In 1861, when the rebellion had broken out, and it was supposed sympathizers with it were in Ohio plotting aid to the rebels, Judge Willson delivered a charge to the grand jury, again defining the law in regard to conspiracy and treason, and in the course of his address took occasion to unreservedly condemn the motives and actions of the rebels. He said:
The loyal people of this great nation have enjoyed the blessings of our excellent Constitution too long and too well, to be insensible of its value or to permit its destruction. They have not yet been schooled to the heresy, that this noble Government is a mere myth, or that it is destitute of the inherent power of perpetuating its own existence. On the contrary, next to their religion, they love and cherish it above all things on earth, not only because it is the rich and sacred legacy of a revered and patriotic ancestry, but because it is a Government of law, possessing the authority to maintain social and civil order, giving to its citizens security of property, of person and of life.
It is not surprising, therefore, that this bold and mad rebellion in the Southern States, has excited, in all patriotic hearts, a spontaneous and indignant feeling against treason and traitors, wherever they may be found in our land. It is a rebellion without cause and without justification. It had its conception in the wicked hearts of ambitious men. Possibly, some of the chief conspirators may be actuated by the spirit of the sacrilegious incendiary who fired the Ephesian temple to immortalize his name by the infamy of the act.
Let the motives of the conspirators be what they may, this open, organized and armed resistance to the Government of the United States is _treason_, and those engaged in it justly merit the penalty denounced against traitors.
Nor should we be misled by false notions of the reserved right of the States to secede from the Union. This assumed right, claimed by the States in rebellion, is false in theory; it is of the highest criminalty in practice, and without the semblance of authority in the Constitution. The right of secession, (said the lamented Webster,) "as a practical right, existing under the Constitution, is simply an absurdity; for it supposes resistance to Government under the authority of the Government itself--it supposes dismemberment without violating the principles of Union--it supposes opposition to law without crime--it sanctions the violation of oaths without responsibility, and the total overthrow of the Government without revolution."