The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-02-17

| swers No, and its voice is potential. 1t would
certainly be difficult to supply any more clear
and sufficient terms to impugn the corruption
| of blood altogether, and the forfeiture of
estate beyond the lifetime of the attainted
party, than those emgloyed in the clause cited
The style of the sentence is terse and: COM
pact-there are words enough in it to express
with clearness the sense which impute to it,
and nothing more. 1t is divided by punctua-
ton into three ports, each of which contains
a proposition. The first part reads, Congress
shall have power to declare the punishment OF
treason' That is complete sense. The Sc
cond part reads, .sbut no attainder of treason
shall work corruption of blood" That is also
a complete sense, The third and last MEM
Der of the sentence, separated from the prece-
! ding by a mark of punctuation, reads, COR
forfeiture except during the life Of the person
attainted," }" which last words, in addition to
the former provision, that corruption of blood.
shall not be worked to defeat the inheritance
sf the estate of the attainted by his legal
heirs, provides that no delay of the lnherl-
tance after the decease of the attainted per
son shall occur by reason of the attainder. be-
cause the life OF the attainted is the limit of
the forfeiture. It appears then clearly from
these restrictions that the power given to Con-
gress to declare tie punishment of treason,
although it authorizes legislation against the
life of the guilty party, and Tor the forfeiture
authority to Congress to affect that estate at
| ter his death.
1t has been said in this discussion that the
forfeiture of a traitors estate during his life
merely would be Z vain thing, inasmuch as
the forfeiture can only be enforced by the
same judgment of the court which consigns
him to death, and that the interim betweel
the sentence and the execution may be only
day. cannot perceive any cogency in this
/ II tf-fi
doom him to death, and Congress may punish
him by imprisonment for life, and cOnfscation
of his estate For life, or by other such penalty,
| operating With constitutional limits, shall
be deemed proper OF purse the trainers.
could not know, and perhaps did not suppose,
that Congress would impose the penalty OF
death
The first general act for the punishment of
crimes was passed bv Congress in 1890, in
which they prescribed for treason the penalty
/ of death without forfeiture and I believe
/ that the law so remained until the coufsca-
ton act of 1862. Some time after the adop-
ton by the Government of the comparatiyely ly
humane policy of limi.ing forfeitures to life
and eschewing corruption of blood, the En-
glish Parliament, in the reign of William ",
! Influenced by our example, adopted the Amer
ican policy, and cast the oppressive doctrines
of corruption of blood and forfeiture of estate
| beyond the life of the convict out of the le-
gislation of Great Britain. We're the En-
/ glish statesmen also deceived as to the intent
and meaning of our Constitution
It cannot be denied that the understanding
4 of able and learned men, jurists and commen-
tators, who lived and acted at the time of the
making of our Constitution, and shortly after,
! is of much weight whenever questions arise
upon the construction of the Constitution. It
is true that the gentleman from Maryland
pronounces the views of these men on the
subject before us "palpably wrong" but.
with great respect for his judgment in ordi
| nary matters, believe the opinion which we
hold, as they did is palpably right. My col
/ league has exhibited The opinion of Judge
Story; and all legal minds in this country
VIII estimate alike the value of that opinion
The gentleman from Indiana Mr. ORTH] has
produced several high authorities to the same
! effect, although h ignores their teaching. 1
| will oblige that gentleman by furnishing him
with what he informs us he sought -vigilantly,
/ but could not fiud, some wise voice, speaking
| from the time -honored pages Of the Federalist,
or this subject Let the gentleman turn to
the l73d page of this volume witch 1 hold
| in my hand, and he will find, from the pen of
no less distinguished. a commentator than
James Madison, the following paragraph:
"As treason may be committed against the
United States, the auth ority of the United
new tangled and artificial treasons have teen
the great engines by which violent factions
the natural offsprings of free Governments,
| have usually wreaked their alternate maligni-
| ty on each other. the Convention have, with
great judgment, opposed barrier to this Pc
ruliar danger By inserting constitutional de-
| 6nition of the crime. fixing the proof necessa-
ry for conviction of it. and restraining the
Congress even in furnishing 1t, from extend
| tba 0P how
son of its author"
That gentleman having assured us that COM
men ia ors have all taken an absurd view of
the subject, undertakes to solve the problem
+ of construction in -ra.iaIaL1ua5- To
i bring about that solution and demonstrate its
conclusiyensss the gentleman avails himself
of new and molern perspicucity, wli.h
Story, Madison, Rawle. and other like men
did not possess at the time of writing, and
whose opinions, therefore, are entitled to less
] weight on that account The new perspicui-.
ty arises from great advances recently made
in the science of philology by which the
learned have been enabled to illuminate the
obscurity which to many surrounds the rooty
origip of words. Of course, as we are pro-.
] gressive people, we must learn to reinterpret
our Constitution and laws according to the
HeR pathological lighs BY applying this i'm
! proved advantage to the construction OF tho
involved clause the gentleman comes out ell
right. He philologizes away the little word
'texcept," and then he has corruption of blood
i and forfeiture of estate unlimited, the result
of the new and improved process, applied to
I the clause, being this conclusion, that what
the Constitution requires is the judicial pro-
eeedings against the guilty party shall be had
in his hfetime-thu forbidding the injustice
of instituting an action against dead man,
upon whom no better service of process could
be made than by posting the writ or warrant
on his coffin or tombstone. / am on the
whole constrained to believe that with such
results from what is claimed to be improved