The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1861-07-30

aan l,eisgs can commit. says Lord Coke.
Pefuse al oas books. records aHd h.sto-
rses. ana you shall ind 3 principle n la@,
rsle Is reason and TRAD IN experience,
tl,st treason doih ever produce fatal and
Small Destruction q The offender, and never
a,tsueih Is ihe desired end two incidents
iaseparlblc tlercun,o And, therefore,
Ii, ail men abandon i as the most poison
ous bit Il DE devil II he'll, and follow the
precep, n tbe holy Scriptures fear God,
honor the king. and have no company with
the sedi,ioug. Il viii be remembered
Dist Ills language i used by a sloui-heart-
"a friend oi English Liberty, who composed
and carried through Parliament, IN the
reign of Charles J., one Of the great char
lers Of irccaom-the petition Of night.
He loved a well-regulaied liberty as ar
IDENTITY as he hated sedilion.
The common law punishment Of trca-
son. 50 terrible and apparently barbarous,
a punishment originating in the Middle
Aecs and continuing III substance upon the
English statute book to the present time,
marks the adherence with which this crime
was viewed. It's penalties may sleep, il Is
true at the viii Of the monarch, but they
exist, and can at any moment be applied.
TRAITORS SAYS Coke, citing scriptaral
authority, "are 10 be drawn to the place OF
execution so was Joab. They are TO be
hung; SO was Bielhana, as stated in the
book Of Esther They are 10 be disen-
boweled 80 was Judas. Their hearts
are to be pierced while living; 50 with
Absaom. They are to be beheadcd; SO
was Shcba, the son Of Bichri. The blood
Of their posterity is corrupted so that they
cannot inherit So it is written in the
one hundred and ninth Psalm, Let his
children be fatherless and his wife a Wild
ow; let them be yagabonds and beg and
in the next generation, let his name be
bloted out"
The penalties for this crime, ike those
of most other crimes are not, under the
modifying influences Of Christianity and
civilization, so aggravated as they we're
Yet the enormity Of the offence would
seem to have increased with the progress
Of society In rude and barbarous ages,
when nearly every man, if not warrior,
went armed, when the state was either an
oppressive, or at best unstable and lmpo-
tent institutions; when social relations were
few and simple when there was little ac-
cumulated property TO be lost; little or no
commerce to be destroyed, and when do
nestle life possessed none OF that sanctity
which now cleayes to the home and hearth
stone-an assault upon the public order
and peace was a matter Of comparatively
little importance. All society was SO inse-
cure that an invasion of il produced none
Of the terrible consequences which the
same would now do. Not only are our
communities more numerous, but they are
less prepared for defence against internal
treachery they embody vast amounts of
wealth, which breath Of sedition may
dissipate their relations Of man 10 man
are more complicated and more Vi al, and
a rupture Of them consequently more des-
tructiye; and to excite serious alarm
now for their tranquility is far more PERM
cious than open war upon them would
have been some centuries ago. Treason
produces Ten thousand times the ruin, the
unhappiness, the terror, in England or the
United States, that ii would in Egypt, or
Turkey, or even Russia. Of what mil
lions upon millions Of wealth have not the
Southern traitors oceasioned the loss but
who shall estimate the degree of their in
iquity, when the precious lives spent by
war and disease, when the breaking Of fra
ternal ties, and when the ill-feelings en-
gendered in once friendly communities,
shall be taken into the account? The vii
lain who demands your purse or fires your
house commits dreadful individual wrong,
but he is infinitely less to be dreaded than
the grander criminal who oyerturns all the
securities Of social order, and assails the
very life Of the state.
We cannot, nor is it desirable that we
should, visit this offence, the mischiefs of
which are SO greatly aggravated, with the
ferocity of punishment formerly in vogue.
We cannot in this age, revive the old bar
barous method Of capital executions. They
have passed away with their day But it
is none the less important to mark our
sense Of the awful nature Of the crime, and
Of our utter detestation Of the criminals
They should not be treated as mere polit-
zeal offenders, to be dismissed with gem
tie reprimand. They have made needless
and wanton war on the best of Govern
mcnts; they have arrested the prosperity
Of the most peaceful of societies they
have caused the sacrifice Of thousands Of
harmless and noble lives and justice to
the integrity Of our laws, to the instincts
of the human heart, TO the future well-be-
ing Of myriads Of people, demands some
signal exemplifcations Of our estimate Of
their malignity.