otherwise destroyed but by lawful judgment
of his peers, or by the law of the land." This, the right to law, is
the cornerstone of personal liberty. Any government in any country on
the Continent can seize a man and keep him as long as it likes; it is
only Anglo-Saxons that have an absolute right not to have that happen
to them, and not only are they entitled not to be imprisoned, but
their liberty of free locomotion may not be impeded. An American
citizen has a constitutional right to travel freely through the
whole republic and also not to be excluded therefrom. Punishment by
banishment beyond the four seas was forbidden in very early times in
England. "Disseised of his freehold, of his liberties or his free
customs"--that is the basis of all our modern law of freedom of trade,
against restraint of trade, and the basis on which our actions against
the modern trusts rest; the right to freely engage in any business, to
be protected against monopoly either of the state or brought about
by competitors, to freely make one's own contracts, for labor or
property, to work as long as one chooses, for what wages one wills,
and all the other liberties of labor and trade. "Or be outlawed or
exiled or otherwise destroyed"--that is a broad general phrase for any
interference with a man's property, life, or liberty. "Nor will we go
upon him"--that has been translated in various ways, but it means what
it says; it means that the king won't descend upon a man personally or
with his army; nor will we "send upon him"--a law officer after
him; "but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the
land"--that means jury trial, or at least the law of the land, as it
then was; and that phrase, or its later equivalent--due process of
law--is discussed to-day probably in one case out of every ten that
arise in our highest courts. Many books have been written upon it.
To start with, it means that none of these things can be done except
_under law_; that is, except under a lawsuit; except under a process
in a court, having jury trial if it be a civil case, and also
an indictment if it be a criminal case, with all the rights and
consequences that attend a regularly conducted lawsuit. It must be
done by the courts, and not by the executive, not by the mere will of
the king; and, still more important to us to-day, not by legislatures,
not even by Parliament. "We will sell to no man, we will deny or delay
to no man, either right or justice,