in their origin, stipulations between kings and their subjects,
abridgements of prerogative in favor of privilege, reservations of
rights not surrendered to the prince. Such was MAGNA CHARTA, obtained
by the barons, sword in hand, from King John. Such were the subsequent
confirmations of that charter by succeeding princes. Such was the
Petition of Right assented to by Charles I., in the beginning of his
reign. Such, also, was the Declaration of Right presented by the Lords
and Commons to the Prince of Orange in 1688, and afterwards thrown
into the form of an act of parliament called the Bill of Rights. It is
evident, therefore, that, according to their primitive signification,
they have no application to constitutions professedly founded upon the
power of the people, and executed by their immediate representatives and
servants. Here, in strictness, the people surrender nothing; and as they
retain every thing they have no need of particular reservations. "WE,
THE PEOPLE of the United States, to secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of America." Here is a better recognition of
popular rights, than volumes of those aphorisms which make the principal
figure in several of our State bills of rights, and which would
sound much better in a treatise of ethics than in a constitution of
government.

But a minute detail of particular rights is certainly far less
applicable to a Constitution like that under consideration, which is
merely intended to regulate the general political interests of the
nation, than to a constitution which has the regulation of every species
of personal and private concerns. If, therefore, the loud clamors
against the plan of the convention, on this score, are well founded, no
epithets of reprobation will be too strong for the constitution of
this State. But the truth is, that both of them contain all which, in
relation to their objects, is reasonably to be desired.

I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the
extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the
proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain
various exceptions to powers not granted; and, on this very account,
would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For
why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?
Why, for instance, should it be