Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1861-01-12
The National Crisis.
cRuDITIEs ON TIE CoNsTITUT1oN-TH
DIFFICULTIEs THAT SURROUND US.

L He supJoihou ditiOlc1 nun thS DOo'O"
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, as APP
plicable to the present threatening condi-
ton of the country:
Certain people at the North will insist
that the United States government is
military despotism, and that President
Buchanan has all the powers of the Shah
of Persia to seize and imprison, and hang
men at his pleasure Thus the Republi-
can presses are demanding of the Pres-
dent that he shall seize the commissioners
from South Carolina, and try them for
treason. If you ask them what is trea-
son, they cant tell, but they insist that
the President ought to hang somebody,
because Parton, in 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 for nulli-
fcation, which is false. No citizen can
be punished or deprived Of life or liberty
in this country without due process Of law.
Massachusetts contrived the Hartford
convention in the war of 1914 to set up q
northern confederation, and South Caro-
lima has got up secession convention to
precipitate the slaveholding States into a
southern confederation.
Massachusetts, in 1914, sent two am.
bassadors of the Hartford convention to
Washir gton to demand of President Mad
ison the separation of New England from
the Union, in carrying on the war. VIII
liam 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 Client, the news Of which came
while the commissioners were at Washing
ton, "the interposition of a kind Provi.
dence averted the most dcplorable of ca
tastrophcs' cs'--thc establishment of a North
ern confederacy.
South Carolina now follows the exam.
pie Of Massachusetts by sending her com.
missioners to President Buchanan, and
President Buchanan is abused by Massa
.. chusctts in particular because he won
hang them for treason without judge OIL
jury!
Now let us inquire what treason is, and
, what the Constitution says about seizine
: and hanging people in this country. The
Constitution of the United States says
"Treason against the United Statse shall
consist only in levying war against them
: or in adhering to their enomies, giving
them aid and comfort"
This last applies only to aiding a foreign
enemy and giving them comfort, as the
Hartford convention did in 1914.
= The United States not being at war
treason now can consist only in levyine
war upon the United States, and the Con
, stitution says there must be some over
| act, proved by two witnesses. And wha
is levying war is thus deGued by the Su
premo Court in the United States VS.
Aaron Burr: " To levy war is to raise
create, make or carry on war. War cal
, be levied only by the employment of actu
al force-troops must be embodied, mel
, must be openly raised," &c. And tn
purpose must be to make war on the Uni
ted States. Thus "to march in arms will
, force marshalled and arrayed, commit
ting acts OF vloleuee ana aovas,a,,ou, il
order TO compel the resignation of a publ
4 officer, or to render ineffective an act @
4 Congress, is high treason," says Chic
Justice Marshall
: That was the nature of the offenc
which Theodore Parker, Wendell Phil
: lips, and their associates were charge
+ with when they melted the mob in Far
u euil Hall to 60 to the court house an
rescue Burns, the fugitive slave, in whic
d unlawful enterprise Batchelder, one of tn
9 marshals deputies, was murdered. An
J here again South Carolina is only follow
, ing this example of Massachusetts in til
attack upon the forts, if she has reall
o used military force to take them. That
p treason in the men who committed an
% melted the act, unless South Carolina h'
u a right to secede from the Union Br
IL it is not treason in the State, for Stat
!. cannot commit treason. 1t is only trei
IL son in the individuals who commit IL
~ overt act. And if it be treason or misd
u meanor, where is the authority of ii
e. President to seize or hang anybody, as Il
Y Republicans are insisting he ought to d
y and charge him with being traitor f
IN not doing it? The constitution is vel
lc plain on this point, 1t reads thus;
t. "The trial of all crimes shall be