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Treason

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

Article III, Section 3, Of The U.S. Constitution

Traditionally, treason was betrayal of the state, which, in most countries meant the monarch. A person who commits treason is a traitor. However, the Framers of the U.S. Constitution chose to adopt a restricted definition of treason, making it the only term defined in the body of the Constitution.

The framers did not choose to contrive their own definition of the crime of attempting the subversion of the government. "Treason" is itself a term which — to speak only of the Anglo-American background — was familiar to the common law before it was used in the Statute of 25 Edward III, from which the Constitution derives its language concerning the levying of war, and adhering to enemies, giving them aid and comfort. The record makes it clear that terms thus weighted with historic significance were deliberately chosen, in order better to deal with a problem the practical dangers of which history was believed to teach.

In most of the colonies there was at some stage some legislative definition or at least recognition of the existence of an offense of treason. Charters and proprietary grants and the royal instructions to colonial governors sometimes conferred authority to exercise martial law for the suppression of what might amount to treason. There were scattered prosecutions for treason in the colonies, but we have few reports of these and no evidence to suggest that there developed a common law of treason or any substantial gloss upon the legislative provisions. The statutory offense, however, was generally outlined or recognized in sufficiently general terms to give room for a creative role of the executive in deciding what to prosecute and of the judges in interpreting the scope of the crime.

Convicted Or Accused

The first time an American was accused of "treason" for opposing high taxes was when New Englanders dressed as Indians and dumped tea in Boston Harbor. And it was America's most famous tax protester, Patrick Henry, who declared: "If this be treason, make the most of it."

Benedict Arnold went over to the British. George Washington immediately ordered Alexander Hamilton and James McHenry to go after Arnold. Washington sitting, head down, hand trembling with its sheaf of treasonous papers, murmuring to Henry Knox, "Arnold has betrayed me. Whom can we trust now?” Arnold’s price for changing sides and turning over the Americans at West Point (including some of the very men who had followed him to Quebec) was twenty thousand pounds, about the amount he reckoned he had lost from Congress, from property he could not sell, and from debts a traitor could not collect.

Valley Forge, 1777 The outlook was bleak for the Continental army a year into the war. The redcoats held firm control of both New York and Philadelphia, while General Washington’s troops were freezing to death in their winter camps at Valley Forge. To add to the general’s misfortune, the regiment protecting the camp was insubordinate and near mutiny. To enforce discipline, Washington placed 21-year-old colonel Aaron Burr in charge of the regiment. Despite his young age, Burr had already developed a reputation as a skilled leader and disciplinarian. But the unruly troops didn’t exactly embrace their new colonel; it wasn’t long before Burr heard that an outright mutiny was in the works. Upon learning of the cabal, he ordered a midnight inspection, and the groggy men staggered out into the freezing cold. As Burr marched down the line, one soldier shouted, “Now’s your time, boys!” He aimed his gun squarely at Burr’s chest and fired, but it didn’t go off—Burr had removed the cartridges from the men’s muskets in the night. The colonel stared down his would-be assassin, then drew his sword and, in a single swift stroke, hacked off the mutineer’s arm. His authority was never questioned again.

The first major cases under the U.S. Constitution arose from a 1807 conspiracy led by Aaron Burr, who had served as vice president under Thomas Jefferson 1801-05, to seize parts of Mexico or the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. Burr and two confederates, Bollman and Swartwout, were charged with treason. Burr was acquitted September 1, 1807, after an opinion rendered by Chief Justice John Marshall in U.S. v. Burr that further defined the requirements for proving treason under the constitutional restriction. Marshall's opinion made it extremely difficult to convict one of levying war against the United States by other than personal participation in actual hostilities.

In 1842, two elections were held in Rhode Island under both Dorr's constitution and the existing state charter. This led to the creation of two rival state governments. The federal government refused to intervene in this affair and armed conflict soon followed. The Dorr Rebellion was quickly crushed and Dorr fled the state. The old order recognized the need for a new constitution and enacted a new one in 1843 which contained some of Dorr's concepts. In 1844, Dorr returned to Rhode Island and was arrested. He was convicted of treason against the state of Rhode Island. His punishment of solitary confinement and a life of hard labor was widely condemned. He was released in 1845, regained his civil rights in 1851, and pardoned in 1854.

