Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/162

 122 a public maintenance by parliament. But every congregation might tax its own members for the support of its own minister. Every man of seventeen years of age was to declare himself of some church or religious profession, and to be recorded as such; otherwise he was not to have any benefit of the laws. And no man was to be permitted to be a freeman of Carolina, or have any estate or habitation, who did not acknowledge a God, and that God is to be publicly worshipped. In other respects there was a guaranty of religious freedom. There was to be a public registry of all deeds and conveyances of lands, and of marriages and births. Every freeman was to have "absolute power and authority over his negro slaves, of what opinion or religion soever." No civil or criminal cause was to be tried but by a jury of the peers of the party; but the verdict of a majority was binding. With a view to prevent unnecessary litigation, it was (with a simplicity, which at this time may excite a smile) provided, that "it shall be a base and vile thing to plead for money or reward;" and that "since multiplicity of comments, as well as of laws, have great inconveniences, and serve only to obscure and perplex, all manner of comments and expositions on any part of these fundamental constitutions, or on any part of the common, or statute law of Carolina, are absolutely prohibited."

§ 134. Such was the substance of this celebrated constitution. It is easy to perceive, that it was ill adapted to the feelings, the wants, and the opinions of the