When our founding fathers wrote the Constitution of the United States, they defined the crime of treason in words so simple and clear that anyone can understand them - no explanation or interpretation is necessary. "Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."
In determining whether or not an individual is guilty of the crime of treason against the United States, one need only determine the facts of the case, and have a clear understanding of what is meant by the words "United States." You must understand what the framers meant by "United States" if you are going to be able to accurately judge who are its enemies.
Is the "United States" a land mass lying between certain artificial lines drawn on a map? Is this what was meant by the framers of the Constitution? Hardly. The boundaries of this country have changed again and again, by annexation, conquest, purchase, and other means. And how could one be loyal or disloyal to an inanimate object such as the land itself? Love it as we may, and as we should, it is not the land itself that the founders meant.
Is the "United States" the government itself, the legislature, the executive departments, the courts and judges? Is this what our founders meant by the words "United States"? No again, for the prohibition against treason preexisted all of these governmental structures, and the Declaration of Independence itself emphasized the right of the people to alter or abolish governments.
When they said "United States" did they mean the ideas and ideals embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? Or did they mean the people themselves, the American people? It is my contention that they meant a unity of these two things: One, the American people themselves - that is, those men and women of European descent who had built a new society on the North American continent, and who had lately severed their ties to a corrupt monarch who had used and abused them and who therefore had no more right to demand their loyalty as subjects. And two, the system of responsible self-government carefully crafted by the best minds of that generation of the First American Revolution, a system designed to preserve forever the possession of this great land and their hard-won liberty for their descendants. To our founding fathers, treason against the United States meant betraying our Nation to an external enemy, such as by aiding a foreign invader. To them, treason might also consist of offering aid and comfort to internal enemies who would subvert our form of government, or pervert it to ends not envisioned by its creators.
In determining whether or not an individual is guilty of the crime of treason against the United States, one need only determine the facts of the case, and have a clear understanding of what is meant by the words "United States." You must understand what the framers meant by "United States" if you are going to be able to accurately judge who are its enemies.
Is the "United States" a land mass lying between certain artificial lines drawn on a map? Is this what was meant by the framers of the Constitution? Hardly. The boundaries of this country have changed again and again, by annexation, conquest, purchase, and other means. And how could one be loyal or disloyal to an inanimate object such as the land itself? Love it as we may, and as we should, it is not the land itself that the founders meant.
Is the "United States" the government itself, the legislature, the executive departments, the courts and judges? Is this what our founders meant by the words "United States"? No again, for the prohibition against treason preexisted all of these governmental structures, and the Declaration of Independence itself emphasized the right of the people to alter or abolish governments.
When they said "United States" did they mean the ideas and ideals embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? Or did they mean the people themselves, the American people? It is my contention that they meant a unity of these two things: One, the American people themselves - that is, those men and women of European descent who had built a new society on the North American continent, and who had lately severed their ties to a corrupt monarch who had used and abused them and who therefore had no more right to demand their loyalty as subjects. And two, the system of responsible self-government carefully crafted by the best minds of that generation of the First American Revolution, a system designed to preserve forever the possession of this great land and their hard-won liberty for their descendants. To our founding fathers, treason against the United States meant betraying our Nation to an external enemy, such as by aiding a foreign invader. To them, treason might also consist of offering aid and comfort to internal enemies who would subvert our form of government, or pervert it to ends not envisioned by its creators.