Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/181

 CH. XXVIII.] forfeiture of estate. The history of other countries abundantly proves, that one of the strong incentives to prosecute offences, as treason, has been the chance of sharing in the plunder of the victims. Rapacity has been thus stimulated to exert itself in the service of the most corrupt tyranny; and tyranny has been thus furnished with new opportunities of indulging its malignity and revenge; of gratifying its envy of the rich, and good; and of increasing its means to reward favourites, and secure retainers for the worst deeds.

§ 1296. The power of punishing the crime of treason against the United States is exclusive in congress; and the trial of the offence belongs exclusively to the tribunals appointed by them. A state cannot take cognizance, or punish the offence; whatever it may do in relation to the offence of treason, committed exclusively against itself, if indeed any case can, under the constitution, exist, which is not at the same time treason against the United States.