Pema – The Treason Clause

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After the failure of the Articles of Confederation, soon after its ratification in 1777, the Founding Fathers wanted a Constitution that was strong enough to run the country while being conscious of potentially giving the government too much power and not protecting the people’s rights enough. The Articles of Confederation didn’t centralize the power under the federal government enough and gave the states too much individual power which led to its replacement in 1789. The Treason Clause in section 3 of Article 3 is one important article that helped to restrain the power of the government in the Constitution. The Founding Fathers were concerned about the possibility of treason being weaponized by a future president to silence the people and any political opposition. The Founding Fathers incorporated the Treason Clause to prevent the government from becoming too powerful and becoming like the British monarchy. 

The Constitution defines treason as an act of an American betraying the allegiance that they owe to their country. The Treason Clause limits treason to two different kinds: treason by waging war against the U.S. and treason by helping the enemies of the U.S. by providing them “aid and comfort”. In order to sentence someone for treason, there must either be two witnesses that can testify to the same treasonous action or the accused person has to confess in open court. If someone is convicted of treason, Congress has jurisdiction and is able to make the punishment. However, the punishment has to be one that only the convicted person pays. Congress cannot extend the punishment to the convicted person’s family or the next generation of the family.

Over the years, many different cases have been made from different interpretations of the Treason Clause because what qualifies as treason was never fully specified. One example of this was in the case of Ex parte Bollman & Swarthout where levying war was clarified. Bollman and Swarthout were two of Aaron Burr’s associates who came forward accusing Aaron Burr of plotting treason to overthrow the government in New Orleans. Ultimately, the Supreme Court decided that Aaron Burr was not guilty of treason and the distinction was made between conspiring to commit treason and taking action to commit treason. Conspiring to commit treason wouldn’t be considered treason but when steps/actions were taken, that would be considered treason.

The Treason Clause connects to an overarching theme of Enlightenment because some Enlightenment ideals were the idea of people having God-given rights and moving away from a monarchy and that’s exactly what the Treason Clause helps to accomplish. The Treason Clause protects the rights of people by offering safeguards to make it hard to be convicted of treason. The Treason Clause also limits the power of the government which helps balance the powers out evenly to prevent tyranny.

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