE OF TEEASONS, 
 
 PASSED IN THE 25TH TEAS OP EDWAED III., A. D. 1350. 
 
 Whereas divers opinions have been before this time in what 
 case treason shall be said, and in what not ; the king, at the request 
 of the Lords and Commons, hath made a declaration in the man- 
 ner as hereafter followeth : that is to say, when a man doth com- 
 pass or imagine the death of our lord the king, of my lady his 
 queen, or of their eldest son and heir ; or if a man do violate the 
 king's companion, or the king's eldest daughter unmarried, or the 
 wife of the king's eldest son and heir ; or if a man do levy war 
 against our lord the king in his realm, or be adherent to the king's 
 enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm 
 or elsewhere, and thereof be provably attainted of open deed by 
 people of their condition ; and if a man counterfeit the king's 
 great or privy seal, or his money ; and if a man bring false money 
 into this realm, counterfeit to the money of England, as the 
 money called Lusheburg, or other like to the said money of Eng- 
 land, knowing the money to be false, to merchandise or make 
 payment in deceit of our said lord the king and of his people ; 
 and if a man slay the chancellor, treasurer, or the king's justices 
 of the one bench or the other, justices in eyre, or justices of 
 assize, and all other justices assigned to hear and determine, being 
 in their place doing their offices ; and it is to be understood, that 
 in the cases above rehearsed, it ought to be judged treason which 
 extends to our lord the king and his royal majesty. And of such 
 treason the forfeiture of the escheats pertaineth to our lord the 
 king, as well of the lands and tenements holden of others as of 
 himself. 
 
[The principal matters of complaint taken up by the third Par- 
 liament of Charles I. were, the exaction of money in the form of 
 forced loans or benevolences ; the commitment of those who re- 
 fused to pay the sums thus demanded, and the refusal of the courts 
 to liberate the persons thus committed when brought up by writs 
 of habeas corpus ; the billeting of soldiers on private persons ; and 
 the commissions to try military offenders by martial law. These 
 abuses formed the foundation of the Petition of Right* presented 
 by the Commons in the shape of a declaratory statute. The Par- 
 liament did not claim, as they ' affirmed, any new or additional 
 powers or privileges, but aimed only at securing those which had 
 been transmitted to them from their ancestors. Hence they re- 
 solved that the new law should be called a Petition of Right, as 
 implying that it contained only a corroboration or explanation of 
 the ancient constitution, and not any infringement of royal prerog- 
 ative or acquisition of new liberties.] 
 
THE PETITION OF EIGHT. 27 
 
 THE PETITION OF EIGHT, 
 
 GRANTED IN THE 3D YEAR OF CHARLES I., A. D. 1627. 
 
 Humbly show unto our sovereign lord the king, the Lords spir- 
 itual and temporal, and Commons in Parliament assembled, That, 
 whereas it is declared and enacted, by a statute made in the time 
 of the reign of King Edward I., commonly called Statutum de 
 tallagio non concedendo, that no tallage or aid shall be levied by 
 the king or his heirs in this realm, without the good-will and as- 
 sent of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, 
 and other the freemen of the commonalty of this realm ; and by 
 authority of Parliament holden in the five-and-twentieth year of 
 the reign of King Edward III. it is declared and enacted, that, 
 from thenceforth, no person shall be compelled to make any loans 
 to the king against his will, because such loans were against reason 
 and the franchise of the land ; and by other laws of this realm it 
 is provided, that none should be charged by any charge or impo- 
 sition called a ienevolence, or by such like charge ; by which the 
 statutes before mentioned, and other the good laws and statutes of 
 this realm, your subjects have inherited this freedom, that they 
 should not be compelled to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or 
 other like charge, not set by common consent in Parliament : 
 
 II. Yet, nevertheless, of late, divers commissions, directed to 
 sundry commissioners in several counties, with instructions, have 
 issued ; by means whereof your people have been in divers places 
 assembled, and required to lend certain sums of money unto your 
 Majesty ; and many of them, upon their refusal to do so, have had 
 an oath administered unto them not warrantable by the laws or 
 statutes of this realm, and have been constrained to become bound 
 to make appearance and give attendance before your Privy Coun- 
 cil, and in other places ; and others of them have been therefor 
 imprisoned, confined, and sundry other ways molested and dis- 
 quieted ; and divers other charges have been laid and levied upon 
 your people, in several counties, by lord lieutenants, deputy lieu- 
 tenants, commissioners for musters, justices of peace, and others, 
 
28 THE PETITION OF EIGHT. 
 
 by command or direction from your Majesty, or your Privy Coun- 
 cil, against the laws and free customs of this realm : 
 
 III. And whereas also, by the statute called the Great Charter 
 of the liberties of England, it is declared and enacted, that no 
 freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his free- 
 hold or liberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or 
 in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, 
 or by the law of the land : 
 
 IV. And, in the eight-and-twentieth year of the reign of King 
 Edward III., it was declared and enacted, by authority of Parlia- 
 ment, that no man, of what estate or condition that he be, should 
 be put out of his land or tenements, nor taken, nor imprisoned, nor 
 disinherited, nor put to death, without being brought to answer by 
 due process of law : 
 
 V. Nevertheless, against the tenor of the said statutes, and other 
 the good laws and statutes of your realm to that end provided, 
 divers of your subjects have of late been imprisoned without any 
 cause showed ; and when, for their deliverance, they were brought 
 before justice, by your Majesty's writs of habeas corpus, there to 
 undergo and receive as the court should order, and their keepers 
 commanded to certify the causes of their detainer, no cause was 
 certified but that they were detained by your Majesty's special 
 command, signified by the lords of your Privy Council, and yet 
 were returned back to several prisons, without being charged 
 with anything to which they might make answer according to the 
 law : 
 
 VI. And whereas, of late, great companies of soldiers and mari- 
 ners have been dispersed into divers counties of the realm, and 
 the inhabitants, against their wills, have been compelled to receive 
 them into their houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn, against 
 the laws and customs of this realm, and to the great grievance and 
 vexation of the people : 
 
 VII. And whereas also, by authority of Parliament, in the five- 
 and-twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it is declared 
 and enacted, that no man should be forejudged of life or limb 
 against the form of the Great Charter and the law of the land • 
 and, by the said Great Charter, and other the laws and statutes 
 of this your realm, no man ought to be adjudged to death but by 
 the laws established in this your realm, either by the customs of 
 
THE PETITION OF EIGHT. 29 
 
 the same realm, or by acts of parliament; and whereas no of- 
 fender, of what kind soever, is exempted from the proceedings to 
 be used, and punishments to be inflicted, by the laws and statutes 
 of this your realm : Nevertheless, of late time, divers commissions, 
 under your Majesty's great seal, have issued forth, by which cer- 
 tain persons have been assigned and appointed commissioners, with 
 power and authority to proceed within the land, according to the 
 justice of martial law, against such soldiers or mariners, or other 
 dissolute persons joining with them, as should commit any murder, 
 robbery, felony, mutiny, or other outrage or misdemeanor whatso- 
 ever, and by such summary course and order as is agreeable to 
 martial law, and as is used in armies in time of war, to proceed to 
 the trial and condemnation of such offenders, and them to cause to 
 be executed and put to death according to the law martial : 
 
 VIII. By pretext whereof, some of your Majesty's subjects have 
 been, by some of the said commissioners, put to death, when and 
 where, if by the laws and statutes of the land they had deserved 
 death, by the same laws and statutes also they might, and by no 
 other ought, to have been judged and executed : 
 
 IX. And also sundry grievous offenders, by color thereof claim- 
 ing an exemption, have escaped the punishments due to them by 
 the laws and statutes of this your realm, by reason that divers of 
 your officers and ministers of justice have unjustly refused or for- 
 borne to proceed against such offenders, according to the same 
 laws and statutes, upon pretence that the said offenders were pun- 
 ishable only by martial law, and by authority of such commissions 
 as aforesaid ; which commissions, and all other of like nature, are 
 wholly and directly contrary to the said laws and statutes of this 
 your realm : — 
 
 X. They do therefore humbly pray your most excellent Majesty, 
 That no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift, 
 loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without common con- 
 sent, by act of Parliament ; and that none be called to make an- 
 swer, or take such oath, or to give attendance, or be confined, or 
 otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same, or for re- 
 fusal thereof ; and that no freeman- in any such manner as is be- 
 fore mentioned be imprisoned or detained ; and that your Majesty 
 would be pleased to remove the said soldiers and mariners, and 
 that people may not be so burdened in time to come ; and that the 
 
30 THE PETITION OF RIGHT. 
 
 aforesaid commissions, for proceeding by martial law, may be re- 
 voked and annulled ; and that hereafter no commissions of like 
 nature may issue forth, to any person or persons whatsoever, to 
 be executed as aforesaid, lest, by color of them, any of your 
 Majesty's subjects be destroyed, or put to death, contrary to the 
 laws and franchise of the land. 
 
 XI. All which they most humbly pray of your most excellent 
 Majesty, as their rights and liberties, according to the laws and 
 statutes of this realm ; and that your Majesty would also vouch- 
 safe to declare, that the awards, doings, and proceedings to the 
 prejudice of your people, in any of the premises, shall not be 
 drawn hereafter into consequence or example ; and that your 
 Majesty would be also graciously pleased, for the further comfort 
 and safety of your people, to declare your royal will and pleasure, 
 that in the things aforesaid all your officers and ministers shall 
 serve you according to the laws and statutes of this realm, as they 
 tender the honor of your Majesty, and the prosperity of this king- 
 dom. 
 
 Which petition being read and fully understood by his Majesty 
 the king, it was thus answered in full Parliament, viz. : — 
 Soit droit fait comme il est desiree.* 
 
 * This is the old form, still preserved, according to which the sovereign 
 gives his assent to a bill or petition enacted by Parliament. For an account of 
 the evasion which Charles I., in this instance, attempted to practise, giving first 
 a long and ambiguous answer, and only at last, seeing that the Commons 
 would not otherwise be satisfied, signifying his assent in the usual form, refer- 
 ence may be made to any of the histories of the period. 
 
[" It is a very common mistake, and that not only among for- 
 eigners, but many from whom some knowledge of our constitu- 
 tional laws might be expected, to suppose that this statute of 
 Charles II. [the Habeas Corpus Act] enlarged in a great degree 
 our liberties, and forms a sort of epoch in their history. But 
 though a very beneficial enactment, and eminently remedial in 
 many cases of illegal imprisonment, it introduced no new princi- 
 ple, nor conferred any right upon the subject. From the earliest 
 records of the English law, no freeman could be detained in pris- 
 on, except upon a criminal charge or conviction, or for a civil 
 debt. In the former case, it was always in his power to demand 
 of the Court of King's Bench a writ of habeas corpus ad subjicien- 
 dum, directed to the person detaining him in custody, by which he 
 was enjoined to bring up the body of the prisoner, with the war- 
 rant of commitment, that the court might judge of its sufficiency, 
 and remand the party, admit him to bail, or discharge him, accord- 
 ing to the nature of the charge. This writ issued of right, and 
 could not be refused by the court. It was not to bestow an im- 
 munity from arbitrary imprisonment (which is abundantly pro- 
 vided in Magna Charta, if indeed it were not much more ancient), 
 but to cut off the abuses by which the government's lust of power 
 and the servile subtlety of crown lawyers had impaired so funda- 
 mental a privilege." — Hallam's Constitutional History. 
 
 Such abuses were commitments in the name of the king in 
 council, sending prisoners to distant jails, omitting to put their 
 names in the calendar on a jail delivery, refusing writs for produ- 
 cing before the judges persons illegally imprisoned, and jailers 
 disobeying such writs when they were sued out. Lord Shaftes- 
 bury, an able but profligate politician, who needed some shield 
 against the king's vengeance which he was constantly provoking, 
 had several times in vain attempted to remedy these evils. At 
 last, in 1679, with admirable skill he framed this statute, by which, 
 says Lord Campbell, " personal liberty has been more effectually 
 guarded in England than it has ever been in any other country in 
 the world." 
 
 The bill was strongly opposed in the House of Lords, and it is 
 a curious fact that the third reading of it was carried by an acci- 
 dent. Burnet says : " Lords Grey and Norris were named to be 
 tellers. Lord Norris, being a man subject to vapors, was not at 
 all times attentive to what he was doing. So a very fat lord com- 
 ing in, Lord Grey counted him for ten, as a jest, at first ; but see- 
 ing Lord Norris had not observed it, he went on with his misreck- 
 oning of ten ; so it was reported to the House, and declared that 
 they who were for the bill were the majority, though it indeed 
 went on the other side."] 
 
32 THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 
 
 THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT, 
 
 AN ACT EOR THE BETTER SECURING THE LIBERTY OF THE SUB- 
 JECT, AND FOR PREVENTION OE IMPRISONMENT BEYOND THE 
 
 SEAS. 
 
 PASSED IN THE 31ST TEAR OP CHARLES II., A. D. 1679. 
 
 Whereas great delays have been used by sheriffs, gaolers, and 
 other officers, to whose custody any of the king's subjects have 
 been committed, for criminal or supposed criminal matters, in 
 making returns of writs of habeas corpus, to them directed, by 
 standing out on alias or pluries * habeas corpus, and sometimes 
 more, and by other shifts to avoid their yielding obedience to such 
 writs, contrary to their duty and the known laws of the land, 
 whereby many of the king's subjects have been, and hereafter may 
 be, long detained in prison, in such cases where by law they are 
 bailable, to their great charge and vexation : 
 
 II. For the prevention whereof, and the more speedy relief of 
 all persons imprisoned for any such criminal or supposed criminal 
 matters, (2) Be it enacted by the king's most excellent Majesty, 
 by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and tem- 
 poral, and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by 
 the authority thereof, That whensoever any person or persons shall 
 bring any habeas corpus directed unto any sheriff or sheriffs, gaoler, 
 minister, or other person whatsoever, for any person in his or their 
 custody, and the said writ shall be served upon the said officer, or 
 left at the gaol or prison with any of the under-officers, under- 
 keepers, or deputy of the said officers or keepers, that the said of- 
 ficer or officers, his or their under-officers, under-keepers, or depu- 
 
 * Alias is a second, and pluries is the name of a third writ, sent out by the 
 courts after the former has produced no effect. The object of this act is to 
 render a second writ of habeas corpus unnecessary, by making the first one ef- 
 fectual without fail. 
 
THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 33 
 
 ties, shall within three days after the service thereof, as aforesaid, 
 (unless the commitment aforesaid were for treason or felony, plain- 
 ly and especially expressed in the warrant of commitment,) upon 
 payment or tender of the charges of bringing the said prisoner, to 
 be ascertained by the judge or court that awarded the same, and 
 indorsed upon the said writ, not exceeding twelve pence per mile, 
 and upon security given by his own bond to pay the charges of 
 carrying back the prisoner, if he shall -be remanded by the court or 
 judge to which he shall be brought, according to the true intent of 
 this present act, and that he will not make any escape by the way, 
 make return of such writ ; (3) and bring, or cause to be brought, 
 the body of the party so committed or restrained, unto or before 
 the Lord Chancellor,or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, 
 for the time being, or the judges or barons of the said court from 
 whence the said writ shall issue, or unto and before such other 
 person or persons before whom the said writ is made returnable, 
 according to the command thereof ; (4) and shall then likewise 
 certify the true causes of his detainer or imprisonment, unless the 
 commitment of the said party be in any place beyond the distance 
 of twenty miles from the place or places where such court or per- 
 son is, or shall be residing ; and if beyond the distance of twenty 
 miles, and not above one hundred miles, then within the space of 
 ten days ; and if beyond the distance of one hundred miles, then 
 within the space of twenty days after such delivery aforesaid, and 
 not longer. 
 
 III. And to the intent that no sheriff, gaoler, or other officer, may 
 pretend ignorance of the import of any such writ, (2) Be it en- 
 acted by the authority aforesaid, that all such writs shall be marked 
 in this manner : " Per statutum tricesimo primo Caroli secundi 
 Regis" and shall be signed by the person that awards the same ; 
 (3) and if any person or persons shall be or stand committed or 
 detained as aforesaid, for any crime, unless for felony or treason, 
 plainly expressed in the warrant of commitment, in the vacation 
 time and out of term, it shall and may be lawful to and for the 
 person or persons so committed or detained (other than persons 
 convict or in execution by legal process), or any one in his or their 
 behalf, to appeal or complain to the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keep- 
 er, or any one of his Majesty's justices, either of the one bench or 
 of the other, or the Barons of the Exchequer of the degree of the 
 5 
 
34 THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 
 
 coif; * (4) and the said Lord Chancellor, Lord Keeper, justices or 
 barons, or any of them, upon view of the copy or copies of the 
 warrant or warrants of commitment and detainer, or otherwise 
 upon oath made that such copy or copies were denied to be given 
 by such person or persons in whose custody the prisoner or pris- 
 oners is or are detained, are hereby authorized and required, upon 
 request made in writing by such person or persons, or any on his, 
 her, or their behalf, attested and subscribed by two witnesses who 
 were present at the delivery of the same, to award and grant a 
 habeas corpus, under the seal of such court whereof he shall then 
 be one of the judges, (5) to be directed to the officer or officers in 
 whose custody the party so committed or detained shall be, return- 
 able immediate before the said Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, or 
 such justice, baron, or any other justice or baron of the degree of 
 the coif, of any of the said courts ; (6) and upon service thereof 
 as aforesaid, the officer or officers, his or their under-officer or un- 
 der-officers, under-keeper or under-keepers, or their deputy, in 
 whose custody the party is so committed or detained, shall, within 
 the times respectively before limited, bring such prisoner or pris- 
 oners before the said Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, or such jus- 
 tices, barons, or one of them, before whom the said writ is made 
 returnable, and in case of his absence, before any other of them, 
 with the return of such writ and the true causes of the commit- 
 ment or detainer ; (7) and thereupon, within two days after the 
 party shall be brought before them, the said Lord Chancellor or 
 Lord Keeper, or such justice or baron before whom the prisoner 
 shall be brought as aforesaid, shall discharge the said prisoner from 
 his imprisonment, taking his or their recognizance, with one or 
 more surety or sureties, in any sum according to their discretions, 
 having regard to the quality of the prisoner and the nature of the 
 offence, for his or their appearance in the Court of King's Bench 
 the term following, or at the next assizes, sessions, or general gaol 
 delivery, of or for such county, city, or place where the commit- 
 ment was, or where the offence was committed, or in such other 
 court where the said offence is properly cognizable, as the case 
 shall require, and then shall certify the said writ with the return 
 
 * Coif appertains to the title given to Sergeants at Law, who are called Ser- 
 geants of the Coif, from the lawn coif which they wear under their caps. 
 
THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 35 
 
 thereof, and the said recognizance or recognizances, into the said 
 court where such appearance is to he made ; (8) unless it shall 
 appear to the said Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, or justice or 
 justices, or baron or barons, that the party so committed is de- 
 tained upon a legal process, order, or warrant, out of some court 
 that hath jurisdiction of criminal matters, or by some warrant 
 signed and sealed with the hand and seal of any of the said jus- 
 tices or barons, or some justice or justices of the peace, for such 
 matters or offences for the which by the law the prisoner is not 
 bailable. 
 
 IV. Provided always, and be it enacted, That if any person 
 shall have wilfully neglected, by the space of two whole terms 
 after his imprisonment, to pray a habeas corpus for his enlarge- 
 ment, such person so wilfully neglecting shall not have any 
 habeas corpus to be granted in vacation time, in pursuance of this 
 act. 
 
 V. And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That 
 if any officer or officers, his or their under-officer or under-officers, 
 under-keeper or under-keepers, or deputy, shall neglect or refuse 
 to make the returns aforesaid, or to bring the body or bodies of 
 the prisoner or prisoners according to the command of the said 
 writ, within the respective times aforesaid, or, upon demand made 
 by the prisoner or person in his behalf, shall refuse to deliver, or 
 within the space of six hours after demand shall not deliver, to the 
 person so demanding, a true copy of the warrant or warrants of 
 commitment and detainer of such prisoner, which he and they are 
 hereby required to deliver accordingly ; all and every the head 
 gaolers and keepers of such person, and such other person in 
 whose custody the prisoner shall be detained, shall for the first of- 
 fence forfeit to the prisoner or party grieved the sum of .£100 ; 
 (2) and for the second offence the sum of ^200, and shall and is 
 hereby made incapable to hold or execute his said office ; (3) the 
 said penalties to be recovered by the prisoner or party grieved, 
 his executors and administrators, against such offender, his ex- 
 ecutors or administrators, by any action of debt, suit, bill, plaint, 
 or information, in any of the king's courts at Westminster, 
 wherein no essoin,* protection, privilege, injunction, wager of 
 
 * Essoin is an excuse for non-appearance, on account of sickness or other 
 good cause. 
 
36 THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 
 
 law,* or stay of prosecution by " Non vult ulterius prosequi," or 
 otherwise, shall be admitted or allowed, or any more than one im- 
 parlance ; t (4) and any recovery or judgment at the suit of any 
 party grieved shall be a sufficient conviction for the first offence ; 
 and any after recovery or judgment at the suit of a party grieved, 
 for any offence after the first judgment, shall be a sufficient con- 
 viction to bring the officers or person within the said penalty for 
 the second offence. 
 
 VI. And for the prevention of unjust vexation by reiterated 
 commitments for the same offence, (2) Be it enacted, by the au- 
 thority aforesaid, That no person or persons, which shall be de- 
 livered or set at large upon any habeas corpus, shall at any time 
 hereafter be again imprisoned or committed for the same offence, 
 by any person or persons whatsoever, other than by the legal order 
 and process of such court wherein he or they shall be bound by 
 recognizance to appear, or other court having jurisdiction of the 
 cause ; (3) and if any other person or persons shall knowingly, 
 contrary to this act,' recommit or imprison, or knowingly procure 
 or cause to be recommitted or imprisoned, for the same offence or 
 pretended offence, any person or persons delivered or set at large 
 as aforesaid, or be knowingly aiding or assisting therein, then he 
 or they shall forfeit to the prisoner or party grieved the sum of 
 .£500 ; any colorable pretence or variation in the warrant or 
 warrants of commitment notwithstanding, to be recovered as 
 aforesaid. 
 
 VII. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That if any 
 person or persons shall be committed for high treason or felony, 
 plainly and specially expressed in the warrant of commitment, 
 upon his prayer or petition in open court, the first week of the 
 term, or first day of the sessions of oyer and terminer | or general 
 gaol delivery, to be brought to his trial, shall not be indicted some 
 time in the next term, sessions of oyer and terminer or general 
 
 * Wager of law is where a person swears in court, in presence of his com- 
 purgators, that he does not owe the debt or detain the article in the manner 
 charged against him. 
 
 t Imparlance is a petition for delay, or for continuing the cause to the next 
 court. 
 
 % Oyer and terminer is a commission to hear and determine causes that may be 
 brought up for trial. 
 
THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 37 
 
 gaol delivery, after such commitment ; it shall and may be lawful 
 to and for the judges of the Court of King's Bench, and justices of 
 oyer and terminer or general gaol delivery, and they are hereby 
 required upon motion to them made in open court the last day of 
 the term, sessions, or gaol delivery, either by the prisoner or any 
 one in his behalf, to set at liberty the prisoner upon bail, unless it 
 appear to the judges and justices, upon oath made, that the wit- 
 nesses for the king could not be produced the same term, sessions, 
 or general gaol delivery ; (2) and if any person or persons com- 
 mitted as aforesaid, upon his prayer or petition in open court, the 
 first week of the term or the first day of the sessions of oyer and 
 terminer and general gaol delivery, to be brought to his trial, shall 
 not be indicted and tried the second term, sessions of oyer and 
 terminer or general gaol delivery, after his commitment, or upon 
 his trial shall be acquitted, he shall be discharged from his impris- 
 onment. 
 
 VIII. Provided always, That nothing in this act shall extend to 
 discharge out of prison any person charged in debt, or other action, 
 or with process in any civil cause, but that after he shall be dis- 
 charged of his imprisonment for such his criminal offence, he 
 shall be kept in custody according to the law for such other 
 suit. 
 
