The government class book / Designed for the instruction of youth in the principles of constitutional government and the rights and duties of citizens.

by Andrew W. Young

§3. The constitution also prescribes the proof necessary for the conviction of treason. "No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court." No evidence less than this should be considered sufficient to convict a person of a crime for which he is to suffer death.

§4. "Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason." Art. 3, sec. 3. By the common law, the punishment of treason was of a savage and disgraceful nature. The offender was drawn to the gallows on a hurdle; hanged by the neck and cut down alive; his entrails taken out and burned while he was yet alive; his head cut off; and his body quartered. Congress, in pursuance of the power here granted, has very properly abolished this barbarous practice, and confined the punishment to simple death by hanging.

§5. But the same clause provides, that "no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted." Attainder literally signifies a staining, or rendering impure; but it here means a conviction and judgment in court against the offender. By the common law, the sentence of death for treason was made to affect the blood of the traitor; so that he could neither inherit property nor transmit it to heirs; but his estate was forfeited. This practice, so unjust to the innocent relatives of an offender, is properly abolished by the constitution; and congress has declared that "no conviction or judgment shall work corruption of blood, or any forfeiture of estate." So that while this law continues, there is no forfeiture, even during the life of the person attainted.

Chapter XLIV.

State Records; Privilege of Citizens; Fugitives; Admission of New States; Power over Territory; Guaranty of Republican Government.

§1. "Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved and the effect thereof." Art. 4, sec. 1. Without this provision, a person against whom a judgment has been obtained, might remove with his property into another state, where the property could not be taken on execution without a new trial and judgment; which, at so great a distance from the residence of the creditor and his witnesses, would be very difficult and expensive, and perhaps impossible. Now, the proceedings of the court in which a judgment is obtained, if sent to the place where the debtor resides, have the same effect as in the state in which such proceedings were taken.

§2. There are several other cases which this provision is intended to meet. But, as is seen, the effect of these acts, records, and judicial proceedings, and the manner of proving them are to be prescribed by congress. In pursuance of the power here granted, congress has enacted, that a certificate under seal of the clerk of a court of record, transmitted to any state of the union, shall there be deemed evidence of the facts therein stated. But if the thing certified is a judicial proceeding, such sealed certificate must be accompanied by the certificate of the presiding judge or justice, that the attestation of the clerk is in due form. Acts of a state legislature, to be entitled to credit in another state, must have the seal of the state affixed to them.

§3. The next section of this article provides, that "the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the immunities and privileges of citizens in the several states." This means that the citizens of any state going into other states, shall not, by the laws of those states, be deprived of any of the privileges of citizens; but shall be entitled to the privileges which are enjoyed by persons of the same description in the states to which they remove. Without such a provision, any state might deny to citizens coming into it from other states, the right to buy and hold real estate, or to become voters, or to enjoy equal privileges in trade or business. A state may, however, prescribe a certain term of residence therein as a qualification for voting at elections.

§4. The next clause of this section provides for apprehending "a person charged with crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another state." The governor of the state from which such person has fled, sends a requisition to the governor of the state in which he is found, demanding his delivery to the proper officers, to be conveyed back for trial. Without such authority to apprehend criminals, they might escape justice by taking shelter in another state.

§5. In the same section it is provided, that "no person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." This clause was intended for the benefit of the slaveholding states. By the common law, a slave escaping into a non-slaveholding state became free. As it was presumed that other northern states would follow Massachusetts in abolishing slavery, the southern states wanted some provision to enable them to reclaim their fugitive slaves.