New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-01-14
gfse pittieuitiss that surround Us.

powers Of the President, under the Gonsttp ton,
] applicable to the present threatening Coalition
the country
Certain people at the North viii insist that tb
s United States Gogernnlentis nSSStary depotisn
and that President Buchanan nss all the powers
the Shah of Fersis 70 seize End astprison, and han
men at his pleasure. Thus the republican pEesse
are demanding Of the PrGsidJFt that he seall sen
the commissions ffom So ath Carolina, and try thef
s for treason. If you ask tten what is treascE
they can'tteii, but they INSIST tibet the pfes,Gs
ought 10 hang somebody, because Parton, IN whS
!, be calls the Life of Andrew Jackson &oclrgSi
! meRted toe much from street. talk and newspspe
III slaaaers9, sets it down that Gen. JSeksur pre-
posed to sng Mr.. GaihSun for nullifcation, mic
IS false. No citizen caraot be punished deprive
Of life OF liberty in ttss country without dpe Pre-
L cess of taw.
Massachusetts, coIsrived the Hartford 'Conver
/ ton In the war of fSS4 to set up Nortiu1n Cor
federation, and SoEth Carolina has .gotgp seees
sion convention to precipitate the sksgeholdin
States into Southern Confederation.
VI Nassaehusetts,s lS14, sent TIVE ambassadors o
III the Hartford convention to Washington TO deman
N of President Madison the separatiomot New Eng
lsad from the SsNion, in carrying on the war; vii
III lam Sullivan end Harrison Gray CTS were tht
III commissioners Mr.. Madison did not propose tt
III hang them. Eut, as Mr.. John Quincy Adams say
Isof the peacesSf Client, the news of which CANT
Il while the cesaissioners were ait Washington, !" tht
II interpositien Of q kind Providence averted the
" most deplorsble Of catastrop1es- the establish
Il ment of aaiSorthern eonfederaoy.,'
"A South Carolina now follows the example of Mas
II sachnset by sending her commissioners to Presi
i dent Buchanan, and Presidentizuchanan is abused
/ by Massachusetts, in particular because he wont
hang thssn for treason without judge or jury!
Now let US inquire what treason is, and what the
Consultation says about seiasag and hanging people
4 IN this country. The Constitution OF the United
4 States says: Treason against the United States
shall consist only in levyiGg against thenl oil
i comfort
II ! TIL. .3s
1 and giving them comfort, as the Hartford conven.
Il ton did in 1914.
The United States not being at war, treason now
i can consist only in levying war upon the United
states, and the Constitution says there must be
some overt act proved by two Witnesses And
what is eyyilg war is thus defined by the Supreme
4 Court IN the United States vs.. Aaron Burr: To
levy war is to raise create, make carry on war.
| War can be levied only by the employment Of
actual foree-troops must be embodied men must
pc openly raised, etc. Aud the purpose must be
| to make war upon the United States. Thus "to
march IN arms with force marghaled and arrayed,
committing acts Of violence and devastation, in
order to compel the resignation of public officer,
or TO render ineffective an act of Congress- is high
treason Z says Chief Justice Marshall.
That was the nature of the offense which Theo-
dure Parker Wendell Philips and their associates
were charged with when they melted the mob in
faneuil Hall to go TO the court house and rescue
Barrs, the fugitive slave, in which unlawful enter
| prise Baehetder, one Of the marshaFs deputies
only following this example OF Massachusetts in The
attack upon the forts. if She has really used mill
tary force to take them. That is treason in the
men who committed and melted the act, unless
south Carolina has right to seeede from the
Union. But it IS not treason in the State, for
state cannot commit treason. 1t is only treason in
the individuals who commit the overt act And if
s pc treason or misdemeanor, where is the author
ltY OF the PRESIDENT to seize or hang ANYBODY as
the Republicans are insisting he onght to do and
charge him with being traitor for not doing it !?
