The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-21

|
siderately throwing out the charge of
treason against some of their fellow
citizens. Chief Justice Story wrote:
| Treason is generally deemed the highest
| crime which can be committed in civil
| society," since it's aim is an overthrow of
| the government, and a public resistance of
| its powers by force Its tendency is to
create universal danger and alarm: and
| on this account, it is peculiarly odious.
| and often visited with the deepest public
resentment. Even charge of this ma
ture. made against an individual, is
deemed so opprobrious that. whether just
| or unjust, it subjects him to suspicion
and hatred; and, in times of high poiti-
| cal excitement, acts of a very subordi-
| nate nature are often, by popular preju-
| dices, as well as by royal resentment
| magnified into this fatal enormity. 1t is
therefore. of very great Importance that
its true nature and limits should be exact
ly ascertained; and Montesquieu was so
sensible of it that he has not scrupled to
declare, that if the crime of treason be
indeterminate, that alone is sufficient to
make any government degenerate into
arbitrary power. The history of Eng
land itself is full of melancholy instruc-
ton on this subject BY the ancient COM
mon law it was left very much to dis
erection to determine what acts We're, and
what We're not, treason; and the judges
of those times, holding Office at the pleas
ure of the crown. became but too often
the instruments, in it's hands. of foul
injustice At the instance of tyrannical
princes, they had abundant opportunities
to create constructive treasons: that is,
by forced and arbitrary constructions to
raise offenses into the guilt and punish
ment of treason, which were not suspect
ed to be such. The grievance of these
constructive treasons was so enormous,
and so often weighed down the innocent
and the patriotic. that it was found
necessary, as early as the reign of Ed
ward the Third, for parliament to inter-
fere and arrest it, by declaring and de-
filming all the different branches of trea-
son. This statute has ever since remained
the pole star of English jurisprudence
upon this subject. And, although, upon
temporary emergencies and in arbitrary
reigns, since that period other treasons
have been created, the sober sense of the
nation has generally abrogated them, or
reduced their power within narrow limits.
Nor have republics been exempt from vio-
lence and tyranny of similar character.
1t has been justly remarked, that new
tangled and artificial treasons have been
the great engines, by which violent fac
tions, the natural offspring of free gov
ernments. have usually wreaked their
alternate malgnity on each other. 1t
was under the. influence of these admoni-
p,,1 h,,FA
experience that the convention (which
framed the constitution of the United
Statesl deemed it necessary to interpose
an impossible barrier against arbitrary
| constructions, either by the courts or by
congress, upon the crime of treason.
Reading these high authorities, We
see how it was the purpose of the
make treason odious indeed; more than
that, we see with what especial pains
these trainers of the constitution
sought to guarantee forever the utmost
freedom of speech. the completest lib
erty on the citizens part to be the
critic of those in power. Therein the
guards of republican form Of govern
ment.
Treason,-it is a heinous offense to
charge against any decent citizen.
During our civil war, the word could
not with truthfulness be applied even
to certain individuals who, living in
northern communities, did not overly
take up arms against the Union, al
though they openly expressed the hope
These men were called copperheads. 1t
was a venomous, Kissing epithet; those
upon whom it was justly fastened
squirmed under its singing utterance
Recently in some impulsive newspa-
| pers, but not in many, an effort has
been made to fix the epithet copper
| American citizens who refuse to admit
| that the conquest of the Philippine
| islands is right or the administrat ton s
policy praiseworthy. 1t were as just
| surely 1t were as courteous-to strike
these citizens with sword or to spit in
their faces as to seek to brand them
with treason or to try to fasten upon
them the loathsome political -epithet; it
were less abhorrent to denounce any
reputable American as a physical MUIR
derer or moral murderer or
a constructive murderer than to
attempt to nail to his name or to
his record the forms of mythical trea-
son which those who gave us this re-
public said shall never be. And, in
deed, We cannot help thinking. in the
light OF the facts, that those who have
banded these insulting epithets, in
mention of reputable fellow citizens,
have known not what they do.