the District of Columbia, in one of the territories, in
the Indian country, in the forts or arsenals of the United States, or upon
the high seas.

[4] Congress has specified courts for the trial of such crimes. Those
committed on the high seas are tried in the state where the vessel
arrives. (See pages 230-4.)

SECTION III.--TREASON.

_Clause 1.--Definition and Trial._

_Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war
against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and
comfort.[1] 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.[2]_

[1] Treason is, in essence, a deliberate and violent breach of the
allegiance due from a citizen or subject to his government. Being directed
against the powers that be, the government in self defense is tempted to
punish it severely. The more tyrannical a government is the more likely it
is to be plotted against, and the more suspicious it becomes. If treason
were undefined, the government might declare acts to be treasonable which
the people never suspected to be so. This had occurred so many times, and
good men had so often been sent on this charge to an ignominious death,
that the framers of the constitution deemed it prudent to define treason
carefully in the fundamental law itself.

These provisions are taken from the famous statute of Edward III which
first defined treason in England. This statute declared five things to be
treasonable, only the third and fourth of which are held by our
constitution to be so.

[2] An overt act is an open act, not one that is simply meditated or
talked about, but one actually performed.

The Supreme Court has decided that there must be an actual levying of war;
that plotting to overthrow the government is not treason. But if
hostilities have actually begun, if war has commenced, "all those who
perform any part, however minute, or however remote from the scene of
action, and who are leagued in the general conspiracy, are to be
considered traitors."

Two witnesses, at least, "to the _same_ overt act," are required, because
thus only can a "preponderance of testimony" be secured.

_Clause 2.--Punishment._

_The congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but
no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture
except during the life of the person attainted._

As has been hinted, th