p. 8 | What Is Treason? by William N. Glenn

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · May 31, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 22.

What Is Treason?

By William N. Glenn

The fact that the government has forbidden the transmission of certain anti-expansion documents to Manila, on the ground that they are treasonable in character, has given rise to the expectation that Mr. Edward Atkinson, the author, would be prosecuted for treason. Inasmuch, however, as the documents are largely compilations from speeches delivered in Congress, it would seem hardly fair to thus discriminate against Mr. Atkinson. Yet it is a question upon what ground a charge of treason could be based, in face of Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution, which says: “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” Still it must not be forgotten that we have reached a time when the Constitution is nothing unless construed, and thus it is merely a lump of clay in the hands of the Supreme Court. From this point of view it might be made to appear that Mr. Atkinson had levied a war of words against the government, using congressional speeches as ammunition. It might also be construed that the people of Manila would be aided and comforted, and life in the jungles under the hail of rapid-fire guns made more endurable, by the knowledge that a number of speeches had been made in their behalf last winter—“ten thousand miles away.” Since the promulgation of the “Christian-nation” dictum by the Supreme Court, and the congressional declaration that the first day of the week is the seventh day set apart in the Decalogue as the Sabbath, it is impossible to tell how far constitutional construction may be made to extend beyond the design of its framers or the logical meaning of its language.

W. N. G.