4518. LAW, Retrospective.—[continued].
The sentiment that ex
post facto laws are against natural right, is so
strong in the United States, that few, if any,
of the State Constitutions have failed to proscribe
them. The Federal Constitution, indeed,
interdicts them in criminal cases only;
but they are equally unjust in civil as in criminal
cases, and the omission of a caution
which would have been right, does not justify
the doing what is wrong.—
To Isaac McPherson. Washington ed. vi, 176.
(M.
1813)
