to interfere with individual freedom, in some matters, so as to secure the greatest possible protected enjoyment of human liberty. They knew, as only human beings _could_ know who were then offering their very lives to uphold the basic law of America, that such ability could never be validly given to any government by government itself, acting in any manner, but only by direct action and grant of those later to be governed by the exercise of that ability. What method did those citizens, so thoroughly educated in the basic principles of republican government, employ to secure the direct action of the human beings themselves in giving that ability _of that kind_ to their respective governments? They acted upon the suggestion from the Congress of 1776, as Marshall later expressed it from the Bench of the Supreme Court, “in the only manner in which they can act safely, _effectively_ and wisely _on such a subject_, by assembling in convention” in their respective states. Long before Marshall voiced judicial approval of this _American_ method of direct action by the people themselves, in matters in which only _the people_ themselves can validly act at all, Madison, in the famous Virginia convention of 1788, paid his tribute to these conventions of the people in each of the thirteen nations. This was the tribute of Madison: “Mr. Chairman, nothing has excited more admiration in the world than the manner in which free governments have been established in America; for it was the first instance, from the creation of the world to the American Revolution, that free inhabitants have been seen deliberating on a form of government, and selecting such of their citizens as possessed their confidence, to determine upon and give effect to it.” (3 _Ell. Deb._ 616.) Later herein there will be occasion to speak at greater length of this American method of direct action by the people themselves, through the deliberative conventions of deputies chosen by the people and from the people for that one purpose, giving to governments a limited ability to interfere with individual freedom. At this point, it is sufficient to say that, since 1789 and until 1917, no government in America ever claimed to have acquired ability _of that kind_ except through the action of such a convention or conventions or through the direct voting of its citizens themselves for or against the grant of such ability.