Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-06-25

The entire fabric of constitutional
government existing throughout the
English speaking world as the enn-
bodiment OF liberty under law was
made possible by the deathlcss act
performed by King John at Runny-
mede on June 10, 1915. Every Amer
lean constitution, state and federal,
rests upon that act as its corner
stone; and upon every one of such
corncrstones is engraved the familiar
legend, due Process of Law"
OF the siXty-three chapters into
which Magma Charta IL usually dt-
yidcd for convenience, all have per-
ished long ago except the thirty ninth
which provides that.
No freeman shall be arrested, or
detained In prison, or deprived of his
freehold. or outlawed, or banished on
in any way molested; and we will not
set forth against him, nor send
against him, unless by the lawful
judgment Of his peers and by the law
OF the land.
Due Process of Law.
out of that chapter was finally
evolved the modern and existing con
ception OF due process OF law. the
outcome of the progressive histories
Of the English and American peoples
considered as one unbroken develop
ment II has no prototype in the con-
stitutional history of any other peo-
pie.
In the Roman law countries the
antipode Of due process Is what
French jurlsts call droit administra-
III, which rests upon the assumption
that the government and each of its
servants possess body of special
rights and privileges, as against pri-
vate citizens to be fixed on principles
different from those defining the legal
rights and duties of one citizen to-
ward another. In England neither the
government nor any one of its SER
wants, not even the highest enjoys
any such body Of special rights ana
privileges"
Force Used 10 Collect Debts.
Chapter 30 grew out of conditions
hard to understand at the present day.
When any of the baronage happen
cd to be indebted to the crown, and
nearly all of them we're SO indebted
In one way or the other, IT was johns
habit in exceptional cases, without
any legal proceeding of any kind, to
send an armed force against the par
Is i'm default, and thus extort salts
faction from him at the point of the
sword. In the words of great au-
thority, In Johns time "the practice
OF granting wrlts of execution without
trial In the courts appears to have
been common
In order to break up that dreadful
practice the barons forced John to
promise in the vital clause of the
great charter---''we will not set forth
against him. nor send against him.
unless by the lawful Judgment of his
peers and by the law OF the land.
IN the plain English Of today John
promised that he would no longer
send an armed force 70 collect his
claims ut the point Of the sword, UNI
I'll the court should first determine
whether or not anything was really
due him, and II so, how much. Moth
ing thereafter was TO be collected 'un-
less by the lawful Judgment of his
peers and by the laws of the land
phrase which had no reference 20
trial by jury. for the good and suf-
fclent reason that jury trials did not
come into being until a century after
that time.
Passed 30 American Constitution.
Tnp guarantee IN question SliuplS
required judicial proceedings, accord
ing to the nature OF the case, by some
one OF several methods of trial then
employed in the courts. But a trial in
a court by some one of these methods
was bsolutely necessary before exc
cution could issue.
Such was the original meaning of
the chapter in question which became
"a sacred text. the nearest approach
10 Fundamental statute. that Eng
land has ever had" In each age IL has
been interpreted as living guaran-
tee OF fundamental rights according
10 the needs or that age
In that way. after being lost for q
long time in the midnight of the Tut
dor despotism, Il was resurreeted and
given a broad construction by the
statesmen OF the seventeenth century,
during the constitutional struggle
with the Stuarts: and that construc-
ton. as Il finally became fixed in the
commentaries of Blackstone. passed
into the original constitutions of the
thirteen states as an integral part of
the text OF chapter SO, reproduced in
nearly all Of them.
Thus the immortal part OF the
Great Charter. embodied In its Judi
fetal clauses. ont OF which has grown
What English and American lawyers