639. No STATE, CHURCH, ETC.-Congress has nothing whatever to do with churches or with religion as such. An absolute separation of Church and State is one of the characteristic features of our Constitution. Then freedom of speech and of the press is another characteristic feature. It is to be observed, however, that these phrases are of necessity general and indefinite. Whether one has a right to utter his thoughts, depends on times and places, as well as on the thoughts themselves. The freedom of the platform or market-place cannot be tolerated in a garrison or camp. Words that are harmless or beneficial in time of peace, may do much harm in time of war. Mr. Hamilton said the liberty of the press could not be regulated by phrases or declarations, but "must depend altogether on public opinion, and on the general spirit of the people and of the government." The right to ask that grievances be redressed, or the right of petition as it is called, is found in the old English charters; the Colonists brought it with them from the old home; their descendants put it in their first State constitutions, and naturally desired to see it incorporated in the National Constitution.

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

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

1 The Federalist, No. 84.

611. THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS.-Despotic rulers have generally been unfriendly to a citizen soldiery, but have rather preferred to rely on regular troops. The friends of liberty, on the other hand, have commonly been unfriendly to large standing armies, and friendly to a citizen soldiery. One of the charges made against the King in the Declaration of Independence was, that he had quartered large bodies of armed troops among the people. To deny the people the right of bearing arms, or even of having them in their possession, is one of the steps commonly taken by rulers seeking to establish or maintain arbitrary government. This article throws the safeguard of the Constitution around the militia of the States.

Article III.-No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, or in time of war, but in a manner to'be prescribed by law.

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

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

613. FREEDOM FROM SEARCHES, ETC.-Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the English people had, through great effort and sacrifice, extorted from royal power. The maxim, "every man's house is his castle," was thoroughly grounded in the English constitution. The American Colon. ists brought this immunity with them from the Mother Country; they cherished and protected it until the Revolutionary

period, when they incorporated it in their State constitutions, and naturally desired to see it incorporated in the National Constitution.

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

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

614. THE ENUMERATION OF RIGHTS.-The Constitution and Amendments expressly enumerate certain rights as reserved or retained by the people. Amendments I., II., III., and IV. are examples. The force of the Article is, that the particular enumeration of such rights shall not in any way be construed as meaning that other rights not so enumerated are surrendered or in any way impaired.

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

615. THE POWERS NOT DELEGATED.-As shown in a previous chapter, this Amendment is a formal statement of the theory on which the National Constitution was framed, viz., to create a government of delegated powers. When this Article was under consideration in the House of Representatives, two motions were made to insert the word "expressly " before delegated, but both failed.

616. AMENDMENTS I.-X. A BILL OF RIGHTS. - The amendments proposed in 1789 were proposed mainly with reference to the controversy about a bill of rights; they are a bill of rights de facto, although not so called. Some said at the time that they were of no value, since they secured rights never endangered. They satisfied, however, a popular demand, and several of them have proved practical restraints on the Federal government. We are so little familiar with the acts

prohibited, as the abridgement of the freedom of speech, establishments of religion, the quartering of soldiers in private houses, etc., that we but poorly appreciate at what cost these immunities were originally obtained by our English ancestors. The men of 1789, who had themselves passed through a struggle with arbitrary power, had a more vivid conception of their value.

617. THE APPLICATION OF THESE AMENDMENTS.-It has sometimes been held that several of these amendments apply to the States, as well as to the Nation. For example, it has been said that the Fifth Amendment extends to all judicial tribunals in the United States, whether constituted by the Congress of the United States or the States individually. This view is incorrect. Chief Justice Marshall, in 1833, held of all the amendments made up to that time: "These amendments contain no expression indicating an intention to apply them to State governments." And Chief Justice Chase held, in 1868, that the Fifth and Sixth "were not designed as limits upon the State governments in reference to their own citizens, but exclusively as restrictions upon Federal power.

.,

[Article XI.—This Article has been quoted and discussed in dealing with the Judiciary.]

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

1 17 Wallace, 321.

CHAPTER XXXI.

618.

SLAVERY AND RECONSTRUCTION.

AMENDMENTS XIII-XV.

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

619. FREE AND SLAVE STATES.-The question whether the virgin territory beyond the Allegheny Mountains should be devoted to slave labor or to free labor, was raised as early as 1784. In 1787 Congress prohibited slavery throughout the Northwest Territory forever; but when organizing the Southwest Territory, in 1792, refused to apply the same principle to the region now comprised in the States of Alabama and Mississippi.

At first there were seven Northern and six Southern States. Moreover, physical causes and the desire of statesmen to preserve what they called the “balance of the Constitution" tended to keep the numbers of free and slave States equal. In 1819 the balance was perfect. Up to this time, however, slavery had not become a political, or at least a sectional, question.

620. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.-The feeling that no more slave States should be admitted into the Union declared itself when Missouri applied for admission with a slave constitution. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 embraced two main features; the admission of Missouri as a slave State, and the enacting of the following prohibition: "That in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies ( 341 )