 IX. Provided always, and be it further enacted by the authority 
 aforesaid, That if any person or persons, subjects of this realm, 
 shall be committed to any prison, or in custody of any officer or 
 officers whatsoever, for any criminal or supposed criminal matter, 
 that the said person shall not be removed from the said prison and 
 custody, into the custody of any other officer or officers ; (2) un- 
 less it be by habeas corpus or some other legal writ ; or where the 
 prisoner is delivered to the constable or other inferior officer, to 
 carry such prisoner to some common gaol ; (3) or where any per- 
 son is sent by order of any judge of assize, or justice of the 
 peace, to any common workhouse or house of correction ; (4) or 
 where the prisoner is removed from one place or prison to another 
 within the same county, in order to his or her trial or discharge in 
 due course of law ; (5) or in case of sudden fire or infection, or 
 other necessity ; (6) and if any person or persons shall, after such 
 commitment aforesaid, make out and sign or countersign any war- 
 rant or warrants for such removal aforesaid, contrary to this act ; 
 
38 THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 
 
 as well he that makes or signs or countersigns such warrant or 
 warrants, as the officer or officers that obey or execute the same, 
 shall suffer and incur the pains and forfeitures in this act before 
 mentioned, both for the first and second offence respectively, to be 
 recovered in manner aforesaid by the party grieved. 
 
 X. Provided also, and be it further enacted by the authority 
 aforesaid, That it shall and may be lawful to and for any prisoner 
 and prisoners as aforesaid, to move and obtain his or their habeas 
 corpus, as well out of the High Court of Chancery or Court of Ex- 
 chequer as out of the Courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, or 
 either of them ; (2) and if the said Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, 
 or any judge or judges, baron or barons, for the time being, of the 
 degree of the coif, of any of the courts aforesaid, in the vacation 
 time, upon view of the copy or copies of the warrant or warrants 
 of commitment or detainer, upon oath made that such copy or 
 copies were denied as aforesaid, shall deny any writ of habeas 
 corpus, by this act required to be granted, being moved for as 
 aforesaid, they shall severally forfeit to the prisoner or party 
 grieved the sum of £ 500, to be recovered in manner aforesaid. 
 
 XI. And be it declared and enacted by the authority aforesaid*, 
 That a habeas corpus, according to the true intent and meaning 
 of this act, may be directed and run into any county palatine, the 
 cinque ports, or other privileged places within the kingdom of 
 England, dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick upon Tweed, 
 and the islands of Jersey or Guernsey ; any law or usage to the 
 contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 XII. And for preventing illegal imprisonments in prisons beyond 
 the seas, (2) Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, 
 That no subject of this realm, that now is or hereafter shall be an 
 inhabitant or resiant of this kingdom of England, dominion of 
 Wales, or town of Berwick upon Tweed, shall or may be sent pris- 
 oner into Scotland, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Tangier, or into 
 parts, garrisons, islands, or places beyond the seas, which are or 
 at any time hereafter shall be, within or without the dominions of 
 his Majesty, his heirs or successors ; (3) and that every such im- 
 prisonment is hereby enacted and adjudged to be illegal ; (4) and 
 that if any of the said subjects now is or hereafter -shall be so im- 
 prisoned, every such person and persons so imprisoned shall and 
 may for every such imprisonment maintain, by virtue of this act, 
 
THE HABEAS COKPUS ACT. 39 
 
 an action or actions of false imprisonment, in any of his Majesty's 
 courts of record, against the person or persons by whom he or she 
 shall be so committed, detained, imprisoned, sent prisoner, or trans- 
 ported, contrary to the true meaning of this act, and against all or 
 any person or persons that shall frame, contrive, write, seal, or 
 countersign any warrant or writing for such commitment, detainer, 
 imprisonment, or transportation, or shall be advising, aiding, or as- 
 sisting in the same, or any of them ; (5) and the plaintiff in every 
 such action shall have judgment to recover his treble costs, besides 
 damages, which damages so to be given shall not be less than ^500 ; 
 (6) in which action no delay, stay, or stop of proceeding by rule, 
 order, or command, nor no injunction, protection, or privilege what- 
 soever, nor any other than one imparlance, shall be allowed, except- 
 ing such rule of the court wherein such action shall depend, made in 
 open court, as shall be thought in justice necessary for special cause 
 to be expressed in the said rule ; (7) and the person or persons who 
 shall knowingly frame, contrive, write, seal, or countersign any 
 warrant for such commitment, detainer, or transportation, or shall 
 so commit, detain, imprison, or transport any person or persons, 
 contrary to this act, or be anyways advising, aiding, or assisting 
 therein, being lawfully convicted thereof, shall be disabled from 
 thenceforth to bear any office of trust or profit within the said 
 realm of England, dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick upon 
 Tweed, or any of the islands, territories, or dominions thereunto 
 belonging ; (8) and shall incur and sustain the pains, penalties, and 
 forfeitures limited, ordained, and provided in and by the statute of 
 provision and pramunire,* made in the sixteenth year of King 
 Kichard the Second ; (9) and be incapable of any pardon from 
 the king, his heirs or successors, of the said forfeitures, losses, or 
 disabilities, or any of them. 
 
 XIII. Provided always, That nothing in this act shall extend to 
 give benefit to any person who shall by contract in writing agree 
 with any merchant or owner of any plantation,- or other person 
 whatsoever, to be transported to any parts beyond the seas, and 
 
 * The pains and penalties provided in this statute are, that the offenders 
 shall be put out of the king's protection, shall forfeit their lands and goods, and 
 shall be imprisoned during the king's pleasure. These are the highest penalties 
 known in the law, except death. 
 
40 THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 
 
 receive earnest upon such agreement, although that afterward such 
 person shall renounce such contract. 
 
 XIV. Provided always, and be it enacted, That if any person 
 or persons lawfully convicted of any felony shall in open court 
 pray to be transported beyond the seas, and the court shall think 
 fit to leave him or them in prison for that purpose, such person or 
 persons may be transported into any parts beyond the seas ; this 
 act, or anything herein contained, to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 XV. Provided also, and be it enacted, That nothing herein con- 
 tained shall be deemed, construed, or taken to extend to the im- 
 prisonment of any person before the first day of June, one thou- 
 sand six hundred and seventy-nine, or to anything advised, pro- 
 cured or otherwise done relating to such imprisonment ; anything 
 herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 XVI. Provided also, That if any person or persons at any time 
 resiant in this realm shall have committed any capital offence in 
 Scotland or in Ireland, or in any of the islands or foreign planta- 
 tions of the king, his heirs or successors, where he or she ought to 
 be tried for such offence, such person or persons may be sent to 
 such place, there to receive such trial in such manner as the same 
 might have been used before the making of this act ; anything 
 herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 XVII. Provided also, and be it enacted, That no person or per- 
 sons shall be sued, impleaded, molested, or troubled for any offence 
 against this act, unless the party offending be sued or impleaded 
 for the same within two years, at the most, after such time wherein 
 the offence shall be committed, in case the party grieved shall not 
 be then in prison ; and if he shall be in prison, then within the 
 space of two years after the decease of the person imprisoned, or 
 his or her delivery out of prison, which shall first happen. 
 
 XVIII. And to the intent no person may avoid his trial at the 
 assizes or general gaol delivery, by procuring his removal before the 
 assizes, at such time as he cannot be brought back to receive his 
 trial there, (2) Be it enacted, that after the assizes proclaimed for 
 that county where the prisoner is detained, no person shall be re- 
 moved from the common gaol upon any habeas corpus granted in 
 pursuance of this act, but upon any such habeas corpus shall be 
 brought before the judge of assize in open court, who is there- 
 upon to do what to justice shall appertain. 
 
THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 41 
 
 XIX. Provided nevertheless, That after the assizes are ended, 
 any person or persons detained may have his or her habeas corpus 
 according to the direction and intention of this act. 
 
 XX. And he it also enacted hy the authority aforesaid, That if 
 any information, suit, or action shall be brought or exhibited 
 against any person or persons for any offence committed or to be 
 committed against the form of this law, it shall be lawful for such 
 defendants to plead the general issue, that they are not guilty or 
 that they owe nothing, and to give such special matter in evidence 
 to the jury that shall try the same, which matter being pleaded 
 had been good and sufficient matter of law to have discharged the 
 said defendant or defendants against the said information, suit, or 
 action, and the same matter shall be then as available to him or 
 them, to all intents and purposes, as if he or they had sufficiently 
 pleaded, set forth, or alleged the same matter in bar or discharge 
 of such information, suit, or action. 
 
 XXI. And because many times persons charged with petty trea- 
 son or felony, or accessories thereunto, are committed upon suspi- 
 cion only, whereupon they are bailable or not, according as the 
 circumstances making out that suspicion are more or less weighty, 
 which are best known to the justices of the peace that committed 
 the persons, and have the examination before them, or to other 
 justices of the peace in the county, (2) Be it therefore enacted, 
 That where any person shall appear to be committed by any judge 
 or justice of the peace, and charged as accessory before the fact 
 to any petty treason or felony, or upon suspicion thereof, or with 
 suspicion of petty treason or felony, which petty treason or felony 
 shall be plainly and specially expressed in the warrant of commit- 
 ment, that such person shall not be removed or bailed by virtue of 
 this act, or in any other manner than they might have been before 
 the making of this act, 
 
[The Revolution of 1688 added no new feature to the English 
 Constitution, and conferred no additional rights or privileges upon 
 the people. But it broke the regular line of succession, and 
 placed a new dynasty upon the throne, thus affirming the doctrine, 
 that the crown was held by virtue of an act of Parliament, and 
 not by indefeasible, divine right. Even this doctrine had been 
 practically asserted, again and again, under the Norman kings, the 
 Plantagenets, and even, by implication, in the time of the Tudors. 
 Yet the Stuarts had always denied it, and the right therefore was 
 now exercised under circumstances which were likely to prevent 
 it from being ever doubted or denied in future. " In order that 
 the questions which had been in dispute between the Stuarts and 
 the nation might never again be stirred, it was determined that the 
 instrument by which the Prince and Princess of Orange were 
 called to the throne, and by which the order of succession was set- 
 tled, should set forth, in the most distinct and solemn manner, the. 
 fundamental principles of the Constitution. This instrument, 
 known by the name of the Declaration of Rights, was prepared 
 by a committee of which Somers, afterwards Lord Chancellor, 
 was chairman." " This Declaration was, some months after- 
 wards, confirmed by a regular act of the legislature, in the Bill of 
 Rights, which establishes at the same time the limitation of the 
 crown, and adds the important provision, That all persons who 
 shall hold communion with the Church of Rome, or shall marry a 
 ,Papist, shall be excluded, and forever incapable to possess, inherit, 
 or enjoy the crown and government of this realm ; and in all such 
 cases^the people of these realms shall be absolved from their al- 
 legiance, and the crown shall descend to the next heir. This was 
 as near an approach to a generalization of the principle of resist- 
 ance as could be admitted with any security for public order." 
 
 Thus the Declaration and the Bill of Rights were indissolubly 
 connected with the Revolution-settlement, as its motive and its con- 
 dition. The new sovereign was made to perceive that he was 
 raised to the throne for the sake of those liberties by violating 
 which his predecessor had forfeited it. " No pretences were made," 
 says Professor Smyth, " to any merit of salutary alteration or leg- 
 islative reform. The original Declaration, the subsequent Bill of 
 
THE BILL OF EIGHTS. 43 
 
 Rights, were each of them expressly stated to be only a declara- 
 tion of the old Constitution ; they were each an exhibition of the 
 rights and liberties of the people of England, already undoubted 
 and their own ; experiment, innovation, everything of this kind, is 
 virtually disclaimed." 
 
 To the same effect, Mr. Macaulay remarks : " The change seems 
 small. Not a single flower of the crown was touched. Not a 
 single new right was given to the people. The whole English law, 
 substantive and adjective, was, in the judgment of all the greatest 
 lawyers, of Holt and Treby, of Maynard and Somers, exactly the 
 same after the Revolution as before it. Some controverted points 
 had been decided according to the sense of the best jurists ; and 
 there had been a slight deviation from the ordinary course of suc- 
 cession. This was all, and this was enough. As the Revolution 
 was a vindication of ancient rights, so it was conducted with strict 
 attention to ancient formalities. In almost every word and act may 
 be discerned a profound reverence for the past. Both the English 
 parties agreed in treating with solemn respect the ancient constitu- 
 tional traditions of the state. The only question was, in what sense 
 those traditions were to be understood. But the Declaration of 
 Right, though it made nothing law which had not been law before, 
 contained the germ of the law which gave religious freedom to the 
 Dissenter, of the law which secured the independence of the 
 judges, of the law which limited the duration of Parliaments, of the 
 law which placed the liberty of the press under the protection of 
 juries, of the law which prohibited the slave-trade, of the law 
 which abolished the sacramental test, of the law which relieved 
 the Roman Catholics from civil disabilities, of the law which re- 
 formed the representative system, of every good law which has 
 been passed during a hundred and sixty years, of every good law 
 which may hereafter, in the course of ages, be found necessary to 
 promote the public weal, and to satisfy the demands of public 
 opinion."] 
 
44 THE BILL OF EIGHTS. 
 
 THE BILL OF EIGHTS 
 
 DECLARING THE BIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OP THE SUBJECT, AND 
 SETTLING THE SUCCESSION OF THE CROWN ; 
 
 PASSED IN THE 1ST TEAR OP WILLIAM AND MART, A. D. 1689. 
 
 Whereas the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, as- 
 sembled at Westminster, lawfully, fully, and freely representing 
 all the estates of the people of this realm, did, upon the thirteenth 
 day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hun- 
 dred eighty-eight [0. S.], present unto their Majesties, then called 
 and known by the names and style of William and Mary, Prince 
 and Princess of Orange, being present in their proper persons, a 
 certain Declaration in writing, made by the said Lords and Com- 
 mons, in the words following, viz. : — 
 
 ' Whereas the late King James the Second, by the assistance of 
 ' divers evil counsellors, judges, and ministers employed by him, 
 ' did endeavor to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion, 
 ' and the laws and liberties of this kingdom, — 
 
 ' 1. By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and 
 ' suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without consent 
 ' of Parliament. 
 
 ' 2. By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates, for 
 ' humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said as- 
 * sumed power. 
 
 ' 3. By issuing and causing to be executed a commission under 
 ' the Great Seal for erecting a court called The Court of Commis- 
 ' sioners for Ecclesiastical Causes. 
 
 ' 4. By levying money for and to the use of the crown, by pre- 
 ' tence of prerogative, for other time, and in other manner, than 
 ' the same was granted by Parliament. 
 
 ' 5. By raising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom 
 
THE BILL OF RIGHTS. 45 
 
 * in time of peace, without consent of Parliament, and quartering 
 ' soldiers contrary to law. 
 
 ' 6. By causing several good subjects, being Protestants, to be 
 ' disarmed, at the same time when Papists were both armed and 
 ' employed, contrary to law. 
 
 ' 7. By violating the freedom of election of members to serve 
 
 * in Parliament. 
 
 ' 8. By prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench, for matters 
 ' and causes cognizable only in Parliament ; and by divers other 
 ' arbitrary and illegal courses. 
 
 ' 9. And whereas, of late years, partial, corrupt, and unqualified 
 
 * persons have been returned and served on juries in trials, and 
 ' particularly divers jurors in trials for high treason, which were 
 ' not freeholders. 
 
 ' 10. And excessive bail hath been required of persons committed 
 ' in criminal cases, to elude the benefit of the laws made for the 
 ' liberty of the subjects. 
 
 ' 1 1. And excessive fines have been imposed ; and illegal and 
 
 * cruel punishments inflicted. 
 
 ' 12. And several grants and promises made of fines and for- 
 ' feitures, before any conviction or judgment against the persons 
 ' upon whom the same were to be levied. 
 
 ' All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known laws 
 ' and statutes, and freedom of this realm : — 
 
 ' And whereas the said late King James the Second having abdi- 
 
 * cated the government, and the throne being thereby vacant, his 
 - Highness the Prince of Orange (whom it hath pleased Almighty 
 ' God to make the glorious instrument of delivering this kingdom 
 ' from Popery and arbitrary power) did (by the advice of the 
 ' Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and divers principal persons of the 
 ' Commons) cause letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and 
 ' Temporal, being Protestants, and other letters to the several 
 ' counties, cities, universities, boroughs, and cinque-ports, for the 
 ' choosing of such persons to represent them as were of right to 
 ' be sent to Parliament, to meet and sit at Westminster upon the 
 ' two-and-twentieth day of January, in this year one thousand six 
 ' hundred eighty-and-eight, in order to such an establishment, as 
 ' that their religion, laws, and liberties might not again be in dan- 
 
 * ger of being subverted : upon which letters, elections having been 
 ' accordingly made : 
 
46 THE BILL OF RIGHTS. 
 
 ' And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 ' Commons, pursuant to their respective letters and elections, being 
 ' now assembled in a full and free representation of this nation, 
 ' taking into their most serious consideration the best means for at- 
 * taining the ends aforesaid ; do in the first place (as their ances- 
 ' tors in like case have usually done), for the vindicating and assert- 
 ' ing their ancient rights and liberties, declare : — 
 
 ' 1. That the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the ex- 
 ' ecution of laws by regal authority, without consent of Parliament, 
 ' is illegal. 
 
 ' 2. That the pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the 
 ' execution of laws, by regal authority, as it hath been assumed 
 ' and exercised of late, is illegal. 
 
 ' 3. That the commission for erecting the late Court of Com- 
 ' missioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other commissions 
 ' and courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious. 
 
 ' 4. That levying money for or to the use of the crown, by pre- 
 ' tence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer 
 ' time, or in other manner, than the same is or shall be granted, is 
 ' illegal. 
 
 ' 5. That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, 
 ' and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are 
 ' illegal. 
 
 ' 6. That the raising or keeping a standing army within the king- 
 ' dom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is 
 ' against law. 
 
 ' 7. That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for 
 ' their defence suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by law. 
 
 ' 8. That election of members of Parliament ought to be free. 
 
 ' 9. That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in 
 ' Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court 
 ' or place out of Parliament. 
 
 ' 10. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive 
 ' fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 
 
 ' 11. That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and returned, and 
 ' jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be 
 ' freeholders. 
 
 ' 12. That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of 
 ' particular persons before conviction, are illegal and void. 
 
THE BILL OF RIGHTS. 47 
 
 ' 13. And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amend- 
 ' ing, strengthening, and preserving of the laws, Parliaments ought 
 ' to be held frequently. 
 
 ' And they do claim, demand, and insist upon all and singular 
 ' the premises, as their undoubted rights and liberties ; and that no 
 ' declarations, judgments, doings, or proceedings to the prejudice 
 ' of the people, in any of the said premises, ought in any wise to 
 ' be drawn hereafter into consequence or example. 
 
 ' To which demand of their rights they are particularly encour- 
 
 * aged by the declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange, as 
 ' being the only means for obtaining a full redress and remedy 
 ' therein. 
 
 ' Having therefore an entire confidence, that his said Highness 
 ' the Prince of Orange will perfect the deliverance so far advanced 
 ' by him, and will still preserve them from the violation of their 
 ' rights, which they have here asserted, and from all other attempts 
 ' upon their religion, rights, and liberties, — 
 
 ' II. The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, as- 
 
 * sembled at Westminster, do resolve, That William and Mary, 
 ' Prince and Princess of Orange, be, and be declared, King and 
 ' Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions 
 ' thereunto belonging, to hold the crown and royal dignity of the 
 ' said kingdoms and dominions to them, the said prince and princess, 
 ' during their lives, and the life of the survivor of them ; and that 
 ' the sole and full exercise of the regal power be only in and ex- 
 ' ecuted by the said Prince of Orange, in the names of the said 
 
 * prince and princess, during their joint lives ; and after their de- 
 ' ceases, the said crown and royal dignity of the said kingdoms 
 ' and dominions to be to the heirs of the body of the said princess ; 
 ' and for default of such issue, to the Princess Anne of Denmark, 
 ' and the heirs of her body ; and for default of such issue, to the 
 ' heirs of the body of the said Prince of Orange. And the Lords 
 ' Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do pray the said prince 
 ' and princess to accept the same accordingly. 
 
 1 III. And that the oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all 
 ' persons of whom the oaths of allegiance and supremacy might 
 ' be required by law, instead of them ; and that the said oaths of 
 
 * allegiance and supremacy be abrogated. 
 
 ' I, A. B. do sincerely promise and swear, That I will be faithful, 
 
48 THE BILL OF EIGHTS. 
 
 ' and bear true allegiance, to their Majesties King William and 
 
 ' Queen Mary : 
 
 So help me God.'' 
 
 ' I, A. B. do swear, That I do from my heart abhor, detest, and 
 ' abjure, as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine and po- 
 ' sition, That princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, or 
 ' any authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murdered 
 ' by their subjects, or any other whatsoever. And I do declare, 
 ' That no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate hath, 
 ' or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, preemi- 
 ' nence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm : 
 
 So help me God.'' 
 
 IV. Upon which their said Majesties did accept the crown and 
 royal dignity of the kingdoms of England, France, and Ireland, 
 and the dominions thereunto belonging, according to the resolution 
 and desire of the said Lords and Commons contained in the said 
 Declaration. 
 
 V. And thereupon their Majesties were pleased, that the said 
 Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, being the two Houses 
 
 ' of Parliament, should' continue to sit, and with their Majesties' 
 royal concurrence make effectual provision for the settlement of 
 the religion, laws, and liberties of this kingdom, so that the same 
 for the future might not be in danger again of being subverted ; to 
 which the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, did 
 agree, and proceed to act accordingly. 
 
 VI. Now in pursuance of the premises, the said Lords Spiritual 
 and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, for the 
 ratifying, confirming, and establishing the said Declaration, and 
 the articles, clauses, matters, and things therein contained, by the 
 force of a law made in due form by authority of Parliament, do 
 pray that it may be declared and enacted, That all and singular 
 the rights and liberties asserted and claimed in the said Declaration 
 are the true, ancient, and indubitable rights and liberties of the 
 people of this kingdom, and so shall be esteemed, allowed, ad- 
 judged, deemed, and taken to be, and that all and every the par- 
 ticulars aforesaid shall be firmly and strictly holden and observed 
 as they are expressed in the said Declaration ; and all officers and 
 ministers whatsoever shall serve their Majesties and their succes- 
 sors according to the same in all times to come. 
 
THE BILL OF RIGHTS. 49 
 
 VII. And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, 
 seriously considering how it hath pleased Almighty God, in his 
 marvellous providence, and merciful goodness to this nation, to 
 provide and preserve their said Majesties' royal persons most hap- 
 pily to reign over us upon the throne of their ancestors, for which 
 they render unto him from the bottom of their hearts their hum- 
 blest thanks and praises, do truly, firmly, assuredly, and in the sin- 
 cerity of their hearts think, and do hereby recognize, acknowledge, 
 and declare, That King James the Second having abdicated the 
 government, and their Majesties' having accepted the crown and 
 royal dignity as aforesaid, their said Majesties did become, were, 
 are, and of right ought to be, by the laws of this realm, our sov- 
 ereign liege lord and lady, King and Queen of England, France, 
 and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, in and to 
 whose princely persons the royal state, crown, and dignity of the 
 said realms, with all honors, stiles, titles, regalities, prerogatives, 
 powers, jurisdictions, and authorities to the same belonging and ap- 
 pertaining, are most fully, rightfully, and entirely invested and in- 
 corporated, united, and annexed. 
 
 VIII. And for preventing all questions and divisions in this 
 realm, by reason of any pretended titles to the crown, and for pre- 
 serving a certainty in the succession thereof, in and upon which 
 the unity, peace, tranquillity, and safety of this nation doth, under 
 God, wholly consist and depend, the said Lords Spiritual and Tem- 
 poral, and Commons, do beseech their Majesties that it may be en- 
 acted, established, and declared, That the crown and regal govern- 
 ment of the said kingdoms and dominions, with all and singular 
 the premises thereunto belonging and appertaining, shall be and 
 continue to their said Majesties, and the survivor of them, during 
 their lives, and the life of the survivor of them : and that the en- 
 tire, perfect, and full exercise of the regal power and government 
 be only in, and executed by, his Majesty, in the names of both 
 their Majesties, during their joint lives : and after their deceases 
 the said crown and premises shall be and remain to the heirs of 
 the body of her Majesty ; and for default of such issue, to her 
 Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Denmark, and the heirs of 
 her body ; and for default of such issue, to the heirs of the body 
 of his said Majesty : and thereunto the said Lords Spiritual and 
 Temporal, and Commons, do, in the name of all the people afore- 
 7 
 
50 THE BILL OF EIGHTS. 
 
 said, most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their heirs and 
 posterities for ever ; and do faithfully promise, that they will stand 
 to, maintain, and defend their said Majesties, and also the limita- 
 tion and succession of the crown herein specified and contained, to 
 the utmost of their powers, with their lives and estates, against all 
 persons whatsoever that shall attempt anything to the contrary. 
 
