The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-09-19
Treason.
From The NrrO York Courier and Enquirer

anomaly that occurs but to amaze II is one Of
those things which happen only once or twice in
generation. But twenty individuals in neigh
boring State now stand committed to answer before
United States court for this extraordinary crime,
and ii is certain that portion, at least, of them
have incurred its extreme penalties. The Federal
Constitution declares that treason against the Uni
ted States shall consist in levyng against them,
or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid
and comfort; and the high courts have again and
again decided that forcibe resistance by an
armed assembly Of the execution Of an act Of Con-
gress, is usurpation of the authority of Govern
ment, and is such huying of as constitutes
high treason. The persons in question stand
charged with resisting by force of arms the execu
ton ofthe Fugitive Slave law, and if the charge be
substantiated in all probability it will be. they
traitors, and must receive the traitors doom.
The rebels at Christiana, like those who in nine
out of ten commit the first overt acts Of trea-
everywhere, were poor, ignorant, degraded
men, and only acted upon the suggestions and
through the influence of others. Whether any di-
rect completely in this between the abolitioniss
in the vicinity and the negroes be proved not the
fact is glazing as the sun at noon day that the
abolionists were the original meters of this out
rage and that but for them it would never have oc
CURED. Political crimes may BE- ostered by bad pas
sons, but they almost invariably haze their germ in
evil principles But the authors of bad as well as
ofgood principles usually sedentary men, whose
associations, tastes, and habits indispose them to
engage personally in the carrying out OF their princ
piles, fit involves personal danger great phys-
cal exertion. Ii is infinitely easier and safer for
them to advise than TO act, TO conceive than 10 ex
ccute to put the scent than TO follow the game,
to write out the watchwords than to mix in the bat
tie. They really are as much more criminal than
their dupes, as knowledge is more responsible than
ignorance; and as much more despicable, as cour-
age and loyalty to conviction are superior TO COW
ardice and faithessness. II has been proclaimed
and over again, in hundred different forms,
through portion of the religious and the political
press, which styles itself respectable, that resist
ance to the Fugitive Slave law is obedience to God.
This sentiment has been assduousy implanted in
the minds of the great mass of the northern ne
groes; and 1t is a sentiment 30 radical and rami-
flying that it cannot remain simple abstraction.
1t must bear substantial fruitsjust such frighfu,
bitter, accursed fruits have Just tasted in
Pennsy lvania.
There are, in our very midst, clergymen and edi
tors of high name and wide influence, who would
have been better employed in planting Upas trees
over the land, than in sowing such doctrines as
they have been sowing during the last two years
In the blindness of their zeal, they may have
thought they doing God and man service, but
they have actually been among the most efficient Of
the DEVILS co-laborers. They style themselves
good logicians, and 1t may be 80. Dante, who
wrote L'Inferno, and therefore ought to know,
gays that the devil ID the best of all logcians;
and you don't often find better specimens of logic
than ID contained in John Ahlton's report of the
grand conclave in Pandemonium. But these men
must plead before the bar of public opinion
something else than what they call their logic,
to be exculpated from the guilt of sedition; Just
the highway robber must plead, before the bar
of justice, something else than the proofs of Proud
hon, that property ia tneft,' to be acquitted of
his felonious act The question is not what is the
logic of the matter, but what ia the law of the
Tn he ms in yld rs acIfU he
former may be a speculative canon if he pleases;
but to the CITIZEN in his social capacity, the latter
must be the only practical criterion, and by it he
must stand or fall. So long as the law exists il
must be supreme; for its supremacy is all that gives
it its binding efficacy, and its binding efficacy all
that gives it life. We frequently hear of laioisss
men, and we insinctvely look upon them with
adherence, and shrink from their very approach.
But there vast many more of them than those
that have the name. They may be found in every
walk OF life and even in the exercise of the most
sacred of all earthly vocations. Which is the worst
enemy of the law which the most ldicless, he who
admits and through passionate impulse or selfish
qualification violates the law, or he who studiously,
dispassonately, and habitually denies its authori
ty derides is sanctions and breaches that the law
de facto ia de jure law, and therefore nugatory?
There are other crimes than those which are pun
ished by turkeys and executioners. There is a
kind OF sedition which the constitutional right of
liberty of speech shields from legal penalty, but
which public opinion should none the less visit
with quick and rigorous condemnation-a sedtion
which Deguies by sophistry, blinds by falsehood,
and maddens by invective; which speaks for ITSELF
but ctsthrough ohers-acts perhaps undersigned
ly and without predetermined direction in partcu-
lar instances but acts, nevertheless, guilty as the
immediate agents, and, in truth, we believe more
guilty.
We have spoken plainly, but because the occa-
zion demands it. 1t ia high time that the men who
counsel resistance to the law should be regarded
in their true light They are virtually rebels, and
practically public enemies. In counselling direct
y or indirectly the violent overthrow of the law,
they unsete the basis of all government, the
bond of all society, and open path that leads to
nothing but anarchy and ruin. The men who have
taken this course should be marked, and should be
held morally if not legally responsible for all such
atrocities that which has just Redeemed the soil
of neghboring State. We rejoice that the pub
lie authorities have acted and the best portion Of
the press have spoken, they have in reference to
the immediate perpetrators of this outrage but JUS
tice points to other particeps criminis whom she
cannot touch. but whom the people should brand
with an indelible stigma.