The People and the Commonwealth, of Virginia reasoned differently from this; and I will not stop to argue whether they did or did not reason more wisely than Massachusetts.  They said, We choose to leave nothing doubtful which language can render certain, in a matter of so much moment.  We are laying the foundations of a government, which we hope may outlast the Pyramids.  We know, from old experience, that the depositaries of the popular power are ingenious in the finding of glosses and interpretations to abstract from the popular rights.  Let us see to it that this constitution contain such express recognitions of the rights of the People as it shall be impossible to misunderstand.  We will write, upon its very front the great doctrines of liberty in characters of light, which, like the burning letters in the banqueting-hall of Belshazzar, may blast the eye-balls of whomever shall meditate treason to the democratic rights we have conquered with our blood and our fortunes.  Accordingly, the convention of Virginia proposed, to amend the Constitution by inserting therein the following, among other clauses: 

“That all power is naturally vested in, and consequently derived from, the People; that magistrates, therefore, are their trustees and agents, and at all times amenable to them.”

“That the People have a right peaceably to assemble together to consult for the common good, or to instruct their representatives; and that every freeman has a right to petition the Legislature for redress of grievances.”

New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island proposed, either literally or in substance, the same provision; and the consequence was, the addition to the constitution of the article, which I am now discussing, on the right of conscience, speech, and petition.  And, such being the history of this clause, I look to the gentlemen from Virginia especially, constant and honorable as they are in their attachment to constitutional principles at whatever hazard, to go with me in maintaining inviolate this great original right of the People.

But we shall not fully appreciate the force and value of this provision, if we stop at this point of the investigation.  The right of petition is an old undoubted household right of the blood of England, which runs in our veins.  When we fled from the oppressions of kings and parliaments in Europe, to found this great Republic in America, we brought with us the laws and the liberties, which formed a part of our heritage as Britons.  We brought with us the idea and the form of our legislative assemblies, composed of elected representatives of the people; we brought with us the right of petition, as the necessary incident of such institutions.  For when, in the whole history of our father-land, has the right of petition ever undergone debate and question?  Go back to the old parliamentary rolls, coeval with Magna Charta; peruse the black-letter volumes in which the early laws and practices of the English monarchy