 IX. And whereas it hath been found by experience, that it is in- 
 consistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom 
 to be governed by a Popish prince, or by any king or queen mar- 
 rying a Papist, the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Com- 
 mons, do further pray that it may be enacted, That all and every 
 person and persons that is, are, or shall be reconciled to, or shall 
 hold communion with, the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess 
 the Popish religion, or shall marry a Papist, shall be excluded, and 
 be for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the crown and 
 government of this realm, and Ireland, and the dominions there- 
 unto belonging, or any part of the same, or to have, use, or exer- 
 cise any regal power, authority, or jurisdiction within the same ; 
 and in all and every such case or cases, the people of these realms 
 shall be, and are hereby, absolved of their allegiance ; and the said 
 crown and government shall from time to time descend to, and be 
 enjoyed by, such person or persons, being Protestants, as should 
 have inherited and enjoyed the same in case the said person or 
 persons so reconciled, holding communion, or professing or mar- 
 rying as aforesaid, were naturally dead. 
 
 X. And that every king and queen of this realm, who at any 
 time hereafter shall come to and succeed in the imperial crown of 
 this kingdom, shall on the first day of the meeting of the first Par- 
 liament next after his or her coming to the crown, sitting in his or 
 her throne in the House of Peers, in the presence of the Lords 
 and Commons therein assembled, or at his or her coronation, be- 
 fore such person or persons who shall administer the coronation 
 oath to him or her, at the time of his or her taking the said oath 
 (which shall first happen), make, subscribe, and audibly repeat the 
 Declaration mentioned in the statute made in the thirtieth year of 
 the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled, An Act for the 
 more effectual preserving the king's person and government, by 
 disabling Papists from sitting in either House of Parliament. 
 But if it shall happen, that such king or queen, upon his or her 
 
THE BILL OF EIGHTS. 51 
 
 succession to the crown of this realm, shall be under the age of 
 twelve years, then every such king or queen shall make, subscribe, 
 and audibly repeat the said Declaration at his or her coronation, on 
 the first day of the meeting of the first Parliament, as aforesaid, 
 which shall first happen after such king or queen shall have at- 
 tained the said age of twelve years. 
 
 XI. All which their Majesties are contented and pleased shall be 
 declared, enacted, and established by authority of this present Par- 
 liament, and shall stand, remain, and be the law of this realm for 
 ever ; and the same are, by their said Majesties, by and with the 
 advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons, in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the 
 same, declared, enacted, and established accordingly. 
 
 XII. And be it further declared and enacted by the authority 
 aforesaid, That from and after this present session of Parliament, 
 no dispensation by non obstante of or to any statute, or any part 
 thereof, shall be allowed, but that the same shall be held void and 
 of no effect, except a dispensation be allowed of in such statute, 
 and except in such cases as shall be specially provided for by one 
 or more bill or bills to be passed during this present session of Par- 
 liament. 
 
 XIII. Provided that no charter, or grant, or pardon, granted be- 
 fore the three-and-twentieth day of October in the year of our 
 Lord one thousand six hundred eighty-nine, shall be anyways im- 
 peached or invalidated by this act, but that the same shall be and 
 remain of the same force and effect in law, and no other than as if 
 this act had never been made. 
 
[" The Body of Liberties," enacted by the Colony of Massa- 
 chusetts in 1641, was one of the earliest, and certainly the most re- 
 markable, of the codes or systems of law established by the Brit- 
 ish Colonists of North America. In Virginia, laws were enacted 
 from time to time, as occasion required ; and in 1632, as well as 
 at several subsequent periods, these particular laws were consoli- 
 dated into a single statute. But these enactments were almost 
 exclusively local in their character, being intended to meet the pe- 
 culiar' wants and circumstances of the people in their new home. 
 For all ordinary occasions, for the punishment of common offences 
 as well as for the adjudication of disputes between man and man, 
 the Virginians seem to have relied upon the principles of the Eng- 
 lish Common Law, however imperfectly these may have been un- 
 derstood and enforced by them. The aim of the Massachusetts 
 Body of Liberties was far more general ; it appears to have been 
 designed not so much as a supplement to English law as a sub- 
 stitute for it. The Charter authorized the Company to make what- 
 ever laws or regulations might be found needful, with this single 
 restriction, — that they should not be repugnant to the laws of 
 England. The obvious meaning of this permission was, that the 
 whole body of the English law should remain in force, excepting 
 only such portions of it as were plainly inapplicable in a feeble 
 and distant settlement, and with the addition of such by-laws or 
 minor regulations as their peculiar situation might require. But 
 the early emigrants were by no means inclined so to understand it. 
 Their purpose was to establish a separate religious community, 
 modelled and governed after a plan of their own. As they con- 
 strued the Charter, no portion of the English law was to be in 
 force among them till they had expressly re-enacted it. They 
 were to erect a new frame of government and a new system of 
 law, following their own ideas of expediency and right, and aim- 
 ing only to avoid direct and violent contradiction of the statutes 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 53 
 
 of the mother country. They wished to reaffirm most of the benefi- 
 cent articles of the Great Charter and other ancient bulwarks of 
 English freedom, but to combine with them such enactments from 
 the laws of Moses and such general' commands of Scripture as 
 were suited for the peculiar kind of theocratic and patriarchal 
 aristocracy which they were endeavoring to establish. Till this 
 scheme could be safely carried out, — and great caution was ob- 
 viously necessary in executing it, for fear of exciting the jealousy 
 of the authorities at home, — the magistrates, elected annually, 
 were to manage the affairs of the Colony, to decide controversies 
 between individuals, and to punish crimes, at their discretion, or 
 with only the Scriptures, their own consciences, and the known 
 wishes and principles of the Colonists, for their guides. This was 
 the patriarchal system ; it was the government of an Arab sheikh 
 over his tribe. There was a sufficient check upon it, in the fact 
 that its administrators held office only for one year, at the end of 
 which time, if they became unpopular, they could be turned out 
 and others put in their place. 
 
 But it would be idle to expect that any people would submit to 
 such a government any longer than the exigencies of the case 
 rendered it absolutely necessary. We are not surprised to learn, 
 therefore, that, at a meeting of the General Court (the colonial 
 legislative assembly), in May, 1635, " the deputies having con- 
 ceived great danger to our state in regard that our magistrates, for 
 want of positive laws, in many cases might proceed according to 
 their discretions, it was agreed, that some men should be appointed 
 to frame a body of grounds of laws, in resemblance to a Magna 
 Charta, which, being allowed by some of the ministers and the 
 General Court, should be received for fundamental laws." The 
 magistrates were not very forward to comply with this order, but 
 desired delay for two reasons. " One was, want of sufficient ex- 
 perience of the nature and disposition of the people, considered 
 with the condition of the country and other circumstances, which 
 made them conceive that such laws would be fittest for us, which 
 should arise pro re nata, upon occasions, etc., and so the laws of 
 England and other states grew, and therefore the fundamental 
 laws of England are called customs, consuetudines." The cause 
 here assigned shows a clear perception of the nature and character 
 of the English Constitution ; — that it was not a rigid and inflexi- 
 ble system, framed beforehand, to force the customs and the polity 
 of future generations into such a shape as the imperfect wisdom of 
 earlier times might deem best, and which, because inflexible, and 
 bound together as one consistent whole, should any discrepancy 
 afterwards arise between it and the wishes and exigencies of the 
 state, could not be modified and bent to the emergency, but must 
 be shattered in pieces by revolutionary force ; — but that its ex- 
 cellence and its stability were attributable to the fact, that it had 
 
54 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OP LIBERTIES. 
 
 been gradually developed out of the ideas and habits of the people, 
 conforming itself to the varying necessities of each successive 
 generation, and affording resources for every occasion that could 
 arise. 
 
 The second reason assigned is equally indicative of the prudence 
 and sagacity of those who then ruled the infant commonwealth. 
 " 2. For that it would professedly transgress the limits of our 
 Charter, which provide, we shall make no laws repugnant to the 
 laws of England ; and that we are assured we must do. But to 
 raise up laws by practice and custom had been no transgression ; 
 as in our church discipline, and in matters of marriage, to make a 
 law that marriages should not be solemnized by ministers is repug- 
 nant to the laws of England ; but to bring it to a custom by prac- 
 tice for the magistrates to perform it, is no law made repugnant," 
 etc. They wished quietly to administer the affairs of the Colony 
 upon principles suited to its occasions and the character of the peo- 
 ple, without expressly enacting those principles into laws, which 
 would inevitably attract the censure of the home government. 
 These principles would thus become corroborated by long usage, 
 and form a body of consuetudinary law, which, from the nature of 
 the English Constitution, would be equally valid with express en- 
 actments. And the result vindicated their sagacity. If they had 
 not evaded the first demands of the people, their new code would 
 probably have been disallowed by the arbitrary government of 
 Charles I., before it could have been fairly put in action. They 
 postponed the enactment till 1641, when the authority had, in the 
 main, passed away from Charles into the hands of their good Pu- 
 ritanic friends in the Long Parliament ; and then, in the great ex- 
 citement into which all England was thrown, the bold act of Mas- 
 sachusetts, in establishing its own system of law, escaped without 
 notice. At the restoration of Charles II. in 1660, as it had been 
 nearly twenty years in force, it had acquired a right by prescrip- 
 tion, and the home government did not attempt to subvert it. 
 
 Yet the magistrates found it not an easy task to evade or post- 
 pone compliance with the impatient demands of a law-loving peo- 
 ple for a regular system of law. On various pretexts, they eluded 
 the first request, in 1635 ; but two committees were appointed, 
 one in 1636, of which the Rev. Mr. Cotton was a member, and 
 another in 1638, to which Mr. Nathaniel Ward belonged, to frame 
 the outlines of such a code of law as might be suitable for the Col- 
 ony. Mr. Cotton acted very promptly, and offered at once a digest 
 of laws, taken almost entirely from the Old Testament, and called 
 by him " A Model of Moses his Judicials, compiled in an exact 
 method." It bore this very appropriate motto from Isaiah : 
 " Jehovah is our Judge, Jehovah is our Lawgiver, Jehovah is our 
 King ; He will save us." But notwithstanding the theocratic pre- 
 dilections of our forefathers, they had too much sagacity not to per- 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OP LIBERTIES. 55 
 
 ceive, that the Jewish law, as a whole, was inappropriate to their 
 situation and insufficient for their wants. They seem to have 
 quietly put Mr. Cotton's code on the shelf, and they adopted, in 
 1641, the far more judicious system called " The Body of Liber- 
 ties," devised and compiled by Nathaniel Ward, minister of the 
 church in Ipswich, but formerly a practitioner of law in England. 
 Thus he united clerical and legal learning as qualifications for his 
 task ; and his work remained the foundation of the jurisprudence 
 of New England for half a century, the larger portion of it being 
 copied into all the digests and codes that were subsequently framed, 
 and Connecticut borrowing a great part of it soon after its publica- 
 tion. 
 
 Yet this code in its primitive form was not printed, and having 
 been soon superseded by the later digests that were based upon it, 
 even the manuscript copies were lost, and doubts were entertained 
 whether any such instrument, distinct from Cotton's theocratic 
 project, had ever existed. At last, about a quarter of a century 
 ago, Mr. F. C. Gray was fortunate enough to find a manuscript 
 copy of it, in the handwriting of the time when it was in force, 
 which, after it had been deciphered and identified beyond all ques- 
 tion, he published, with a valuable historical introduction, in the 
 twenty-eighth volume of the Collections of the Massachusetts Histor- 
 ical Society. With his permission and that of the Society, it is here 
 reprinted, the spelling, punctuation, and use of capital letters being 
 here reduced to the modern standard. Mr. Gray has expressed 
 the following opinion of it, which I copy, because it seems to me 
 very just, and because his great legal learning and ability amply 
 qualify him to form an estimate of its merits. " The Body of 
 Liberties," he says, " exhibits throughout the hand of the practised 
 lawyer, familiar with the principles' and the securities of English 
 liberty ; and although it retains some strong traces of the times, it 
 is, in the main, far in advance of them, and in several respects in 
 advance of the English Common Law at the present day. It 
 shows that our ancestors, instead of deducing all their laws from 
 the books of Moses, established at the outset a code of funda- 
 mental principles, which, taken as a whole, for wisdom, equity, 
 adaptation to the wants of their community, and a liberality of 
 sentiment superior to the age in which it was written, may fear- 
 lessly challenge a comparison with any similar production, from 
 Magna Charta itself to the latest Bill of Rights that has been put 
 forth in England or America." 
 
 Indeed, anxious as its authors were to incorporate into it the dis- 
 tinctive features of their own peculiar civil and religious polity, 
 they still showed the instinctive respect of Englishmen for estab- 
 lished law and the ancient safeguards of English freedom, by often 
 preserving the language, while they borrowed largely from the 
 spirit, of the Great Charter and the Common Law. What they 
 
56 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 
 
 borrowed, they were careful to enlarge and strengthen ; they 
 strove to lay broader and deeper the foundation of civil freedom, 
 scrupulous justice, and popular rights. They showed the spirit 
 which was to be expected from Englishmen who had left their 
 mother land during the dark period which intervened between the 
 Petition of Right and the meeting of the Long Parliament, when 
 the Constitution was virtually in abeyance, and Charles I. was gov- 
 erning without a Parliament, and without law. It was fortunate, 
 that so much of the English law was preserved, both in principle 
 and phraseology, in the Body of Liberties ; for they were soon ac- 
 cused of violating that restriction in their Charter which bound 
 them not to make any laws repugnant to the laws of England, 
 and it was intimated that complaint to this effect would be made to 
 the Commissioners established by the Long Parliament for super- 
 intending the affairs of the Colonies, and that the consequence 
 might be the forfeiture of the Charter. In answer to this charge, 
 the Massachusetts General Court published a Declaration, in 1646, 
 in which, among other things, they affirm that " our government 
 itself is framed according to our Charter and the fundamental and 
 common laws of England, and carried on according to the same, 
 (taking the words of eternal truth and righteousness along with 
 them, as that rule by which all kingdoms and jurisdictions must 
 render account of every act and administration at the last day,) 
 with as bare allowance for the disproportion between such an an- 
 cient, populous, wealthy kingdom, and so poor an infant, thin col- 
 ony, as reason can afford. And because this will better appear by 
 comparing particulars, we shall draw them into a parallel. In the 
 one column we will set down the fundamental and common laws and 
 customs of England, beginning with Magna Charta, and so go on to 
 such others as we had occasion to make use of, etc. ; in the other 
 column we will set down the sum of such laws and customs as are 
 in force and use in this jurisdiction." Accordingly, thirty-eight of 
 the fundamental laws of Massachusetts, mostly taken from The 
 Body of Liberties, but a few being said to be established only by 
 custom, are printed over against a corresponding number of legal 
 principles taken from Magna Charta and the English Common 
 Law, so as to show that they harmonize perfectly with each other. 
 In most instances, the comparison is a fair one, and the coincidence 
 is real as well as apparent ; but in a few cases, it must be admit- 
 ted, the two laws are so imperfectly stated that they appear to co- 
 incide, while in fact there is a glaring discrepancy between them. 
 Thus, it is stated to be a principle both of " the fundamentals " of 
 Massachusetts and of the Common Law, that " the eldest son is 
 preferred before the younger in the ancestor's inheritance." This 
 is true ; but the extent of the preference is not stated. In fact, the 
 English law gives the whole of the real estate to the oldest son, 
 while in Massachusetts he received only a double share. There 
 are a few other evasions of a like character.] 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 57 
 
 THE BODY OF LIBERTIES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS COLONY IN NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 ENACTED BY THE GENERAL COUET, A. D. 1641. 
 
 The free fruition of such liberties, immunities, and privileges as 
 humanity, civility, and Christianity call for as due to every man in 
 his place and proportion, without impeachment and infringement, 
 hath ever been and ever will be the tranquillity and stability of 
 churches and commonwealths ; and the denial or deprival thereof, 
 the disturbance, if not the ruin, of both. 
 
 We hold it, therefore, our duty and safety, whilst we are about 
 the further establishing of this government, to collect and express 
 all such freedoms as, for present, we foresee may concern us and 
 our posterity after us ; and to ratify them with our solemn con- 
 sent. 
 
 We do, therefore, this day, religiously and unanimously decree 
 and confirm these following rights, liberties, and privileges con- 
 cerning our churches and civil state, to be respectively, impartial- 
 ly, and inviolably enjoyed and observed throughout our jurisdic- 
 tion for ever. 
 
 1. No man's life shall be taken away, no man's honor or good 
 name shall be stained, no man's person shall be arrested, restrained, 
 banished, dismembered, nor anyways punished, no man shall be 
 deprived of his wife or children, no man's goods or estate shall be 
 taken away from him, nor any way endamaged, under color of law 
 or countenance of authority, unless it be by virtue or equity of some 
 express law of the country warranting the same, established by a 
 General Court and sufficiently published, or, in case of the defect 
 of a law in any particular case, by the Word of God. And in capi- 
 tal cases, or in cases concerning dismembering or banishment, 
 according to that Word to be judged by the General Court.* 
 
 # This first Liberty is evidently an expansion and a paraphrase of the fa- 
 8 
 
58 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 
 
 2. Every person within this jurisdiction, whether inhabitant or 
 foreigner, shall enjoy the same justice and law that is general for 
 the plantation, which we constitute and execute one towards another, 
 without partiality or delay. 
 
 3. No man shall be urged to take any oath or subscribe any 
 articles, covenants, or remonstrance, of a public and civil nature, 
 but such as the General Court hath considered, allowed, and re- 
 quired. 
 
 4. No man shall be punished for not appearing at or before any 
 civil assembly, court, council, magistrate, or officer, nor for the 
 omission of any office or service, if he shall be necessarily hin- 
 dered by any apparent act or providence of God, which he could 
 neither foresee nor avoid. Provided that this law shall not preju- 
 dice any person of his just cost or damage in any civil action. 
 
 5. No man shall be compelled to any public work or service, 
 unless the press be grounded upon some act of the General Court, 
 and have reasonable allowance therefor. 
 
 6. No man shall be pressed in person to any office, work, wars, 
 or other public service, that is necessarily and sufficiently ex- 
 empted by any natural or personal impediment, as by want of 
 years, greatness of age, defect of mind, failing of senses, or im- 
 
 > potency of limbs. 
 
 7. No man shall be compelled to go out of the limits of this 
 plantation upon any offensive wars which this Commonwealth, or 
 any of our friends or confederates, shall voluntarily undertake ; 
 but only upon such vindictive and defensive wars in our own be- 
 half, or the behalf of our friends and confederates, as shall be en- 
 terprized by the counsel and consent of a Court General, or by 
 authority derived from the same. 
 
 8. No man's cattle or goods, of what kind soever, shall be pressed 
 or taken for any public use or service, unless it be by warrant 
 grounded upon some act of the General Court, nor without such 
 reasonable prices and hire as the ordinary rates of the country do 
 afford. And if his cattle or goods shall perish or suffer damage 
 in such service, the owner shall be sufficiently recompensed.* 
 
 mous 46th article of the Great Charter ; — "No freeman shall he taken, or im- 
 prisoned, or disseized," &c. 
 * This is an expansion of the 36th article of the Great Charter. 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 59 
 
 9. No monopolies shall be granted or allowed amongst us, but 
 of such new inventions that are profitable to the country, and that 
 for a short time. 
 
 10. All our lands and heritages shall be free from all fines and 
 licenses upon alienations, and from all heriots, wardships, liveries, 
 primer-seisins, year day and waste, escheats, and forfeitures, upon 
 the deaths of parents or ancestors, be they natural, casual, or ju- 
 dicial.* 
 
 11. All persons which are of the age of twenty -one years, and 
 of right understanding and memories, whether excommunicated or 
 condemned, shall have full power and liberty to make their wills 
 and testaments, and other lawful alienations of their lands and 
 estates. 
 
 12. Every man, whether inhabitant or foreigner, free or not 
 free, shall have liberty to come to any public court, council, or 
 town-meeting, and, either by speech or writing, to move any law- 
 ful, seasonable, and material question, or to present any necessary 
 motion, complaint, petition, bill, or information, whereof that meet- 
 ing hath proper cognizance, so it be done in convenient time, due 
 order, and respective [respectful] manner.t 
 
 13. No man shall be rated [taxed] here for any estate or rev- 
 enue he hath in England, or in any foreign parts, till it be trans- 
 ported hither. 
 
 * Fines on alienation, heriots, liveries, primer-seisins, wardships, and the 
 like, were the incidents or emoluments of seigniory, that remained after the 
 military character of fiefs had been nearly effaced. They were not finally 
 abolished in England till the time of Charles II., when an act of Parliament 
 took them all away, and converted all the old feudal tenures of land (except 
 grand sergeanty, which is merely honorary and nominal) into common socage. 
 The Great Charter had regulated and mitigated these exactions ; the Parliament 
 of Charles n. abolished them altogether, giving the king, as a compensation 
 for the revenue thus surrendered, the proceeds of an excise on beer and some 
 other liquors. This Liberty, therefore, established by the General Court of 
 Massachusetts in 1641, anticipated" by about twenty years a most important 
 amelioration of the law of England. 
 
 t The right of petition and remonstrance, which is considered of so much 
 importance nowadays, cannot be said to have been fully established in England 
 before the Bill of Rights, in 1689. See ante, p. 46. 5. This clause in the Bill 
 of Rights was suggested by the famous trial of the seven bishops, a year or 
 two before. The right was completely established in Massachusetts by this 
 Liberty nearly half a century before. 
 
60 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 
 
 14. Any conveyance or alienation of land or other estate what- 
 soever, made by any woman that is married, any child under age, 
 idiot, or distracted person, shall be good, if it be passed and ratified 
 by the consent of a General Court. 
 
 15. All covenous or fraudulent alienations or conveyances of 
 lands, tenements, or any hereditaments, shall be of no validity to 
 defeat any man from due debts or legacies, or from any just title, 
 claim, or possession, of that which is so fraudulently conveyed. 
 
 16. Every inhabitant that is an householder shall have free fish- 
 ing and fowling in any great ponds and bays, coves, and rivers, so 
 far as the sea ebbs and flows within the precincts of the town 
 where they dwell, unless the freemen of the same town, or the 
 General Court, have otherwise appropriated them ; provided that 
 this shall not be extended to give leave to any man to come upon 
 others' property without their leave. 
 
 17. Every man of or within this jurisdiction shall have free 
 liberty, notwithstanding any civil power, to remove both himself 
 and his family at their pleasure out of the same, provided there be 
 no legal impediment to the contrary.* 
 
 Rights, Rules, and Liberties concerning Judicial Proceedings. 
 
 18. No man's person shall be restrained or imprisoned by any 
 authority whatsoever, before the law hath sentenced him thereto, 
 if he can put in sufficient security, bail, or mainprise for his ap- 
 pearance, and good behavior in the mean time, unless it be in 
 crimes capital, and contempts in open court, and in such cases 
 where some express act of court doth allow it.t 
 
 19. If, in a General Court, any miscarriage shall be amongst the 
 Assistants, when they are by themselves, that may deserve an 
 admonition or fine under twenty shillings, it shall be examined and 
 sentenced among themselves ; if amongst the Deputies, when they 
 are by themselves, it shall be examined and sentenced amongst 
 themselves ; if it be when the whole Court is together, it shall be 
 judged by the whole Court, and not severally, as before. J 
 
 * See the 48th and 50th articles of the Great Charter. 
 
 t This Liberty is an anticipation of the Habeas Corpus Act passed nearly 
 forty years afterwards. 
 
 t The Board of Assistants under the old Charter in Massachusetts was an 
 anomalous body, that performed the functions of an upper house in the legisla- 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 61 
 
 20. If any which are to sit as judges in any other court shall 
 demean themselves offensively in the court, the rest of the judges 
 present shall have power to censure him for it ; if the cause be of 
 a high nature, it shall be presented to and censured at the next 
 superior court. 
 
 21. In all cases where the first summons are not served six 
 days before the court, and the cause briefly specified in the war- 
 rant, where appearance is to be made by the party summoned, it 
 shall be at his liberty whether he will appear or no ; except all 
 cases that are to be handled in courts suddenly called, upon extra- 
 ordinary occasions. In all cases where there appears present and 
 urgent cause, any Assistant or officer appointed shall have power 
 to make out attachments for the first summons. 
 
 22. No man, in any suit or action against another, shall falsely 
 pretend great debts or damages to vex his adversary ; if it shall 
 appear any doth so, the court shall have power to set a reasonable 
 fine on his head. 
 
