No “ex post facto law” shall be passed. What does that mean?[87] If a person does an act, which at the time of the doing of the act is not a criminal offense, the Congress of the United States, with all its power, cannot make that act, innocent when done, a crime. Yet this used to be done in the old days. You can imagine how in those days a brutal government being desirous of getting rid of some objectionable person, but desiring to have its acts appear legal, might find that he had done some act which was not punishable under the law; but through a corrupt legislative body, it might so legislate as to make the act a criminal offense, and thus have the person tried and convicted.

A person might commit an offense for which there was a moderate punishment; and the legislature might, after the commission of the crime, but before he was tried, increase the penalty. For instance, if there were a penalty of two years imprisonment for stealing a horse, and some [pg 152] neighbor was guilty of stealing a horse, thus leaving himself, when convicted, subject to two years imprisonment, all the powers of the United States government, all the powers of Congress, all the wonderful power of the people of the country could not change the penalty, could not, for instance, amend the law so as to provide a five year penalty instead of two, so as to affect this neighbor who had stolen the horse before this time. He could, if convicted, be sentenced to two years, but no more.

You may think that those who adopted the Constitution must have been suspicious of Congress, or the people in thus carefully preventing wrongs against individuals accused of a crime—yes, individuals who had actually committed a crime; but you can readily understand why they were so careful. The conduct of the governments of the world had been such before that day that suspicion was justified. The Constitution was made for the individual—for men, women, and children—to guard their rights against the abuse of power; and in fact most of the wrongs of the world have had their origin in the abuse of power. The Constitution guards the humblest person against abuse of the power granted to the government, as well as against the wrongs of our neighbors.

The people in this country have great power—absolute power. This power may be expressed in laws enacted by Congress or by the legislatures of the States, except in those things which the people themselves in the Constitution of the United States, and in the Constitutions of the different States, have placed beyond even their own power.

Of course these provisions of the Constitution, as all provisions of the Constitution, may be changed by the people, but not by a mere majority of the people. These constitutional provisions relate to sacred rights, and they may not be changed except upon mature deliberation, and by a vote [pg 153] which represents the sentiment of at least a majority of the people of three-fourths of the States.

So I hope you can realize that when the framers of the Constitution prohibited bills of attainder, and prohibited the enactment of the ex post facto laws, they were doing something for the people of this country. They had the rights of the people in mind—the rights of the humble and perhaps unknown, as well as the rights of those in high places. I do not expect you to study the details of these provisions of the Constitution relating to bills of attainder and ex post facto laws. You will probably never have to enforce these rights which are given to you under the Constitution. I hope you will not; but the important thing which I always want you to bear in mind is, that these guaranties of the Constitution are in existence and that they confer upon you certain powers which may be asserted to protect your liberty if occasion should ever arise.

I am sure you realize that at the beginning of the life of the American Nation, extreme care was exercised by those who framed the Constitution, to guard the people at every point against injustice and wrong, whether exercised by private individuals or by public officials.

Understanding these things—feeling these things, will give you a new sense of power, of pride, and of duty, as citizens of this great Nation.

ELEMENTARY QUESTIONS

1. What does attainder mean?