Of course, no one with his
eyes open ever places himself in a position so incompatible with
the liberty of declaring his honest opinion, unless he do it with
the intention of becoming a mere instrument in the hands of the
government for the execution of all its oppressions.
As proof of this, look at the judicial history of England for the
last five hundred years, and of America from its settlement. In
all that time (so far as I know, or presume) no bench of judges,
(probably not even any single judge,) dependent upon the
legislature that passed the statute, has ever declared a single
penal statute invalid, on account of its being in conflict either
with the common law, which the judges in England have been
sworn to preserve, or with the written constitutions, (recognizing
men's natural rights,) which the American judges were under oath
to maintain. Every oppression, every atrocity even, that has ever
been enacted in either country, by the legislative power, in the
shape of a criminal law, (or, indeed, in almost any other shape,)
has been as sure of a sanction from the judiciary that was
dependent upon, and impeachable by, the legislature that enacted
the law, as if there were a physical necessity that the
legislative enactment and the judicial sanction should go
together.
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