1. Every person resident in the territory occupied by the power exercising sovereignty by right of conquest, who shall utter seditious words or speeches, or write, publish or circulate scurrilous libels against the governing authority, or who shall conceal such practices that come to his knowledge, shall be punished summarily and severely. 2. Every person who joins a secret society or attends a secret meeting for the purpose of advocating sedition or rebellion shall be punished summarily and severely.[124] Again the citizens’ committee protested. Boston lawyers represented to the military council that American citizens could not be held guilty of sedition or rebellion if they adhered to their country. _Citizens of No Country_ “The inhabitants of conquered territory,” answered the council, “are citizens of no country. They are under the jurisdiction of the occupying army; but they are not even entitled to the privileges of citizens of the country which controls that army.”[125] “But mere conquest does not entitle you to treat them as rebels,” urged the committee. “They are within their rights to preserve their allegiance, so long as they do not violate the rules of war by opposing you with arms.” One of the officers smiled. He opened a book. “Once more I must respectfully refer you to your own court decisions,” he said, and read from a United States Supreme Court verdict: “‘Conquest is a valid title while the victor maintains exclusive territory of the conquered country.’”[126] “There is nothing that we can do,” the committee reported to the people. It was the refrain that sounded in all the United States just then. To the wild projects for desperate defense that were being broached every day in the city of New York, to the frenzied demands that the volunteers in the western camps be rushed into the field, to the curses directed at the American army because it refused to fight, the same answer formulated itself because there was no other. Always, from all quarters, to all demands and imprecations, the only answer that was possible was: “There is nothing that we can do!” The city multitudes surrendered wearily to the situation; but there were men whom the helpless reply drove frantic. There were hundreds of these men in New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark, and all the towns eastward from there into Connecticut. They were militiamen who had not been able to join their organizations when they went to the front, or whose organizations had been merely paper ones. There were members of sportsmen’s clubs, accustomed to the use of heavy-caliber fire-arms and to the trail, and there were many men who were moved simply by the recklessness of courage.[127]