Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/724

 716 might be seized upon by men disposed to usurpation, in order to furnish a plausible pretense for claiming the power. They might urge with a semblance of reason, that the constitution ought not to be charged with the absurdity of providing against an abuse of an authority, which was not given; and that the provision against restraining the liberty of the press, afforded a clear implication, that a right to prescribe proper regulations concerning it, was intended to be vested in the national government.

§ 1856. It was further added, that in truth the constitution itself was, in every rational sense, and to every useful purpose, a bill of rights for the Union. It specifies, and declares the political privileges of the citizens in the structure and administration of the government. It defines certain immunities and modes of proceeding, which relate to their personal, private, and public rights and concerns. It confers on them the unalienable right of electing their rulers; and prohibits any tyrannical measures, and vindictive prosecutions. So, that, at best, much of the force of the objection rests on mere nominal distinctions, or upon a desire to make a frame of government a code to regulate rights and remedies.

§ 1857. Although it must be conceded, that there is much intrinsic force in this reasoning, it cannot in