Weekly national intelligencer., 1848-07-22
THE CAMPAIGN, No. IL.
rHE NEW sEDITIoN LAW.-THE DOCTRINE
OF "MORAL TREASON"

One Of the new issues involved in the pending
National Election is the assumed authority OF the
President of the United States, directly by himself
in his communications with Congress, and almost
a directly through his official organ, to arraign, as
a pretended moral treason," the right of citizens
of the United States, whether in private or public
life, and Of the Press, freely to descant upon the
affairs Of the Nation, and especially upon the mea
sures Of the Administration of the day. The Bat
more Convention has taken care, whilst avoiding
the exact term Moral Treason" to incorporate
sAe doctrine in its Platform The Mexican
War, say the Resolutions of the Convention, was
one in which every American citizen should have
shown himself on the side of his country, Cmean-
ing by this the President, whose war il was, and
neither morally nor physically, by word or Decd
have given aid and comfort TO the enemy"
Whilst this aspersion upon those who, in and
out Of Congress- Constituting the majority Of the
Nation,) disapproved Of the measure referred to,
demands indignant reprohation, it at the same time
serves to fasen this Infamous doctrine the Party
which has thus endorsed il.
The Freedom of Speech and of the Press, we
need inform our readers is fundamental princi
"A
In the estimation Of the People, at time when they
knew their rights, and knowing them knew how to
maintain them, that they would not rest satisfied,
after the adoption of the Constitution of the United
States until they had procured an amendment to it,
declaring that " CoNGREss shall make no lalc
. abridgig the freedom Of speech Of the press"
The evasion of this provision by an act Of Congress-
passed some years afterwards, famlarly known as
the old Sediton Law, broke down the Administra-
ton under which it was enacted, and was the
means Of transferring the rens Of Government from
the hands ofrhe Federal into those Of the Republ-
can party Of our country.
What the Federal party was not allowed to do
by law, our Democratic President and his party
have, with forty-federa presumption, undertaken
20 do without law. If they have failed of their
object, it has been no fault Of theirs. Their pur-
pose was palpable and pertnacious TO abridge the
freedom of speech and ofthe press.
Moral Treason is the new term invented for
the crimes-which are guaranteed by the Consu-
ton as among the most sacred of all the rights of
the citizen-of free speaking and free printing. In
stgmatizing the exercise of these rights the PREsI-
DENT himself, whose Administration is to be the
snodel for all Administrations to come, and espe-
aliy for that of his successor. far in advance of
the least scrupulous of his followers in public
message TO Congress stigmatized the public discus
sion of the propriety and the necessity of the war
begun by himself, in terms which include the Con-
shtutional definition of actual Treason, as giving
aid and comfort to the enemy" II is his language,
therefore, which The Baltimore Convention has
stereotyped.
That this is gross and shameful distortion and
perversion of the sense OF that provision of the
Constitution which defines the crime Of Treason"
all our readers know. That this definition in the
Constitution was placed there for the purpose of
guarding against the very abuse which the Presi-
dent has perpetrated under cover of it. is shown by
the reasons assigned by the trainers of the Consti-
tuition themselves for adopting it. As new-fanged
and artificial freasons (says Mr.. MADISON, IN his
yindicaton of the Constitution have been the great
engines by which violent factions the natural off,
= spring Of free Governments have usually sreaked
their alternate Dsalignity on each other, the Con.
vention have with great judgment opposed bar
rier to this peculiar danger, by inserting Consfi-
tufionai definition Of the crime Little did Mr..
MADISON suppose, when he penned those lines that
she malignity" of any future party would be in
geuious enough TO construct out Of the words aid
and comfort surrepttous sort Of treason" not
dreamed Of in his philosophy.
According to the Resolutions of the Baltimore
Convention, and to the President whose dicfum
they have copied, the doctrine of Moral Treason"
rs an ingredient of the party creed, might be sup
posed to have originated in the Mexican war, and
The debates and commentaries to which gave rise.
Bu. it dates much further back. The doctrine came
into the Government with the present Admins
taton. II is part and parcel-o it.
For the first two months after the Inauguration
OF Nr. Polk, is well known, the Executive had
no press at its command at the seat OF Government,
and had seek for its peculiar doctrines else
where. The Democratic Review" became forthat
period The exposition of them. The /" Union,' the
Presidents avowed organ. dates its existence from
the first Of May, ls45, two months after the Pre-
sident's inauguration. On the seventeenth of that
month was transferred to its columns, and adopted
from the " Democratic Review" OF earlier date,
article with the caption OF The Mexican Ques-
6on"-so early and so long before the date Of the
pretended causes Of the Mexican war was it FORE
shadowed-in which il was declared To be little less