Elements of Civil Government eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 218 pages of information about Elements of Civil Government.

Elements of Civil Government eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 218 pages of information about Elements of Civil Government.

The case against the prisoner is not tried under the writ of habeas corpus, but the judge inquires whether any crime is charged, or whether there is a legal cause for the arrest.  If the imprisonment is illegal, the judge orders the prisoner released; if the prisoner is lawfully held, the judge remands him to prison.  This writ secures the freedom of every person unless detained upon legal charges.  Therefore, there is no power in this wide country that can arrest and imprison even the humblest citizen except upon legal grounds.  The writ of habeas corpus is the most famous writ known to the law, the strongest safeguard of the personal liberty of the citizens, and is regarded with almost a sacred reverence by the people.

(2) “No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed” by Congress.

A bill of attainder is an act of a legislative body inflicting the penalty of death without a regular trial.  An ex post facto law is a law which fixes a penalty for acts done before the law was passed, or which increases the penalty of a crime after it is committed.  Laws for punishing crime more severely can take effect only after their passage; they can not affect a crime committed before they were passed.

(3) “No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State.  No preference shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to the ports of one State over those of another; nor shall vessels bound to or from one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.”

(4) “No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law, and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.”

(5) “No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State.”

(6) “Congress shall make no law respecting 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.”

(7) “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for 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 assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.”

The Constitution of the United States forbids the national government from exercising certain other powers, relating principally to slavery; but such denials are rendered useless by the freedom of the slaves.

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Elements of Civil Government from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.