 23. No man shall be adjudged to pay for detaining any debt 
 from any creditor above eight pounds in the hundred for one year, 
 and not above that rate proportionable for all sums whatsoever ; 
 neither shall this be a color or countenance to allow any usury 
 amongst us, contrary to the law of God.* 
 
 24. In all trespasses or damages done to any man or men, if it 
 can be proved to be done by the mere default of him or them to 
 whom the trespass is done, it shall be judged no trespass, nor any 
 damage given for it. 
 
 25. No summons, pleading, judgment, or any kind of proceed- 
 ing in court or course of justice shall be abated, arrested, or re- 
 versed, upon any kind of circumstantial errors or mistakes, if the 
 person and cause be rightly understood and intended by the court.t 
 
 26. Every man that findeth himself unfit to plead his own cause 
 
 tare, of a council to the Governor,_and of a court which heard and determined 
 both civil and criminal causes. 
 
 * Eight per cent, was about the current rate of interest at this time allowed 
 in England. Though our ancestors, following the Jewish law, forbade lending 
 money on usury, it appears from this Liberty that they allowed interest to be 
 charged on any money detained beyond the time when payment was due. 
 
 t This Liberty, if it were in force at the present day, would remove one 
 great cause of litigation and of the uncertainty of the law. 
 
62 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 
 
 in any court, shall have liberty to employ any man against whom the 
 court doth not except, to help him, provided he give him no fee or 
 reward for his pains. This shall not exempt the party himself 
 from answering such questions in person as the court shall think 
 meet to demand of him.* 
 
 27. If any plaintiff 1 shall give into any court a declaration of 
 his. cause in writing, the defendant shall also have liberty and time 
 to give in his answer in writing ; and so in all further proceedings 
 between party and party, so it doth not further hinder the despatch 
 of justice than the court shall be willing unto. 
 
 28. The plaintiff in all actions brought in any court shall have 
 liberty to withdraw his action, or to be nonsuited before the jury 
 hath given in their verdict ; in which case, he shall always pay full 
 cost and charges to the defendant, and may afterwards renew his 
 suit at another court, if he please. 
 
 29. In all actions at law, it shall be the liberty of the plaintiff 
 and defendant, by mutual consent, to choose whether they will be 
 tried by the bench or by a jury, unless it be where the law upon 
 just reason hath otherwise determined. The like liberty shall be 
 granted to all persons in criminal cases. 
 
 30. It shall be in the liberty both of plaintiff and defendant, and 
 likewise every delinquent (to be judged by a jury), to challenge 
 any of the jurors. And if his challenge be found just and rea- 
 sonable by the bench, or the rest of the jury, as the challenger 
 shall choose, it shall be allowed him, and tales de circumstantibus 
 impanelled in their room. 
 
 31. In all cases where evidence is so obscure or defective that 
 the jury cannot clearly and safely give a positive verdict, whether 
 it be a grand or petit jury, it shall have liberty to give a non liquit, 
 or a special verdict, in which last, that is, in a special verdict, the 
 judgment of the cause shall be left to the court ; and all jurors 
 shall have liberty, in matters of fact, if they cannot find the main 
 issue, yet to find and present in their verdict so much as they can. 
 If the bench and jurors shall so suffer at any time about their ver- 
 dict, that either of them cannot proceed with peace of conscience, 
 
 * This is an anticipation of a very important amendment of the English 
 law, which, for more than a century longer, would not allow a person charged 
 with a capital offence to employ counsel to aid him, except on points of law. 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 63 
 
 the case shall be referred to the General Court, who shall take the 
 question from both and determine it.* 
 
 32. Every man shall have liberty to replevy his cattle or goods 
 impounded, distrained, seized, or extended, unless it be upon ex- 
 ecution after judgment, and in payment of fines. Provided he 
 puts in good security to prosecute his replevin, and to satisfy such 
 demands as his adversary shall recover against him in law. 
 
 33. No man's person shall be arrested, or imprisoned upon ex- 
 ecution or judgment, for any debt or fine, if the law can find com- 
 petent means of satisfaction otherwise from his estate ; and if not, 
 his person may be arrested and imprisoned, where he shall be kept 
 at his own charge, not the plaintiff's, till satisfaction be made, un- 
 less the court that had cognizance of the cause, or some superior 
 court, shall otherwise provide. 
 
 34. If any man shall be proved and judged a common barrator, 
 vexing others with unjust, frequent, and endless suits, it shall be in 
 the power of courts both to deny him the benefit of the law, and 
 to punish him for his barratry, t 
 
 35. No man's corn nor hay that is in the field or upon the cart, 
 nor his garden stuff, nor anything subject to present decay, shall 
 be taken in any distress, unless he that takes it doth presently be- 
 stow it where it may not be embezzled, nor suffer spoil or decay, 
 or give security to satisfy the worth thereof, if it comes to any 
 harm. 
 
 36. It shall be in the liberty of every man, cast, condemned, or 
 sentenced in any cause in any inferior court, to make their appeal 
 to the Court of Assistants, provided they tender their appeal, and 
 put in security to prosecute it, before the court be ended wherein 
 they were condemned, and within six days next ensuing put in 
 good security, before some Assistant, to satisfy what his adversary 
 shall recover against him ; and if the cause be of a criminal na- 
 ture, for his good behavior and appearance. And every man shall 
 have liberty to complain to the General Court of any injustice done 
 him in any Court of Assistants, or other. 
 
 37. In all cases where it appears to the court that the plaintiff 
 
 * These last three Liberties suggest important, but cautious, ameliorations of 
 the Common Law respecting juries, far in adyance of their age. 
 
 t Barrator is the technical designation of one who keeps up needless and 
 vexatious suits and quarrels. 
 
64 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 
 
 hath willingly and wittingly done wrong to the defendant in com- 
 mencing and prosecuting an action or complaint against him, they 
 shall have power to impose upon him a proportionable fine to the 
 use of the defendant, or accused person, for his false complaint or 
 clamor. 
 
 38. Every man shall have liberty to record in the public rolls of 
 any court, any testimony given upon oath in the same court, or be- 
 fore two Assistants, or any deed or evidence legally confirmed 
 there, to remain in perpetuam rei memoriam, that is, for perpetual 
 memorial or evidence upon occasion. 
 
 39. In all actions, both real and personal, between party and 
 party, the court shall have power to respite execution for a con- 
 venient time, when in their prudence they see just cause so to do. 
 
 40. No conveyance, deed, or promise whatsoever shall be of 
 validity, if it be gotten by illegal violence, imprisonment, threat- 
 ening, or any kind of forcible compulsion called duress. 
 
 41. Every man that is to answer for any criminal cause, whether 
 he be in prison or under bail, his cause shall be heard and deter- 
 mined at the next court that hath proper cognizance thereof, and 
 may be done without prejudice of justice. 
 
 42. No man shall be twice sentenced by civil justice for one 
 and the same crime, offence, or trespass. 
 
 43. No man shall be beaten with above forty stripes, nor shall 
 any true gentleman, nor any man equal to a gentleman, be pun- 
 ished with whipping, unless his crime be very shameful, and his 
 course of life vicious and profligate. 
 
 44. No man condemned to die shall be put to death within four 
 days next after his condemnation, unless the court see special cause 
 to the contrary, or in case of martial law, nor shall the body of any 
 man so put to death be unburied twelve hours, unless it be in case 
 of anatomy. 
 
 45. No man shall be forced by torture to confess any crime 
 against himself nor any other, unless it be in some capital case, 
 where he is first fully convicted by clear and sufficient evidence to 
 be guilty ; after which, if the cause be of that nature, that it is 
 very apparent there be other conspirators or confederates with him, 
 then he may be tortured, yet not with such tortures as be barbar- 
 ous and inhuman. 
 
 46. For bodily punishments, we allow amongst us none that are 
 inhuman, barbarous, or cruel. 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 65 
 
 47. No man shall be put to death without the testimony of two 
 or three witnesses, or that which is equivalent thereunto. 
 
 48. Every inhabitant of the country shall have free liberty to 
 search and view any rolls, records, or registers of any court or 
 office except the Council, and to have a transcript or exemplifica- 
 tion thereof written, examined, and signed by the hand of the of- 
 ficer of the office, paying the appointed fees therefor. 
 
 49. No free man shall be compelled to serve upon juries above 
 two courts in a year, except grand-jurymen, who shall hold two 
 courts together, at the least. 
 
 50. All jurors shall be chosen continually by the freemen of the 
 town where they dwell. 
 
 51. All Associates selected at anytime to assist the Assistants in 
 inferior courts, shall be nominated by the towns belonging to that 
 court, by orderly agreement among themselves. 
 
 52. Children, idiots, distracted persons, and all that are strangers, 
 or new-comers to our plantation, shall have such allowances and 
 dispensations in any cause, whether criminal or other, as religion 
 and reason require. 
 
 53. The age of discretion, for passing away of lands or such 
 kind of hereditaments, or for giving of votes, verdicts, or sentence 
 in any civil courts or causes, shall be one^and-twenty years. 
 
 54. Whensoever anything is to be put to vote, any sentence to 
 be pronounced, or any other matter to be proposed, or read in any 
 court or assembly, if the president or moderator thereof shall re- 
 fuse to perform it, the major part of the members of that court 
 or assembly shall have power to appoint any other meet man of 
 them to do it ; and, if there be just cause, to punish him that should, 
 and would not. 
 
 55. In all suits or actions in any court, the plaintiff shall have 
 liberty to make all the titles and claims to that he sues for he can. 
 And the defendant shall have liberty to plead all the pleas he can 
 in answer to them, and the court shall judge according to the 
 entire evidence of all. 
 
 56. If any man shall behave himself offensively at any town- 
 meeting, the rest of the freemen then present shall have power to 
 sentence him for his offence ; so be it the mulct or penalty exceed 
 not twenty shillings. 
 
 57. Whensoever any person shall come to any very sudden, un- 
 
 9 
 
66 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 
 
 timely, and unnatural death, some Assistant, or the constables of 
 that town, shall forthwith summon a jury of twelve freemen to in- 
 quire of the cause and manner of their death, and shall present a 
 true verdict thereof to some near Assistant, or the next court to be 
 held for that town, upon their oath. 
 
 Liberties more peculiarly concerning the Freemen. 
 
 58. Civil authority hath power and liberty to see the peace, or- 
 dinances, and rules of Christ observed in every church according 
 to his word ; so it be done in a civil, and not in an ecclesiastical 
 way. 
 
 59. Civil authority hath power and liberty to deal with any 
 church-member in a way of civil justice, notwithstanding any 
 church relation, office, or interest. 
 
 60. No church censure shall degrade or depose any man from 
 any civil dignity, office, or authority he shall have in the Common- 
 wealth.* 
 
 61. No magistrate, juror, officer, or other man, shall be bound 
 to inform, present, or reveal any private crime or offence, wherein 
 there is no peril or danger to this plantation or any member there- 
 of, when any necessary tie of conscience binds him to secrecy 
 grounded upon the Word of God, unless it be in case of testimony 
 lawfully required. 
 
 62. Any shire or town shall have liberty to choose their Depu- 
 ties, whom and where they please, for the General Court ; sp be it 
 they be freemen, and have taken their oath of fealty, and inhabit- 
 ing in this jurisdiction. 
 
 63. No Governor, Deputy- Governor, Assistant, Associate, or 
 grand-juryman at any court, nor any Deputy for the General Court, 
 shall at any time bear his own charges at any court, but their ne- 
 cessary expenses shall be defrayed either by the town or shire on 
 whose service they are, or by the country in general. 
 
 64. Every action between party and party, and proceedings 
 
 # These Liberties (58 - 60) define and establish very clearly the notions of 
 our ancestors respecting the relation between church and state. Notwithstand- 
 ing the vast influence of the clergy, and the Mosaic predilections of the magis- 
 trates and the people, they still wisely held that the ecclesiastical was subject to 
 the civil power. These three Liberties alone are enough to prove that the early 
 government of Massachusetts was not a theocracy. 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 67 
 
 against delinquents in criminal causes, shall be briefly and distinctly- 
 entered on the rolls of every court by the recorder thereof; that 
 such actions be not afterwards brought again, to the vexation of 
 any man. 
 
 65. No custom or prescription shall ever prevail amongst us in 
 any moral cause ; — our meaning is, [no prescription shall] main- 
 tain anything that can be proved to be morally sinful by the Word 
 of God. 
 
 66. The freemen of every township shall have power to make 
 such by-laws and constitutions as may concern the welfare of their 
 town, provided they be not of a criminal, but only of a prudential 
 nature, and that their penalties exceed not twenty shillings for One 
 offence ; and that they be not repugnant to the public laws and 
 orders of the country. And if any inhabitant shall neglect or re- 
 fuse to observe them, they shall have power to levy the appointed 
 penalties by distress. 
 
 67. It is the constant liberty of the freemen of this plantation to 
 choose yearly, at the Court of Election, out of the freemen, all 
 the general officers of this jurisdiction. If they please to discharge 
 them at the day of election by way of vote, they may do it 
 without showing cause. But if at any other General Court, we 
 hold it due justice, that the reasons thereof be alleged and proved. 
 By general officers, we mean our Governor, Deputy-Governor, 
 Assistants, Treasurer, General of our wars, and our Admiral at 
 sea, and such as are, or hereafter may be, of the like general 
 nature.* 
 
 68. It is the liberty of the freemen to choose such Deputies for 
 
 * Just before the Massachusetts general election in 1634, there being some 
 apprehension that the people would not re-elect the former magistrates, the 
 Rev. " Mr. Cotton preached, and delivered this doctrine, that a magistrate ' 
 ought not to be turned into the condition of a private man without just cause, 
 no more than the magistrates might turn a private man out of his freehold 
 without like public trial." But this doctrine was not much relished, and the 
 people showed their dissent in a very practical manner. To adopt President 
 Quiney's language. " They turned out Winthrop at the very same election, and 
 put in Dudley. The year after, they turned out Dudley and put in Haynes. 
 The year after, they turned out Haynes, and put in Vane." Having thus suf- 
 ficiently vindicated their right, in.,1637 they chose Winthrop again. Probably 
 the recollection of Cotton's unlucky sermon suggested this article in the Body 
 of Liberties. 
 
68 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 
 
 the General Court out of themselves, either in their own towns or 
 elsewhere, as they judge fittest. And because we cannot foresee 
 what variety and weight of occasions may fall into future con- 
 sideration, and what counsels we may stand in need of, we decree, 
 that the Deputies (to attend the- General Court in the behalf of 
 the country) shall not any time be stated or inacted [elected] but 
 from Court to Court, or at the most but for one year, that the coun- 
 try may have an annual liberty to do in that case what is most be- 
 hoofful for the best welfare thereof. 
 
 69. No General Court shall be dissolved or adjourned without the 
 consent of the major part thereof. 
 
 70. All freemen called to give any advice, vote, verdict, or sen- 
 tence in any court, council, or civil assembly, shall have full free- 
 dom to do it according to their true judgments and consciences, so 
 it be done orderly and inoffensively for the manner. 
 
 71. The Governor shall have a casting voice whensoever an 
 equal vote shall fall out in the Court of Assistants, or General As- 
 sembly ; so shall the president or moderator have in all civil courts 
 or assemblies. 
 
 72. The Governor and Deputy-Governor jointly consenting, or 
 any three Assistants concurring in consent, shall have power, out 
 of court, to reprieve a condemned malefactor till the next quarter 
 or General Court. The General Court only shall have power to 
 pardon a condemned malefactor. 
 
 73. The General Court hath liberty and authority to send out 
 any member of this Commonwealth, of what quality, condition, or 
 office whatsoever, into foreign parts, about any public message or 
 negotiation : Provided the party sent be acquainted with the affair 
 he goeth about, and be willing to undertake the service. 
 
 74. The freemen of every town or township shall have full 
 power to choose yearly, or for less time, out of themselves, a con- 
 venient number of fit men to order the planting or prudential occa- 
 sions of that town, according to instructions given them in writing : 
 Provided nothing be done by them contrary to the public laws and 
 orders of the country ; provided also, the number of such select 
 persons be not above nine. 
 
 75. It is and shall be the liberty of any member or members of 
 any court, council, or civil assembly, in cases of making or ex- 
 ecuting any order or law that properly concern religion, or any 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 69 
 
 cause capital, or wars, or subscription to any public articles or re- 
 monstrance, in case they cannot in judgment and conscience con- 
 sent to that way the major vote or suffrage goes, to make their 
 contra remonstrance or protestation in speech or writing, and, upon 
 request, to have their dissent recorded in the rolls of that court ; so 
 it be done Christianly and respectively [respectfully] for the man- 
 ner, and their dissent only be entered, without the reasons thereof, 
 for the avoiding of tediousness. 
 
 76. Whensoever any jury of trials or jurors are not clear in 
 their judgments or consciences concerning any cause wherein they 
 are to give their verdict, they shall have liberty in open court to 
 advise with any man they think fit to resolve or direct them, be- 
 fore they give in their verdict. 
 
 77. In all cases wherein any freeman is to give his vote, be it 
 in point of election, making constitutions and orders, or passing 
 sentence in any case of judicature, or the like, if he cannot see 
 reason to give it positively one way or another, he shall have 
 liberty to be silent, and not pressed to a determined vote. 
 
 78. The general or public treasure, or any part thereof, shall 
 never be expended but by the appointment of a General Court, 
 nor any shire treasure but by the appointment of the freemen 
 thereof, nor any town treasure but by the freemen of that town- 
 ship. 
 
 Liberties of Women. 
 
 79. If any man at his death shall not leave his wife a competent 
 portion of his estate, upon just complaint made to the General 
 Court, she shall be relieved. 
 
 80. Every married woman shall be free from bodily correction 
 or stripes by her husband, unless it be in his own defence upon 
 her assault. If there be any just cause of correction, complaint 
 shall be made to authority assembled in some court, from which 
 only she shall receive it. 
 
 Liberties of Children. 
 
 81. When parents die intestate, the elder son shall have a double 
 portion of his whole estate real and personal, unless the General 
 Court, upon just cause alleged, shall judge otherwise.* 
 
 * Our ancestors here follow the law of Moses, rejecting the right of primo- 
 
70 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 
 
 82. When parents die intestate,, having^o heirs male of their 
 bodies, their daughters shall inherit as copartners, unless the Gen- 
 eral Court, upon just reason, shall judge otherwise. 
 
 83. If any parents shall wilfully and unreasonably deny any 
 child timely or convenient marriage, or shall exercise any unnat- 
 ural severity towards them, such children shall have free liberty 
 to complain to authority for redress. 
 
 84. No orphan during their minority, which was not committed 
 to tuition or service by the parents in their lifetime, shall after- 
 wards be absolutely disposed of by any kindred, friend, executor, 
 township, or church, nor by themselves, without the consent of 
 some court, wherein two Assistants at least shall be present. 
 
 Liberties of Servants. 
 
 85. If any servants shall flee from the tyranny and cruelty of 
 their masters to the house of any freeman of the same town, they 
 shall be there protected and sustained till due order be taken for 
 their relief ; provided due notice thereof be speedily given to their 
 masters, from whom they fled, and the next Assistant or constable 
 where the party flying is harbored. 
 
 86. No servant shall be put off for above a year to any other, 
 neither in the lifetime of their master, nor after their death by 
 their executors or administrators, unless it be by consent of authority 
 assembled in some court, or two Assistants. 
 
 87. If any man smite out the eye or tooth of his man-servant 
 or maid-servant, or otherwise maim or much disfigure him, unless 
 it be by mere casualty, he shall let them go free from his service, 
 and he shall have such further recompense as the court shall allow 
 him. 
 
 88. Servants that have served diligently and faithfully to the 
 benefit of their masters seven years, shall, not be sent away empty. 
 And if any have been unfaithful, negligent, or unprofitable in 
 their service, notwithstanding the good usage of their masters, 
 they shall not be dismissed till they have made satisfaction accord- 
 ing to the judgment of authority. 
 
 geniture, as it was and is established in England. This equal, or nearly equal, 
 division of the estates of persons deceased, was the most effectual measure they 
 could have adopted for fostering a republican spirit among the people, and pre- 
 venting an aristocracy from ever gaining foothold on American ground. 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 71 
 
 Liberties of Foreigners and Strangers. 
 
 89. If any people of other nations professing the true Christian 
 religion shall flee to us from the tyranny or oppression of their 
 persecutors, or from famine, wars, or the like necessary and com- 
 pulsory cause, they shall be entertained and succored amongst us, 
 according to that power and prudence God shall give us. 
 
 90. If any ships or other vessels, be it friend or enemy, shall 
 suffer shipwreck upon our coast, there shall be no violence or 
 wrong offered to their persons or goods. But their persons shall 
 be harbored and relieved, and their goods preserved in safety, till 
 authority may be certified thereof, and shall take further order 
 therein. 
 
 91. There shall never be any bond slavery, villeinage, or captiv- 
 ity amongst us, unless it be lawful captives taken in just wars, and 
 such strangers as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us. And 
 these shall have all the liberties and Christian usages which the 
 law of God established in Israel concerning such persons doth 
 morally require. This exempts none from servitude who shall be 
 judged thereto by authority. 
 
 Of the Brute Creature. 
 
 92. No man shall exercise any tyranny or cruelty towards any 
 brute creatures which are usually kept for man's use. 
 
 93. If any man shall have occasion to lead or drive cattle from 
 place to place that is far off, so that they be weary, or hungry, or 
 fall sick or lame, it shall be lawful to rest or refresh them, for a 
 competent time, in any open place that is not corn, meadow, or in- 
 closed for some peculiar use. 
 
 94. Capital Laws.* 
 
 l. 
 If any man, after legal conviction, shall have or worship any 
 other god but the Lord God, he shall be put to death.t 
 
 * In these laws defining capital offences, the peculiar religious tenets of our 
 ancestors appear. They are nearly all borrowed directly from the Mosaic law, 
 and are accompanied in the original with the references to Scripture texts 
 which we have subjoined in the notes. 
 
 t Deut. xiii. 6, 10 ; xvii. 2, 6. Ex. xxii. 20. 
 
72 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 
 
 2. 
 
 If any man or woman be a witch (that is, hath or consulteth 
 with a familiar spirit), they shall be put to death.* 
 
 3. 
 If any person shall blaspheme the name of God, the Father, 
 Son, or Holy Ghost, with direct, express, presumptuous, or high- 
 handed blasphemy, or shall curse God in the like manner, he shall 
 be put to death.t 
 
 4. 
 If any person commit any wilful murder, which is manslaughter 
 committed upon premeditated malice, hatred, or cruelty, not in a 
 man's necessary and just defence, nor by mere casualty against 
 his will, he shall be put to death. f 
 
 5. 
 If any person slayeth another suddenly in his anger, or cruelty, 
 or passion, he shall be put to death. § 
 
 6. 
 If any person shall slay another through guile, either by poison- 
 ing or other such devilish practice, he shall be put to death. || 
 
 7. 
 If any man or woman shall lie with any beast or brute creature 
 by carnal copulation, they shall surely be put to death. And the 
 beast shall be slain and buried, and not eaten. ff 
 
 8. 
 If any man lieth with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both 
 of them have committed abomination ; they both shall surely be 
 put to death.** 
 
 9. 
 If any person committeth adultery with a married or espoused 
 wife, the adulterer and adulteress shall surely be put to death.tt 
 
 10. 
 
 If any man stealeth a man or mankind, he shall surely be put 
 to death.fj: 
 
 * Ex. xxii. 18. Lev. xx. 27. Deut. xviii. 10. || Ex. xxi. 14. 
 
 t Lev. xxiv. 15, 16. ** Lev. xx. 13. 
 
 % Ex. xxi. 12. Numb. xxxv. 13, 14, 30, 31. %t Ex. xxi. 16. 
 
 § Numb. xxv. 20, 21. Lev. xxiv. 17. 
 
 T Lev. xx. 15, 16. 
 
 tt Lev. xx. 19 ; xviii. 20. Deut. xxii. 23, 24. 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 73 
 
 11. 
 
 If any man rise up by false witness, wittingly and of purpose to 
 take away any man's life, he shall be put to death.* 
 
 12. 
 
 If any man shall conspire and attempt any invasion, insurrec- 
 tion, or public rebellion against our Commonwealth, or shall en- 
 deavor to surprise any town or towns, fort or forts therein, or shall 
 treacherously and perfidiously attempt the alteration and subver- 
 sion of our frame of polity or government fundamentally, he shall 
 be put to death. 
 
