Sounding the alarm of tyranny

In the context of the previous posts on Bush's favored imprisonment techniques, I found Glenn Greenwald's reference to this quote from a "shrill, hysterical, partisan, lefty blogger" particularly pertinent:

The observations of the judicious Blackstone, in reference to the latter, are well worthy of recital: "To bereave a man of life, [says he] or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole nation; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government.

Alexander Hamilton
The Federalist Papers, No. 84