e to conquer America. What Andros and Randolph
could accomplish in 1686 with their sixty soldiers, could not be done
in 1768 with all the red coats Britain could send out: nor in 1778
with all the Hessians she could purchase. The 19th of April, 1689,
foretold another 19th of April--as that many to-morrows after to-day!
In the House of Lords Camden and Pitt thought Parliament not
omnipotent.[108] Samuel Adams declared "Acts of Parliament against
natural equity are void;" prayed that "Boston might become a Christian
Sparta," and looked to the Law of an Omnipotence somewhat higher than
a king or a court. He not only had Justice, but also the People on his
side. What came of that last attempt of the last king of New England
to establish a despotism here? The same, Gentlemen, which will
ultimately come of all such attempts.

[Footnote 108: 16 Parl. Hist. 168, 195, 658.]

* * * * *

Gentlemen of the Jury, there is one great obstacle which despotism has
found in Anglo-Saxon lands, steadily opposing its steady attempts to
destroy the liberties of the People. It is easy for the controlling
power, which represents the Centripetal Tendency of the Nation, to
place its corrupt and servile creatures in judicial offices, vested
with power to fine, to imprison, and to kill; it is then easy for them
to determine on the destruction of all such friends of Justice and
Humanity as represent the Centrifugal Tendency of the Nation; and with
such judicial instruments it is not difficult to wrest and pervert law
in order to crush the Patriots, and construct a word into "Treason,"
or "evincing express approbation" into a "Misdemeanor," "resisting an
officer." And if the final decision rested with such a court, it would
be exceeding easy to make way with any man whom the judge's private
malignity or the public vengeance of his master, wished to smite and
kill. But in the Anglo-Saxon people there is one institution, old,
venerable, and well-beloved, which has stood for two thousand years,
the great Fortress of Freedom. Thank God, Gentlemen, it still stands.
Neither British Kings nor American Slave-drivers have yet brought it
to the ground. Of this I must now say a word.

III. OF THE GREAT SAFEGUARD WHICH HAS BEEN FOUND SERVICEABLE IN
PROTECTING DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS AND THE RIGHTS OF MAN THEY ARE
DESIGNED TO DEFEND.--OF THE TRIAL BY JURY.

This is an invaluable protection against two classes of foes to the