The Cadiz Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1854-1864, 1861-01-30
on the COnsiitutiOn---The
DifiicuIties that surround Us.

Crudities on the COnsIitutiOn---The
Dffficuities that surround Us.
The subjoined article from the Boston Post, is
interesting for the historical facts it recalls; and
the fOrcible manner in which it sets forth the
duties and powers of the President, under the
constitution is applicable to the present threat
ening condition Of the country;
Certain people Of the North will insist that
the United States government is a military des-
fpoIism, and that President Buchanan has all the
powers Of tbs Shah Of Persia to sieze and i'm
prison and hang men at his pleasure. Thus the
republican presses are demanding OF the PreSi-
dent that he shall seize the commissioners from
South Carolina, and try them for treason. II
| you ask them what is treason, they can't tell,
but they insist that the president ought to hang
somebody, because Parton, 10 what he calls
his Life Of Andrew Jackson Compiled too
much from street talk and newspaper slander)
sets it down that Gen. Jackson proposed to
hang Mr.. Calhoun Tor Modification, which IS
/ false. No citizen can be punished or deprived
of life or liberty in this country without due pro-
cess of law. r 81 E
| Massachusetts, contrived the Hartford con-
vention in the war of18l4, to set up northern
considerations aud South Carolina has got up
sece ssion convention to precipitate the slave
holding States into southern confederation.
] Massachusetts, in 1914, sent two ambassadors
ofthe Hartford convention to Washington to de-
mand Of President Madison the separation Of
| New England from the Union in carrying on
war. William Sullivan and Harrison Gray
! Otis were the commissioners Mr. Madison
did not propose to hang them. But, as Mr..
/ John Quincy Adams says of the peace of Ghent,
oh he
ers were at Washington, the interposition of a
kind Providence avsrted the most deplorable OF
catastrophes'-'the establishment offs northern
contederacy.' ss .sa
South Carolina now follows the example Of
Massachusetts by sending her commissioners
to President Buchanan, and President Buchan-
an is abused by Massachusetts, in particular be-
cause he won't hang them for treason without
| Judge or jury
Now let us inquire what treason is, and what
the constitution says about seizing and hanging
people in this country The constitution OF the
U. States says treason shall consist only in lew
wing war against them, or in adherng to their
enemies, given them aid and comfort
This last applies only to aiding foreign enc
my and giving them comfort as the Hartford
convention did in 1914.
| The United States not being at 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 Supreme Court in the United States vs.,
Aaron Burr: 10 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 raised,' &c And
| the purpose must be to make war on the United
States Thus to march in arms with force
marshaled and arrayed, committing acts OF ylo-
lence and devastation, in order to compel the
resignation of a public officer, or to render inet-
fectiye an act Of congress- is high treason says
Chief Justice Marshall.
| That was the nature of the olfense which
Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, and their
associates were charged with when they melted
the mob in Faneuil Hall to 90 to the court house
and rescue Burns, the fugitive slave, in which
unlawful enterprise Batchelder, one of the Mar
shas deputies, was murdered. And here
again South Carolina is only following the ex-
ample of Massachusetts in the attack upon the
forts, if she has really used military force to take
them. That is treason in the men who com
mitted and melted the act, unless South Gallo
| lima has a right to secede from the Union. Bun
| it is not treason in the State, for a State can
not commit treason. 1t is only treason in the
individuals who commit overt act. And ifit
be treason or miSdemeanor, where is the au
thorty of the President to seize or hang any
body, as the republicans are insisting he ought
to do, and charge him with beinga traitor ior
not doing it! The constitution is very plain on
this point. 1t reads thus.
'The trial of all crimes shall be by jury, and
such trial snail be held in the State where the
! said crime shall have been committed
NO person shall be held to answer for a crime
unless on q presentment or indictment Of
grand jury, nor be deprived of life, liberty or
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 Limitation of that depoStism which Ger
tain people so inconsderately claim nowadays
for the President,
If any citizen or body ofmen in South Caro-
lima have levied war against the United States
they cannot be arraigned or tried for it any
where but in South Carolina. There must
first be an indictment found by agrand jury
Il in South Carolina There must be District
Attorney to prepare and attest the indictment.
| There must be a court to receive and arraign
the prisoner ahd jury to try him.
! This last was the protection which Parker
and Phillips and their associates found when
they were indicted for what they called free
speech, in connection with the murder of Bach
| elder, and the obstruction of the laws of the
United States for the rendition OF fugitive slaves.
The President could not seize thon, nor
could they be tried anywhere but in Massachu
setts; and though there were all the officers of
law here and grand jury indicted them, they
escaped trial and got off upon very small
technicalty, which was, that the commissioner
who issued his warrant of arrest had signed 1T
only commissioner, without saying what COM
missioner; and the court held that the indict
ment, however drawn, could not supply this de-
ficiency, because it could not go beyond the
description in the warrant
| Just so President Buchanan has no power to
seize, or arraign or try anybody in Washington
or anywhere else. II 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 Marshal to arrest
them, no District Attorney to indict them, no
grand jury to find bill. no court to arraign and
no jury to try them. How then are the steps
to be taken which the constitution demands in
every case alleged crime? And these were
all the officers the court and juries everybody
knows that court in South Carolina would hold
that the right ofsecession absolged the party &C.
cused from his liability to the laws Of the
United States, and no jury would convict.
1t would be the same in Massachusetts if un-
der the personal lib,rty bill, fugitive from la
Dor should betaken before Jury to be tried.-
No Massachusetts jury could be found to agree
| that he was fugitive slave, Thus it is obvious