Excerpts from;

Commentaries on American Law -

Vol. II, Lecture XXIV

Of the Absolute Rights of Persons

By Chancellor James Kent, (1763–1847),

Chief Judge N.Y. Supreme Court, First Professor of Law at Columbia College. Mr. Kent was appointed Master in Chancery by N.Y. Gov. John Jay.

"The rights of persons in private life are either absolute, being such as belong to individuals in a single unconnected state; or relative, being those which arise from the civil and domestic relations.

“The absolute rights of individuals may be resolved into the right of personal security, the right of personal liberty, and the right to acquire and enjoy property. These rights have been justly considered, and frequently declared, by the people of this country, to be natural, inherent, and unalienable. The history of our colonial governments bears constant marks of the vigilance of a free and intelligent people; who understood the best securities for political happiness, and the true foundation of the social ties. The inhabitants of Massachusetts, in the very infancy of their establishment, declared by law that the free enjoyment of the liberties which humanity, civilty and Christianity called for, was due to every man in his place and proportion, and ever had been and ever would be, the tranquility and stability of the commonwealth. They insisted that they brought with them into this country the privileges of English freemen, and they defined and declared those privileges with a caution, sagacity and precision, that have not been surpassed by their descendants. Those rights were afterwards, in the year 1692, on the receipt of their new charter, re-asserted and declared. It was their fundamental doctrine, that no tax, aid or imposition whatever, could rightfully be assessed or levied upon them, without the act and consent of their own legislature; and that justice ought to be equally, impartially, freely, and promptly administered. The right of trial by jury, and the necessity of due proof preceding conviction, were claimed as undeniable rights; and it was further expressly ordained, that no person should suffer without express law, either in life, limb, liberty, good name, or estate; nor without being first brought to answer by due course and process of law."

"...But the necessity in our representative republics of these declaratory codes, (i.e. - Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence. Inserted to provide clarity on the topic), has been frequently questioned, inasmuch as the government, in all its parts, is the creature of the people, and every department of it is filled by their agents, duly chosen or appointed, according to their will, and made responsible for maladministration. It may be observed, on the one hand, that no gross violation of those absolute private rights, which are clearly understood and settled by the common reason of mankind, is to be apprehended in the ordinary course of public affairs; and as to extraordinary instances of faction and turbulence, and the corruption and violence which they necessarily engender, no protection to public liberty. When the spirit of liberty has fled, and truth and justice are disregarded, private rights can easily be sacrificed under the forms of law. On the other hand, there is weight due to the consideration, that a bill of rights is of real efficacy in controlling the excesses of party spirit. It serves to guide and enlighten public opinion, and to render it more quick to detect, and more resolute to resist, attempts to disturb private right. It requires more than ordinary hardness and audacity of character, to trample down principles, which our ancestors cultivated with reverence, which we imbibed in our early education, which recommend themselves to the judgment of the world by their truth and simplicity and which are constantly placed before the eyes of the people, accompanied with the imposing force and solemnity of a constitutional sanction. Bills of rights are part of the muniments of freemen, show in their title to protection, and they become of increased value when placed under the protection of an independent judiciary, instituted as the appropriate guardian of private right. Care, however, is to be taken in the digest of these declaratory provisions, to continue the manual to a few plain and unexceptionable principles. We weaken greatly the force of them, if we encumber the constitution, and Perhaps embarrass the future operations and more enlarged experience of the legislature, with a catalogue of ethical and political aphorisms, which, in some instances, may reasonably be questioned, and in others, justly condemned....

"...and experience teaches us, that the most solid basis of public safety, and the most certain assurance of the uninterrupted enjoyment of our personal rights and liberties, consists, not so much in bills of rights, as in the skillful organization of the government, and its aptitude, by means of its structure and genius, and the spirit of the people which pervades it, to produce wise laws, and a just, firm, and intelligent administration of justice.

"I shall devote the remainder of the present lecture to examine more particularly the right of personal security and personal liberty, and postpone the conclusion of the right of private property, until we arrive at another branch of our inquiries.

"1. The right of personal security is guarded by provisions which have been transcribed into the constitutions in this country from Magna Carta, and other fundamental acts of the English Parliament, and it is enforced by additional and more precise injunctions...."

"While the personal security of every citizen is protected from lawless violence, by the arm of the government, and the terrors of the penal code; and while it is equally from unjust and tyrannical proceedings on the part of the government itself, by the provisions to which we have referred; every person is also entitled to the preventive arm of the magistrate as a further protection from threatened or impending danger....The municipal law of our own, as well as of every other country, has likewise left with individuals the exercise of the natural right of self-defense, in all those cases in which the law is either too slow, or too feeble to stay the hand of violence. Homicide is justifiable in every case in which it is rendered necessary in self-defense, against the person who comes to commit a known felony with force against one's person, or habitation, or property, or against the person or property of those who stand in near domestic relations. The right of self-defense in these cases is founded in the law of nature, and is not, and cannot be superseded by the law of society. In those instances, says Sir Michael Foster, the law, with great propriety, and in strict justice, considers the individual to be under the protection of the law of nature. There are important distinctions on this subject, between justifiable and excusable homicide, and manslaughter, and murder, which it does not belong to my present purpose to examine; and I will only observe, that homicide is never strictly justifiable in defense of a private trespass, nor upon the pretense of necessity, when the party is not free from fault in bringing that necessity upon himself."

Have done a little research on Mr. Kent. Turns out he is still one of the most respected legal authorites in the system. Can readily discern why quotes, from his work, are so hard to find in the public realm. However, the truth always finds a way out into the light....

Sort of blows the lid off that 'government control' issue, doesn't it?