The republic., 1851-04-11
THE REPUBLIC.

of the unconstltutiOnality Of the embargo laws
before the proper tribunals, and the conduct Of
men who spent their days in stirring up the
people to oppose the Government in time Of
war; and, by their tongues and pens, affording
comfort to the enemy; and holding conclaves
and conventions, whose object it manifestly and
avowedly was TO intimidate the Government
and compel them to change their measures.
well remember his statement, that it was
unnecessary TO prove that men, so consPiring,
had entered into any formal, written agree
ment-that daily and continued association,
with proof of design, was enough to prove a
combination, conspiracy; and that, this being
proved, the very writings of bad citizens were
once accounted overt acts, referring to the words
Of Blackstone: {" IL has been held that ,criting
is an oveyt act Of treason; for scribere est
agere."
Mr.. Dexter clearly Disseminated between
the felonious assembling OF men for the purpose
of doing one particular act, without any ulte-
rior view, and lecying acGr, which consisted in
assembling together for the doing Of that act.
as oae ofa series, with the systematic purpose
of preventing the execution of the laws, or of
any one of those laws. This plain distinction
has never been forgotten, and is in the most
perfect harmony with the words of Mr.. Web
ster: eff men combine or confederate together,
and by force Of arms or force Of numbers effect
uaiiy resist the operations Of an act Of Congress
III its application 10 a particular individual,
,cith the aoo,ced purpose oj nlaking the same re-
sistance to the same act in its application to all
other mdivid,als, this is Iepying ,car against
the United States, and nothing less than trea-
son."
This opinion, presented with great care, and
with that scrupulous regard to the weight OF
e.. r. XNah ahetar
is so remarkable, appears to find no favor with
the individual who published an article in the
Atlas over the signature of Massachusetts.
He does not, indeed, concentrate the force of
his commentaries upon these words of Mr..
Webster, but upon the statement Of MIR. Curtis,
the United States Commissioner, that the late
rescue was case ''of leuying ,oar, though the
prosecutions are only for aiding TO escape"
Now, if the case before us, the mob Of Feb
ruary Is, be not clearly within the category
described by Mr. Webster, and if the evidence
to be produced do not fix it unchangeably there,
am entirely unable to comprehend the force
and meaning of that simple language in which
Mr.. Webster and other eminent jurists of our
own country have defined the term-levyng
pGr.
The writer in the Atlas has been pleased to
characterize the attempt to magnify an ordi-
nary mob into case Of ievying acar, as ''ridi
c,ilous and absurd" How apt men are, in the
excess of their bounty, to lavish terms upon
the opinions Of others, which terms belong of
nalienable right to their own. The writer as
sumes the recent affair to be !" an ordinary
mob" This assumption is utterly denied. II
was part and parcel Of long and extensively
premeditated purpose to prevent the execution
Of law Of the United States, and therefore it
was LEvYING WAR.
The commissioner has presented the matter
very faithfully and justly in the Daily ADDER
tiser, as it appears to me. desire to say
few words more upon the subject, simply for
the purpose of keeping 1t little longer fully be-
fore the minds Of the people. SIGMA.