Read pages 114-121 concerning trials for crime, and be prepared to tell which parts or features of a trial are provided for (1) by the Constitution of the United States, and (2) by the constitution of Nebraska. Review the following points in trials: (a) Officers who may try crimes and of- (b) How witnesses are called to court. (d) Who is the State's lawyer? (e) What usually takes the place of indictments by grand jury? (f) The meaning of execution. (g) The meaning of pleadings, charge to jury, and subpoena. (h) How an accused person knows who will give testimony against him. What is meant by "compulsory process for obtaining witnesses," in Article VI of the Amendments? See pages 118, 119. Name the provisions in the Constitution that tend to prevent unfairness in the trial of an accused person. See Amendments V., VI., VII, VIII., and Constitution, III. ii. 3; III. iii. 1, 2; IV. i. 2; IV. ii. 2, etc. What do you think is shown concerning trials at the time of settlements in America, by the fact of so many provisions in the Constitution guarding against injustice? What do you think Article VIII. shows about the condition of people's rights at the time that provision was first written? EMINENT DOMAIN. Study the definition of 'domain', and learn the meaning of the 'right of eminent domain'. Page 101, note 1; Dictionary. State the provisions found in Article V. of the Amendments regarding the taking of private property by the Government. Give examples of this seizure of property Is this ever done by a state government? SLAVERY. Name the various provisions in the Constitution for and against slavery. Which states had slaves in 1799? 2 State briefly the reasons why provisions concerning slavery were placed in the Constitution." 1 Perhaps the best illustration of this is the taking of property for railroad purposes. The reason of taking must always be in theory the good of the community or the public. If one does not want his land taken for such a public purpose, the process laid down by law must be followed before the land can be taken. The laws of Nebraska provide "that no appropriation of private property for the use of any corporation provided for in this subdivision, shall be made until full compensation therefor be first made or secured to the owners thereof.. Consolidated Statutes 1891, Sec. 06. 2 "In 1790, slavery had a nominal existence in every state except Massachusetts." Schouler, Hist. of U. S., I., 143. Of course the states south of Pennsylvania had almost all the slaves. Slaves constituted more than one-sixth of a total population of 3,900,000. 3 Slavery was so large a feature of life in the southern states that if concession had not been made to those states, the Constitution would not have been adopted. What was the provision on the Ordinance of 1787 concerning slavery? Page 254, note 4. What effect is it supposed to have had upon the course of American history? When was Article XIII. of the Amendments When and by whom were the slaves freed? ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. When was the Constitution made and by whom? 1 How many states had to ratify the Constitu- V. Who presided at the convention that made. the Constitution? Page 209. Name the members of the constitutional convention that had the most to do with the provisions put into the Constitution. 3 1 By a convention of delegates from the states, which met in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. The delegates represented twelve states. Each state legislature chose as many as it saw fit. Rhode Island sent no delegate. In all 55 attended, but at the last day there were only 42 present. Three of these would not sign; but the names of the other 39 are found attached to the Constitution. 2 Congress, on September 29, 1787, passed a resolution to submit the Constitution to each state, the state to elect an assembly of delegates for the express purpose of considering the question of adopting or rejecting it. The ratifications were as follows: Delaware, Dec. 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, Dec. 12, 1787; New Jersey, Dec. 18, 1787; Georgia, Jan. 2, 1788; Connecticut, Jan. 9, 1788; Massachusetts, Feb. 6, 1788; Maryland, April 28, 1788; South Carolina, May 23, 1788; New Hampshire, June 21, 1788; Virginia, June 21, 1788; and New York, July 26, 1788; North Carolina, Nov. 21, 1789; Rhode Island, May 29, 1790. 3 Within the convention, the men who had most influence in shaping the Constitution were James Madison, James Wilson, Roger Sherman, W. S. Johnson, Oliver Ellsworth, and Gouveneur Morris. After the convention, when influence was necessary to secure the adoption of the Constitution, the men who did the most were Hamilton and Madison. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE ADOPTED JULY 4, 1776. A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED. WHEN in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. [The charges against the King of England are omitted.] We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to |