in times of public excitement, were understood by the se who laid the foundations of this government too well to permit them to disregard the dangers which they sought to avert, by depriving Congress, as well as the several States, of all power to enact such cruel statutes.

If bills of attainder had been passed only for the punishment of treason, in the sense of making war upon the government, or aiding the enemy, they would have been less odious and less dangerous; but the regiment of crimes which servile Parliaments had enrolled under the title of " treason," had become so formidable, and the brutality of the civil contests in England had been so shocking, that it was thought unsafe to trust any government with the arbitrary and irresponsible power of condemning by statute large classes of their opponents to death and destruction for that which only want of success had made a crime.

BILLS OF ATTAINDER, HOW RECOGNIZED.

The consequences of attainder to the estate of the party convicted will be more fully stated hereafter; but it is essential to observe that there are certain characteristics which distinguish bills of attainder from all other penal statutes.

1. They always inflict the penalty of death upon the offender, or of outlawry, which is equivalent to death. 2. They are always ex post facto laws, being passed after the crime was committed which they are to punish.

3. They never allow the guilt or innocence of the persons attainted to be ascertained by trial; but the guilt is attributed to them by act of Parliament.

4. They always inflicted certain penalties, among

which were corruption of blood and forfeiture of estate. The essence of attainder was in corruption of blood, and without the corruption of blood no person was by the English law attainted.

Unless a law of Congress shall contain these four characteristics penalty of death, or outlawry, corruption of blood, and the legislative, not judicial condemnation - embodied in a law passed after the commission of the crime it seeks to punish, it is not a bill of attainder under the sense of the constitution.

INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER V.

UNDER the English law, prior to the Revolution, there had been three modes of punishing the crime of Treason. First, by bills of attainder. Second, by judicial attainder. Third, by statutes of the realm against treason, actual and constructive. Bills of attainder were acts of Parliament, which declared one or more persons, whether living or dead, or absent beyond scas, guilty of the crime of actual or constructive treason. Judicial attainder was effected in the courts of law by process issued against persons accused of treason, whether living or dead, or absent beyond seas. The effect of attainder by judicial process was substantially the same as that of attainder by act of Parliament, in effecting corruption of blood, and working forfeiture of estates during the life of the offender, and after he was dead.

Persons accused of treason were punishable under statutes, by death and total forfeiture of estates; but no one could be convicted, sentenced, and punished for treason, under statutes, "unless during his life," that is to say, while alive, nor unless he had received a trial in court, conducted according to the usual forms of procedure.

By our Constitution, all power is taken from the General Government, and from all the States, to punish treason by passing any bill of attainder, as is shown in Chapter IV.

Congress has power to authorize courts to punish treason by judicial attainder; but the Constitution has limited the time during which such process may be applied, and its effect, in these words:

"No attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, nor forfeiture of estate, except during the life of the offender."

These provisions apply only to judicial attainder, and not to punishments of treason under ordinary statutes of Congress, which provide for no attainder. The constitutional power of Congress to authorize proceedings for judicial attainder of persons who have committed treason, has not been, thus far, carried into effect.

No process of attainder of treason is now known in our municipal law.

To guard against abuse, under which our forefathers in England suffered, by reason of unjust and arbitrary definitions of treason, the Constitution prescribes certain rules for the definition, proof, and punishment of offences under statute law, which Congress may pass for the punishment of that crime. It

defines treason to be "a levying of war against the United States," thus cutting off all the other descriptions of treason known to the English law. It requires, in proof of treason, that there shall be two witnesses to each overt act with which the accused is charged. A trial by jury in open court, and in the presence of witnesses, is secured, but when one is convicted he is liable to such punishment as may have been prescribed by the statute, and there is no limit in the Constitution to the penalty which Congress may provide.

Thus the traitor may be subjected to punishment by death, and to the forfeiture of all his estate, or to fine to an unlimited amount. The criminal, however, may not be, and by existing laws is not, attainted, or subject to any of the effects of attainder, by these proceedings. The limitations of the Constitution are inapplicable to statutes which do not provide for attainder, but only for penalties of death and confiscation.

CHAPTER V.

RIGHT OF CONGRESS TO DECLARE BY STATUTE THE PUNISHMENT OF TREASON, AND ITS CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITATIONS.

TREASON.

THE highest crime known to the law is treason. It is "the sum of all villanies;" its agents have been branded with infamy in all countries where fidelity and justice have respect. The name of one who betrays his friend becomes a byword and a reproach. How much deeper are the guilt and infamy of the criminal who betrays his country! No convict in our State prisons can have fallen so low as willingly to associate with a TRAITOR. There is no abyss of crime so dark, so horrible, as that to which the traitor has descended. He has left forever behind him conscience, honor, and hope.

ANCIENT ENGLISH DOCTRINE OF CONSTRUCTIVE TREASON.

Treason, as defined in the law of England, at the date of the constitution, embraced many misdemeanors which are not now held to be crimes. Offences of a political character, not accompanied with any intention to subvert the government; mere words of disrespect to the ruling sovereign; assaults upon the king's officers at certain times and places; striking one of the judges. in. court; and many other acts which did not partake of the nature of treason, were, in ancient times, declared treason by Parliament, or so construed by judges, as to constitute that crime. Indeed, there was nothing to