Treason.
The first clause of section III., article 3, of the national Constitution 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.”
In consequence of the disturbances in
western North Carolina (see
Frankland) and symptoms of disaffection on the southwestern border, and in
Kentucky, the Virginia legislature passed a law in October, 1785, subjecting to the penalties of treason all attempts to erect a new State in any part of her territory without permission first obtained of the Assembly.
Pennsylvania had passed a similar law.
When
Admiral Farragut arrived before New Orleans (April 28, 1862), he sent
Captain Bailey ashore with a flag to demand the surrender of the city.
The
military commander (
Lovell) turned over the whole matter to the civil authorities.
The demand was refused.
Meanwhile a force had landed from one of the vessels and hoisted the
National flag over the Mint.
As soon as they retired a gambler, named
William B. Mumford, with some young men, tore down the flag and dragged it through the streets in derision.
This act was hailed with acclamations of approval by the
Confederates of the city, and paragraphs of praise and exultation appeared in the New Orleans journals.
General Butler arrived with 2,000 troops (May 1), and took possession of the city.
His headquarters were at the
St. Charles Hotel, before which a threatening crowd gathered.
Among them was
Mumford, who openly boasted of his exploit in humbling the “old rag of the
United States.”
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He became so dangerous to good order as the leader of the turbulent spirits in New Orleans that
Butler had him arrested and tried for treason.
He was found guilty and executed—the only man who, up to 1901, had been tried, found guilty, and suffered death for that crime since the foundation of the national government.
In 1901, after the death of
President McKinley by an assassin's bullet, there was a wide-spread opinion that Congress should pass an act making an attack on the person of the
President of the
United States, whether fatal or not, an act of treason.
