The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Amendment VIII, Document 12
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendVIIIs12.html
The University of Chicago Press
Amendment VIII
Document 12
Abraham Holmes, Massachusetts Ratifying Convention
30 Jan. 1788
Elliot 2:111
What gives an additional glare of horror to these gloomy circumstances is the consideration, that Congress have to ascertain, point out, and determine, what kind of punishments shall be inflicted on persons convicted of crimes. They are nowhere restrained from inventing the most cruel and unheard-of punishments, and annexing them to crimes; and there is no constitutional check on them, but that racks and gibbets may be amongst the most mild instruments of their discipline.
The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Amendment VIII, Document 12
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendVIIIs12.html
The University of Chicago Press
Elliot, Jonathan, ed. The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution as Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. . . . 5 vols. 2d ed. 1888. Reprint. New York: Burt Franklin, n.d.
