Studies in Civics Part 37

ever been denied in this country?

Wherein is a standing army dangerous to liberty? Is this true of the navy?

How is a "well-regulated militia" a check upon usurpation of authority?

Does Amendment II. authorize you to keep a revolver? To carry it in your pocket? How often is the army mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, and what is said?

What are the objections to "quartering" soldiers in a private house? Does the amendment protect tenants? Why the exception in the amendment? What mention of quartering soldiers in the Declaration of Independence?

Get and read a warrant of arrest. A search warrant. Has a warrant always been needed as authority for arrest? Are arbitrary arrests, searches and seizures permitted in any civilized countries today?

What is a capital crime? An infamous crime? A presentment? An indictment?

A grand jury? How do the proceedings of a grand jury compare with those of a pet.i.t jury? Why the differences? Why the exception in the first clause of the amendment? Can a convicted and sentenced person ask for a new trial? Under what other circ.u.mstances can persons be tried again? In what connections have you heard of private property being taken for public use.

Taking each guarantee in the sixth amendment, show the wrongs which an accused person, presumably innocent, would suffer if the provision were not recognized or that guarantee removed.

Find out all you can about _common law_. What is meant by a _civil_ suit as distinguished from a _criminal_ suit? What is meant by a case in _equity?_ When an appeal is taken what is subject to re-examination? What is not? Why?

What conditions determine the just amount of bail? Of fines? What cruel punishments have you heard or read of as being administered by public authority? When and where were such punishments not "unusual"? Was the eighth amendment necessary? What limit is there to things which "The People" may do? To the powers of the United States government? To those of a State government?

Find the history behind each provision in the ten amendments. From what country did we obtain the notions that the rights here preserved belong to freemen? From under what other country could the Colonies have come ready to be the United States as we love it, or from what other country could we have inherited such notions?

Since these ten amendments are intended for the protection of individuals against governmental oppression, it will be an excellent scheme now for the student to arrange in the form of a tabulation the various directions in which such protection is guaranteed by the const.i.tution as amended. The following is simply suggestive:

I. From Legislative Oppression.--1. Thought; 2. Expression; 3. Bills of Attainder; 4. _Ex post facto_ laws; 5. Social distinctions; 6. a.s.sembly; 7. Pet.i.tion.

II. From Executive Oppression.-1. Military; 2. Searches and seizures; 3.

Life, Liberty, or Property; 4. Suspension of _Habeas Corpus_.

III. From Judicial Oppression.-1. Before trial: arrest, bail, information as to accusation, time of trial; 2. During trial: publicity, jury, evidence, counsel, punishment; 3. After trial: retrial; 4. Treason.

IV. From State oppression.

ARTICLE XI.

LIMITING THE JURISDICTION of UNITED STATES COURTS.

_The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity,[1] commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States[2] by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.[3]_

[1] Equity is hard to define. According to Aristotle it is "the rectification of the law, when, by reason of its universality, it is deficient." Blackstone says, "Equity, in its true and genuine meaning, is the soul and spirit of all law.... Equity is synonymous with justice." It is the province of law to establish a code of rules whereby injustice may be prevented, and it may therefore be said that all law is equitable. "In a technical sense, the term equity is applied to those cases not specifically provided for by positive law." (See page 208; also Dole's Talk's About Law, page 502.)

[2] According to III. 2, a state could be sued for a debt the same as an individual, and shortly after the adoption of the const.i.tution several of them were sued for debts incurred during the Revolutionary War. Pride and poverty both prompted the states to desire immunity from such suits. Hence the adoption of this amendment. (See page 209.)

[3] A non-resident secures the payment of a debt due from a state in the same way as a resident--by legislative appropriation.

ARTICLE XII.

MODE OF CHOOSING THE PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT.

The amendment has been discussed in connection with Article II. of the const.i.tution, pages 184-6.

ARTICLE XIII.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.

_1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction._

_2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation._

This amendment, one of the "first fruits" of the Civil War, put an end to slavery in the United States. The wording was taken, almost verbatim, from the Ordinance of 1787.

ARTICLE XIV.

MISCELLANEOUS RECONSTRUCTION PROVISIONS.

SECTION I.--"CITIZEN" DEFINED. PRIVILEGES GUARANTEED.

_All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.[1] No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.[2]_

[1] This provision defines citizenship. It was worded with the special view of including the negroes. It embodies the principle of the Civil Rights Bill, and is intended to guarantee to the negroes the protection implied in citizenship.

[2] Some of the amendments impose limitations only on the general government. Lest the states in which slavery had recently been abolished should endeavor to oppress the ex-slaves this provision was made as a limitation upon the states.

But this provision is general in it nature, and by means of it the United States can protect individuals against oppression on the part of the states. Pomeroy [Footnote: Const.i.tutional Law, p. 151.] regards this as the most important amendment except the thirteenth.

SECTION II.--BASIS of REPRESENTATION.

_Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for president and vice-president of the United States, representatives in congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for partic.i.p.ation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state._

Each state determines who may vote within its borders. This provision was intended as an _inducement_ to the former slave states to grant franchise to the colored men. It does not _compel_ them to do this. But granting the franchise increases their representation. The fifteenth amendment is more _imperative_ in this direction.

SECTION III.--DISABILITIES of REBELS.

_No person shall be a senator or representative in congress, or elector of president or vice-president, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the const.i.tution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.[1] But congress may, by a two-thirds vote of each house, remove such disability.[2]_

[1] The primary purpose of this provision was to exclude from public office those who in the Civil War, by entering the service of the Confederate States, broke an oath previously taken. Though the persons whom it was immediately intended to affect will soon all be "with the silent majority," the provision, by being made part of the const.i.tution, will remain a warning to all in the future.

[2] The disabilities have been removed from all but a few of those immediately referred to. This clause seems to put another limitation upon the power of the president to grant pardons. From 1862 to 1867 the president had been specially authorized by congress to grant amnesty to political offenders. And in 1867 President Johnson continued to grant such amnesty, denying the power of congress to put any limitation upon the president's pardoning power. But this provision specifically places the power to relieve certain disabilities in the hands of congress. The "two-thirds" vote is required in order that such disabilities may not be easily removed.

SECTION IV.--PUBLIC DEBT.

_The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for the payment of pensions, and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall a.s.sume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emanc.i.p.ation of any slave, but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void._

_Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article._