 95. A Declaration of the Liberties the Lord Jesus hath given to 
 the Churches. 
 
 1. 
 All the people of God within this jurisdiction who are not in a 
 church way, and be orthodox in judgment, and not scandalous in 
 life, shall have full liberty to gather themselves into a church 
 estate : Provided they do it in a Christian way, with due observa- 
 tion of the rules of Christ revealed in his word. 
 
 2. 
 
 Every church hath full liberty to exercise all the ordinances of 
 God, according to the rules of Scripture. 
 
 3. 
 Every church hath free liberty of election and ordination of all 
 their officers from time to time, provided they be able, pious, and 
 orthodox. 
 
 4. 
 Every church hath free liberty of admission, recommendation, 
 dismission, and expulsion, or deposal of their officers and mem- 
 bers, upon due cause, with free exercise of the discipline and cen- 
 sures of Christ, according to the rules of his word. 
 
 5. 
 No injunctions are to be put upon any church, church officers or 
 member, in point of doctrine, worship, or discipline, whether for 
 substance or circumstance, besides the institutions of the Lord. 
 
 6. 
 Every church of Christ hath freedom to celebrate days of fast- 
 
 * Deut. xix. 16, 18, 19. 
 10 
 
74 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 
 
 ing and prayer, and of thanksgiving, according to the word of 
 God. 
 
 7. 
 
 The elders of churches have free liberty to meet monthly, 
 quarterly, or otherwise, in convenient numbers and places, for 
 conferences and consultations about Christian and church questions 
 and occasions. 
 
 8. 
 
 All churches have liberty to deal with any of their members in 
 a church way that are in the hand of justice ; so it be not to retard 
 or hinder the course thereof. 
 
 9. 
 
 Every church hath liberty to deal with any magistrate, deputy 
 of court, or other officer whatsoever, that is a member, in a church 
 way, in case of apparent and just offence given in their places, so it 
 be done with due observance and respect. 
 
 10. 
 
 We allow private meetings for edification in religion amongst 
 Christians of all sorts of people ; so it be without just offence for 
 number, time, place, and other circumstances. 
 
 11. 
 
 For the preventing and removing of error and offence that may 
 grow and spread in any of the churches in this jurisdiction, and 
 for the preserving of truth and peace in the several churches 
 within themselves, and for the maintenance and exercise of 
 brotherly communion amongst all the churches in the country, it 
 is allowed and ratified, by the authority of this General Court, as a 
 lawful liberty of the churches of Christ : — That once in every 
 month of the year (when the season will bear it), it shall be law- 
 ful for the ministers and elders of the churches near adjoining 
 together, with any other of the brethren, with the consent of the 
 churches, to assemble by course in each several church, one after 
 another, to the intent, after the preaching of the word by such a 
 minister as shall be requested thereto by the elders of the church 
 where the assembly is held^ that the rest of the day may be spent 
 in public Christian conference, about the discussing and resolving 
 of any such doubts and cases of conscience, concerning matter of 
 doctrine or worship, or government of the church, as shall be pro- 
 pounded by any of the brethren of that church, with leave also to 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OF LIBERTIES. 75 
 
 any other brother to propound his objections or answers for further 
 satisfaction, according to the word of God. Provided that the 
 whole action be guided and moderated by the elders of the church 
 where the assembly is held, or by such others as they shall ap- 
 point. And that nothing be concluded and imposed by way of 
 authority from one or more churches upon another, but only by 
 way of brotherly conference and consultation ; that the truth may 
 be searched out, to the satisfying of every man's conscience in 
 the sight of God, according to his word. And because such an 
 assembly and the work thereof cannot be duly attended to, if other 
 lectures be held in the same week, it is therefore agreed, with the 
 consent of the churches, that in that week when such an assembly 
 is held, all the lectures in all the neighboring churches for that week 
 shall be forborne ; that so the public service of Christ in this more 
 solemn assembly may be transacted with greater diligence and 
 attention. 
 
 96. Howsoever these above specified rights, freedoms, immuni- 
 ties, authorities, and privileges, both civil and ecclesiastical, are 
 expressed only under the name and title of Liberties, and not in 
 the exact form of Laws or Statutes, yet we do with one consent 
 fully authorize, and earnestly entreat, all that are and shall be in 
 authority to consider them as laws, and not to fail to inflict con- 
 dign and proportionable punishments upon every man impartially, 
 that shall infringe or violate any of them. 
 
 97. We likewise give full power and liberty to any person that 
 shall at any time be denied or deprived of any of them, to com- 
 mence and prosecute their suit, complaint, or action against any 
 man that shall so do, in any court that hath proper cognizance or 
 judicature thereof. 
 
 98. Lastly, because our duty and desire is to do nothing sud- 
 denly which fundamentally concern us, we decree that these rights 
 and liberties shall be audibly read and deliberately weighed at 
 every General Court that shall be held, within three years next en- 
 suing ; and such of them as shall not be altered or repealed, they 
 shall stand so ratified, that no man shall infringe them without due 
 punishment. 
 
 And if any General Court, within these three next years, shall 
 fail or forget to read and consider them as abovesaid, the Governor 
 
76 THE MASSACHUSETTS BODY OP LIBERTIES. 
 
 and Deputy-Governor for the time being, and every Assistant pres- 
 ent at such courts, shall forfeit twenty shillings a man, and every 
 Deputy ten shillings a man, for each neglect, which shall be paid 
 out of their proper estate, and not by the country or the towns 
 which choose them. And whensoever there shall arise any ques- 
 tion in any court, among the Assistants and Associates thereof, 
 about the explanation of these rights and liberties, the General 
 Court only shall have power to interpret them. 
 
[The enactment of the Body of Liberties was not the only im- 
 portant event which manifested the intention of the people of Mas- 
 sachusetts, and indeed of all New England, to build up both in 
 church and state a polity of their own, and to manage their own 
 affairs with as little interference as possible from the mother coun- 
 try. They had no conscious purpose of shaking off their depend- 
 ence on England. Throughout the first century of their history, 
 the Colonies were much too weak to stand alone ; they needed 
 countenance and aid in their exposed situation ; and their feeling 
 of attachment was strong to the land of their origin, which many 
 of them had but recently left, and where nearly all had relatives 
 and dear friends. But they aimed to make the tie which bound 
 them as light, and the restraints which it imposed as few, as pos- 
 sible. The exact nature and limits of the dependence of the 
 Colonies on the English crown and Parliament had never been 
 clearly defined. The matter was in great part left to determine it- 
 self, the provisions in the charters being few and vague, and the 
 ever-changing circumstances of the Colonists, arising from the in- 
 flux of population, the rapid extension of the settlements, the fre- 
 quent wars with the Indians and the French, and the opening of 
 new avenues for the industry and enterprise of the people, con- 
 stantly lessening the applicability of these provisions, and creating 
 new emergencies and occasions, which had not been foreseen, 
 and consequently not provided for, when these instruments were 
 drawn up. The necessity of the case, growing out of the situa- 
 tion of the Colonists in a wilderness, at so great a distance from 
 the parent country, obliged them to exert some powers which were 
 never expressly granted to them, and to divert others to purposes 
 that were never contemplated by the grantors. They were forced 
 at times to exercise all the attributes of independent sovereignties, 
 and to make war and peace with the native tribes, and even with 
 the French, without consulting the authorities in England. When 
 
78 CONFEDERACY OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 
 
 the brand and the tomahawk were at their doors, they had no time 
 to wait and inquire of the British ministry whether they were at 
 liberty to go to war with the aggressors. The Pequod war and the 
 war with King Philip were conducted by the Colonists alone, and 
 ,were supported out of their own resources. 
 
 Apprehensions of a similar calamity and of the encroachments 
 of the Dutch, and the desire of taking the most effective measures 
 against them, led to what was certainly a daring usurpation of sov- 
 ereign power, the Union or Confederacy of four Colonies of Ne\v 
 England, which was created in 1643. This step was wholly un- 
 authorized ; it was not preceded by any consultation with the ad- 
 ministrators of English affairs, and there was no provision in either 
 of the charters empowering the people to establish such a Con- 
 federacy. The Colonists were reproached, at the time, with ar- 
 rogating to themselves the rights of sovereignty in this transaction ; 
 but Hutchinson says that " the Confederacy was acknowledged 
 and countenanced by the authority in England, from its beginning 
 until the Restoration ; and in letters from King Charles II. , notice 
 is taken of it without any exception to the establishment." This 
 temporary league for limited purposes may be said to have pre- 
 pared the way for the far more extensive and perfect union which 
 was created nearly a century and a half afterwards. It subsisted, 
 with some alterations, for about forty years, not being dissolved till 
 1686, when the charters of the New England Colonies were in ef- 
 fect vacated under the arbitrary rule of James II. Rhode Island 
 asked to be allowed to join the Confederacy, but the application 
 was refused, on the pretext that the people of Plymouth claimed 
 the territory of Rhode Island as within the limits of their patent. 
 But theological jealousy was probably the real ground of her ex- 
 clusion. The Articles of Confederation are here reprinted from 
 Winthrop's copy of them, as they appear in the excellent edition 
 of Winthrop's Journal prepared by Mr. Savage.] 
 
CONFEDERACY OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 79 
 
 ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND, 
 
 ESTABLISHED MAT 19TH, A. D. 1643. 
 
 The Articles of Confederation between the plantations under the 
 government of the Massachusetts, the plantations under the gov- 
 ernment of New Plymouth, the plantations under the government 
 of Connecticut, and the government of New Haven, with the plan- 
 tations in combination therewith : 
 
 Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one 
 and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the kingdom of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity 
 with peace : and whereas by our settling, by the wise providence 
 of God, we are further dispersed upon the sea-coasts and rivers 
 than was at first intended, so that we cannot, according to our de- 
 sire, with convenience communicate in one government and juris- 
 diction : and whereas we live encompassed with people of several 
 nations and strange languages, which hereafter may prove injurious 
 to us or our posterity ; and forasmuch as the natives have for- 
 merly committed sundry insolences and outrages upon several 
 plantations of the English, and have of late combined themselves 
 against us, and seeing by reason of the sad distractions in Eng- 
 land (which they have heard of), and by which they know we are 
 hindered both from that humble way of seeking advice, and reap- 
 ing those comfortable fruits of protection-, which at other times we 
 might well expect ; we therefore do conceive it our bounden duty, 
 without delay, to enter into a present consociation amongst our- 
 selves for mutual help and strength in all future concernment, that, 
 as in nation and religion, so in other respects, we be and continue 
 one, according to the tenor and true meaning of the ensuing arti- 
 cles : — 
 
 1. Wherefore it is fully agreed and concluded between the par- 
 
80 CONFEDERACY OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 
 
 ties above named, and they jointly and severally do, by these pres- 
 ents, agree and conclude, that they all be, and henceforth be called 
 by the name of, the United Colonies of New England. 
 
 2. These united Colonies, for themselves and their posterities, do 
 jointly and severally hereby enter into a firm and perpetual league 
 of friendship and amity, for offence and defence, mutual advice 
 and succor upon all just occasions, both for preserving and propa- 
 gating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their own 
 mutual safety and welfare. 
 
 3. It is further agreed, that the plantations which at present are, 
 or hereafter shall be, settled within the limits of the Massachusetts, 
 shall be for ever under the government of the Massachusetts, and 
 shall have peculiar jurisdiction amongst themselves in all cases as 
 an entire body ; and that Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven 
 shall each of them in all respects have like peculiar jurisdiction 
 
 .and government within their limits, and in reference to the planta- 
 tions which are already settled, or shall hereafter be erected, and 
 shall settle within any of their limits respectively : provided that 
 no other jurisdiction shall hereafter be taken in as a distinct head 
 or member of this confederation, nor shall any other, either planta- 
 tion or jurisdiction in present being, and not already in combina- 
 tion or under the jurisdiction of any of these confederates, be re- 
 ceived by any of them ; nor shall any two of these confederates 
 join in one jurisdiction, without consent of the rest, which consent 
 to be interpreted as in the 6th ensuing article is expressed. 
 
 4. It is also by these confederates agreed, that the charge of all 
 just wars, whether offensive or defensive, upon what part or mem- 
 ber of this confederation soever they shall fall, shall, both in men 
 and provisions and all other disbursements, be borne by all the 
 parts of this confederation in different proportions, according to 
 their different abilities, in manner following, viz. : That the com- 
 missioners for each jurisdiction, from time to time as there shall 
 be occasion, bring account and number of all the males in each 
 plantation, or any way belonging to or under their several jurisdic- 
 tions, of what quality or condition soever they be, from sixteen 
 years old to sixty, being inhabitants there, and that according to 
 the different numbers which from time to time shall be found in 
 each jurisdiction upon a true and just account, the service of men 
 and all charges of the war be borne by the poll ; each jurisdiction 
 
CONFEDERACY OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 81 
 
 or plantation being left to their own just course or custom of rating 
 themselves and people according to their different estates, with due 
 respect to their qualities and exemptions among themselves, though 
 the confederation take no notice of any such privilege ; and that, 
 according to the different charge of each jurisdiction and planta- 
 tion, the whole advantage of the war, (if it please God so to bless 
 their endeavors,) whether it be in lands, goods, or persons, shall be 
 proportionably divided among the said confederates. 
 
 5. It is further agreed, that if any of these jurisdictions, or any 
 plantation under or in combination with them, be invaded by any 
 enemy whatsoever, upon notice and request of any three magis- 
 trates of that jurisdiction so invaded, the rest of the confederates, 
 without any further notice or expostulation, shall forthwith send 
 aid to the confederate in danger, but in different proportions ; 
 namely, the Massachusetts, one hundred men sufficiently armed 
 and provided for such a service and journey, and each of the rest, 
 forty-five men so armed and provided ; or any less number, if less 
 be required, according to this proportion. But if such a confed- 
 erate in danger may be supplied by their next confederate, not ex- 
 ceeding the number hereby agreed, they may crave help thence, 
 and seek no further for the present ; the charge to be borne as in 
 this article is expressed, and at their return to be victualled, and 
 supplied with powder and shot, if there be need, for their journey, 
 by that jurisdiction which employed or sent for them ; but none of 
 the jurisdictions to exceed these numbers till, by a meeting of the 
 commissioners for this confederation, a greater aid appear neces- 
 sary ; and this proportion to continue till, upon knowledge of the 
 numbers in each jurisdiction, which shall be brought to the next 
 meeting, some other proportion be ordered. But in any such case 
 of sending men for present aid, whether before or after such order 
 or alteration, it is agreed that, at the meeting of the commissioners 
 for this confederation, the cause of such war or invasion be duly 
 considered ; and if it appear that the fault lay in the party invaded, 
 that then that jurisdiction or plantation make just satisfaction both 
 to the invaders whom they have injured, and bear all the charge 
 of the war themselves, without requiring any allowance from the 
 rest of the confederates towards the same. And further, that if 
 any jurisdiction see any danger of an invasion approaching, and 
 there be time for a meeting, that in such case three magistrates of 
 11 
 
82 CONFEDERACY OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 
 
 that jurisdiction may summon a meeting at such convenient place 
 as themselves shall think meet, to consider and provide against the 
 threatened danger ; provided, when they are met, they may re- 
 move to what place they please : only while any of these four 
 confederates have but three magistrates in their jurisdiction, a re- 
 quest or summons from any two of them shall be accounted of 
 equal force with the three mentioned in both the clauses of this 
 article, till there may be an increase of magistrates there. 
 
 6. It is also agreed, that for the managing and concluding of all 
 affairs peculiar to and concerning the whole confederation, com- 
 missioners shall be chosen by and out of each of these four juris- 
 dictions, viz. two for the Massachusetts, two for Plymouth, two for 
 Connecticut, and two for New Haven, all in church fellowship 
 with us, which shall bring full power from their several General 
 Courts respectively, to hear, examine, weigh, and determine all af- 
 fairs of war or peace, leagues, aids, charges, and numbers of men 
 for war, division of spoils, or whatever is gotten by conquest ; re- 
 ceiving of more confederates or plantations into the combination 
 with any of these confederates, and all things of like nature which 
 are the proper concomitants or consequents of such a confedera- 
 tion for amity, offence, and defence, not intermeddling with the. 
 government of any of the jurisdictions, which by the 3d article is 
 preserved entirely to themselves. But if those eight commission- 
 ers, when they meet, shall not agree, yet it is concluded that any 
 six of the eight, agreeing, shall have power to settle and deter- 
 mine the business in question ; but if six do not agree, that then 
 such propositions, with their reasons, so far as they have been de- 
 bated, be sent and referred to the four General Courts, viz. the 
 Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven : and if at 
 all the said General Courts the business so referred be concluded, 
 then to be prosecuted by the confederation and all their members. 
 It is further agreed, that these eight commissioners shall meet once 
 every year (besides extraordinary meetings according to the 5th 
 article), to consider, treat, and conclude of all affairs belonging to 
 this confederation, which meeting shall ever be the first Thursday 
 in September, and that the next meeting after the date of these 
 presents (which shall be accounted the second meeting), shall be 
 at Boston in the Massachusetts, the third at Hartford, the fourth at 
 New Haven, the fifth at Plymouth, the sixth and seventh at Bo's- 
 
CONFEDERACY OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 83 
 
 ton, and so in course successively, if in the mean time some middle 
 place be not found out and agreed upon, which may be commodi- 
 ous for all the jurisdictions. 
 
 7. It is further agreed, that at each meeting of these eight com- 
 missioners, whether ordinary or extraordinary, they all, or any six 
 of them agreeing as before, may choose their president out of 
 themselves, whose office and work shall be to take care and direct 
 for order and a comely carrying on of all proceedings in their 
 present meeting ; but he shall be invested with no such power or 
 respect, as by which he shall hinder the propounding or progress 
 of any business, or any way cast the scales otherwise than in the 
 preceding articles is agreed. 
 
 8. It is also agreed, that the commissioners for this confedera- 
 tion hereafter at their meetings, whether ordinary or extraordinary, 
 as they may have commission or opportunity, do endeavor to frame 
 and establish agreements and orders in general cases of a civil 
 nature wherein all the plantations are interested for preserving 
 peace amongst themselves, and preventing, as much as may be, all 
 occasions of war or differences with others, as about free and 
 speedy passage of justice in each jurisdiction to all the confed- 
 erates equally, as to their own, receiving those that remove from 
 one plantation to another without due certificates, how all the juris- 
 dictions may carry it towards the Indians, that they neither grow 
 insolent nor be injured without due satisfaction, lest war break in 
 upon the confederates through miscarriages. It is also agreed, 
 that if any servant run away from his master into any of these 
 confederate jurisdictions, that in such case, upon certificate of one 
 magistrate in the jurisdiction out of which the said servant fled, or 
 upon other due proof, the said servant shall be delivered either to 
 his master or any other that pursues and brings such certificate or 
 proof: and that upon the escape of any prisoner or fugitive for 
 any criminal cause, whether breaking prison or getting from the 
 officer, or otherwise escaping, upon the certificate of two magis- 
 trates of the jurisdiction out of which the escape is made, that he 
 was a prisoner or such an offender at the time of the escape, the 
 magistrate, or some of them of the jurisdiction where for the pres- 
 ent the said prisoner or fugitive abideth, shall forthwith grant such, 
 a warrant as the case will bear, for the apprehending of any such 
 person and the delivery of him into the hand of the officer or 
 
84 CONFEDERACY OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 
 
 other person who pursueth him ; and if there be help required for 
 the safe returning of any such offender, then it shall be granted 
 unto him that craves the same, he paying the charges thereof. 
 
 9. And for that the justest wars may be of dangerous conse- 
 quence, especially to the smaller plantations in these United Col- 
 onies, it is agreed, that neither the Massachusetts, Plymouth, Con- 
 necticut, nor New Haven, nor any of the members of any of them, 
 shall at any time hereafter begin, undertake, or engage themselves 
 or this confederation, or any part thereof, in any war whatsoever, 
 (sudden exigencies with the necessary consequences thereof ex- 
 cepted,- which are also to be moderated as much as the case will 
 permit,) without the consent and agreement of the aforenamed 
 eight commissioners, or at least six of them, as in the 6th article 
 is provided ; and that no charge be required of any of the con- 
 federates, in case of a defensive war, till the said commissioners 
 have met and approved the justice of the war, and have agreed 
 upon the sum of money to be levied, which sum is then to be paid 
 by the several confederates in proportion according to the 4th 
 article. 
 
 10. That in extraordinary occasions, when meetings are sum- 
 moned by three magistrates of any jurisdiction, or two, as in the 
 5th article, if any of the commissioners come not, due warning 
 being given or sent, it is agreed that four of the commissioners 
 shall have power to direct a war which cannot be delayed, and 
 to send for due proportions of men out of each jurisdiction, as 
 well as six might do if all met ; but not less than six shall de- 
 termine the justice of the war, or allow the demands or bills of 
 charges, or cause any levies to be made for the same. 
 
 11. It is further agreed, that if any of the confederates shall 
 hereafter break any of these present articles, or be otherway in- 
 jurious to any one of the other jurisdictions, such breach of agree- 
 ment or injury shall be duly considered and ordered by the com- 
 missioners for the other jurisdictions, that both peace and this pres- 
 ent confederation may be entirely preserved without violation. 
 
 12. Lastly, this perpetual co'nfederation, and the several articles 
 and agreements thereof being read and seriously considered both 
 
 • by the General Court for the Massachusetts and the commissioners 
 for the other three, were subscribed presently by the commission- 
 ers, all save those of Plymouth, who, for want of sufficient com- 
 
CONFEDERACY OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 85 
 
 mission from their General Court, deferred their subscription till the 
 next meeting, and then they subscribed also, and were to be allowed 
 by the General Courts of the several jurisdictions, which accordingly 
 was done, and certified at the next meeting held at Boston, Septem- 
 ber 7, 1643. 
 
 Boston, May 19, 1643. 
 
[After the Confederacy of the United Colonies of New Eng- 
 land ceased to exist, plans were proposed at different times for 
 forming a more comprehensive union of all the British Colonies in 
 North America, the chief object in view being concert and unanim- 
 ity of action against the Indians and the French. One such plan 
 was considered by the Board of Trade in 1696 ; but the peace of 
 Eyswick caused it to be laid aside and forgotten. Another and 
 more remarkable one was drawn up 'by Dr. Franklin, and accepted 
 by a convention of delegates from several of the Colonies, held 
 at Albany in 1754. Seven of the Colonies, namely, New Hamp- 
 shire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Penn- 
 sylvania, and Maryland, were represented in this convention by 
 twenty-five delegates, Dr. Franklin being one of the members 
 from Pennsylvania. The Board of Trade had called them together, 
 as a French war was impending, in order to secure the friendship 
 of the Six Nations, and concert measures against the other Indian 
 tribes and their white allies. But Massachusetts had authorized 
 her commissioners to " enter into articles of union and confedera- 
 tion for the general defence of his Majesty's subjects and interests 
 in North America, as well in time of peace as of war." Under 
 this encouragement, while the business with the Indians was pend- 
 ing, Dr. Franklin brought forward the plan of union, which he 
 had sketched in outline some time before, and shown to some of 
 his friends in New York, who had revised and approved it. Some 
 other plans were presented, but Franklin's was preferred ; and after 
 it had been debated in the Convention for twelve days, it was 
 adopted, either unanimously, or with the solitary dissent of Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 But the Plan of Union met with little favor out of the Conven- 
 tion, being rejected by all the Colonial Assemblies before which it 
 was brought, and the Board of Trade declining even to recom- 
 mend it to the notice of the king. Franklin says, " The Assem- 
 blies all thought there was too much prerogative in it, and in Eng- 
 land it was thought to have too much of the democratic.'''' The 
 discussion of it undoubtedly prepared the minds of the Americans 
 for their union in the Revolutionary struggle, for the Confedera- 
 tion which was planned in 1778 and went into effect in 1781, and 
 finally for the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1788. It is 
 here printed as it appears in Mr. Sparks's edition of Franklin's 
 writings, the several Articles of Union being in Italic type, and 
 the reasons and motives for them in Roma*n. The Union was to 
 comprehend all the British Colonies then existing in North Ameri- 
 ca, except Georgia and Nova Scotia.] 
 
franklin's plan of union of the colonies. 87 
 
 PLAN OF UNION 
 
 BKITISH AMERICAN COLONIES, 
 
 ADOPTED ET THE CONVENTION AT ALBANY IN 1754, WITH THE SEASONS 
 AND MOTIVES FOK EACH ARTICLE OF THE PLAN. 
 
