BOOK SECOND. THE PERSONAL RIGHTS OF A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES. These rights will be considered under seven heads. First, the right to personal liberty; second, the right to personal security; third, the right to freedom of speech and writing; fourth, the right to freedom of religious faith and profession; fifth, military rights and duties; sixth, the rights and duties of suffrage; seventh, the rights and duties growing out of the domestic relations. There are many provisions in the constitution intended to secure all these important rights, except those last mentioned. They will be considered in this chapter; and in connection with some of them, the statutory provisions of Congress or of the several States which relate to the same or to connected subjects, and carry into effect the provisions of the constitution and make them specific and practical. CHAPTER I. THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS. The most efficacious and indispensable of all the provisions of the constitution in respect to personal liberty is the following, which relates to this writ: "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless, when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it." It must be noticed that this writ cannot be suspended, although the public safety may be thought to require it, unless there is at that time rebellion or invasion; and not if either or both of these exist, unless the public safety requires it. A law, passed by Congress in 1842, concerning the power of the courts or judges of the United States to grant writs of habeas corpus, extended this power to all cases of a prisoner or prisoners in jail or confinement, who are subjects or citizens of foreign States, and domiciled therein. The nature and effect of this writ should be fully understood. A writ, in legal meaning, is a written command by the sovereign, attested by a competent court, addressed to some person or persons, and requiring him or them to do the thing specified or described in the writ. In this country the people are the supreme sovereigns; then the United States are sovereign, and then each State is sovereign; and in this country writs begin, "The United States of America to," &c.; or, "The people of New York to," &c.; or, "The Commonwealth of Massachusetts to," &c. Usually most writs are addressed to sheriffs, who are the executive officers of the sovereign, and the writ of habeas corpus is generally so addressed. Formerly all the writs of England were in Latin; and while we were English colonies, the law and legal processes of England were ours; and both in England and in this country writs are still called by their most important Latin words. "Habeas corpus" means "you may have the body;" and the writ of habeas corpus is a command of the sovereign to the sheriff to whom it is addressed to have the body of the person named therein, who is the party deprived of his liberty, and bring him before the court, at a certain place and time, with the cause of his imprisonment. The sheriff executes this writ by bringing the person before the court; and the court then investigates the case, and, if the imprisonment be illegal, commands his discharge. It will be seen at once that if this writ be properly executed it makes illegal imprisonment impossible; and in law any restraint of a person anywhere, or any illegal arrest, is imprisonment. The extreme importance of this provision to secure personal liberty would seem to be obvious at first sight, and yet we cannot comprehend it fully unless we are taught the lessons of history. For example: the King of France before the Revolution was a despot, with nothing to limit his power or control his will. And why was this? Because he and his ministers could imprison any man in the Bastile, or any other prison, at any time, for no cause whatever but their own will, and keep him in prison at their own pleasure; and this often without letting any person connected with the prisoner know what had become of him. The Revolution came, and put a stop to this outrage upon reason and humanity. Some of the kings of England claimed, and to some extent exercised, the same power; but it was resisted, and was never carried so far in England as in |