The Constitution is very plain on this point. 1t
reads thus:
The trial Of all crimes shall be by iury, ana
such trial shall be held in the State where the said
crime shall have been comniitted.n
Q person shall be held to answer for crime
nnless on a presentiment or Indictment of grand
jury, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property
without due process of law.n
And 8 the accused shall enjoy the right to
public trial By an impartial jury Of the State where
the crime has been committed.n These are the
limitations OF the despotism which certain people
SO ineonsderately claim nowadays for the Presi.
dent.
any citizen or body of men in South Carolina
nave levied war against The United States, they
cannot be arraigned or tried for it anywhere but in
South Carolina. There must first be an Indictment
found by grand jury in South Carolina. There
must be District Attorney to prepare and attest
the Indictment There must be a court to receive
u and afralgn the prisoner. and jury to try him.
This last was the protection which Parker and
Ehilips and their associates found when they were
INDICTED for what they called free speech,,' in
connection with the murder OF Bachelor and flo
obstruction of the laws of the United States for
the rendition Of fugitive slaves. The President
could not seize them, nor could they be tried any
where In Massachusetts; and though there were
all the officers of the law here and grand Jury in
dIeted them. they escaped trial and got off upon
very small technicality, which was, that the COM
missioner who had issued his warrant of arrest had
signed it only commissioner, without saying what
commissioner; and the court held that the indict-
1T1nt Ky a.
fciency, because it could not 20 beyond the de- |
scHption in the warrant.
Just SO President Buchanan has no power to |
seize or arraign or try ANYBODY in Washington ar |
anywhere else. If there have been acts Of treason
they have been committed only in South Carolina.
The parties charged must be tried in that State by
jury Of the State. There is no United States Mar
shall to arrest them, no District Attorney TO ndict
them, no Grand Jury TO find bill, no Court to ar
faign and no jury to try them. How then are the
steps to be taken which the Constitution demands
n every case of alleged crime? And if there were
III the officers of the court and uries everybody
SHOWS that q court in South Carolina would hold
nat the right OF secession absolved the party &C.
FUSED from his liability to the laws of the United
states and no jury would convict.
1t would be the same in Massachusetts, it, under
he personal liberty bill, fugitive from labor should
pc taken before jury to be tried. No Massachu-
'etts jury could be found to agree that he was a
fugitive slave. Thus it is obvious that Massachu-
etts and South Carolina stand in the same category
main on her statute book, and so long as her peo-
lie resist and refuse to execute the laws of the Uni
ed States within her borders
But, it Is said, suppose the Judges and all the
United States officers have resigned in South Caro-
ina, why don't President Buchanan supply the va
,ancics But what them He could lind no men
n South Carolina to accept the Offices and the law
equies they shall be appointed in the District
Even if he sent Northern men there thew wouId not
De allowed to act and if they were resisted then it
,omes PACK just where we startedfrom those who
'esisted must be indicted and tried by Court and
ury in the State.
Il men Of sense wonld look at the facts and law,
Ind read the Constitution they would see the prao
zeal difficulties in the way OF the summary process
existing difficulties. He can only move the con
stitutionai machinery OF government in executing
me laws. III the machinery is all broken I'D in a /
State, he cannot invade State, or send an army
.here to enforce martial law, unless the Governor
or Legislature call upon him 10 suppress insnrfec
lion or domestic violence. He can send troops to
he forts. and if the Commissioners Of South Caro-.
ina require him to order troops to one or another
ort, they assume what does not belong TO them.
The President, as COMMUNICATIVE chief is to nudge
or himself of the expedency; and on this point
1e should insist and yield to no threats from South
Carolina, OF anybody, ii they are made. Ii L
his question OF expectancy as to reinforcing the
ofts at Charestonwhich the President has grayely
considered.
Tut bloodshed, SO much the better. OF what avail
would United States trOopshaye been there if sent,
Is they must have been when their presence would
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