The Labor enquirer., 1886-09-11

l
government, experimented with and
kept in store as such, and Mr.. Lingg had
a right to make, keep, bear or give away
bombs andthe other seven had right
to aid him in so doing. t
Let me quote a few constitutional
provisions in regard to the rights II
these eight men:
Article six says: This constitution
shall be the supreme law of the land,
and the judges in every state shall be
bound thereby anything in the consti
tuition or laws ofany state to the con-
trary Notwithstanding"
A part ofarticle four says: "A person
charged in any state with treason who
shall flee from justice to another state
shall by that other state be delivered
up" This shows that treason may be
committed against state, and an at
tempt to overthrow th authority of a
state is treason.
Article three, section three, says: mo
person shall be convicted of treason un-
less on the testimony of two witnesses
to the same overt.act." In other words
only open acts are punishable. Words
whether written or spoken are not acts,
aud whatever those men may have
known, or said, or written, was not
treason.
The first amendment to the consttu-
tion says: Congress shall make no
law abridging the freedom of speech or
Of the press, or the right of the people
to peaceably assemble" And every
state constitution IlIinois in particularly
repeats the same sentiment.
The second amendment says "The
right of the people to keep and bear
arms shall not be infringed" But the
amendment is peculiar and likely to be
misunderstood if its history Is unknown
In the body of the constitution the
states are authorized only by inference
to keep militia, and congress had the
sole power to provide their arms. lhe
debate on this aroused the spirit of the
whole country. 1t was openly charged
that it was conspiracy to cripple the
states by leaving the power with con-
gress 10 withhold all the arms, thus leav-
ing the states defenseless against any
armed enCroachments upon their rights
by the federal government. Others
charged that the people were no safeE
against the encroachments Of an armed
state than an armed nation, if by either
power the arms could be taken from
the hands of the common people.
They had just passed through an or
deal where the old government took all
arms from the common people and
abridged their rights of assembling,
speech and press, and they were not
willing to be caught iu the same trap
again by constitution Of their own
making, and rs a result of these bitter
debates on the adoption of the consti-
tuition the first eleven amendments were
adopted as soon as the government was
and this accounts for the
double-headed character # the second
amendment, which reads: "a we'll
regulated militia being necessary to the
security of free state, the right Of the
people to keep and bear arms shall not
be infrlnged" AS a result, if congress
withheld arm from the militia, the peo-
pie could supply them, and the people
being armed were also safe against any
encroachmen from the state.
Our wis., fOrefathers knew that all
governments and parts of governments
were prone to corruption and usurpa-
tion against the common people, caused
by mans natural love of wealth and
power, and for this reason they put
arms, free speech, free press, right to
assemble, and right t. talk treason, all
at the disposal of the people indiyidu-
ally, knowing that people thus
equipped could not be imposed upon by
their government as they had been, and
knew that under such circumstances the
government must remain the servant
and could not become the master of the
people. They gave every individual the
right to talk treason and prepare for re-
bellion, but did not give him the right
to act, thus leaving him powerless until
he was Joined by majOrity, and they
intended that the ma )ritv should rule
even to the overthrow of the whole gov
ernmelt. Only great minds could have
so wisely planned to guard the people
and the government each against the
encroachments of the other and we
should never surrender these great
rights to the avarlce and cunning of
grasping lawmakers and judges.
The fourth amendment says: "a
person or his house, papers or effects,
Shall not be searched or seized without
a warrant particularly describing the
place to be searched and the person or
thing to be seized. This was dellber-
ately violated Thousand times by the
police and detectives in Chicago after
the haymarket affair. In the house
where Lizzie Holmes boarded, two de-
tectives SAW person enter whom thev
pretended to think was A. R. Parsons,
and they entered the house and searched
it from top to bottom, searching even
the entire contents Of bureau drawers