[725] 4 Cr. 75 (1807).
[726] Ibid. 75, 126.
[727] Ibid. 126.
[728] Ibid. 127.
[729] United States v. Burr, 4 Cr. 470, Appx. (1807).
[730] There have been a number of lower court cases in some of which convictions were obtained. As a result of the Whiskey Rebellion convictions of treason were obtained on the basis of the ruling that forcible resistance to the enforcement of the revenue laws was a constructive levying of war. United States v. Vigol, 28 Fed. Cas. No. 16,621 (1795); United States v. Mitchell, 26 Fed. Cas. No. 15,788 (1795). After conviction, the defendants were pardoned. See also for the same ruling in a different situation the Case of Fries, 9 Fed. Cas. Nos. 5,126 (1799); 5,127 (1800). The defendant was again pardoned after conviction. About a half century later participation in forcible resistance to the Fugitive Slave Law was held not to be a constructive levying of war. United States v. Hanway, 26 Fed. Cas. No. 15,299 (1851). Although the United States Government regarded the activities of the Confederate States as a levying of war, the President by Amnesty Proclamation of December 25, 1868, pardoned all those who had participated on the southern side in the Civil War. In applying the Captured and Abandoned Property Act of 1863 (12 Stat. 820) in a civil proceeding, the Court declared that the foundation of the Confederacy was treason against the United States. Sprott v. United States, 20 Wall. 459 (1875). See also Hanauer v. Doane, 12 Wall. 342 (1871); Thorington v. Smith, 8 Wall. 1 (1869); Young v. United States, 97 U.S. 39 (1878). These four cases bring in the concept of adhering to the enemy and giving him aid and comfort, but these are not criminal cases and deal with attempts to recover property under the Captured and Abandoned Property Act by persons who claimed that they had given no aid or comfort to the enemy. These cases are not, therefore, an interpretation of the Constitution.
[731] 325 U.S. 1 (1945).
[732] 89 Law. Ed. 1443-1444 (Argument of Counsel).
[733] 325 U.S. 35.
[734] Ibid. 34-35. Earlier Justice Jackson had declared that this phase of treason consists of two elements: "adherence to the enemy; and rendering him aid and comfort." A citizen, it was said, may take actions "which do aid and comfort the enemy—* * *—but if there is no adherence to the enemy in this, if there is no intent to betray, there is no treason." Ibid. 29. Justice Jackson states erroneously that the requirement of two witnesses to the same overt act was an original invention of the Convention of 1787. Actually it comes from the British Treason Trials Act of 1696 (7 and 8 Wm. III, C. 3).