measure to reduce the crime to the limits of the ancient statute, which, with some modifications, remains at the present day the law on the subject." 38 The most famous United States case on the subject of treason is that of United States vs. Burr.39 In this case it was decided that to levy war is to raise, create, make or carry on war, the term being used in the Constitution of the United States in the same sense that it was used in the English statute of 25 Edward III. When a body of men are assembled for the purpose of making war upon the government this amounts to levying war if they are in a position to thus wage war; but an assemblage of men, even with a treasonable design does not constitute levying war, when the assemblage is not in force, nor in a condition to attempt the design, nor attended with warlike appearance. When war is levied all persons who perform any services in aid therefore, however slight or however remote from the actual scene of violence are guilty of treason. Persuading men to enlist is treason only when such enlistment actually takes place. No person except a citizen of the United States can be guilty of treason against the United States.40 There are in the United States two different allegiences. A citizen of the United States owes allegience both to the United States and to the particular state of which he is a citizen, and may be guilty of treason against either the United States or the individual state." 41 No person can be convicted of the crime of treason in the United States except upon the testimony of two 38 Taswell-Langmead's English Constitutional History, p. 288, Note 2. 39 4 Cranch, 470. See also Ex parte Bollman, 4 Cranch, 75. 40 United States vs. Villato, 2 Dallas, 370; but see contra, Carlisle vs. United States, 16 Wallace, 147. 41 Houston vs. Moore, 5 Wheaton, 1. witnesses to the same overt act or upon confession in open court. This differs from the English law on this point, in, that while the English law also required two witnesses, they need not be to the same overt act. A further guarantee of personal liberty is contained in the provision that conviction for treason shall not work corruption of blood, nor forfeiture except for the life of the party attainted. SECTION 81. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. The first amendment to the Constitution provides that: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech; or of the press; or the right of the people, peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." By this amendment no State religion can be established in the United States and no preference given to one religion over another. The United States in one of its early treaties incorporated the statement that the United States was in no wise founded upon the Christian religion. Nevertheless, the United States is recognized as a Christian country, and various Christian ceremonies are held in connection with the carrying on of its government; e. g., the opening of each session of each House of Congress by prayer by a Christian Chaplain." The term "religion" has reference to one's views of his relations to his Creator, and to the obligations they impose of reverence for his being and character, "Treaty with Morocco, 1787. Pennsylvania. This is true of each State in the United States but not of the United States itself. and of obedience to his will. "The First amendment to the Constitution, in declaring that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or forbidding the free exercise thereof, was intended to allow every one under the jurisdiction of the United States to entertain such notion respecting his relation to his Maker and the duties they impose, as may be approved by his judgment and conscience, and to exhibit his sentiments in such form of worship as he may think proper, not injurious to the equal rights of others, and to prohibit legislation for the support of any religious tenets, or the modes of worship of any sect. It was never intended or supposed that the amendment could be invoked as a protection against legislation for the punishment of acts inimical to the peace, good order, and morals of society. However free the exercise of religion may be, it must be subordinate to the criminal laws of the State, passed with reference to actions regarded by general consent as properly the subjects of punative legislation. Crime is not the less odious because sanctioned by what any particular sect may designate as religion."" This amendment does not prohibit legislation against polygamy. Neither does it prohibit laws against blasphemy; " but the laws of blasphemy must not be so administered as to prevent freedom of discussion and argument, decently conducted on fundamental points of religion. SECTION 82. FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND OF THE PRESS. No general grant of freedom of speech is to be found in English legal history either in the Magna Charta, "Davis vs. Beason, 133 U. S., 333. Reynolds vs. United States, 98 Ú. S., 145; Davis vs. Beason, 133 U. S., 333. 46 Vidal vs. Girard's Executors, 2 Howard, 127. the Petition of Rights, or Bill of Rights. Such a privilege is however necessary under a free government and a provision granting it was inserted in the first amendment to the United States Constitution. Any misuse of this privilege, however, such as the use of blasphemous, indecent or slanderous words, will not be protected by this amendment. . Of all the civil rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution the freedom of the press was the last to be secured by the AngloSaxon race. Up to nearly the close of the seventeenth century the idea of a free press seems to have been almost unheard of; it does not form one of the grounds of controversy between the Stuarts and the people of England; it is unmentioned in the Petition of Rights in 1628 or the Bill of Rights in 1689. The Long Parliament in spite of its reforms in other directions continued the censorship of the press. "These proceedings called forth the 'Areopagitica' of Milton, in which he branded the suppression of truth by the licenser as the slaying of ‘an immortality rather than a life' maintained that 'she needs no politics, no stratagems, no licensings to make her victorious,' and nobly but ineffectually pleaded for the 'liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all other liberties.' ''47 "After the restoration of the Stuarts the freedom of the press was restricted by a series of Licensing Acts'; the last of which expired in 1693. An attempt to renew it in 1695 failed. 'It is a noteworthy fact and a striking example of the predominance of the practical, as contrasted with the theorizing spirit in English politics, that this emancipation of the Press which Taswell-Langmead's English Constitutional History, p. 794. Macaulay did not hesitate to declare 'has done more for liberty and for civilization than the Great Charter or the Bill of Rights,'-attracted scarcely any attention at the time and was justified by the commons in conference with the Lords, without any reference to the great principle involved, and solely on question of detail concerning the abuses and inconveniences incidental to the censorship." 48 Since 1693 the press of England has been theoretically free, but, for a considerable period after that year was subject to government control in various indirect ways. In the United States Constitution the right of freedom of the press is given in the most absolute and unqualified manner. This freedom is, however, subject to the provisions of the law against the publication of indecent or libelous matter. Freedom of the press includes the right of freedom of transmission through the mails. This, too, is subject to certain necessary restrictions, such as those against fraudulent or obscene matter. 49 "The right of the people peaceably to assemble for the purpose of petitioning Congress for a redress of grievances, or for anything else connected with the powers or the duties of the national government, is an attribute of national citizenship, and, as such, under the protection of, and guaranteed by, the United States. The very idea of a government, republican in form, implies a right on the part of its citizens to meet peaceably for consultation in respect to public affairs and to petition for a redress of grievances." 9950 No attempt has ever been made to restrict the right of petition in this country except during the controversy over slavery, when several efforts were made 48 Id., p. 796. In re Jackson, 96 U. S., 727. So United States vs. Cruikshank, 92 U. S., 542, 552. |