"Treason must be made odious" was the most common shorthand rendering of a stump speech (a standardized campaign speech repeatedly made by a politician at a series of locations and times) made by Tennessean Andrew Johnson when he was military governor and a U.S. vice-presidential candidate in 1864.[1] The phrase became relevant to the post-American Civil War legal issues surrounding the potential prosecution of former Confederate politicians and officers, as well as questions of enfranchisement of freedmen versus the re-enfranchisement of ex-Confederates. It has been described as "one of the best-remembered sayings of one of the least-remembered of our Presidents."[2]
Andrew Johnson, a slave-owning Southern Unionist, was the only member of the U.S. Senate from a secessionist state who stayed loyal at the outbreak of the American Civil War.[3] At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Tennessee had initially seceded to the Confederate States of America under governor Isham G. Harris, but when the Volunteer State was restored to the Union in 1862, Lincoln appointed Andrew Johnson to be the military governor in Nashville.[4] Initially Johnson believed that Tennesseans who supported the Confederacy were loyal Americans who had been misguided by malignant aristocrats, but after a few months in office he found Confederate allegiance to be widespread and so shifted his approach, a change mirrored by shifts in Washington: "As battlefield casualties mounted and the Lincoln administration girded for a long war by mobilizing the industrial and emotional resources of the North, Union war aims, exemplified by the Second Confiscation Act and the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, shifted from mere restoration to the reconstruction of Southern society."[1]
As military governor he made speeches arguing that "treason must be made odious and traitors impoverished" on the Fourth of July 1862,[5] throughout 1863, in speeches to the 3rd Minnesota Regiment, and at Columbia, at Shelbyville, at Nashville on the Fourth of July,[6] and at Franklin on August 22.[4] The Nashville Union newspaper commented on his July 4, 1862 speech, "The sentiment uttered, from the portico of the Capitol last night, by Governor Johnson: 'Treason must be made odious and traitors impoverished,' was a golden sentence. It fell upon our ears like the trumpet voice of a leader who had bared his strong arm for victory. The audience felt so, and shouted with enthusiastic approval."[7] A speech on theme was also made in Washington, D.C. on April 3, 1865 when he was Vice President.[8] During this entire period, he consistently recycled what George Creel described as his stock phrases: "Treason is a crime and must be punished," "Treason must be made odious," and "What may be mercy to the individual is cruelty to the state."[9]
"I asked him for his autograph. He wrote 'Treason must be made odious and traitors punished.'" (Belmont Chronicle, St. Clairsville, Ohio, Oct. 8, 1863)"Union and Democracy Speech of Andrew Johnson at Nashville—Position of the Union Candidate" (The Sunbury Gazette, Sunbury, Penn., July 9, 1864)A California newspaper included the quote in its endorsement of the slate of National Union Party nominees (Weekly Trinity Journal, Weaverville, Calif. Sept. 10, 1864)
However, after Johnson became president of the United States following the assassination of Lincoln, he dropped this theme and did little to no prosecution of ex-Confederates. The reversal became a major campaign issue, and his opponents were quick to point to Johnson's retreat from his many past pledges on this issue. For example, during Johnson's 1866 electioneering tour, while he was departing his hotel in Cleveland, Ohio for the train, "As his victoria neared the Public Square, he caught sight of a banner stretched between the Forest City House and the Rouse Block reading, 'In the work of reconstruction, traitors must be made to take back seats.' Angrily, [Johnson] jammed his beaver hat down over his eyes and kept his glance on the door of his carriage until he had passed."[10] Similarly the Library of Congress holds a long letter from Peter Cooper to President Johnson that quotes extensively from his "treason must be made odious" speeches and then comments, "After having read the many patriotic sayings and denunciations that you have made against Rebels and their Rebellion, I was led to believe that you would be about the last man that would recommend or accept of any terms for reconstruction that would not offer a full security for the future, even if you might be persuaded by myself and others to waive all indemnity for the past."[11]
In October 1866, U.S. Senator Charles Sumner, one of the leaders of the Radical Republicans, railed against Johnson's "one-man power," claiming that he was providing openly providing aid and succor to rebels, and stating:[12]
You do not forget that, in accepting his nomination as Vice-President, he rushed forward to declare that the rebel States must be remodelled; that confiscation must be enforced, and that rebels must be excluded from the work of reconstruction. His language was plain and unmistakable. Announcing that 'government must be fixed on the principles of eternal justice' he went on to declare, that, 'if the man who gave his influence and his means to destroy the government should be permitted to participate in the great work of reorganization, then all the precious blood so freely poured out will have been wantonly spilled, and all our victories go for naught.' True; very true. Then, in words of surpassing energy, he cried out, that 'the great plantations must be seized and divided into small farms,' and that 'traitors should take a back seat in the work of restoration.' Perhaps the true rule was never expressed with more homely and vital force than in this last saying, often repeated in different forms: 'For rebels, back seats.' Add to this that other saying so often repeated, 'treason must be made odious,' and you have two great principles of a just reconstruction, once proclaimed by the President, but now practically disowned by him.[12]
