"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 are seen