Treason against the state can consist only in levying war against it or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort; no person can be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on his confession in open court; no person can be attainted of treason or felony by the general assembly; no conviction can work corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate; the estates of such persons as may destroy their own lives shall descend or vest as in cases of natural death.

Source: Entire article added, effective August 1, 1876, see L. 1877, p. 30.

Editor's note: Compare Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Nelson, 350 U. S. 497 (1956) (affirming Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Nelson, 377 Pa. 58, 104 A. 2d 133 (1954), whereby the enforceability of a state anti-sedition act was successfully resisted as superseded by federal intervention into the field by the Smith Act which proscribed the same conduct as did the state act), and Uphaus v. Wyman, 360 U. S. 72 (1959) (distinguishing Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Nelson, 350 U. S. 497 (1956), on the state's right to require the production of corporate papers of a state-chartered corporation pursuant to legislative investigation to determine if state policy concerning seditionary activities had been violated, not impaired by the Smith Act).