"Whom can we trust now?" : the meaning of treason in the United States, from the Revolution through the Civil War
"Historian and lawyer Brian F. Carso, Jr., demonstrates that, although treason law was conflicted and awkward, the broader idea of treason gave recognizable shape to abstract ideas of loyalty, betrayal, allegiance, and political obligation in the United States." "Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Carso begins by exploring the nature of loyalty and betrayal in a democratic republic, using examples ranging from Socrates in Plato's Crito to the dilemma of Robert E. Lee in 1861 and the trial of Timothy McVeigh in 1997. Turning to legal history, the study considers the historical antecedents of the Treason Clause of the U.S. Constitution and examines the utility of American treason law as it was applied in a variety of cases." "By examining editorials, sermons, histories, orations, art, literature, and political cartoons, Carso identifies how the meaning of treason engaged the public imagination in a variety of compelling forms and instructed citizens on loyalty and betrayal outside the courtroom as much as within it."--BOOK JACKET
History
x, 266 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780739112564, 0739112562
63692586
Introduction : "A chord which vibrates in every heart"
"What is a traitor?" : loyalty, betrayal, and the state
"A republic, if you can keep it" : the evolution of treason in America, 1620-1787
"Seasons of insurrection" : early rebellions and the trial of Aaron Burr
"The damnation of his fame" : Benedict Arnold and the cultural punishment of betrayal
"With malice toward none" : treason, amnesty and the language of betrayal during the Civil War
"Whom can we trust now?"