Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/358

 352 Casas ruled and adjudged in the qq;. from opprellion with which the Conftitution furnifhes the pri:. vww foner; and it cannot be fupplied by vague conjeélures, founded ` on the feeble recolleétion of a witnefs; not by idle declarations of the party himfelf, in a {late of intoxication; a flare that does not jullify the perpetration of a crime, but may fairly be {up- pgfed to deprive the criminal of a knowledge of the extent of ' confeilion. 2 Hawl.6o4. in mz'. Fg/I. C. L. 24o. 4 BI. C. 356. _x DaIL Rip. gg. 40. · _ . ‘ If this view o the law is corredt, it will be eafy to lhew, that its operation upon the faéls, will entitle the priforier to an acquittal. By the meeting at Br¤do¢·P.r field no acl of treafon was committed; nor was any plan for levying war contrived. The people alfembled there upon a general invitation, founded on the calamitous `llate of the country; and, though they prog Efed banifhing certain citizens {who were not public oflicers of . e United Siam) from Pitwurgb (which cannot furely be deem- ea treafon) they neither executed that proje£l, not committed any other outrage; but after fome menaces and an idle parade, difperfed to their refpcétive homes. The prifoner was certainly at Brad¤¢k’: field; but no treafon being committed there, has attendance is not a foundation for the prefent indiélment. It may be admitted, likewife, that at Bradoclir field, he made fome vaunting declarations of a traiterous intention; but a trai- terous intention there, is no proof of his having levied war againil the govemment at another time, and in another place. With refpeél to the criminal proceedings at Gen. N:uilIe’.r boufe.(wbicli I after all amount to the crime of arfon, and not of treafon) it is agreed that only one olitive wimefs Syoves the fa£l of the pri-, . foner's having been tgere; but even at witnefs {lates, that the Prifonet was alone, at the dillance of go or 40 rods; and it is not recollefted whether he had a gun. Then it only remains to conlidcr the efle£t of the prifoner’s prefence at _Cau¢Le’.r Fm; for, his being feen in a cavaleade on the road for Gen. Nevillir, - and his conduél: on the day prefcribed for iigning the fubmiilion to ernment, when he was notoriouily drunk, may prove him to Ebwa very bad man, but will not be fuilicient to maintain a charge of High Treafon. It does not, then, appear by the telli- tnony of two witnelies, that the meeting at Caucbér Far: was convened for the purpofe of accomplifhing a compulfory re eal of the excife laws, or a fupprellion of the exeife ollices. g`he meeting feems to have ori 'nated merely in a wilh to conlider what it was bell: to do in tile aélual {late of the country. On that point a committee was chofen, or rather was felf·created 3 and the members determined to fend a {lag to Gen.Ne1»iIIt. It does not appear with what view the flag was to be {ent; but it will not beprefumed, when the evidence is lilent, to be with a view to attaglt the Geueral’s houfe, to force a repeal of the. exit- Cl ¢:

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