Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/312

 288 SKETCHES OF THE

XI. It was insisted that if we must adopt a constitu- tion, ceding away such vast powers, express and im- plied, and so fraught with danger to the hberties of the people, it ought at least to be guarded by a bill of rights: that in all free governments, and in the estimation of all men attached to liberty, there were certain rights un- alienable — imprescriptible — and of so sacred a charac- ter, that they could not be guarded with too much cau- tion: among these were the liberty of speech and of the press — what security had we, that even these sacred privileges would not be invaded? Congress might think it necessary, in order to carry into effect the given powers, to silence the clamours and censures of the people; and if they meditated views of lawless ambition, they cer- tainly will so think: what then would become of the liberty of speech and of the press?

Several objections of a minor character were urged: such as,

1. That the ambiguity with which the direction for publishing the proceedings of congress was expressed (" from time to time^^) put it in their power to keep the people in utter ignorance of their proceedings; and thus, to seize the public hberties " by ambuscade/^

2. That the IXth section of the I. article, professing to set out restrictions upon the power of congress, gave them by irresistible implication, the sovereign power over all subjects not excepted, and thus enlarged their constructive powers, ad infinitum.

3. That congress had the power of involving the southern states in all the horrors. which would result from a total emancipation of their slaves ; and that the northern states, uninterested in the consequences of such an act, had a controuling majority, which possessed

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