But his plan included a widespread armed insurrection against a people who had committed no crime in the legal sense. His plan was to establish a bastion of abolition in the heart of the South, a place he intented to establish his own State with its own laws and its own government and its own army - read his constitution - he may not have planned to overthrow the governments of the Southern States but he certainly planned to steal their land and create a land of his own, independent of them with its own President. This would have place him and his State at war with the Southern States of the Union, and that was treason as defined by the US Constitution in article 3: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." Thus the intention to create his own State in open opposition to the Southern States and their way of life is a treasonous act.