 It is proposed, that humble application be made for an act of 
 Parliament of Great Britain, by virtue of which one general gov- 
 ernment may be formed in America, including all the said Colo- 
 nies, within and under which government each Colony may retain 
 its present constitution, except in the particulars wherein a change 
 may be directed by the said act, as hereafter follows. 
 
 President-General and Grand Council. 
 
 That the said general government be administered by a Presi- 
 dent- General, to be appointed and supported by the crown ; and a 
 Grand Council, to be chosen by the representatives of the people 
 of the several Colonies met in their respective assemblies. 
 
 It was thought that it would be best the President-General should 
 be supported as well as appointed by the crown, that so all disputes 
 between him and the Grand Council concerning his salary might be 
 prevented ; as such disputes have been frequently of mischievous 
 consequence in particular Colonies, especially in time of public 
 danger. The quitrents of crown lands in America might in a 
 short time be sufficient for this purpose. The choice of members 
 for the Grand Council is placed in the House of Representatives of 
 each government, in order to give the people a share in this new 
 general government, as the crown has its share by the appointment 
 of the President-General. 
 
 But it being proposed by the gentlemen of the Council of New 
 York, and some other counsellors among the commissioners, to 
 alter the plan in this particular, and to give the governors and 
 councils of the several Provinces a share in the choice of the Grand 
 
88 franklin's plan of union of the colonies. 
 
 Council, or at least a power of approving and confirming, or of 
 disallowing, the choice made by the House of Representatives, it 
 was said, — 
 
 " That the government or constitution, proposed to be formed 
 by the plan, consists of two branches ; a President-General ap- 
 pointed by the crown, and a Council chosen by the people, or by 
 the people's representatives, which is the same thing. 
 
 " That, by a subsequent article, the Council chosen by the people 
 can effect nothing without the consent of the President-General ap- 
 pointed by the crown ; the crown possesses, therefore, full one half 
 of the power of this constitution. 
 
 " That in the British constitution, the crown is supposed to pos- 
 sess but one third, the Lords having their share. 
 
 " That this constitution seemed rather more favorable for the 
 crown. 
 
 " That it is essential to English liberty, that the subject should 
 not be taxed but by his own consent, or the consent of his elected 
 representatives. 
 
 " That taxes to be laid and levied by this proposed constitution 
 will be proposed and agreed to by the representatives of the peo- 
 ple, if the plan in this particular be preserved ; 
 
 " But if the proposed alteration should take place, it seemed as 
 if matters may be so managed, as that the crown shall finally have 
 the appointment, not only of the President-General, but of a major- 
 ity of the Grand Council ; for seven out of eleven governors and 
 councils are appointed by the crown ; 
 
 " And so the people in all the Colonies would in effect be taxed 
 by their governors. 
 
 " It was therefore apprehended, that such alterations of the plan 
 would give great dissatisfaction, and that the Colonies could not be 
 easy under such a power in governors, and such an infringement 
 of what they take to be English liberty. 
 
 " Besides, the giving a share in the choice of the Grand Council 
 would not be equal with respect to all the Colonies, as their con- 
 stitutions differ. In some, both governor and council are appointed 
 by the crown. In others, they are both appointed by the proprie- 
 tors. In some, the people have a share in the choice of the coun- 
 cil ; in others, both government and council are wholly chosen by 
 the people. But the House of Representatives is everywhere chosen 
 
franklin's plan of union of the colonies, 89 
 
 by the people ; and, therefore, placing the right of choosing the 
 Grand Council in the representatives is equal with respect to all. 
 
 " That the Grand Council is intended to represent all the several 
 Houses of Representatives of the Colonies, as a House of Represent- 
 atives doth the several towns or counties of a Colony. Could all 
 the people of a Colony be consulted and unite in public measures, 
 a House of Representatives would be needless, and could all the 
 Assemblies conveniently consult and unite in general measures, 
 the Grand Council would be unnecessary. 
 
 " That a House of Commons or the House of Representatives, 
 and the Grand Council, are thus alike in their nature and intention. 
 And, as it would seem improper that the King or House of Lords 
 should have a power of disallowing or appointing members of the 
 House of Commons ; so, likewise, that a governor and council ap- 
 pointed by the crown should have a power of disallowing or ap- 
 pointing members of the Grand Council, who, in this constitution, 
 are to be the representatives of the people. 
 
 " If the governors and councils therefore were to have a share 
 in the choice of any that are to conduct this general government, 
 it should seem more proper that they choose the President-General. 
 But, this being an office of great trust and importance to the na- 
 tion, it was thought better to be filled by the immediate appoint- 
 ment of the crown. 
 
 " The power proposed to be given by the plan to the Grand 
 Council is only a concentration of the powers of the several As- 
 semblies in certain points for the general welfare ; as the power 
 of the President-General is of the several governors in the same 
 points. 
 
 " And as the choice therefore of the Grand Council, by the rep- 
 resentatives of the people, neither gives the people any new pow- 
 ers, nor diminishes the power of the crown, it was thought and 
 hoped the crown would not disapprove of it." 
 
 Upon the whole, the commissioners were of opinion, that the 
 choice was most properly placed in the representatives of the 
 people. 
 
 Election of Members. 
 That within months after the passing such act, the House 
 
 of Representatives that happen to ie sitting within that time, or 
 1? 
 
90 
 
 franklin's plan of union of the colonies. 
 
 that shall be especially for that purpose convened, may and shall 
 choose members for the Grand Council, in the following propor- 
 tion, that is to say, 
 
 Massachusetts Bay, . . '«' 
 
 New Hampshire, 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 Rhode Island, 
 
 New York, 
 
 New Jersey, . 
 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 North Carolina, 
 
 2 
 5 
 2 
 4 
 8 
 6 
 4 
 7 
 4 
 
 South Carolina, 
 
 48 
 
 It was thought, that if the least Colony was allowed two, and 
 the others in proportion, the number would be very great, and the 
 expense heavy ; and that less than two would not be convenient, 
 as, a single person being by any accident prevented appearing at 
 the meeting, the Colony he ought to appear for would not be rep- 
 resented. That, as the choice was not immediately popular, they 
 would be generally men of good abilities for business, and men of 
 reputation for integrity ; and that forty-eight such men might be a 
 number sufficient. But, though it was thought reasonable that 
 each Colony should have a share in the representative body in 
 some degree according to the proportion it contributed to the gen- 
 eral treasury, yet the proportion of wealth or power of the Colo- 
 nies is not to be judged by the proportion here fixed ; because it 
 was at first agreed, that the greatest Colony should not have more 
 than seven members, nor the least less than two ; and the setting 
 these proportions between these two extremes was not nicely at- 
 tended to, as it would find itself, after the first election, from the 
 sums brought into the treasury, as by a subsequent article. 
 
 Place of First Meeting. 
 — who shall meet for the first time at the city of Philadelphia in 
 Pennsylvania, being called by the President-General as soon as 
 conveniently may be after his appointment. 
 
franklin's plan of union of the colonies. 91 
 
 Philadelphia was named as being nearer the centre of the Colo- 
 nies, where the commissioners would be well and cheaply accom- 
 modated. The high roads, through the whole extent^ are for the 
 most part very good, in which forty or fifty miles a day may very 
 well be, and frequently are, travelled. Great part of the way may 
 likewise be gone by water. In summer time, the passages are 
 frequently performed in a week' from Charleston to Philadelphia 
 and New York ; and from Rhode Island to New York through the 
 Sound, in two or three days ; and from New York to Philadelphia, 
 by water and land, in two days, by stage, boats, and wheel-car- 
 riages that set out every other day. The journey from Charleston 
 to Philadelphia may likewise be facilitated by boats running up 
 Chesapeake Bay three hundred miles. But if the whole journey 
 be performed on horseback, the most distant members, viz. the 
 two from New Hampshire and from South Carolina, may probably 
 render themselves at Philadelphia in fifteen or twenty days ; the 
 majority may be there in much less time. 
 
 New Election. 
 
 That there shall be a new election of the members of the Grand 
 Council every three years ; and, on the death or resignation of 
 any member, his place should be supplied by a new choice at the 
 next sitting of the Assembly of the Colony he represented. 
 
 Some Colonies have annual assemblies, some continue during a 
 governor's pleasure 5 three years was thought a reasonable me- 
 dium, as affording a new member time to improve himself in the 
 business, and to act after such improvement, and yet giving op- 
 portunities, frequently enough, to change him, if he has misbe- 
 haved. 
 
 Proportion of Members after the first three Years. 
 
 That after the first three years, when the proportion of money 
 arising out of each Colony to the general treasury can be known, 
 the number of members to be chosen for each Colony shall, from 
 time to time, in all ensuing elections, be regulated by that propor- 
 tion, yet so as that the number to be chosen by any one Province be 
 not more than seven, nor less than two. 
 
 By a subsequent article, it is proposed that the General Council 
 shall lay and levy such general duties as to them may appear 
 
92 franklin's plan of union OF the COLONIES. 
 
 most equal and least bu'rdensome, &c. Suppose, for instance, 
 they lay a small duty or excise on some commodity imported into 
 or made in the Colonies, and pretty generally and equally used in 
 all of them, as rum perhaps, or wine ; the yearly produce of this 
 duty or excise, if fairly collected, would be in some Colonies 
 greater, in others less, as the Colonies are greater or smaller. 
 When the collector's accounts are brought in, the proportions will 
 appear ; and from them it is proposed to regulate the proportion of 
 representatives to be chosen at the next general election, within 
 the limits however of seven and two. These numbers may there- 
 fore vary in the course of years, as the Colonies may in the growth 
 and increase of people. And thus the quota of tax from each 
 Colony would naturally vary with its circumstances, thereby pre- 
 venting all disputes and dissatisfaction about the just proportions 
 due from each ; which might otherwise produce pernicious conse- 
 quences, and destroy the harmony and good agreement that ought 
 to subsist between the several parts of the Union. 
 
 Meetings of the Grand Council, and Call. 
 That the Grand Council shall meet once in every year, and of- 
 tener if occasion require, at such time and place as they shall ad- 
 journ to at the last preceding meeting, or as they shall be called to 
 meet at by the President- General on any emergency; he having 
 first obtained in writing the consent of seven of the members to 
 such call, and sent due and timely notice to the whole. 
 
 It was thought, in establishing and governing new colonies or 
 settlements, regulating Indian trade, Indian treaties, &c, there 
 would every year sufficient business arise to require at least one 
 meeting, and at such meeting many things might be suggested for 
 the benefit of all the Colonies. This annual meeting may either 
 be at a time or place certain, to be fixed by the President-General 
 and Grand Council at their first meeting ; or left at liberty, to be at 
 such time and place as they shall adjourn to, or be called to meet 
 at by the President-General. 
 
 In time of war, it seems convenient that the meeting should be 
 in that Colony which is nearest the seat of action. 
 
 The power of calling them on any emergency seemed neces- 
 sary to be vested in the President-General ; but, that such power 
 might not be wantonly used to harass the members, and oblige 
 
franklin's plan of union of the colonies. 93 
 
 them to make frequent long journeys to little purpose, the consent 
 of seven at least to such call was supposed a convenient guard. 
 
 Continuance. 
 
 That the Grand Council have power to choose their speaker ; 
 and shall neither be dissolved, prorogued, nor continued sitting 
 longer than six weeks at one time, without their own consent or the 
 special command of the crown. 
 
 The speaker should be presented for approbation ; it being con- 
 venient, to prevent misunderstandings and disgusts, that the mouth 
 of the Council should be a person agreeable, if possible, both to 
 the Council and President-General. 
 
 Governors have sometimes wantonly exercised the power of 
 proroguing or continuing the sessions of Assemblies, merely to 
 harass the members and compel a compliance ; and sometimes 
 dissolve them on slight disgusts. This it was feared might be done 
 by the President-General, if not provided against ; and the incon- 
 venience and hardship would be greater in the general government 
 than in particular Colonies, in proportion to the distance the mem- 
 bers must be from home during sittings, and the long journeys 
 some of them must necessarily take. 
 
 Members' Allowance. 
 
 That the members of the Grand Council shall be allowtd for 
 their service ten shillings sterling per diem, during their session 
 and journey to and from the place of meeting ; twenty miles to be 
 reckoned a day's journey. 
 
 It was thought proper to allow some wages, lest the expense 
 might deter some suitable persons from the service ; and not to 
 allow too great wages, lest unsuitable persons should be tempted 
 to cabal for the employment, for the sake of gain. Twenty miles 
 were set down as a day's journey, to allow for accidental hinder- 
 ances on the road, and the greater expenses of travelling than re- 
 siding at the place of meeting. 
 
 Assent of President-Geneeal and his Duty. 
 That the assent of the President-General be requisite to all acts 
 of the Grand Council, and that it be his office and duty to cause 
 them to be carried into execution. 
 
94 franklin's plan of union of the colonies. 
 
 The assent of the President-General to all acts of the Grand 
 Council was made necessary, in order to give the crown its due 
 share of influence in this government, and connect it with that of 
 Great Britain. The President-General, besides one half of the 
 legislative power, hath in his hands the whole executive power. 
 
 Power of President-General and Grand Council ; Treaties 
 of Peace and War. 
 
 That the President- General, with the advice of the Grand Coun- 
 cil, hold or direct all Indian treaties, in which the general inter- 
 est of the Colonies may be concerned ; and make peace or declare 
 war with Indian nations. 
 
 The power of making peace or war with Indian nations is at 
 present supposed to be in every Colony, and is expressly granted 
 to some by charter, so that no new power is hereby intended to be 
 granted to the Colonies. But as, in consequence of this power, 
 one Colony might make peace with a nation that another was justly 
 engaged in war with ; or make war on slight occasions without the 
 concurrence or approbation- of neighboring Colonies, greatly en- 
 dangered by it ; or make particular treaties of neutrality in case 
 of a general war, to their own private advantage in trade, by sup- 
 plying the common enemy ; of all which there have been in- 
 stances ; it was thought better to have all treaties of a general 
 nature under a general direction, that so the good of the whole 
 may be consulted and provided for. 
 
 Indian Trade. 
 
 That they make such laws as they judge necessary for regulat- 
 ing all Indian trade. 
 
 Many quarrels and wars have arisen between the Colonies and 
 Indian nations, through the bad conduct of traders who cheat the, 
 Indians after making them drunk, &c, to the great expense of the 
 Colonies, both in blood and treasure. Particular Colonies are so 
 interested in the trade, as not to be willing to admit such a regula- 
 tion as might be best for the whole ; and therefore it was thought 
 best under a general direction. 
 
 Indian Purchases. 
 That they make all purchases from Indians, for the crown, of 
 
franklin's plan of union of the colonies. 95 
 
 lands not now within the hounds of particular Colonies, or that 
 shall not he within their hounds when some of them are reduced to 
 more convenient dimensions. 
 
 Purchases from the Indians, made by private persons, have been 
 attended with many inconveniences. They have frequently inter- 
 fered, and occasioned uncertainty of titles, many disputes and ex- 
 pensive lawsuits, and hindered the settlement of the land so dis- 
 puted. Then the Indians have been cheated by such private pur- 
 chases, and discontent and wars have been the consequence. 
 These would be prevented by public fair purchases. 
 
 Several of the Colony charters in America extend their bounds 
 to the South Sea, which may be perhaps three or four thousand 
 miles in length to one or two hundred miles in breadth. It is sup- 
 posed they must in time be reduced to dimensions more convenient 
 for the common purposes of government. 
 
 Very little of the land in those grants is yet purchased of the 
 Indians. 
 
 It is much cheaper to purchase of them, than to take and main- 
 tain the possession by force ; for they are generally very reason- 
 able in their demands for land ; and the expense of guarding a 
 large frontier against their incursions is vastly great ; because all 
 must be guarded, and always guarded, as we know not where or 
 when to expect them. 
 
 New Settlements. 
 
 That they make new settlements on such purchases, hy granting 
 lands in the King , s name, reserving a quitrent to the crown for 
 the use of the general treasury. 
 
 It is supposed better that there should be one purchaser than 
 many ; and that the crown should be that purchaser, or the Union 
 in the name of the crown. By this means the bargains may be 
 more easily made, the price not enhanced by numerous bidders, 
 future disputes about private Indian purchases, and monopolies of 
 vast tracts to particular persons (which are prejudicial to the set- 
 tlement and peopling of the country), prevented; and, the land 
 being again granted in small tracts to the settlers, the quitrents 
 reserved may in time become a fund for support of government, 
 for defence of the country, ease of taxes, &c. 
 
 Strong forts on the Lakes, the Ohio,&c, may, at the same time 
 
96 franklin's plan of union of the colonies. 
 
 they secure our present frontiers, serve to defend new colonies 
 settled under their protection ; and such colonies would also mu- 
 tually defend and support such forts, and better secure the friend- 
 ship of the far Indians. 
 
 A particular Colony has scarce strength enough to extend itself 
 •by new settlements, at so great a distance from the old ; but the 
 joint force of the Union might suddenly establish a new Colony or 
 two in those parts, or extend an old Colony to particular passes, 
 greatly to the security of our present frontiers, increase of trade 
 and people, breaking off the French communication between 
 Canada and Louisiana, and speedy settlement of the intermediate 
 lands. 
 
 The power of settling new colonies is therefore thought a valu- 
 able part of the plan, and what cannot so well be executed by two 
 unions as by one. 
 
 Laws to govern them. 
 
 That they make laws for regulating and governing such new set- 
 tlements, till the crown shall think fit to form them into particular 
 governments. 
 
 The making of laws suitable for the new colonies, it was thought, 
 would be properly vested in the President-General and Grand Coun- 
 cil ; under whose protection they must at first necessarily be, and 
 who would be well acquainted with their circumstances, as having 
 settled them. When they are become sufficiently populous, they 
 may by the crown be formed into complete and distinct govern- 
 ments. 
 
 The appointment of a sub-president by the crown, to take place 
 in case of the death or absence of the President-General, would 
 perhaps be an improvement of the plan ; and if all the governors 
 of particular provinces were to be formed into a standing council 
 of state, for the advice and assistance of the President-General, it 
 might be another considerable improvement. 
 
 Kaise Soldiers, and equip Vessels, &c. 
 That they raise and pay soldiers and luild forts for the defence 
 of any of the Colonies, and equip vessels of force to guard the 
 coasts and protect the trade on the ocean, lakes, or great rivers ; 
 but they shall not impress men in any Colony, without the consent 
 of the legislature. 
 
fkanklin's plan of union of'the colonies. 97 
 
 It was thought, that quotas of men, to be raised and paid by the 
 several Colonies, and joined for any public service, could not 
 always be got together with the necessary expedition. For in- 
 stance, suppose one thousand men should be wanted in New 
 Hampshire on any emergency. To fetch them by fifties and hun- 
 dreds out of every Colony, as far as South Carolina, would be in- 
 convenient, the transportation chargeable, and the occasion perhaps 
 passed before they could be assembled ; and therefore it would 
 be best to raise them (by offering bounty-money and pay) near the 
 place where they would be wanted, to be discharged again when 
 the service should be over. 
 
 Particular Colonies are at present backward to build forts at 
 their own expense, which they say will be equally useful to their 
 neighboring Colonies ; who refuse to join, on a presumption that 
 such forts will be built and kept up, though they contribute nothing. 
 This unjust conduct weakens the whole ; but the fdrts being for 
 the good of the whole, it was thought best they should be built and 
 maintained by the whole, out of the common treasury. 
 
 In the time of war, small vessels of force are sometimes neces- 
 sary in the Colonies to scour the coasts of small privateers. These 
 being provided by the Union will be an advantage in turn to the 
 Colonies which are situated on the sea, and whose frontiers on the 
 land-side, being covered by other Colonies, reap but little immedi- 
 ate benefit from the advanced forts. 
 
 Power to make Laws, lay Duties, &c. 
 
 That for these purposes they have power to make laws, and lay 
 and levy such general duties, imposts, or taxes, as to them shall 
 appear most equal and just {considering the ability and other cir- 
 cumstances of the inhabitants in the several Colonies), and such as 
 may be collected with the least inconvenience to the people ; rather 
 discouraging luxury, than loading industry with unnecessary 
 burdens. 
 
 The laws which the President-General and Grand Council are 
 empowered to make are such only as shall be necessary for the 
 government of the settlements ; the raising, regulating, and paying 
 soldiers for the general service ; the regulating of Indian trade ; 
 and laying and collecting the general duties and taxes. They 
 should also have a power to restrain the exportation of provisions 
 13 
 
98 franklin's flAn of union of the colonies. 
 
 to the enemy from any of the Colonies, on particular occasions, in 
 time of war. But it is not intended that they may interfere with 
 the constitution and government of the particular Colonies ; who 
 are to be left to their own laws, and to lay, levy, and apply their 
 own taxes, as before. 
 
 General Treasurer and Particular Treasurer. 
 That they may appoint a General Treasurer, and Particular 
 Treasurer in each government when necessary ; and, from time to 
 time, may order the sums in the treasuries of each government into 
 the general treasury ; or draw on them for special payments, as 
 they find most convenient. 
 
 The treasurers here meant are only for the general funds, and 
 not for the particular funds of each Colony, which remain in the 
 hands of their own treasurers, at their own disposal. 
 
 Money, how to issue. 
 
 Yet no money to issue but by joint orders of the President- Gen- 
 eral and Grand Council ; except where sums have been appropri- 
 ated to particular purposes, and the President- General is previ- 
 ously empowered by an act to draw such sums. 
 
 To prevent misapplication of the money, or even application 
 that might be dissatisfactory to the crown or the people, it was 
 thought necessary to join the President-General and Grand Council 
 in all issues of money. 
 
 Accounts. 
 That the general accounts shall be yearly settled and reported 
 to the several Assemblies. 
 
 By communicating the accounts yearly to each Assembly, they 
 will be satisfied of the prudent and honest conduct of their repre- 
 sentatives in the Grand Council. 
 
 Quorum. 
 
 That a quorum of the Grand Council, empowered to act with the 
 President-General, do consist of twenty-five members; among 
 whom there shall be one or more from a majority of the Colonies. 
 
 The quorum seems large, but it was thought it would not be 
 satisfactory to the Colonies in general to have matters of impor- 
 
franklin's plan of union of the colonies. 99 
 
 tance to the whole transacted by a smaller number, or even by this 
 number of twenty-five, unless there were among them one at least 
 from a majority of the Colonies ; because, otherwise, the whole 
 quorum being made up of members from three or four Colonies 
 at one end of the Union, something might be done that would not 
 be equal with respect to the rest, and thence dissatisfaction and 
 discords might rise to the prejudice of the whole. 
 
 Laws to be transmitted. 
 
 That the laws made by them for the purposes aforesaid shall not 
 be repugnant, but, as near as may be, agreeable to the laws of 
 England, and shall be transmitted to the King in Council for ap- 
 probation, as soon as may be after their passing ; and if not dis- 
 approved within three years after presentation, to remain in force. 
 
 This was thought necessary for the satisfaction of the crown, to 
 preserve the connection of the parts of the British empir"e with the 
 whole, of the members with the head, and to induce greater care 
 and circumspection in making of the laws, that they be good in 
 themselves and for the general benefit. 
 
 Death of the President-General. 
 
 That, in case of the death of the President- General, the Speak- 
 er of the Grand Council for the time being shall succeed, and be 
 vested with the same powers and authorities, to continue till the 
 King's pleasure be known. 
 
 It might be better, perhaps, as was said before, if the crown ap- 
 pointed a Vice-President, to take place on the death or absence of 
 the President-General ; for so we should be more sure of a suitable 
 person at the head of the Colonies. On the death or absence of 
 both, the Speaker to take place (or rather the eldest King's gov- 
 ernor) till his Majesty's pleasure be known. 
 
 Officers, how appointed. 
 That all military commission officers, whether for land or sea 
 service, to act under this general constitution, shall be nominated 
 by the President- General ; but the approbation of the Grand 
 Council is to be obtained, before they receive their commissions. 
 And all civil officers are to be nominated by the Grand Council, 
 and to receive the President- General 1 s approbation before they of, ' 
 ficiate. 
 
100 franklin's plan of union of the colonies. 
 
