“The counsel for the prisoner (E. Tilghman and Thomas) premised that they did not conceive it to be their duty to show that the prisoner was guiltless of any description of crime against the United States, or the State of Pennsylvania, but they contended that he had not committed the crime of high treason, and ought, therefore, to be acquitted on the present indictment. The adjudications in England upon the various descriptions of treason, had been worked incautiously, into a system, by the destruction of which the Government itself would be seriously affected; but even there, the best judges and the ablest commentators, while they acquiesce in the decisions that have already taken place, furnish a strong caution against the too easy admission of future cases, which seem to have a parity of reason. Constructive and interpretive treasons must be the dread and scourge of any nation that allows them--_1 Hale, P. C._, 132, 259--_4 Black. Com._, 85. Take, then, the distinction of treason by levying war, as laid down by the attorney of the district, and it is a constructive or interpretive weapon which is calculated to annul all distinctions heretofore wisely established in the grades and punishments of crimes, and by whose magic power a mob may be easily converted into a conspiracy, and a riot aggravated into high treason.” Such, he said, was the opinion of two gentlemen ranking high in their profession, and who would not be charged with having any feeling toward the offence or the offender inconsistent with the rights or interests of the Government. The whole argument was too lengthy to be read to the House, but he considered it well worth the perusal of every American. Able as it was, however, it had not the wished for weight with the court. Judge Paterson gave the following charge to the jury: “The first question is, what was the general object of the insurrection? If its object was to suppress the excise offices, and to prevent the execution of an act of Congress, by force and intimidation, the offence, in legal estimation, is high treason; it is a usurpation of the authority of Government; it is high treason by levying of war.” Sir, said Mr. N., this opinion of the court may have been honest; I mean not to impeach the purity of motive which dictated it, but I mean to show that the offence with which Mitchell was charged, the resistance to the execution of a law, was not considered as treason by the highest existing authority of this country. Mitchell was pardoned by the President of the United States, and Congress, not long after, expressed their opinion on the subject in the most ample manner.