Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/172

 ON THE RIGHT OF PETITION.

The right of petition is guarantied to the American citizen by an amendment to the constitution, made in 1801. By this clause, congress is prohibited from passing any law to prevent the people from peaceably assembling, in order to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This prohibition, like those on the subjects of the liberty of the press, liberty of speech and liberty of conscience, was perfectly supererogatory, the states having conceded to congress no authority to pass any law to the contrary. It is understood that all these provisions were introduced through the influence of Mr. Jefferson, who was desirous that the constitution should exhibit on its face, what might be termed its profession of political faith, since foreigners did not comprehend the negative restrictions on the power of the federal government, that grow out of the fact of its being purely a government of deputed and defined authority.

The right of petition is by no means an important political right in this country, where the constituents hold so strong a check on their representatives, and where no important laws can long exist without their approbation. In countries in which the people cannot assemble to cause publick opinion to act on their rulers, and in which the great majority are disfranchised, or never possessed a vote, the right of petition is an all important right. Men confound the characters of the institutions of different nations, when they ascribe the same importance to it here.