Amendments V and VI

Document 15

Continental Congress, Declaration and Resolves

Resolved, N. C. D. 5. That the respective colonies are entitled to the common law of England, and more especially to the great and inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to the course of that law.

. . . . .

The several acts of 4 Geo. III. ch. 15, and ch. 34.--5 Geo. III. ch. 25.--6 Geo. III. ch. 52.--7 Geo. III. ch. 41. and ch. 46.--8 Geo. III. ch. 22. which impose duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, extend the power of the admiralty courts beyond their ancient limits, deprive the American subject of trial by jury, authorise the judges certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages, that he might otherwise be liable to, requiring oppressive security from a claimant of ships and goods seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his property, and are subversive of American rights.

Also 12 Geo. III. ch. 24. intituled, "An act for the better securing his majesty's dockyards, magazines, ships, ammunition, and stores," which declares a new offence in America, and deprives the American subject of a constitutional trial by jury of the vicinage, by authorising the trial of any person, charged with the committing any offence described in the said act, out of the realm, to be indicted and tried for the same in any shire or county within the realm.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Amendments V and VI, Document 15
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendV-VI_criminal_processs15.html
The University of Chicago Press

Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union of the American States. Edited by Charles C. Tansill. 69th Cong., 1st sess. House Doc. No. 398. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1927.