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BOSTON, April 19
National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault
weapons were ambushed on April 19th by elements of a para-military extremist
faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimated that 72 were killed and
more than 20 injured before government forces were ousted and compelled to
withdraw.
Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the
extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the
radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gage blamed the extremists for recent
incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices.
The governor, who described the group's organizers as "criminals," issued an
executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has
interfered with the government's efforts to secure law and order.
The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed wide-spread refusal by the
local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons.
Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in
the week. This decision followed a meeting in early April between government
and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation
of illegal arms.
One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that
"none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law
and turned their weapons over voluntarily."
"Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of
outlawed weapons and ammunition. However, troops attempting to seize arms and
ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily-armed extremists who
had been tipped off regarding the government's plans.
During a tense standoff in Lexington's town park, National Guard Colonel
Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group
to surrender and return to their homes. - The impasse was broken by a
single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists.
Eight of the COWARD civilian seditionist were killed in the ensuing exchange.
Ironically, the local citizenry blamed government forces rather than the
extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored,armed
citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the guard units.
Colonel Smith, finding his forces overmatched by the armed mob, ordered a
retreat. Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national
joint task force in its effort to restore law and order.
The governor has also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning
and leading the attack against the government troops ... Samuel Adams, Paul
Revere, and John Hancock have been identified as "ringleaders" of this
extremist faction, and still remain at large.
Sedition. Crimes. The raising commotions or disturbances in the state; it is a
revolt against legitimate authority, Ersk. Princ. Laws, Scotl. b. 4, t. 4, s.
14; Dig. Lib. 49, t. 16, 1. 3, § 19.
The distinction between sedition and treason consists in this, that though its
ultimate object is a violation of the public peace, or at least such a course
of measures as evidently engenders it, yet it does not aim at direct and open
violence against the laws, or the subversion of the constitution.
Alis. Crim. Law of Scotl. 580.
The. obnoxious and obsolete act of July 14, 1798, 1 Story's Laws U. S. 543, was
called the sedition law, because its professed object was to prevent
disturbances. In the Scotch law, sedition is either verbal or real. Verbal is
inferred from the uttering of words tending to create discord between the king
and his people; real sedition is generally committed by convocating together
any considerable number of people, without lawful authority, under the pretense
of redressing some public grievance, to the disturbing of the public peace.
1 Ersk. ut supra.
An insurrectionary movement tending towards treason, but wanting an overt act.
Cf. Amnesty; Bureaucracy; Contempt of Congress; Coup d'etat; Crimen læsæ
majestatis; Criminal anarchy; Hostility; Leze majesty; Loyalty; Misprision;
Mutiny; Potestas; Qui molitur insidias in patriam in facit quod insanus nauta
perforans navem in quâ vehitur; Tabetic dementia; Treason;
An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes Against the United States:
APPROVED, July 14, 1798 http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/statutes/sedact.htm
An Act in Addition to the Act, Entitled "An Act for the Punishment of Certain
Crimes Against the United States." (Sedition Act of July 14, 1798)
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/statutes/sedact.htm ...
http://www.constitution.org/rf/sedition_1798.htm
Virginia Resolution: December 24, 1798
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/virres.htm
1 Stat. 88, § 2; Act of April 20, 1818, Ch 88, § 2 (Service of any foreign
prince or state); http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/statutes/statutes.htm
18 U.S.C. § 2383 (Rebellion or insurrection) (Whoever incites, sets on foot,
assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of
the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall
be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and
shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.);
18 U.S.C. § 2384 (Seditious conspiracy) (If two or more persons in any State or
Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States,
conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the
United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority
thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of
the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the
United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under
this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.);
Seditious conspiracy. Cf. Criminal anarchy;
18 U.S.C. § 2384 (Seditious conspiracy) (If two or more persons in any State or
Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States,
conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the
United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority
thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of
the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the
United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under
this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.);
Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 375-376, 47 S.Ct. 641, 71 L.Ed. 1095
(1927) (Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state
was to make men free to develop their faculties, and that in its government the
deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary. They valued liberty both
as an end and as a means.
They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the
secret of liberty.
They believed that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are
means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth; that
without free speech and assembly discussion would be futile; that with them,
discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of
noxious doctrine; that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that
public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental
principle of the American government.3
They recognized the risks to which all human institutions are subject. But they
knew that order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its
infraction; that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination;
that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces
stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss
freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies; and that the fitting remedy
for evil counsels is good ones.
Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they
eschewed silence [274 U.S. 357, 376] coerced by law-the argument of force in
its worst form.
Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the
Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.);
http://laws.findlaw.com/us/274/357.html
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