The court emphasized that “[i]f the defendant was justifiable in doing what he did, every citizen of the United States would, in time of war, be equally exposed to a like exercise of military power and author-ity.”100 The detainee was a naturalized American citizen, and thus the court had no occasion to discuss the broader issues of temporary and local allegiance.101 During the first half of the nineteenth century, American courts made occasional pronouncements on the nature of temporary or local allegiance, although seldom in the context of treason.102 The issue of temporary and local allegiance thus fell into somnolence, until the night of October 16, 1859. C. The Treason Trial of John Brown That night, John Brown and eighteen armed men, who had been hiding out on a farm in Maryland, crossed the Potomac River over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge and seized a federal arsenal in the small town of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.103 The avowed purpose of John Brown’s Raid, as it became known, was to encourage a wide-spread slave revolt.104 The raid, poorly planned and clumsily exe-cuted, was quickly suppressed by federal troops led by Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart.105 Although antislavery activists throughout the North seized on Brown as a hero,106 the South, always haunted by the specter of slave revolts, viewed Brown’s actions as direct threats to the very existence of the state.107 Accordingly, Brown and several of his men were indicted for committing treason against the State of Vir-ginia by levying war against it, as well as for murder and conspiracy. Ten days after the failed raid, Brown’s trial began in nearby Charles Town, Virginia.108 Whether treason against an individual state was or is a viable crime is a fascinating question, but one that lies beyond the scope of this Ar-ticle.109 What is important for present purposes is the significant issue of allegiance raised by Brown’s raid. Brown was neither a citizen nor a resident of Virginia, and his arrival in Virginia exactly coincided with his alleged act of levying war. How then could he be guilty of treason against the State of Virginia? Brown’s attorneys raised this argument, although they did not dwell on it at any length. As they saw it, “no man is guilty of treason, unless he be a citizen of the state or govern-ment against which the treason so alleged has been committed.”110 Because Brown was “not bound by any allegiance to this State, [he] could not, therefore, be guilty of rebellion against it.”1
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 16:42:56 +0000