The phrase, and the promise to persecute rebels, came up again after Johnson's presidency ended. He ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1869 and "Confederate sympathizers" reminded Democratic voters of Johnson's past verbal aggression. Johnson came in third out of three candidates, even losing his home county.[4] In 1885, when Chauncey Depew and Frederick Grant published an exchange suggesting that circa 1867 Johnson had ordered Ulysses S. Grant—in his role as head of the U.S. military—to issue "a proclamation from the White House, directing all Southern States to send up to Washington their full number of representatives and Senators, of course on the old basis" (which would have given Johnson a legislative majority), and Grant refused (which may or may not have been abrogation of duty),[13] the old line resurfaced, and one commenter (who thought Grant had, in fact, acted illegally and subversively in refusing the order) wrote, "No politician was a more complete master of buncomb than Andrew Johnson. His utterances were loud and repeated that 'treason must be made odious and traitors punished'. Yet he was issuing pardons by the hundreds or thousands all the time and the cases of punishment were few."[14] In 1917 a Utah newspaper that advocated for the federal prosecution (and potential execution) of the Wobblies, resurfaced the phrase, stating, "Old Andrew Johnson did not accomplish much that appealed to the memory of red-blooded Americans, but he did say that 'Treason must be made odious,' and this rule of action is even more applicable today than during the first dark days of the Reconstruction period."[15]
The phrase continues to be recalled in comparisons of the political character and impeachment of Andrew Johnson to the political character and impeachments of Donald Trump: "Johnson also anticipated Trump in the violent abusiveness of his rhetoric toward political enemies. That was ironic, in a way: He had first attracted the support of Republicans as Lincoln's 1864 running mate thanks to his frequent and intense denunciations of his fellow Southern secessionists as traitors who deserved to be strung up, if not killed in combat."[16][17]
Andrew Johnson was an American politician who served as the 17th president of the United States from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, as he was vice president at that time. Johnson was a Democrat who ran with Abraham Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket, coming to office as the Civil War concluded. He favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the newly freed people who were formerly enslaved. This led to conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.
The Wade–Davis Bill of 1864 (H.R. 244) was a bill "to guarantee to certain States whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a republican form of government," proposed for the Reconstruction of the South. In opposition to President Abraham Lincoln's more lenient ten percent plan, the bill made re-admittance to the Union for former Confederate states contingent on a majority in each ex-Confederate state to take the Ironclad Oath to the effect they had never in the past supported the Confederacy. The bill passed both houses of Congress on July 2, 1864, but was pocket vetoed by Lincoln and never took effect. The Radical Republicans were outraged that Lincoln did not sign the bill. Lincoln wanted to mend the Union by carrying out the ten percent plan. He believed it would be too difficult to repair all of the ties within the Union if the Wade–Davis bill passed.
The Radical Republicans were a faction within the Republican Party originating from the party's founding in 1854—some six years before the Civil War—until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Reconstruction. They called themselves "Radicals" because of their goal of immediate, complete, and permanent eradication of slavery in the United States. They were opposed during the war by the Moderate Republicans, and by the Democratic Party. Radicals led efforts after the war to establish civil rights for former slaves and fully implement emancipation. After unsuccessful measures in 1866 resulted in violence against former slaves in the rebel states, Radicals pushed the Fourteenth Amendment for statutory protections through Congress. They opposed allowing ex-Confederate officers to retake political power in the Southern U.S., and emphasized equality, civil rights and voting rights for the "freedmen", i.e., former slaves who had been freed during or after the Civil War by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment.
Benjamin Franklin "Bluff" Wade was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator for Ohio from 1851 to 1869. He is known for his leading role among the Radical Republicans. Had the 1868 impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson led to a conviction in the Senate, as president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, Wade would have become president for the remaining nine months of Johnson's term.
Isham Green Harris was an American politician who served as the 16th governor of Tennessee from 1857 to 1862, and as a U.S. senator from 1877 until his death. He was the state's first governor from West Tennessee. A pivotal figure in the state's history, Harris was considered by his contemporaries the person most responsible for leading Tennessee out of the Union and aligning it with the Confederacy during the Civil War.
David Trotter Patterson was a United States Senator from Tennessee at the beginning of the Reconstruction period.
