then as good as their word, they may keep the government within
the bounds they have set for it; otherwise it will disregard them as
is proved by the example of all our American governments, in
which the constitutions have all become obsolete, at the moment
of their adoption, for nearly or quite all purposes except the
appointment of officers, who at once become practically absolute,
except so far as they are restrained by the fear of popular
resistance.

The bounds set to the power of the government, by the trial by
jury, as will hereafter be shown, are these that the government
shall never touch the property, person, or natural or civil rights of
an individual, against his consent, {xcept for the purpose of
bringing them before a jury for trial,) unless in pursuance and
execution of a judgment, or decree, rendered by a jury in each
individual case, upon such evidence, nd such law, as are
satisfactory to their own understandings and consciences,
irrespective of all legislation of the government.

[1]To show that this supposition is not an extravagant one, it may
be mentioned that courts have repeatedly questioned jurors to
ascertain whether they were prejudiced against the government
that is, whether they were in favor of, or opposed to, such laws of
the government as were to be put in issue in the then pending trial.
This was done (in 1851) in the United States District Court for the
District of Massachusetts, by Peleg Sprague, the United States
district judge, in empanelling three several juries for the trials of
Scott, Hayden, and Morris, charged with having aided in the rescue
of a fugitive slave from the custody of the United States deputy
marshal. This judge caused the following question to be