involved in the disposition
of these petitions.

Looking into the Constitution I find, among the amendments proposed
by the Congress of 1789, and the very first of the number, the
following article:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom
of speech or of the press; or _the right of the People_ peaceably to
assemble and _to petition the Government for a redress of
grievances_."

Long before I had imagined that such a right would ever be called in
question, I remember to have read the remark of a distinguished
jurist and magistrate of the State of Virginia, (Tucker's Notes on
Blackstone,) complaining that the concluding words of the clause I
have cited from the Constitution did not so strongly guard the great
right of petition, as the liberties of the People demanded. On the
other hand, a still more distinguished jurist and magistrate, of my
own State, (Story's Commentaries,) in remarking upon the same
article, expresses the opinion that it is ample in terms; because,
he adds, "It (the right of petition) results from the very nature of
the structure and institutions of a republican government; it is
impossible that it should be practically denied until the spirit of
liberty had wholly disappeared, and the People had become so servile
and debased as to be unfit to exercise any of the privileges of
freemen." These eminent constitutional lawyers agreed in opinion of
the importance of the provision; they differed only in thinking, the
one, that the right of petition could not be too clearly defined;
the other, that whether defectively defined or not in the letter,
the People would take care that it should in spirit be faithfully
observed. While the first entertained a wise jealousy of the
encroachments of the People's representatives, the other looked for
the protection of the public rights to the People themselves, the
masters of the People's representatives. And as the fears of the
former have been verified too speedily, I trust that the hopes of
the latter will be not less truly realized.

There are some things in the context and phraseology of this article
of the Constitution, which may deserve attention. It speaks of
"_grievances_" in the general; not "_their_ grievances," the
_personal_ grievances of the individuals petitioning, but anything,
public or personal, which they deem to be a grievance. It is the
same artic