Such was MAGNA CHARTA, obtained by
the barons, sword in hand, from King John. Such were the subsequent
confirmations of that charter by succeeding princes. Such was the
Petition of Right assented to by Charles I., in the beginning of his
reign. Such, also, was the Declaration of Right presented by the Lords
and Commons to the Prince of Orange in 1688, and afterwards thrown into
the form of an act of parliament called the Bill of Rights. It is
evident, therefore, that, according to their primitive signification,
they have no application to constitutions professedly founded upon the
power of the people, and executed by their immediate representatives and
servants. Here, in strictness, the people surrender nothing; and as they
retain every thing they have no need of particular reservations. "WE,
THE PEOPLE of the United States, to secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of America." Here is a better recognition of
popular rights, than volumes of those aphorisms which make the principal
figure in several of our State bills of rights, and which would sound
much better in a treatise of ethics than in a constitution of
government.
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