Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/29

Rh. Thus, when the constitution says that no laws shall be passed abridging the rights of the citizen in any particular thing, it refers to the power which, under that particular constitution, has the authority to pass a law at all. This power, under the government of the United States, is Congress, and no other.

An example will better show the distinction. In art. 6th of the amendments to the constitution, we find the following clause: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right of a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury," &c. &c. &c. It is not the meaning of this provision of the constitution, that, under the laws of the several states, the citizen shall be entitled to a public trial by a jury, but that these privileges shall be assured to those who are accused of crimes against the laws of the United States. It is true, that similar privileges, as they are deemed essential to the liberties of their citizens, are assured to them by the constitutions of the several states, but this has been done by voluntary acts of their own, every state having full power, so far as the constitution of the United States has any control over it, to cause its accused to be tried in secret, or without the intervention of juries, as the people of that particular state may see fit.

There is nothing in the constitution of the United States, to prevent all the states, or any particular state, from possessing an established religion, from putting the press under the control of censors, from laying restrictions and penalties on the rights of speech, or from imposing most of the political and civil restraints on the citizen, that are imposed under any other form of government.

The guarantees for the liberties of the citizen, given by the constitution of the United States, are very limited, except as against the action of the government