refer, to understand its meaning, and get a clear idea of the division of power between the national and state governments. The state constitutions are generally comprehensive in their details, and arrangements for the formation of complete governments -extending to every proper subject of government except national, inter-national, and inter-state matters. The first constitutions of Pennsylvania and Vermont provided for only one legislative body and a council; but for many years past, the legislature of each state in the Union has consisted of two distinct houses, each of which must pass bills before they can become laws. Each state has also a governor or chief executive officer-a supreme court with appellate jurisdiction, inferior courts, and magistrates, codes of laws, and systems of jurisprudence, and all the machinery of county and city governments; and in the most of them, township governments also. All the machinery of government in each state applies to the same territory, to the same people, to the same property, as the constitution, government, and laws of the United States do; and each must be operated and executed within its proper sphere, without conflicting with the proper action of the other. Hence the importance of an accurate interpretation of the constitution of the United States, in order to ascertain with certainty the precise boundaries of power between the national and state governments, and prevent conflicts between them. SEC. 2. THE GREAT ENGLISH CHARTERS OF KING JOHN, HENRY III. AND EDWARD I. The liberties, personal rights, and rights of property, secured to the freemen of America, as well as to Englishmen, were derived through the great charters granted by Norman Kings. The Barons of England, in military array, and at the point of the sword, extorted the first great charter from King John at Runnymede, June, 1215. The same charter was confirmed in parliament by his son, King Henry III. with some additions. The same charter was afterwards confirmed by statute, called Confirmatio Cartarum, of 25th Edward I. (A. D. 1297), whereby the great charter is directed to be allowed as the common law. These charters, in fact, constituted the most essential portion of the British constitution, down to the time of the long parliament, in the time of Charles I. (1641). The liberty and rights of the freemen of England, both as to person and property, were secured by those charters, by the fol lowing provisions : From King John's Charter: Sec. 46. No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized, or outlawed, or banished, or in any way destroyed; nor will we pass upon him nor commit him to prison, unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. The same provision is contained in the 29th chapter of magna carta, of 9th Henry III. (1225), drawn out more at length, as follows, viz: "Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut disseiziatur de libero tenemento suo, vel libertatibus, vel liberis cousuetudinis suis, aut utlagetur, aut exulit, aut aliquo modo destruatur; nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, vel per legem terrae. Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus, aut differemus rectum vel justitiam." Which has been translated as follows: "No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized of his freehold or his liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed, or banished, or in any way destroyed; and we will not pass upon him, nor condemn him but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the laws of the land. We will sell, (referring to justice and its administration), to no man, and we will not deny nor defer either right or justice to any man." The 29th section of the confirmatio cartarum, or magna carta, of Edward I. has been translated into English, as follows, viz: 29. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or disseized of his freehold, or liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; and we will not pass upon him nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his peers, or by the laws of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man, either justice or right. SEC. 3. PETITION OF RIGHTS PRESENTED TO KING CHARLES THE FIRST, WITH HIS REPLIES. To the King's Most Excellent Majesty: 1. Humbly show unto our sovereign lord the King, the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons in parliament assembled, that, whereas it is declared and enacted by a statute made in the time of the reign of King Edward the first, commonly called "Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo," that no tallage or aid should be laid or levied, by the King or his heirs, in this realm, without the good will and assent of the arch bishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses and other the freemen of the commonalty of this realm: and by authority of parliament holden in the five and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the third, it is declared and enacted that from thenceforth no person should be compelled to make any loans to the King, against his will, because such loans were against reason and the franchise of the land; and by other laws of this realm it is provided, that none should be charged by any charge or imposition, called a benevolence, nor by such like charge, by which the statutes before mentioned, and other the good laws and statutes of this realm, your subjects have inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge, not set by common consent in parliament. 