Treason
SECTION 3. Clause 1. 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.
Annotations
The Treason Clause is a product of the awareness of the Framers of the “numerous and dangerous excrescences” which had disfigured the English law of treason and was therefore intended to put it beyond the power of Congress to “extend the crime and punishment of treason.”1471 The debate in the Convention, remarks in the ratifying conventions, and contemporaneous public comment make clear that a restrictive concept of the crime was imposed and that ordinary partisan divisions within political society were not to be escalated by the stronger into capital charges of treason, as so often had happened in England.1472
Thus, the Framers adopted two of the three formulations and the phraseology of the English Statute of Treason enacted in 1350,1473 but they conspicuously omitted the phrase defining as treason the “compass[ing] or imagin[ing] the death of our lord the King,”1474 under which most of the English law of “constructive treason” had been developed.1475 Beyond limiting the power of Congress to define treason,1476 the clause also prescribes limitations upon Congress’s ability to make proof of the offense easy to establish1477 and its ability to define punishment.1478
1471 2 J. Elliot, Debates In The Several State Conventions On Adoption Of The Constitution 469 (1836) (James Wilson). Wilson was apparently the author of the clause in the Committee of Detail and had some first hand knowledge of the abuse of treason charges. J. Hurst, The Law Of Treason In The United States: Selected Essays 90– 91, 129–136 (1971).
1472 2 M. Farrand, supra at 345–50; 2 J. Elliot, supra at 469, 487 (James Wilson); 3 id. at 102–103, 447, 451, 466; 4 id. at 209, 219, 220; The Federalist No. 43 (J. Cooke ed. 1961), 290 (Madison); id. at No. 84, 576–577 (Hamilton); The Works Of James Wilson 663–69 (R. McCloskey ed. 1967). The matter is comprehensively studied in J. Hurst, supra at chs. 3, 4.
1473 25 Edward III, Stat. 5, ch. 2, See J. Hurst, supra at ch 2.
1474 Id. at 15, 31–37, 41–49, 51–55.
1475 Id. “[T]he record does suggest that the clause was intended to guarantee nonviolent political processes against prosecution under any theory or charge, the burden of which was the allegedly seditious character of the conduct in question. The most obviously restrictive feature of the constitutional definition is its omission of any provision analogous to that branch of the Statute of Edward III which punished treason by compassing the death of the king. In a narrow sense, this provision perhaps had no proper analogue in a republic. However, to interpret the silence of the Treason Clause in this way alone does justice neither to the technical proficiency of the Philadelphia draftsmen nor to the practical statecraft and knowledge of English political history among the Framers and proponents of the Constitution. The charge of compassing the king’s death had been the principal instrument by which ‘treason’ had been used to suppress a wide range of political opposition, from acts obviously dangerous to order and likely in fact to lead to the king’s death to the mere speaking or writing of views restrictive of the royal authority.” Id. at 152–53.
1476 The clause does not, however, prevent Congress from specifying other crimes of a subversive nature and prescribing punishment, so long as Congress is not merely attempting to evade the restrictions of the Treason Clause. E.g.,Ex parte Bollman, 8 U.S. (4 Cr.) 75, 126 (1807); Wimmer v. United States, 264 Fed. 11, 12–13 (6th Cir. 1920), cert. denied, 253 U.S. 494 (1920).
1477 By the requirement of two witnesses to the same overt act or a confession in open court.
1478 Cl. 2, infra, “Corruption of the Blood and Forfeiture”.
