Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/356

 ggo Casas ruled and adjudged in the r79_;. all of treafon, and much lefs is it necelfary to his convielion, vvsl that he lhould have been prefent at the burning of General M- ·u5.7:’r houfe, which was the confummation of their plot, or that the burning {hould be proved by two witnclfes. But he is, likewife, dili;overed, by one of the witne{l'es at leall, within a few rods of the General’s, at the moment of the eonflagration; and he is {een marching in the cavalcade, which efcorted the - dead body of their leader, in melancholy triumph, from the {cme of aétion to Barrio ’s houfe. It is not neceiihry to conli- der themeeting at Brndgdds field as an independent treafon, though the avowed intention was' to attack the garrifon at Pim- b.ug..», and to expel certain public omcers from the town; but the conduit of the prifoner on that occalion, concurring in eve- ry violent propoiition that was made; and his refraétory and ·ibditious deportmcnt on the day prefcribed for ligning the dc- claration of fubmiflion to the laws; are corroboratwe demon- ltrations of that ma/a rnmr, that dark and dreary turbulence of iop], which is regardlefs of every lbcial, moral, and religious ` o ligation.*‘ The Counfel for the prifoner (E. Tihgbman 8: Thome:) pre- mifed, that they did not conceive it to be their duty to {hew, that the prifoner was guiltlefs of any defcription of crime againll: the (Lifted Siam, or the State of Pezrrwlvarziag but they con- tended, that he had not committed the crime of High T reafon; and oughntherefore, to be acquitted upon the prefent indiétment. The adjudications in England upon the various defcriprions of treafon, have been worked, incautioully, into a fyllem, by the · ‘ defltruétion of which, at this day, the government itfelf would be feriouily atiicétedz but even there, the belt judges and the ablcil; commentators, while they aequiefce in the decilions that have already taken place, furnifh a {hong caution againil: the too cafy admilhcn of future cafes, which may feem to have a parity of reafon. Conltruftive, or interpretative treafons, mull. be the dread and fcourge of any nation that allows them. r Hal. P.C. 1 32. 259. 4B!. Cem. 8;. T akc, then, the diitinélion of treafon by levying war, as laid down by the Attorney of the Diltrift, and i: is a conllrudtive, or interpretative, weapon, which is cal- culatcd to annul all diltinftions heretofore wifely ellcabliihed in the grades and punifhments of crimes; and by whofe magic power '* p'I’Ti·.R§3N, jizstire. Belore the defence is opened, I wilh to direc: the attention ol` the prifone.'s ct¤un{i·l to two conliderazions z iii- V»7li•:thcr the conliuiracy to levy war at C`uuc.be'.r Ewrr, was not, in legal conttzmplaton, an actual levyingof war? ad. ’Vhethcr the yrm¢·erliu;_s at General .M·vii'ft·’: houfe were not a continuation of the an- t. wlisrh or·gina·ed at Cnutbetr Fora? For, feveral witne'lcs have pun el that the pril`nn:·r was at Coucbelr Fort, and one pulltivc wit- i..e: ha: ya cvel, that lv: was at Gen. 1‘&:.·illc’.: houle.

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