2. Yet, nevertheless of late, divers commissions, directed to sundry commissioners in several counties, with instructions, have been issued, by means whereof your people have been in divers places assembled, and required to lend certain sums of money unto your majesty, and many of them upon their refusal so to do, have had an oath administered unto them, not warrantable by the the laws or statutes of this realm, and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance, and give attendance before your privy council and in other places; and others of them have been therefore imprisoned, confined, and sundry other ways molested and disquieted; and divers other charges have been laid and levied upon your people in several counties, by lords lieutenants, deputy lieutenants, commissioners for musters, justices of peace and others, by command or direction from your majesty, or your privy council, against the laws and free customs of the realm. 3. And whereas, also, by the statute called "the great charter of the liberties of England," it is declared and enacted that no freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his freehold or liberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. 4. And in the eighth and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the third, it was declared and enacted by authority of parliament, that no man of what estate or condition that he be, should be put out of his lands or tenements, nor taken nor imprisoned, nor disinherited, nor put to death, without being brought to answer by due process of law. 5. Nevertheless against the tenor of the said statutes, and other the good laws and statutes of your realm, to that end provided, divers of your subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause showed; and when for their deliverance they were brought before your justices by your majesty's writ of habeas corpus, there to undergo and receive, as the court should order, and their keepers commanded to certify the causes of their detainer; no cause was certified, but that they were detained by your majesty's special command, signified by the lords of your privy council, and yet were returned back to several prisons, without being charged with any thing to which they might make answer according to the law. 6. And whereas of late, great companies of soldiers and mariners have been dispersed into divers counties of the realm, and the inhabitants against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn, against the laws and customs of this realm, and to the great grievance and vexation of the people. 7. And whereas, also, by authority of parliament, in the 25th year of the reign of King Edward III. it is declared and enacted that no man should be forejudged of life or limb, against the form of the great charter, and the law of the land, and by the said great charter, and other the laws and statutes of this your realm, no man ought to be adjudged to death, but by the laws established in this your realm, either by the customs of the same realm, or by acts of parliament; and whereas no offender, of what kind soever, is exempted from the proceedings to be used, and the punishments to be inflicted by the laws and statutes of this your realm; nevertheless of late time, divers commissions under your majesty's great seal have issued forth, by which certain persons have been assigned and appointed commissioners, with power and authority to proceed within the land, according to the justice of martial law, against such soldiers and mariners, or other dissolute persons joining with them, as should commit any murder, robbery, felony, meeting or other outrage or misdemeanor whatsoever; and by such summary course and order as is agreeable to martial law, and is used in armies in time of war, to proceed to the trial and condemnation of such offenders, and them to cause to be executed and put to death, according to the law martial. 8. By pretext whereof, some of your majesty's subjects have been by some of the said commissioners put to death, when and where, if by the laws and statutes of the land they had deserved death, by the same laws and statutes also they might, and by no other ought, to have been judged and executed. 9. And also sundry grievous offenders, by color thereof claiming an exemption, have escaped the punishments due to them by the laws and statutes of this your realm, by reason that divers of your officers and ministers of justice have unjustly refused or forborne to proceed against such offenders, according to the same laws and statutes, upon pretence that the said offenders were punishable only by martial law, and by authority of such commissions as aforesaid; which commissions, and all others of like nature, are wholly and directly contrary to the said laws and statutes of this your realm. 10. They do therefore humbly pray your most excellent majesty, that no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without common consent by act of parliament, and that none be called to make answer, or take such oath, or to give attendance, or be confined, or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same, or for refusal thereof: and that no freeman, in any such manner as is before mentioned, be imprisoned or delayed: and that your majesty would be pleased to remove the said soldiers and mariners, and that your people may not be so burdened in the time to come: and that the aforesaid commissions for proceeding by martial law, may be revoked and annulled; and that hereafter no commissions of like nature, may issue forth to any person or persons whatsoever, to be executed as aforesaid, lest by color of them, any of your majesty's subjects be destroyed, or put to death, contrary to the laws and franchise of the land |