Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1861-02-16

CRUDITIEs OF EHE CONsTITUTIoN-THE
DIFFICULTIES THAT SURROUND US.

are demanding Of the President, that he shall
seize the commissioners from South Carolina, anC
try thom for treason If you ask them what il
treason, they can't TELL but they insist that th
President ought to hang somebody, because Par
ton, in what he calls his Life of Andrew Jack
son." Compiled too much from street talk snC
newspaper slanders,) sets it down that Genera
jackson proposed to hang Mr.. Calhoun, for nulli
fcation, which is false. No citizen can be punish
ed or deprived of life or liberty, in this countr,
without the process Of law.
Massachusetts, in 1914, sent two ambassador
of the Hartford convention to Washington, to- de
mand of President Madison, the separation o
New England from the Union, in carrying on tn
war. William Sullivan and Harrison Gray Oti
were the coinmissioners.k Mr. Madison did no
PROPOSE to hang th6h. But, as Mr.. John Quinc,
Adams says, Of the peace of Client, the news 0
which came while the commissioners were a
Washington, "the linterf Position of o kind Provi
dence averted the most deplorable of catastro
phies'-"the establishment of Northern confed
eracy."
South Carolina now follows the example Of Mae
sOchusetts byisending her commissioners to Pres
ed by Massachusetts, in particular, because h,
won't hang them for treason. without judge o
jury!
Now let US enquire what treason is, and wha
the Constitution says about seizing and hanging
people in this country.
The Constitution of the United States says:
Treason against the United States shall con.
sist, only, in legyng war against them, or in ad
herring to their enemies, giving them aid and com
fort"
The last applies only to hiding foreign enemy
and giving them comfort, as the Hartford conven-
tion did in 1914.
The Uuited States not being OF war, treason now
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 levying war is thus defined by the Su-
preme Court Of the United States vs. Aaron Burr
TO levy war is to raise, create, make or carry on
war. War can be levied only by the employment
of actual force-troops must be embodied, men
must be openly raised, &c." And the purpose
must be to make war on the United States Thus,
go march in arms, with a force marshaled and
arrayei, committing acts of violence and devasta.
officer, to render ineffective act Of Congress, is
high treason" says Chief Justice Marshall
That was tho nature of the ofence which TEeo
dore Parker Wendell Phillips, and their associ
ates were charged with, " hen they melted the
mob, n Faneu Hall, to 60 to the court house and
rescue Burns the fugitive slave, in which unlnw-
ful enterprise Batchelder, one OF the marshals
deputies was murdered.
And here, again. South Carolina is only follow.
ing this example of Massachusetts, in the attack
of the forts, if she had really used military force
TO take them.
That is treason in the men who committed and
melted the act, unless South Carolina has right
to secede from the Union. But il is not treason
in the State, for State cannot commit treason.
L. is only treason in the individuals who commit
the overt act.
And il it be treason or misdemeanor, where is
the authority of the President to seize or hang
ybody, as the republicans are insisting be ought
to do, and charge him with being traitor for not
doingi
The Constitution is very plain on this point. 1t
reads thus:
"Tho trial of all crimes shall be by jury, and
said crimes shall have beon committed"
"No person shall be held to answer for crime,
unless oil preseptment or indictment OF q grand
jury nor be deprived of life, liberty, property
without due process of law"
"And the accused shall enjoy the right to a
public trial. by an impartial jury of the State,
where the crime has been committed"
These are the limitations of that despotism
which certain people so inconsiderately claim W
a-days for the President.
If any citizen or body of men In South Carolina
have levied war against the United States, they
cannot be arraigned or tried for it anywhere but
in South Carolina.
There must be first an indictment found by
grand jury in South Carolina. There must be
district attorney to prepare and attest the indict
ment. There must be a court to receive it and ar
raigu the prisoner and a jury to try him.
This Iast was the protection which Parker and
Phillips and their associates found when they were
indicted for what they called "free speech" in coz
nection with the murder of Batchelder, and the
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 anywhere but in Massachusetts,
and though there we're all the'of6cers of the laW
here and grand jury indicted them, they
escaped trial and got of upon very small tech
which was that the commissioner who
issued his warrant of arrest had signed it only
without saying what commissioner;
and the court held that the Indictment, however
drawn could not supply this deficiency, because it
could not GO beyond the description in the war
rant.
just so President Buchanan has no power 10
seize, or arraign, or try anybody in Washington or
anywhere else If there have been acts Of trea
son, they have been committed only in South Caro-