upreme court of the United States, is to
secure a correct and uniform interpretation of the constitution and laws
of the United States. State laws and decisions of state courts, are
sometimes made which are supposed to be repugnant to the constitution
and laws of the United States. What may be pronounced constitutional in
one state, may be declared unconstitutional in another. Therefore it is
provided that when an act or judgment in a case tried in the highest or
last court in a state is deemed inconsistent with the constitution or
laws of the United States, such case may be removed to the supreme court
of the United States, whose decision governs the judgment of all
inferior courts throughout the union.

Chapter XLIII.

Treason, defined; its Punishment.

Sec.1. The constitution defines treason, as follows: "Treason against the
United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in
adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." Art. 3, sec. 3.
A proneness to construe less aggravated crimes into acts of treason,
made it proper that the constitution should define the crime. The term
_levying war_ has the sense here which it was understood to have in the
English statute, from which it was adopted. An assemblage of men for a
treasonable purpose, such as war against the government, or a revolution
of any of its territories, and in a condition to make such war,
constitutes a levying of war.

Sec.2. War can be levied only by the employment of force; troops must be
embodied; men must be openly raised; but there may be treason without
arms, or without the application of force to the object. When war is
levied, all who perform a part, however remote from the scene of action,
being leagued in the conspiracy, commit treason. But a mere conspiracy
to levy war is not treason. A secret, unarmed meeting of conspirators,
not in force, nor in warlike form, though met for a treasonable purpose,
is not treason; but these offenses are high misdemeanors.

Sec.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.

Sec.4. "Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason."
Art. 3, sec. 3. By the commo