s, without due proceeding at law,
with Trial by Jury. Not stopping to dwell on this, I press at once to
the other provision, which is still more express: "In suits at common
law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the
right of Trial by Jury shall be preserved." This clause, which does not
appear in the Constitution as first adopted, was suggested by the very
spirit of freedom. At the close of the National Convention, Elbridge
Gerry refused to sign the Constitution because, among other things,
it established "a tribunal without juries, a star chamber as to civil
cases."

Many united in his opposition, and on the recommendation of the First
Congress this additional safeguard was adopted as an amendment.

Opposing this Act as doubly unconstitutional from the want of power
in Congress and from the denial of trial by jury, I find myself again
encouraged by the example of our Revolutionary Fathers, in a case which
is a landmark of history. The parallel is important and complete. In
1765, the British Parliament, by a notorious statute, attempted to draw
money from the colonies through a stamp tax, while the determination of
certain questions of forfeiture under the statute was delegated, not to
the Courts of Common Law, but to Courts of Admiralty without a jury. The
Stamp Act, now execrated by all lovers of liberty, had this extent and
no more. Its passage was the signal for a general flame of opposition
and indignation throughout the colonies. It was denounced as contrary
to the British Constitution, on two principal grounds--first, as
a usurpation by Parliament of powers not belonging to it, and an
infraction of rights secured to the colonies; and, secondly, as a denial
of Trial by Jury in certain cases of property.

The public feeling was variously expressed. At Boston, on the day the
act was to take effect, the shops were closed, the bells of the churches
tolled, and the flags of the ships hung at half-mast. At Portsmouth, in
New Hampshire, the bells were tolled, and the friends of liberty were
summoned to hold themselves in readiness for her funeral. At New York,
the obnoxious Act, headed "Folly of England and Ruin of America,"
was contemptuously hawked about the streets. Bodies of patriots were
organized everywhere under the name of "Sons of Liberty." The merchants,
inspired then by liberty, resolved to import no more goods from England
until the repeal of the Act. The orators also spoke. James