West Hughes Humphreys was the 3rd Attorney General of Tennessee and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, and the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
The New Orleans Massacre of 1866 occurred on July 30, when a peaceful demonstration of mostly Black Freedmen was set upon by a mob of white rioters, many of whom had been soldiers of the recently defeated Confederate States of America, leading to a full-scale massacre. The violence erupted outside the Mechanics Institute, site of a reconvened Louisiana Constitutional Convention. According to the official report, a total of 38 were killed and 146 wounded, of whom 34 dead and 119 wounded were Black Freedmen. Unofficial estimates were higher. Gilles Vandal estimated 40 to 50 Black Americans were killed and more than 150 Black Americans wounded. Others have claimed nearly 200 were killed. In addition, three white convention attendees were killed, as was one white protester.
James Mullins was an American politician who represented Tennessee's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1867 to 1869. He also served a single term in the Tennessee House of Representatives (1865–1867). Described as a "fierce fanatic of the Republican Party," Mullins supported the initiatives of Governor William G. Brownlow in the state legislature, most notably leading efforts to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.
Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson was an American attorney, politician, and judge, active primarily in East Tennessee during the mid-19th century. He represented Tennessee's 1st Congressional District in the 36th U.S. Congress (1859–1861), where he gained a reputation as a staunch pro-Union southerner. He was elected to a second term in 1861 on the eve of the Civil War, but was arrested by Confederate authorities before he could take his seat.
Alvan Cullem Gillem was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Although Southern-born, he remained loyal to the Federal government and fought in several battles in the Western Theater before commanding occupation troops in Mississippi and Arkansas during Reconstruction. He later played a prominent role in the Modoc War in 1873.
The American Civil War significantly affected Tennessee, with every county witnessing combat. It was a divided state, with the Eastern counties harboring pro-Union sentiment throughout the conflict, and it was the last state to officially secede from the Union, in protest of President Lincoln's April 15 Proclamation calling forth 75,000 members of state militias to suppress the rebellion. Although Tennessee provided a large number of troops for the Confederacy, it would also provide more soldiers for the Union Army than any other state within the Confederacy.
The impeachment of Andrew Johnson was initiated on February 24, 1868, when the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to impeach Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, for "high crimes and misdemeanors". The alleged high crimes and misdemeanors were afterwards specified in eleven articles of impeachment adopted by the House on March 2 and 3, 1868. The primary charge against Johnson was that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Specifically, that he had acted to remove from office Edwin Stanton and to replace him with Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas as secretary of war ad interim. The Tenure of Office Act had been passed by Congress in March 1867 over Johnson's veto with the primary intent of protecting Stanton from being fired without the Senate's consent. Stanton often sided with the Radical Republican faction and did not have a good relationship with Johnson.
Swing Around the Circle is the nickname for a speaking campaign undertaken by U.S. President Andrew Johnson between August 27 and September 15, 1866, in which he tried to gain support for his obstructionist Reconstruction policies and for his preferred candidates in the forthcoming midterm Congressional elections. The tour's nickname came from the route that the campaign took: "Washington, D.C., to New York, west to Chicago, south to St. Louis, and east through the Ohio River valley back to the nation's capital".
Edmund Cooper was a U.S. Representative from Tennessee.
This bibliography of Andrew Johnson is a list of major works about Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States.
Andrew Johnson, who became the 17th U.S. president following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, was one of the last U.S. Presidents to personally own slaves. Johnson also oversaw the first years of the Reconstruction era as the head of the executive branch of the U.S. government. This professional obligation clashed with Johnson's long-held personal resentments: "Johnson's attitudes showed much consistency. All of his life he held deep-seated Jacksonian convictions along with prejudices against blacks, sectionalists, and the wealthy." Johnson's engagement with Southern Unionism and Abraham Lincoln is summarized by his statement, "Damn the negroes; I am fighting these traitorous aristocrats, their masters!"
The first impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson was launched by a vote of the United States House of Representatives on January 7, 1867, to investigate the potential impeachment of the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson. It was run by the House Committee on the Judiciary.
The Buell Military Commission was an 1862–63 U.S. government investigation into the command decisions of U.S. Army general Don Buell in the first years of the American Civil War. The commission was headed by Lew Wallace. The investigation was largely the consequence of the conflict over decision-making in Tennessee between military governor Andrew Johnson and Buell, commander of military forces in the state. According to historian Peter Maslowski, "The Lincoln administration made a serious error when it failed to provide Johnson and Buell with explicit instructions on their respective responsibilities."
"Oh we'll hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree" is a variant of the American folk song "John Brown's Body" that was sung by the United States military, Unionist civilians, and freedmen during and after the American Civil War. The phrase and associated imagery became relevant to the post-war legal issues surrounding the potential prosecution of former Confederate politicians and officers; the lyric was sometimes referenced in political cartoons and artworks of the time, and in political debates continuing well into the post-Reconstruction era.
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