 It was thought it might be very prejudicial to the service, 
 to have officers appointed unknown to the people, or unac- 
 ceptable, the generality of Americans serving willingly under 
 officers they know ; and not caring to engage in the service under 
 strangers, or such as are often appointed by governors through 
 favor or interest. The service here meant is not the stated, set- 
 tled service in standing troops ; but any sudden and short service, 
 either for defence of our Colonies, or invading the enemy's coun- 
 try (such as the expedition to Cape Breton in the last war ; in 
 which many substantial farmers and tradesmen engaged as com- 
 mon soldiers, under officers of their own country, for whom they 
 had an esteem and affection ; who would not have engaged in a 
 Standing army, or under officers from England). It was therefore 
 thought best to give the Council the power of approving the officers,* 
 which the people will look upon as a great security of their being 
 good men. And without some such provision as this, it was 
 thought the expense of engaging men in the service on any emer- 
 gency would be much greater, and the number who* could be in- 
 duced to engage much less ; and that therefore it would be most 
 for the King's service and general benefit of the nation, that the 
 prerogative should relax a little in this particular throughout all the 
 Colonies in America ; as it had already done much more in the 
 charters of some particular Colonies, viz. Connecticut and Ehode 
 Island. 
 
 The civil officers will be chiefly treasurers and collectors of 
 taxes ; and the suitable persons are most likely to be known by 
 the Council. 
 
 Vacancies, how supplied. 
 
 But, in case of vacancy by death or removal of any officer, civil 
 or military, under this constitution, the Governor of the Province 
 in which such vacancy happens may appoint, till the pleasure of 
 the President- General and Grand Council can be known. 
 
 The vacancies were thought best supplied by the governors in 
 each Province, till a new appointment can be regularly made ; 
 otherwise the service might suffer before the meeting of the Pres- 
 ident-General and Grand Council. 
 
 Each Colony may defend itself on Emergency, &,c. 
 That the particular military as well as civil establishments in 
 
franklin's plan of- union of the colonies. 101 
 
 each Colony remain in their present state, the general constitution 
 notwithstanding ; and that on sudden emergencies any Colony may 
 defend itself, and lay the accounts of expense thence arising before 
 the President- General and General Council, who may allow and 
 order payment of the same, as far as they judge such accounts 
 just and reasonable. 
 
 Otherwise the union of the whole would weaken the parts, con- 
 trary to the design of the union. The accounts are to be judged 
 of by the President-General and Grand Council, and allowed if 
 found reasonable. This was thought necessary to encourage Col- 
 onies to defend themselves, as the expense would be light when 
 borne by the whole ; and also to check imprudent and lavish ex- 
 pense in such defences. 
 
102 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 BY THEIR REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, JULY 4, 1776. 
 
 When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary 
 for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected 
 them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, 
 the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of 
 nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of man- 
 kind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them 
 to the separation. 
 
 We hold these truths to be self-evident : — that all men are 
 created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
 tain unalienable rights ; that among thesej are life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights, governments are 
 instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent 
 of the governed ; that whenever any form of government becomes 
 destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to 
 abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation 
 on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to 
 them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. 
 Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established 
 should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and accord- 
 ingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed 
 to suffer while evils are sufiferable, than to right themselves by 
 abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a 
 long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same 
 object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, 
 it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and 
 to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been 
 the patient sufferance of these Colonies ; and such is now the' 
 necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 103 
 
 government. The history of the present king of Great Britain, is 
 a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct 
 objectthe establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. 
 To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. 
 
 He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and 
 necessary for the pubjic good. 
 
 He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and 
 pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his 
 assent should be obtained ; and when so suspended, he has utterly 
 neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws 
 for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those 
 people would relinquish the right of representation in the legisla- 
 ture ; a right inestifiiable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 
 
 He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, un- 
 comfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, 
 for the sole p urpo se of fatiguing them into compliance with his 
 measures. 
 
 He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, 
 with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 
 
 He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause 
 others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of 
 annihilation, have returned to the people at large, for their exer- 
 cise ; the state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the 
 dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. 
 
 He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States ; 
 for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreign- 
 ers ; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, 
 and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. 
 
 He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his 
 assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 
 
 He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure 
 of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. 
 
 He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither 
 sw arms of officers, to harass our people and eat out their sub- 
 stance. 
 
 He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, with- 
 out the consent of our legislatures. 
 
 He has affected to render the military independent of, and supe- 
 rior to, the civil power. 
 
104 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction, for- 
 eign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by. our laws ; giving 
 his assent to their acts of pretended legislation ; — 
 
 For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : 
 For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for 
 any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of 
 these States : 
 
 For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : 
 For imposing taxes on us without our consent : 
 For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by 
 jury : 
 
 For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended of- 
 fences : 
 
 For abolishing the frge system of English laws in a neighbor- 
 ing Province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and 
 enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example 
 and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into 
 these Colonies : 
 
 For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable 
 
 kiws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments : 
 
 For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves 
 
 invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 
 
 He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his 
 
 protection, and waging war against us. 
 
 He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, 
 and destroyed the lives of our people. 
 
 He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign merce- 
 naries to compfete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, 
 already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely 
 paralleled in the most barharous ages, and totally unworthy the 
 head of a civilized nation. 
 
 He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high 
 seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the execution- 
 ers of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their 
 hands. 
 
 He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has en- 
 deavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless 
 Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished 
 destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 105 
 
 In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress 
 in the most humble terms :.our repeated petitions have been an- 
 swered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is 
 thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be 
 the ruler of a free people. 
 
 Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. 
 We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their 
 legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We 
 have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and 
 settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and 
 magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our com- 
 mon kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably 
 interrupt our connections and correspondence. \They too have been 
 deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, there- 
 fore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, 
 and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, 
 in peace friends. 
 
 We, therefore, the Eepresentatives of the United States of 
 America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Su- 
 preme Judge of the world for the reSiJude of our intentions, do, 
 in the name and by the authority of the good people of these Col- 
 onies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies 
 are, and of right ought to be, Fkee and Independent States ; 
 that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, 
 and that all political connection between them and the state of 
 Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as 
 free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, 
 conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do 
 all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. 
 And for the support of this declafation, with a firm reliance on the 
 protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other 
 our lfv"es, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 
 
 John Hancock, &c. 
 
 14 
 
106 THE VIRGINIA BILL OF RIGHTS. 
 
 THE BILL OF RIGHTS 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 A DECLARATION OP RIGHTS MADE BY THE REPRESENTATIVES 
 OF THE GOOD PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA, ASSEMBLED IN FULL AND 
 FREE CONVENTION ; WHICH RIGHTS DO PERTAIN TO THEM, 
 AND THEIR POSTERITY, AS THE BASIS AND FOUNDATION OF 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 m 
 
 UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED, JUNE 12TH, 1776. 
 
 1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, 
 and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a 
 state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest 
 their posterity ; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with 
 the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and 
 obtaining happiness and safety. 
 
 2. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, 
 the people ; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and 
 at all times amenable to them. 
 
 3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the com- 
 mon benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or com- 
 munity : of all the various modes and forms of government, that 
 is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of hap- 
 piness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the dan- 
 ger of maladministration ; and that, when any government shall 
 be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of 
 the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible 
 right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be 
 judged most conducive to the public weal. 
 
 4. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or sep- 
 arate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consid- 
 
THE VIRGINIA BILL OF EIGHTS. 107 
 
 eration of public services ; which not being descendible, neither 
 ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary. 
 
 5. That the legislative and executive powers of the State should 
 be separate and distinct from the judiciary ; and that the members 
 of the two first may be restrained from oppression, by feeling and 
 participating the burdens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, 
 be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they 
 were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, 
 certain, and regular elections, in which all, or any part, of the for- 
 mer members, to be again eligible, or ineligible, as the laws shall 
 direct. 
 
 6. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the 
 people, in assembly, ought to be free ; and that all men having 
 sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and at- 
 tachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and can- 
 not be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses, without 
 their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor 
 bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, 
 for the public good. 
 
 7. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, 
 by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the 
 people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised. 
 
 8. That, in all capital or criminal prosecutions, a man hath a 
 right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be con- 
 fronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his 
 favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage, 
 without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty ; nor 
 can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no 
 man be deprived of his liberty except by the law of the land or 
 the judgment of his peers. 
 
 9. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive 
 fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted. 
 
 10. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger 
 may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence 
 of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, 
 or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by 
 evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted. 
 
 11. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits be- 
 tween man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any 
 other, and ought to be held sacred. 
 
108 THE VIRGINIA BILL OF EIGHTS. 
 
 12. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks 
 of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. 
 
 13. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the 
 the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence 
 of a free state ; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be 
 avoided, as dangerous to liberty ; and that, in all cases, the military 
 should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil 
 power. 
 
 14. That the people have a right to uniform government ; and 
 therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of, 
 the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established 
 within the limits thereof. 
 
 15. That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be 
 preserved to any people, by a firm adherence to justice, modera- 
 tion, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recur- 
 rence to fundamental principles. 
 
 16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, 
 and the manner of discharging it, can be dirfected only by reason 
 and conviction, not by force or violence ; and therefore all men 
 are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to 
 the dictates of conscience ; and that it is the mutual duty of all to 
 practise Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each 
 other. 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 109 
 
 ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 
 
 PERPETUAL UNION 
 
 BETWEEN THE STATES OE NEW HAMPSHIRE, MASSACHUSETTS 
 BAY, RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, CON- 
 NECTICUT, NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, DELA- 
 WARE, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAR- 
 OLINA, AND GEORGIA. 
 
 ADOPTED IN CONGRESS, JULY 9, 1778 ; RATIFIED AND CARRIED INTO 
 EFFECT, MARCH 1, 1781. 
 
 Article 1. The style of this confederacy shall be, " The United 
 States of America.' 1 '' 
 
 Art. 2. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and inde- 
 pendence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by 
 this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Con- 
 gress assembled. 
 
 Art. 3. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league 
 of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the se- 
 curity of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, bind- 
 ing themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or 
 attacks made upon them,- or any of them, on account of religion, 
 sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever. 
 
 Art. 4. § 1. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friend- 
 ship and intercourse among the people of the different States in 
 this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, 
 vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to 
 all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States ; 
 and the people of each State shall have free ingress and regress 
 to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privi- 
 leges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, imposi- 
 
110 AHTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 
 
 tions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof respectively : pro- 
 vided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the 
 removal of property imported into any State to any other State of 
 which the owner is an inhabitant : provided also, that no imposi- 
 tion, duties, or restriction shall be laid by any State on the prop- 
 erty of the United States, or either of them. 
 
 § 2. If any person guilty of or charged with treason, felony, or 
 other high misdemeanor in any State, shall flee from justice, and 
 be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand of 
 the Governor or executive power of the State from which he 
 fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having jurisdiction 
 of his offence. 
 
 § 3. Full faith and credit shall be given, in each of these States, 
 to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and 
 magistrates of every other State. 
 
 Art. 5. § 1. For the more convenient management of the gen- 
 eral interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually ap- 
 pointed, in such manner as the legislature of each State shall direct, 
 to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every 
 year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its delegates, or 
 any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in 
 their stead, for the remainder of the year. 
 
 § 2. No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, 
 nor more than seven members ; and no person shall be capable of 
 being a delegate for more than three years, in any term of six 
 years ; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of hold- 
 ing any office under the United States, for which he, or any other 
 for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or emolument of any 
 kind. 
 
 § 3. Each State shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of 
 the States, and while they act as members of the committee of 
 these States. 
 
 § 4. In determining questions in the United States in Congress 
 assembled, each State shall have one vote. 
 
 § 5. Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be 
 impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Congress, 
 and the members of Congress shall be protected in their persons 
 from arrests and imprisonments during the time of their going to 
 and from, and attendance on Congress, except for treason, felony, 
 or breach of the peace. 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. HI 
 
 Art. 6. § 1. No State, without the consent of the United States 
 in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any 
 embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, 
 or treaty with, any king, prince, or state ; nor shall any person, 
 holding any office of profit or trust under the United States, or any 
 of them, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any 
 kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state ; nor shall 
 the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant 
 any title of nobility. 
 
 § 2. No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confed- 
 eration, or alliance whatever, between them, without the consent of 
 the United States in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the 
 purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it 
 shall continue. 
 
 § 3. No State shall lay any imposts or duties which may inter- 
 fere with any stipulations in treaties, entered into by the United 
 States in Congress assembled, with any king, prince, or state, in 
 pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress to the 
 courts of France and Spain. 
 
 § 4. No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace by 
 any State, except such number only as shall be deemed necessary 
 by the United States in Congress assembled, for the defence of 
 such State, or its trade : nor shall any body of forces be kept up, 
 by any State, in time of peace, except such number only as, in 
 the judgment of the United States in Congress assembled, shall be 
 deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defence of 
 such State ; but every State shall always keep up a well regulated 
 and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall 
 provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due 
 number of field-pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, 
 ammunition, and camp equipage. 
 
 § 5. No State shall engage in any war without the consent of 
 the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be 
 actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain advice 
 of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade 
 such State, and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of delay 
 till the United States in Congress assembled can be consulted ; nor 
 shall any State grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, 
 nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of 
 
112 ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 
 
 war by the United States in Congress assembled, and then only 
 against the kingdom or state, and the subjects thereof, against 
 which war has been so declared, and under such regulations as 
 shall be established by the United States in Congress assembled, 
 unless such State be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of 
 war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the 
 danger shall continue, or until the United States in Congress as- 
 sembled shall determine otherwise. 
 
 Art. "7. When land forces are raised by any State for the com- 
 mon defence, all officers of or under the rank of colonel shall be 
 appointed by the legislature of each State respectively by whom 
 such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such State shall 
 direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the State which first 
 made the appointment. 
 
 Art. 8. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be 
 incurred for the common defence or general welfare, and allowed 
 by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out 
 of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several 
 States, in proportion to the value of all land within each State, 
 granted to or surveyed for any person, as such land and the build- 
 ings and improvements thereon shall be estimated, according to 
 such mode as the United States in Congress assembled shall, from 
 time to time, direct and appoint. The taxes for paying that pro- 
 portion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of 
 the legislatures of the several States, within the time agreed upon 
 by the United States in Congress assembled. 
 
 Art. 9. § 1. The United States in Congress assembled shall have 
 the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace 
 and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth Article, of 
 sending and receiving ambassadors ; entering into treaties and al- 
 liances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made, 
 whereby the legislative power of the respective States shall be re- 
 strained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners as 
 their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exporta- 
 tion or importation of any species of goods or commodities what- 
 soever ; of establishing rules for deciding in all cases what cap- 
 tures on land or water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes 
 taken by land or naval forces in the service of the United States 
 shall be divided or appropriated ; of granting letters of marque 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 113 
 
 and reprisal in time of peace ; appointing courts for the trial of 
 piracies and felonies committed on the high seas ; and establishing 
 courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all cases of 
 captures ; provided that no member of Congress shall be appointed 
 a judge of any of the said courts. 
 
 § 2. The United States in Congress assembled shall also be the 
 last resort on appeal in all disputes and differences now subsisting, 
 or that hereafter may arise, between two or more States, concern- 
 - ing boundary, jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever ; which 
 authority shall always be exercised in the manner following : 
 Whenever the legislative or executive authority, or lawful agent of 
 any State in controversy with another, shall present a petition to 
 Congress, stating the matter in question, and praying for a hear- 
 ing, notice thereof shall be given by order of Congress to the leg- 
 islative or executive authority of the other State in controversy, 
 and a day assigned for the appearance of the parties by their law- 
 ful agents, who shall then be directed to appoint, by joint consent, 
 commissioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and de- 
 termining the matter in question ; but if they cannot agree, Con- 
 gress shall name three persons out of each of the United States, 
 and from the list of such persons each party shall alternately strike 
 out one, the petitioners beginning, until the number shall be re- 
 duced to thirteen ; and from that number not less than seven nor 
 more than nine names, as Congress shall direct, shall, in the pres- 
 ence of Congress, be drawn out by lot ; and the persons whose 
 names shall be so drawn, or any five of them, shall be commis- 
 sioners or judges, to hear and finally determine the controversy, so 
 always as a major part of the judges who shall hear the cause 
 shall agree in the determination : and if either party shall neglect 
 to attend at the day appointed, without showing reasons which 
 Congress shall judge sufficient, or, being present, shall refuse to 
 strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of 
 each State, and the Secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf of 
 such party absent or refusing ; and the judgment and sentence of 
 the court, to be appointed in the manner before prescribed, shall 
 be final and conclusive ; and if any of the parties shall refuse to 
 submit to the authority of such court, or to appear or defend their 
 claim or cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce 
 sentence, or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and de- 
 15 
 
114 ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 
 
 cisive ; the judgment or sentence and other proceedings being in 
 either case transmitted to Congress, and lodged among the acts of 
 Congress, for the security of the parties concerned : provided, that 
 every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath, 
 to be administered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior 
 court of the State where the cause shall be tried, " well and truly 
 to hear and determine the matter in question, according to the best 
 of his judgment, without favor, affection, or hope of reward." 
 Provided also, that no State shall be deprived of territory for the 
 benefit of the United States. 
 
 § 3. All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed 
 under different grants of two or more States, whose jurisdictions, as 
 they may respect such lands and the States which passed such 
 grants, are adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the 
 same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settle- 
 ment of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition of either party to the 
 Congress of the United States, be finally determined, as near as 
 may be, in the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding 
 disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different States. 
 
 § 4. The United States in Congress assembled shall also have 
 the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and 
 value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the re- 
 spective States ; fixing the standard of weights and measures 
 throughout the United States ; regulating the trade and managing 
 all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States ; 
 provided that the legislative right of any State, within its own lim- 
 its, be not infringed or violated ; establishing and regulating post- 
 offices from one State to another, throughout all the United States, 
 and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same 
 as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office ; ap- 
 pointing all officers of the land forces in the service of the United 
 States, excepting regimental officers ; appointing all the officers of 
 the naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the 
 service of the United States ; making rules for the government and 
 regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their 
 operations. 
 
 § 5. The United States in Congress assembled shall have au- 
 thority to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to 
 be denominated, " A Committee of the States," and to consist of 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 115 
 
 one delegate from each State ; and to appoint such other commit- 
 tees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the gen- 
 eral affairs of the United States under their direction ; to appoint 
 one of their number to preside, provided that no person be al- 
 lowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any 
 term of three years ; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to 
 be raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate 
 and apply the same for defraying the public expenses ; to borrow 
 money or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting 
 every half-year to the respective States an account of the sums of 
 money so borrowed or emitted ; to build and equip a navy ; to 
 agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions 
 from each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white 
 inhabitants in such State, which requisition shall be binding ; and 
 thereupon the legislature of each State shall appoint the regimental 
 officers, raise the men, clothe, arm, and equip them, in a soldier- 
 like manner, at the expense of the United States ; and the officers 
 and men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place 
 appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in 
 Congress assembled ; but if the United States in Congress as- 
 sembled shall, on consideration of circumstances, judge proper that 
 any State should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number 
 than its quota, and that any other State should raise a greater num- 
 ber of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall be 
 raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped in the same manner 
 as the quota of such State, unless the legislature of such State 
 shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spared out of 
 the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and 
 equip as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely 
 spared, and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped 
 shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on 
 by the United States in Congress assembled. 
 
 § 6. The United States in Congress assembled shall never en- 
 gage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of 
 peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor 
 regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses 
 necessary for the defence and welfare of the United States, or any 
 of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the 
 United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number 
 
116 ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 
 
 of vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land 
 or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief of 
 the army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same : nor shall 
 a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to 
 day, be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the United 
 States in Congress assembled. 
 
 § 7. The Congress of the United States shall have power to ad- 
 journ to any time within the year, and to any place within the 
 United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer 
 duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal 
 of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating 
 to treaties, alliances, or military operations, as in their judgment 
 require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each 
 State, on any question, shall be entered on the journal, when it is 
 desired by any delegate ; and the delegates of a State, or any of 
 them, at his or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of 
 the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay be- 
 fore the legislatures of the several States. 
 
 Art- 10. The Committee of the States, or any nine of them, 
 shall be authorised to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of 
 the powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress as- 
 sembled, by the consent of nine States, shall, from time to time, 
 think expedient to vest them with ; provided that no power be del- 
 egated to the said Committee, for the exercise of which, by the 
 Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine States, in the Congress 
 of the United States assembled, is requisite. 
 
 Art- 11. Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in 
 the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and en- 
 titled to all the advantages of, this union : but no' other Colony shall 
 be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by 
 nine States. 
 
 Art. 12. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts 
 contracted by or under the authority of Congress, before the as- 
 sembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present Con- 
 federation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the 
 United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United 
 States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged. 
 
 Art. 13. Every State shall abide by the determination of the 
 United States in Congress assembled, in all questions which by 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 117 
 
 this Confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this 
 Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the 
 union shall be perpetual ; nor shall any alteration at any time 
 hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed 
 to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed 
 by the legislature of every State. 
 
 And whereas it hath pleased the great Governor of the world to 
 incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in 
 Congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said Arti- 
 cles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, Know ye, that we, the 
 undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us 
 given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name and in 
 behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and 
 confirm each and every of the said Articles of Confederation and 
 Perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters and things there- 
 in contained. And we do further solemnly plight and engage the 
 faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the de- 
 termination of the United States in Congress assembled, in all 
 questions which by the said Confederation are submitted to them ; 
 and that the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the 
 States we respectively represent, and that the union shall be per- 
 petual. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands in 
 Congress. 
 
 Done at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, the 9th day 
 of July, in the year of our Lord 1778, and in the third year of 
 the Independence of America, 
 
118 THE MASSACHUSETTS DECLARATION OP EIGHTS. 
 
 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS 
 
 OP THE INHABITANTS 
 
 OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 ADOPTED IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THAT STATE, MARCH 2, 1780. 
 
 Article 1. All men are born free and equal, and have certain 
 natural, essential, and unalienable rights : among which may be 
 reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liber- 
 ties ; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property ; in 
 fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. 
 
 2. It is the right, as well as the duty, of all men in society, 
 publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Being, the 
 Great Creator and Preserver of the Universe. And no subject 
 shall be hurt, molested, or restrained in his person, liberty, or 
 estate, for worshipping God in the manner and seasons most agree- 
 able to the dictates of his own conscience ; or for his religious pro- 
 fession or sentiments ; provided he doth not disturb the public 
 peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship. 
 
 3. As the happiness of a people, and the good order and pres- 
 ervation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, re- 
 ligion, and morality ; and as these cannot be generally diffused 
 throughout the community, but by the institution of a public wor- 
 ship of God, and of public institutions in piety, religion, and mo- 
 rality ; therefore, to promote their happiness, and to secure the 
 good order and preservation of their government, the people of 
 this Commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with 
 power to authorize and require, and the legislature shall, from time 
 to time, authorize and require, the several towns, parishes, pre- 
 cincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies, to make suit- 
 able provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the pub- 
 lic worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public 
 Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality, in all cases 
 where such provision shall not be made voluntarily. 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS DECLARATION OF EIGHTS. 119 
 
 All the people of the Commonwealth have also a right to, and 
 do, invest their legislature with authority to enjoin upon all the 
 subjects an attendance upon the instructions of the public teachers, 
 as aforesaid, at stated times and seasons, if there be any one whose 
 instructions they can conscientiously and conveniently attend : — 
 
 Provided, notwithstanding, that the several towns, parishes, pre- 
 cincts, and the other bodies politic, or religious societies, shall, at 
 all times, have the exclusive right of electing their public teachers, 
 and of contracting with them for their support and maintenance. 
 
 All moneys paid by the subject to the support of public worship, 
 and of the public teachers aforesaid, shall, if he require it, be uni- 
 formly applied to the support of the public teacher or teachers of 
 his own religious sect or denomination, provided there be any, on 
 whose instruction he attends ; otherwise, it may be paid towards the 
 support of the teacher or teachers of the parish or precinct in 
 which the said moneys are raised. 
 
 And every denomination of Christians, demeaning themselves 
 peaceably, and as good subjects of the Commonwealth, shall be 
 equally under the protection of the law ; and no subordination of 
 any sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by 
 law. 
 
 4. The people of this Commonwealth have the sole and exclu- 
 sive right of governing themselves, as a free, sovereign, and inde- 
 pendent state ; and do, and for ever hereafter shall, exercise and 
 enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not, or may 
 not hereafter be, by them expressly delegated to the United States 
 of America in Congress assembled. 
 
 5. All power residing originally in the people, and being de- 
 rived from them, the several magistrates and officers of govern- 
 ment vested with authority, whether legislative, executive, or judi- 
 cial, are their substitutes and agents, and are at all times account- 
 able to them. 
 
