Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/722

 714 § 1853. The first answer was supported by reference to the clauses in the constitution, providing for the judgment in cases of impeachment; the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus; the trial by jury in criminal cases; the definition, trial, and punishment of treason; the prohibition of bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, laws impairing the obligation of contracts, laws granting titles of nobility, and laws imposing religious tests. All these were so many declarations of rights for the protection of the citizens, not exceeded in value by any, which could possibly find a place in any bill of rights.

§ 1854. Upon the second point it was said, that bills of rights are in their origin stipulations between kings and their subjects, abridgments of prerogative in favour of privilege, and reservations of rights not surrendered to the prince. Such was Magna Charta obtained by the barons, sword in hand, of King John. Such were the subsequent confirmations of that charter by succeeding princes. Such was the petition of right assented to by Charles the First in the beginning of his reign. Such, also, was the declaration of rights presented by the lords and commons to the prince of Orange in 1688, and afterwards put into the form of an act of parliament, called the bill of rights. It is evident, therefore, that according to its primitive signification, a bill of rights has no application to constitutions professedly founded upon the power of the people, and executed by persons, who are immediately chosen by them to execute their will. In our