But no part of a man's property shall be taken from him, or applied to public uses, without his own con- sent, or that of the representative body of the people. Nor are the inhabitants of this state controllable by any other laws than those to which they, or their representative body, have given their consent. No person, who is conscientiously scrupulous about the lawfulness of bearing arms, shall be compelled thereto. And no subject shall be arrested, imprisoned, despoiled, or deprived of his property, immunities, or privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled or deprived or deprived of his life, liberty, or estate, but by the judgement of his peers, or the law of the land. No subject shall be liable to be tried, after an acquittal, for the same crime or offense.
All penalties ought to be proportioned to the nature of the offense.
No wise legislature will affix the same punishment to the crimes of theft, forgery, and the like, which they do to those of murder and treason. For the same reason a multitude of sanguinary laws is both impolitic and unjust. The true design of all punishments being to reform, not to exterminate mankind. Every subject hath a right to be secure from all unreason- able searches and seizures of his person, his houses, his papers, and all his possessions. Retrospective laws are highly injurious, oppressive, and unjust.