Page:Review of the Proclamation of President Jackson.djvu/80

 aliens stand upon the same footing. The power to punish Treason is referred to merely to show, that the government possessing this power must be Sovereign, because "Treason is an offence against Sovereignty." Now with all due respect for the legal learning of the author of this State paper, I will take the liberty of suggesting to him, that in this country at least Treason is no more an offence against Sovereignty, than any other crime that may be committed within our dominions; and certainly not more than sedition, mutiny, or any other of that great class of offences, which strike at the existence of subordination by manifesting a contempt for the authority of government. All crimes which threaten to disturb the peace and good order of society (as they all do) are offences against the government of that society, and against the dignity of the Sovereign by which such government has been ordained, for the special purpose of preserving this peace and good order. To say then, that Treason is an offence against sovereignty, is only to affirm that Treason is a crime. But when this author adds, that "sovereignty must reside with the power to punish Treason," or any other crime, he says what no constitutional lawyer can admit; because if it was true, it would prove that every government in the world is a Sovereign, since one of the great objects in all government, is to punish crimes, and Treason is usually put at the head of these, for in the eyes of the governments which classify offences, the greatest is that which manifests contempt of themselves.

Suppose it was admitted however, that Treason is an offence against sovereignty, and that sovereignty must reside with the power to punish it, the learned author of this Proclamation cannot surely mean to assert, that the hangman who has the power to execute a traitor, or the judge who pronounces the sentence of death, and therein gives to the hangman his authority to execute it or even the Legislature who passed the law inflicting this punishment, and directing the Judge to apply it, are all or any of them Sovereigns. He must admit that they are all, each in his appropriate sphere, but the agents and delegates of that high power, which by its constitution, has said to its legislative servants, Do you declare the punishment of Treason, to its Judicial servants, do you declare upon whom this punishment must