Stratton (89 Tennessee. 531). In the Harbison case Justice Caldwell said: When first adooted in Magna Charta the phrase "the law of the land" bad reference to the common and statute law then existing in England. and when embodied in our Constitution it referred to the same common law as previously modified.and so far as suited to the wants and conditions of our eole in a new country- At present the law of the land embraces the same ody of laws as still further modified. those parts validly cut off being now excluded and those validly added being included. This opinion or definition of the "law of the land "is in keeping with the Patterson case (5 Peters). which held that the statutes passed in England before the emigration of our ancestors. which were in amendment of the law. and applicable to our situation. constitute a part of our common law. "The United States. as such. has no common law." unless by legislative adoption (8 Peters. 591). As already stated. the Constitution is legislation and contains certain rights at common law. and hence that instrument is construed in the light of the common law. the law of our colonial land as it existed when the Constitution was adopted. We thus see the word "land" as here used is a geographical extension and limitation on the geographical operation of the "law." and if in the States means the law of the land contained in certain geographical or State limits of the particular State. and as used in the Federal Constitution it has the same meaning. except the Constitution. etc.. is not only the "law of the land" included in the geographic limits of the United States. but is the "supreme" law there:n. The Continental Congress. in 1774. clearly exploited what the colonial fathers claimed as their natural and acquired rights and what they understood to be their legal rights and the law of their land at that time as follows: That the inhabitants of the English colonies in North America. by the immutable laws of nature. the principles of the English constitution. and their several charters or compacts. were entitled to life. liberty. and their property. that their ancestors had never ceded to any sovereign power whatever a right to dispose of either without their consent. that their ancestors who first settled the colonies were. at the time of their emigration from the mother country. entitled to all the rights. liberties. and immunities of free. naturalborn subjects. and by such emigration they by no means forfeited. surrendered. or lost any of those rights. that the foundation of English liberty. and of all free government. was the right of the people to participate in the legislative power. and they were entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation. in all matters of taxation and internal policy. in their several provincial legislatures. where their right of representation could alone be preserved. that the respmective colonies were entitled to the common law of England. and more especially to the privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage. according to the henefit of such of the English laws as existed at the time of the colonization. and which they had hy experience found to be applicable to their several local and other circumstances. that they were likewise entitled to all the privileges and immuniities granted and confirmed to them by royal charters. or secured by their several codes of provincial laws. (a.) (Journals of Congress. i. 28. ad. Phil.. 18iJO.) We see the courts upheld this Congressional declaration of existing. not hoped for. but existing civic and legal rights of this colonial era. The ordinance of 1787. enacted by the Congress of the Confederation to govern the Northwest Territory. declared that the inhabitants of the Territory should be forever protected and entitled to the benefit of certain existing commonlaw rights as follows: Writ of habcas corpus. jury trials. judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law. ete.. and "that no man shall he deprived of his liberty or property but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land." Here we find this expression. the "law of the land." used before the Constitution is framed and while the convention is sitting to frame it. "The law of the land." whatever it is. is made here the law of this territory.
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