 6. No man, or corporation, or association of men, have any 
 other title to obtain advantages, or particular and exclusive privi- 
 leges, distinct from those of the community, than what arises from 
 the consideration of services rendered to the public. And this title 
 being, in nature, neither hereditary nor transmissible to children or 
 descendants, or relations of blood, the idea of a man born a magis- 
 trate, lawgiver, or judge is absurd and unnatural. 
 
120 THE MASSACHUSETTS DECLARATION OF EIGHTS. 
 
 7. Government is instituted for the common good ; for the pro- 
 tection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people ; and not 
 for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, 
 or any one class of men. Therefore, the people alone have an 
 incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute gov- 
 ernment, and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when 
 their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it. 
 
 8. In order to prevent those who are vested with authority from 
 becoming oppressors, the people have a right, at such periods and 
 in such manner as they shall establish by the frame of government, 
 to cause their public officers to return to private life, and to fill up 
 vacant places by certain and regular elections and appointments. 
 
 9. All elections ought to be free : and all the inhabitants of this 
 Commonwealth, having such qualifications as they shall establish 
 by their frame of government, have an equal right to elect officers, 
 and to be elected for public employments. 
 
 10. Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by 
 it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to 
 the standing laws. He is obliged, consequently, to contribute his 
 share to the expense of this protection ; to give his personal ser- 
 vice, or an equivalent, when necessary. But no part of the prop- 
 erty of any individual can, with justice, be taken from him, or 
 applied to the public use, without his own consent, or that of the 
 representative body of the people. In fine, the people of this 
 Commonwealth are not controllable by any other laws than those to 
 which their constitutional representative body have given their con- 
 sent. And whenever the public exigencies require that the prop- 
 erty'of any individual should be appropriated to public uses, he 
 shall receive a reasonable compensation therefor. 
 
 11. Every subject of the Commonwealth ought to find a certain 
 remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all injuries or wrongs 
 which he may receive, in his person, property, or character. He 
 ought to obtain right and justice freely, and without being obliged 
 to purchase it, — completely, and without any denial, — promptly, 
 and without delay, — conformably to the laws. 
 
 12. No person shall be held to answer for any crime or offence 
 until the same is fully and plainly, substantially and formally, de- 
 scribed to him ; 'or be compelled to accuse or furnish evidence 
 against himself. And every person shall have a right to produce 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 121 
 
 all proofs that may be favorable to him ; to meet the witnesses 
 against him face to face, and be fully heard in his defence, by 
 himself, or his counsel, at his election. And no person shall be 
 arrested, imprisoned, or despoiled or deprived of his property, im- 
 munities, or privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled, 
 or deprived of his life, liberty, or estate, but by the judgment of 
 his peers or the law of the land. 
 
 And the legislature shall not make any law that shall subject 
 any person to a capital or infamous punishment (excepting for the 
 government of the army and navy) without trial by jury. 
 
 13. In criminal prosecutions, the verification of facts, in the vicin- 
 ity where they happen, is one of the greatest securities of the life, 
 liberty, and property of the citizen. 
 
 14. Every person has a right to be secure from all unreasonable 
 searches and seizures of his person, his houses, his papers, and all 
 his possessions. All warrants, therefore, are contrary to this right, 
 if the cause or foundation of them be not previously supported by 
 oath or affirmation ; and if the order, in a warrant to a civil officer, 
 to make search in all suspected places, or to arrest one or more 
 suspected persons, or to seize their property, be not accompanied 
 with a special designation of the persons or objects of search, ar- 
 rest, or seizure. And no warrant ought to be issued but in such 
 cases, and with the formalities prescribed by the laws. 
 
 15. In all controversies concerning property, and in all suits be- 
 tween two or more persons, (except in cases in which it has here- 
 tofore been otherwise used and practised,) the parties have a right 
 to a trial by jury ; and this method of procedure shall be held 
 sacred, — unless, in cases arising on the high seas, and such as 
 relate to mariners' wages, the legislature shall hereafter find neces- 
 sary to alter it. 
 
 16. The liberty of the press is essential to security of freedom 
 in a state ; it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this Com- 
 monwealth. 
 
 17. The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the 
 common defence. And as, in time of peace, armies are danger- 
 ous to liberty, they ought not to be maintained, without the consent 
 of the legislature ; and the military power shall always be held in 
 exact subordination to the civil authority, and be governed by it. 
 
 18. A frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of the 
 
 16 
 
122 THE MASSACHUSETTS DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 
 
 Constitution, and a constant adherence to those of piety, justice, 
 moderation, temperance, industry, and frugality, are absolutely ne- 
 cessary to preserve the advantages of liberty, and to maintain a 
 free government. The people ought, consequently, to have a 
 particular attention to all those principles in the choice of their 
 officers and representatives, and they have a right to require of 
 their lawgivers and magistrates an exact and constant observance 
 of them, in the formation and execution of all laws necessary for 
 the good administration of the Commonwealth. 
 
 19. The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable man- 
 ner, to assemble to consult upon the common good ; to give instruc- 
 tions to their representatives ; and to request of the legislative 
 body, by the way of addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, redress 
 of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer. 
 
 20. The power of suspending the laws, or the execution of the 
 laws, ought never to be exercised but by the legislature ; or by au- 
 thority derived from it, to be exercised in such particular cases 
 only as the legislature shall expressly provide for. 
 
 21. The freedom of deliberation, speech, and debate, in either 
 house of the legislature, is so essential to the rights of the people, 
 that it cannot be the foundation of any accusation or prosecution, 
 action or complaint, in any other court or place whatsoever. 
 
 22. The legislature ought frequently to assemble, for the redress 
 of grievances, for correcting, strengthening, and confirming the 
 laws, and for making new laws, as the common good may require. 
 
 23. No subsidy, charge, tax, impost, or duties ought to be 
 established, fixed, laid, or levied, under any pretext whatever, with- 
 out the consent of the people, or their representatives in the legis- 
 lature. 
 
 24. Laws made to punish for actions done before the existence 
 of such laws, and which have not been declared crimes by preced- 
 ing laws, are unjust, oppressive, and inconsistent with the funda- 
 mental principles of a free government. 
 
 25. No person ought, in any case, or in any time, to be de- 
 clared guilty of treason or felony by the legislature. 
 
 26. No magistrate, or court of law, shall demand excessive bail 
 or sureties, impose excessive fines, or inflict cruel or unusual pun- 
 ishments. 
 
 27. In time of peace, no soldier ought to be quartered in any 
 
THE MASSACHUSETTS DECLARATION OF EIGHTS. 123 
 
 house, without the consent of the owner ; and in time of war, such 
 quarters ought not to be made but by the civil magistrate, in man- 
 ner ordained by the legislature. 
 
 28. No person can, in any case, be subjected to law martial, or 
 to any penalties or pains by virtue of that law, (except those em- 
 ployed in the army or navy, and except the militia in actual ser- 
 vice,) but by the authority of the legislature. 
 
 29. It is essential to the preservation of the rights of every in- 
 dividual, his life, liberty, property, and character, that there be an 
 impartial interpretation of the laws and administration of justice. 
 It is the right of every citizen to be tried by judges as free, impar- 
 tial, and independent, as the lot of humanity will admit. It is, 
 therefore, not only the best policy, but for the security of the rights 
 of the people, and of every citizen, that the Judges of the Supreme 
 Judicial Court should hold their offices as long as they behave 
 themselves well ; and that they should have honorable salaries, as- 
 certained and established by standing laws. 
 
 30. In the government of this Commonwealth, the legislative 
 department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, 
 or either of them ; the executive shall never exercise the legislative 
 and judicial powers, or either of them ; the judicial shall never ex- 
 ercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them : to 
 the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men. 
 
124 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 CONSTITUTION 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 ADOPTED IN CONVENTION, SEPTEMBER 17, A. D. 1787; CARRIED INTO 
 EFFECT, MARCH 4, A. D. 1789. 
 
 We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more 
 perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide 
 for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure 
 the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain 
 and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 Section 1. 
 
 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a 
 Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and 
 House of Representatives. 
 
 Section 2. 
 
 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members 
 chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and 
 the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite 
 for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. 
 
 2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have at- 
 tained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a 
 citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be 
 an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 
 
 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among 
 the several States which may be included within this Union, ac- 
 cording to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by 
 adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound 
 to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 125 
 
 three fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be 
 made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of 
 the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, 
 in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Rep- 
 resentatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but 
 each State shall have at least one representative ; and until such 
 enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be 
 entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New 
 Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Vir- 
 ginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia 
 three. 
 
 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, 
 the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill 
 such vacancies. 
 
 '5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and 
 other officers ; and shall have the sole power of'impeachment. 
 
 Section 3. 
 
 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two 
 Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for 
 six years ; and each Senator shall have one vote. 
 
 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of 
 the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into 
 three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall 
 be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class, 
 at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class, at the 
 expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen 
 every second year ; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or 
 otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the 
 Executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the 
 next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacan- 
 cies. 
 
 3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to 
 the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United 
 States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that 
 State for which he shall be chosen. 
 
 4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of 
 the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 
 
126 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a Presi- 
 dent pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when 
 he shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 
 
 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeach- 
 ments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or 
 affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the 
 Chief Justice shall preside ; and no person shall be convicted with- 
 out the concurrence of two thirds of the members present. 
 
 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further 
 than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy 
 any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States ; but 
 the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to in- 
 dictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law. 
 
 Section 4. 
 
 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Sen- 
 ators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the 
 legislature thereof: but the Congress may, at any time, by law, 
 make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing 
 Senators. 
 
 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and 
 such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless 
 they shall by law appoint a different day. 
 
 Section 5. 
 
 1. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and 
 qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall 
 constitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may 
 adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the 
 attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such 
 penalties as each house may provide. 
 
 2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, 
 punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the con- 
 currence of two thirds, expel a member. 
 
 3. E&ch house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from 
 time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in 
 their judgment, require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the 
 members of either house on any question shall, at the desire of 
 one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 
 
 4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 127 
 
 the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to 
 any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 
 
 Section 6. 
 
 1. The Senators and Eepresentatives shall receive a compensa- 
 tion for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of 
 the treasury of the United States. They shall, in all cases ex- 
 cept treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from 
 arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective 
 houses, and in going to and returning from the same ; and for 
 any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned 
 in any other place. 
 
 2. No Senator or Eepresentative shall, during the time for which 
 he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority 
 of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emolu- 
 ments whereof shall have been increased, during such time ; and 
 no person holding any office under the United States shall be a 
 member of either house during his continuance in office. 
 
 Section 7. 
 
 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of 
 Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with 
 amendments, as on other bills. 
 
 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Represent- 
 atives and the Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented 
 to the President of the United States ; if he approve, he shall sign 
 it ; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in 
 which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at 
 large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such 
 reconsideration, two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, 
 it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by 
 which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two 
 thirds of that house, it shall become a law. ' But in all cases, the 
 votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and 
 the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be 
 entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill 
 shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays 
 excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall 
 be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress 
 
128 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not 
 be a law. 
 
 3. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of 
 the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary, (ex- 
 cept on a question of adjournment,) shall be presented to the Pres- 
 ident of the United States ; and, before the same shall take effect, 
 shall be approved by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be 
 repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case 
 of a bill. 
 
 Section 8. 
 
 The Congress shall have power, — 
 
 1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay 
 the debts and provide for the common defence and general wel- 
 fare of the United States ; but all duties, imposts, and excises 
 shall be uniform throughout the United States : 
 
 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States : 
 
 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the 
 several States, and with the Indian tribes : 
 
 4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform 
 laws on the subject of bankruptcies, throughout the United States : 
 
 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign 
 coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures : 
 
 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities 
 and current coin of the United States : 
 
 7. To establish post-offices and post-roads : 
 
 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by se- 
 curing, for limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive 
 right to their respective writings- and discoveries : 
 
 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court : 
 
 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on 
 the high seas, and offences against the law of nations : 
 
 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and 
 make rules concerning captures on land and water : 
 
 12. To raise and support armies ; but no appropriation of money 
 to that use shall be for a longer term than two years : 
 
 13. To provide and maintain a navy : 
 
 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the 
 land and naval forces : 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE. UNITED STATES. 129 
 
 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws 
 of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions : 
 
 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the mi- 
 litia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in 
 the service of the United States, reserving to the States respective- 
 ly the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training 
 the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress : 
 
 17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, 
 over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by 
 cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, be- 
 come the seat of the government of the United States, and to ex- 
 ercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of 
 the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the 
 erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other need- 
 ful buildings : — And 
 
 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for 
 carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers 
 vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, 
 or in any department or officer thereof. 
 
 Section 9. 
 
 1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the 
 States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro- 
 hibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hun- 
 dred and eight ; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such impor- 
 tation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 
 
 2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus- 
 pended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public 
 safety may require it. 
 
 3. No bill of attainder or em post facto law shall be passed. 
 
 4. No capitation, or other direct tax, shall be laid, unless in pro- 
 portion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be 
 
 taken. 
 
 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any 
 State. No preference shall be given by any regulation of com- 
 merce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another ; 
 nor shall vessels bound to or from one State be obliged to enter, 
 clear, or pay duties in another, 
 
 6. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in conse- 
 
 17 
 
130 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 quence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement 
 and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money 
 shall be published from time to time. 
 
 7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States ; 
 and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them 
 shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, 
 emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, 
 prince, or foreign state. 
 
 Section 10. 
 
 1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confedera- 
 tion ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit 
 bills of credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in 
 payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or 
 law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of 
 nobility. 
 
 2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any 
 imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be ab- 
 solutely necessary for executing its inspection laws ; and the net 
 produce of all duties and imposts laid by any State on imports or 
 exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States ; 
 and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the 
 Congress. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay 
 any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of 
 peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or 
 with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, 
 or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 Section 1. 
 
 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the 
 United States of America. He shall hold his office during the 
 term of four years, and together with the Vice-President, chosen 
 for the same term, be elected as follows : — 
 
 2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature 
 thereof may direct, a number of Electors equal to the whole num- 
 ber of Senators and Representatives, to which the State may be 
 entitled in the Congress ; but no Senator or Representative, or per- 
 son holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, 
 shall be appointed an Elector. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 131 
 
 3. [The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by- 
 ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an in- 
 habitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make 
 a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for 
 each ; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, 
 to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the 
 President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the 
 presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the 
 certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person hav- 
 ing the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such 
 number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed ; 
 and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have 
 an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall 
 immediately choose by ballot one of them for President ; and if 
 no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list 
 the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in 
 choosing the President the votes shall be taken by States, the rep- 
 resentation from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this 
 purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of 
 the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a 
 choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the per- 
 son having the greatest number of votes of the Electors shall be 
 the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or more who 
 have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the 
 Vice-President.] * 
 
 4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the Elec- 
 tors, and the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day 
 shall be the same throughout the United States. 
 
 5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the 
 United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall 
 be eligible to the office of President ; neither shall any person be 
 eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of 
 thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the 
 United States. 
 
 6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his 
 death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties 
 of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President ; 
 and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, 
 death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice- 
 President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and 
 
 * This article is abrogated, and the substitute "for it is found in the 12 th 
 Amendment. See page 141. 
 
132 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 such officer shall act accordingly until the disability be removed, or 
 a President shall be elected. 
 
 7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services 
 a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished 
 during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he 
 shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the 
 United States or any of them. 
 
 8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take 
 the following oath or affirmation : — 
 
 9. " I do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I will faithfully ex- 
 " ecute the office of President of the United States, and will, to 
 " the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Consti- 
 " tution of the United States." 
 
 Section 2. 
 
 1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and 
 navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, 
 when called into the actual service of the United States ; he may 
 require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of 
 the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties 
 of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant re- 
 prieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except 
 in cases of impeachment. 
 
 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of 
 the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators 
 present concur ; and he shall nominate, and by and with the ad- 
 vice and consent of the Senate shall appoint, ambassadors, other 
 public ministers, and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and 
 all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not 
 herein otherwise provided for; and which shall be established by 
 law : but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such 
 inferior officers, as ;they think proper, in the President alone, in the 
 courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 
 
 3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that 
 may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commis- 
 sions which shall expire at the end of their next session. 
 
 Section 3. 
 1. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 133 
 
 of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration 
 such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, 
 on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, 
 and in case of disagreement between them with respect to the 
 time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he 
 shall think proper ; he shall receive ambassadors and other public 
 ministers ; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, 
 and shall commission all the officers of the United States. 
 
 Section 4. 
 1. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the 
 United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, 
 and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and mis- 
 demeanors. 
 
 ARTICLE in. 
 Section I. 
 
 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in 
 one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress 
 may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of 
 the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good 
 behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a 
 compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continu- 
 ance in office. 
 
 Section 2. 
 
 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and 
 equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United 
 States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their au- 
 thority ; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, 
 and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; 
 to controversies to which the United States shall be a party ; to 
 controversies between two or more States, between a State and 
 citizens of another State, between citizens of different States, be- 
 tween citizens of the same State claiming' lands under grants of 
 different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and 
 foreign states, citizens, or subjects. 
 
 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and 
 consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme 
 
134 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before 
 mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, 
 both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such reg- 
 ulations as the Congress shall make. 
 
 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, 
 shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the State where 
 the said crimes shall have been committed ; but when not com- 
 mitted within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as 
 the Congress may by law have directed. 
 
 Section 3. 
 
 1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levy- 
 ing war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them 
 aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless 
 on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on 
 confession in open court. 
 
 2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of 
 treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, 
 or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 Section 1. 
 
 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public 
 acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And 
 the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which 
 such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect 
 thereof. 
 
 Section 2. 
 
 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges 
 and immunities of citizens in the several States. 
 
 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other 
 crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, 
 shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State from 
 which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having 
 jurisdiction of the crime. 
 
 3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the 
 laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any 
 law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 135 
 
 but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such ser- 
 vice or labor may be due. 
 
 Section 3. 
 
 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; 
 but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction 
 of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junction of 
 two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the 
 legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress. 
 
 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all 
 needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other prop- 
 erty belonging to the United States ; and nothing in this Constitu- 
 tion shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United 
 States, or of any particular State. 
 
 Section 4. 
 
 1. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union 
 a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them 
 against invasion ; and on application of the legislature, or of the 
 executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against do- 
 mestic violence. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 1. The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall 
 deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, 
 or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the sev- 
 eral States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, 
 which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as 
 part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three 
 fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three fourths 
 thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be pro- 
 posed by the Congress : Provided, that no amendment, which may 
 be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, 
 shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth 
 section of the first article ; and that no State, without its consent, 
 shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before 
 
136 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United 
 States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 
 
 2. This Constitution, and the- laws of the United States which 
 shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or 
 which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, 
 shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every 
 State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws 
 of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 3. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the 
 members of the several State legislatures, and all executive and 
 judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, 
 shall be bound, by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution ; 
 but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any 
 office or public trust under the United States. 
 
 AKTICLE Vn. 
 
 1. The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be 
 sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the 
 States so ratifying the same. 
 
 Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States pres- 
 ent, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord 
 one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the inde- 
 pendence of the United States of America the twelfth. In wit- 
 ness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names. 
 
 George Washington, President. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 137 
 
 Resolved, That the preceding Constitution be laid before the 
 United States in Congress assembled ; and that it is the opinion of 
 this Convention, that it should afterwards be submitted to a conven- 
 tion of delegates, chosen in each State by the people thereof, under 
 the recommendation of its legislature, for their assent and ratifica- 
 tion ; and that each convention assenting to and ratifying the same 
 should give notice thereof to the United States in Congress as- 
 sembled. 
 
 Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Convention, that as soon 
 as the conventions of nine States shall have ratified this Constitu- 
 tion, the United States in Congress assembled should fix a day on 
 which Electors should be appointed by the States which shall have 
 ratified the same, and a day on which the Electors should assemble 
 to vote for the President, and the time and place for commencing 
 proceedings under this Constitution ; that after such publication, 
 the Electors should be appointed, and the Senators and Represent- 
 atives elected ; that the Electors should meet on the day fixed for 
 the election of the President, and should transmit their votes, cer- 
 tified, signed, sealed, and directed, as the Constitution requires, to 
 the Secretary of the United States in Congress assembled ; that 
 the Senators and Representatives should convene at the time and 
 place assigned ; that the Senators should appoint a President of 
 the Senate, for the sole purpose of receiving, opening, and count- 
 ing the votes for President ; and that after he shall be chosen, the 
 Congress, together with the President, should, without delay, pro- 
 ceed to execute this Constitution. 
 
 By the unanimous order of the Convention. 
 
 George Washington, President. 
 
 In Convention. 
 
 September 17, 1787. 
 Sir: — 
 We have now the honor to submit to the consideration of the 
 United States in Congress assembled that Constitution which has 
 appeared to us the most advisable. 
 
 The friends of our country have long seen and desired that the 
 power of making war, peace, and treaties ; that of levying money 
 and regulating commerce ; and the correspondent executive and 
 18 
 
138 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 judicial authorities, should be fully and effectually vested in the 
 general government of the Union : but the impropriety of delegating 
 such extensive trust to one body of men is evident. Hence results 
 the necessity of a different organization. 
 
 It is obviously impracticable, in the federal government of these 
 States, to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and 
 yet provide for the interest and safety of all. Individuals entering 
 into society must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. 
 The magnitude of the sacrifice must depend as well on situation 
 and circumstance, as on the object to be obtained. It is at all 
 times difficult to draw with precision the line between those rights 
 which must be surrendered, and those which may be reserved ; 
 and on the present occasion this difficulty was increased by a dif- 
 ference among the several States as to their situation, extent, hab- 
 its, and particular interests. 
 
 In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in view 
 that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true Amer- 
 ican, the consolidation of our union, in which is involved our pros- 
 perity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This im- 
 portant consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, 
 led each State in the Convention to be less rigid on points of in- 
 ferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected ; and 
 thus the Constitution which we now present is the result of a spirit 
 of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which the 
 peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable. 
 
 That it will meet the full and entire approbation of every State 
 is not perhaps to be expected ; but each will doubtless consider 
 that, had her interests alone been consulted, the consequences 
 might have been particularly disagreeable or injurious to others : 
 that it is liable to as few exceptions as could reasonably have been 
 expected, we hope and believe ; that it may promote the lasting 
 welfare of that country so dear to us all, and secure her freedom 
 and happiness, is our most ardent wish. 
 
 With great respect, we have the honor to be, sir, your Excel- 
 lency's most obedient and humble servants. 
 
 George Washington, President. 
 His Excellency, the Peesipent of Congress. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 139 
 
 AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of re- 
 ligion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging the 
 freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people 
 peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress 
 of grievances. 
 
 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 warrants shall issue, but upon prob- 
 able cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly de- 
 scribing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be 
 seized. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise in- 
 famous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand 
 jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the 
 militia, when in actual service, in time of war or public danger ; 
 nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice 
 
140 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled, in any 
 criminal case, to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of 
 life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor shall 
 private property be taken for public use without just compensa- 
 tion. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to 
 a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and 
 district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which dis- 
 trict shall have been previously ascertained by law ; and to be in- 
 formed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be con- 
 fronted with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory pro- 
 cess for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to have the assistance 
 of counsel for his defence. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall ex- 
 ceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved ; 
 and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any 
 court of the United States than according to the rules of the com- 
 mon law. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, 
 nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 
 
 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not 
 be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 
 
 ARTICLE X. 
 
 The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitu- 
 tion, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States 
 respectively, or to the people. 
 
 ARTICLE XI. 
 
 The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed 
 to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 141 
 
 against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or 
 by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. 
 
 ARTICLE XII. 
 
 1. The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote 
 by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, 
 shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; they 
 shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and 
 in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President ; and they 
 shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and 
 of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of 
 votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit 
 sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed 
 to the President of the Senate ; the President of the Senate shall, 
 in the presence of the Senate and House of Eepresentatives, open 
 all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted : the person 
 having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the 
 President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of 
 Electors appointed ; and if no person have such majority, then 
 from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, 
 on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Eepresent- 
 atives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in 
 choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the rep- 
 resentation from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this 
 purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of 
 the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a 
 choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a 
 President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, 
 before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-Pres- 
 ident shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other 
 constitutional disability of the President. 
 
 2. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice- 
 President shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a ma- 
 jority of the whole number of Electors appointed ; and if no per- 
 son have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the 
 list the Senate shall choose the Vice-President : a quorum for the 
 purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of Sena- 
 
142 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 tors, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a 
 choice. 
 
 3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of Pres- 
 ident shall- be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United 
 States. 
 
 THE END.