John Brown was charged with murdering four whites and a black, with conspiring with slaves to rebel, and with treason against Virginia. A series of lawyers were assigned to Brown, including George Hoyt, but it was Hiram Griswold who concluded the defense on October 31. He argued that Brown could not be guilty of treason against a state to which he owed no loyalty, that Brown had not killed anyone himself, and that the failure of the raid indicated that Brown had not conspired with slaves. Andrew Hunter presented the closing arguments for the prosecution. Brown was sentenced to be hanged in public. In response to the sentence, Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked that "[John Brown] will make the gallows glorious as the Cross." Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute under the leadership of Generals Francis H. Smith and Thomas J. Jackson (who would earn the nickname "Stonewall" fewer than two years later) were called into service as a security detail in the event Brown's supporters attempted a rescue.

Samuel C. Betts, a citizen of Maryland, accused of treason. Betts was taken prisoner while in uniform in the ranks of the Confederate army near Rappahanock Ford on February 25, 1863. The commission met on March 3, 1863, at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac located at camp near Falmouth, Virginia. The commission was headed by Brig. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, who in three months' time, while commanding III Corps at Gettysburg would receive a wound that cost him his right leg. Betts was found guilty and sentenced "to be hung with a rope by the neck until dead." The Judge Advocate General noted that the sentence could not be enforced since the record shows the individual was a prisoner of war having been captured in uniform in the rebel ranks. The President agreed, writing, "Disapproved. The record showing clearly that the accused is a prisoner of war & should be treated as and exchanged." There is no reference in the proceedings of this case to show that other Marylanders were captured at the same time as Samuel Betts. It is only upon reading the endorsement from the Judge Advocate General that we learn that two other men were captured with Betts and subsequently charged with the same offense. Proceedings of the cases of Marylanders James Rider and James R. Oliver can be traced in separate court-martial case files.

Following the 1861-65 War of Secession some wanted to try southern secessionists for treason, and former Confederate President Jefferson Davis was charged with treason in U.S. v. Jefferson Davis, but the constitutional requirement in Art. III Sec. 2 Cl. 3 that an offender be tried in the state and district where the offense was committed would have meant trying him in Virginia, where a conviction was unlikely, so the case was dismissed. Although the United States Government regarded the activities of the Confederate States as a levying of war, the President by the Amnesty Proclamation of December 25, 1868, pardoned all those who had participated on the southern side.

A California native who has appeared in al-Qaeda propaganda videos has been indicted for treason, making him the first American to be charged with that crime in half a century, the Justice Department announced yesterday. Adam Gadahn, a 28-year-old fugitive believed to be living in Pakistan, could be sentenced to death if convicted of treason, which has been alleged only about 30 times in U.S. history and has not been used since the aftermath of World War II.

As one person's traitor is another's patriot, any list is by nature highly subjective — even for those convicted of treason. In a civil war or insurrection the winners may deem the losers as traitors. Likewise the term "traitor" is used in heated political discussion — typically as a slur against political dissidents. In certain cases, as with the Nazi Dolchstosslegende, the accusation of treason towards a large group of people can be a unifying political message.

Treason In a stunning follow-up to Slander, leading conservative pundit Ann Coulter contends that liberals have been wrong on every major domestic and foreign policy issue, from the fight against communism at home and abroad, the Nixon and Clinton presidencies, and the struggle with the Soviet empire, right up to today's war on terrorism. ''Liberals have a preternatural gift for always striking a position on the side of treason.'' says Coulter. ''Everyone says liberals love America, too. No, they don't.'' Re-examining the 60-year history of the Cold War and beyond, including the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Whittaker Chambers-Alger Hiss affair, Ronald Reagan's challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev to ''tear down this wall, '' the Gulf War, and our present war on terrorism. Coulter reveals how liberals have been horribly wrong in all of their political analyses and policy prescriptions. With Slander, Ann Coulter became the most recognized and talked-about conservative intellectual of the year.

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