Benedict Arnold's name has become synonymous with committing treason although he was never actually convicted nor was Aaron Burr. And the constitution here specifies that that cannot happen in the United States. So for example if a grandfather died and his grandson wanted to inherit but the intermediate person, the father, had been convicted of treason the grandson could not inherit because his blood had been deemed corrupted by the sins of the father.
Under English law a person who was convicted of treason was deemed centrally civilly dead for all purposes and that meant that they didn't exist for purposes of inheritance. And what this means is that there is a difference between American law and what was the English law at the time. So the Congress has the power to declare the punishment of treason but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted. Is there anything about punishment in the Constitution? And so the concern was that we need to make sure in the Constitution itself that treason has a very narrow and specified definition.
People would use charges of treason against political enemies in ways that were inappropriate. It's the only crime defined, there are a few others that are mentioned such as bribery but it's the only one that's given a constitutional definition and that's because the framers were concerned that this was a type of crime that was subject potentially to a lot of abuse. And this is the only crime specifically mentioned in the Constitution, have I got that right? So those are the only two types of treason that a person can be convicted of in the United States. So the Constitution says treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies giving them aid and comfort. So how is treason defined in the Constitution?
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