Recently, political disputants and the mainstream media have taken to calling people who disagree with government officials and government mandates traitors. Traitors would be people who commit treason, a very serious crime.
But under the United States constitution treason is defined very narrowly. And the people throwing about the label of traitor are not even pretending that the strict definition in Article 3, section 3 has been met.
The first person most Americans think of when we hear the term treason is Benedict Arnold. His betrayal is so notorious that his name has become synonymous with treason. “Don’t be a Benedict Arnold!” people sometimes say.
Benedict Arnold was in fact a turncoat. He changed sides during the revolutionary war. First he abjured his loyalty to King George and signed up at Valley Forge to serve under George Washington. Later when commanding American forces at West Point he changed his mind and began serving the British again. Was Benedict Arnold a traitor against Britain when he served under George Washington? Or was a he a traitor against the United States when he went back to serving King George? It is really a matter of point of view, as the famous lines by John Harrington illustrate: “Treason never prospers. What’s the reason? If it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
John Harrington
The controlling case about the application of the constitutional definition of treason is United States v. Aaron Burr. Aaron Burr was acquitted. Nothing that he did by mustering forces against Mexico could be construed as treason against the United States.
He was however found guilty of violating The Neutrality Act, a statute that denies Americans the right to wage war on their own or to serve in a foreign army. The Neutrality Act is of dubious constitutionality and still poses dilemmas for naturalized American citizens to this very day.
However, despite the Neutrality Act’s prohibition on serving in a competing army or serving another potentate, one thing is clear from the oath administered to new citizens: allegiance of American citizens is to the constitution and not the government of the United States. Therefore, rebellion against the government is not necessarily treason. In the United States, we recognize the difference between sedition and treason, as well as the difference between rebellion and treason. Yet there are certain factions currently in control of our mainstream media who seek to blur that distinction.
Julia Hanna and I discussed this on our livestream.
If you would like to learn more about Aaron Burr and the Neutrality Act, read my book, Theodosia and the Pirates.
