New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-02-02
ANCIENT AND MODERN TREASON.

This subject is too important to be dsmssed
from public attention with the notice which we
last week made Of Aaron Burr. There IS
remarkable parallel between lis treason and that
we now see 80 open and defiant, showing Itself
in places as exalted as any occupied by him
or bis CONDUCTORS. First! as to the motive. This
being fairly identified and shown to be the COM
mon impulse of both conspiracies, all subsequent
acts seem to follow by a sort Of voluntary Sc
0uepce Burr had been elected Nice-President
but the phraseology Of the Constitution was so
deficient in precision, as on its face to make
him equally eligible for the Presidency, though
Jefferson had been voted for as President To
the establishment of Congress and the country,
Burr sought to take advantage of this extraor-
binary defect by intriguing to have himself de-
clared President in place Of Jefferson But ne
failed in consummating this enormous fraud, and
sunk so low in public estimation, that at the
close Of his term he disappeared from the pollti-
| cal horizon This intrigue for power furnishes
| the KEY to Bis whole character. 1t showed his
| ambition TO be boundess, and that acts of base
ness at which honest men would revolt were
| chosen agencies with him for the attainment OF
tue power ne COtcttu' IVi''" !" '"'' "''0'"f'
and ANONYMOUSLY Ostracised as dangerous
character, his ambition assumed new and
equally destructive direction. AS he could no
| longer hope to grasp the Presidency OF his own
country BY lawful means, he conceived the pro-
| iect of seizing it. even at the price OF assaSsi'
mating the incumbent, and in default of that, OF
Remembering the Republic, with cotempOraneOus
| II. Io,.a ,ap,ft uitb tylI oh
his own was at peace. His lust for power must
be cratifed somewhere-if not peacefully at home,
then BY warfare within or beyond it.
The spectacle of treason which now fills. the
public eye is strkingly akin to that conceived by
Burr. The motive then is the motive now. Our
! modern traitors have been driven from power by
the same popular verdict which banished him.
Like him, also, they still clutch at it with the
same fierce desperation, their programme being
| identical with his-seizure of the capital, assas-
sination Of the new President if necessary, dis
memberment of the Republic, and conquest OF
Spanish colony. The catchword to Burr's letters
| in cipher was Cuba" IL it not the catch
! word of the new spawn of traitors now ? Burr,
though out Of Office contrived to seduce to his
/
United States Senators joined him. Both were
arrested for treason and the only one at that time
in Office was promptly expelled from the Senate.
Bat the modern treason differs from his in the
fact that most of the Cabinet officers have been
its authors and engineers. Burr made but tardy
beadway. but these holding the reins OF power,
have used them. with perurcd industry, to give
il vast momentum. Unlike Burr, however, while
laborng in secret, their affiliated consprators
made no concealment of the common design, but
proclaimed through the press and from tho stump
the rebellion that was Matching. The country
heard it with contemptuous incredibly. II knew
that South Carolina had always been tory
community; that her toryism protracted the
Revolutionary contest nearly two years; that she
had been saved to the Union by Northern troops
first beating her tories and alterward beating the
British but it secuted the idea Of that old treas
enable leaven being yet sufficiently strong TO
cause general eferyescence Hence the nus.
! bandman slept while the enemy was sowing
tares. Burr had no Treasury within his reach,
but the modern traitors had one in possession. As
treason the blacklist of all crimes H. H. a"t hesi'
tate at the commission Of any Of lighter shade, go
these have robbed every depository Of the public
money, as well to enrich themselves as TO de-
stroy the Government. Burr sought few par
tisans in Congress, but these have found entire
delegations TO sympathizc in their nfamy He
aimed 10 rob 'ngle fort of its arms but they
have plundered nearly twenty arsenals While
the capture Of but one military post was his OBJ
| ject, they have seized and garrisoned a Dozen
! and on the heels of such reasonable acts, make
nsolent demands that the stolen property be coded
absolutely, aud that the Notifications which re.
main shall be pusanimousy given up TO them as
cOnqucrors. Insolenoe and magnitude are the
two features which most distinguish this treason
| from that Of Burr, unless actual danger to the
| Union be admitted as a third.
| But the parallel holds even further. A military
commander at New Orleans broke up the pro-
gromme of Burr before he had time TO consum.
mate it. Another commander at Charleston, by
| movement almost as decisive, has so deranged the
programme of the modern traitors as TO render
an entire change of their plans necessary. AS
| Burr found the army incorruptble, so have they.
| As Burr came before jury to answer for his
| crime, so must these. II 10 true that the COM
position of the Supreme Court is now unfortu-
nately debased, and its perceptions Obscured by
sectional affiliations, yet the day will come when
the laws of the country will be indicated.
With the Supreme Court and the Executive, the
parallel unfortunately fails. In Burr's time the
| III