"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]
The notion of a "stump speech," in which a politician nominally stands upon the stump of a sawed-down tree to make a speech to potential voters from a physically elevated position, dates to about 1820 in Tennessee. According to historian Thomas P. Abernethy, "Public office was eagerly sought by the young lawyers and others, and electioneering, unknown in the earlier days, grew rapidly in vogue during the period following 1819. Stump speaking came to be an art and cajolery a profession, while whiskey flowed freely at the hustings. The politicians could most easily attain their object by appealing to the prejudices of the masses."[3]
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.[4] 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.[5] 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,[6] throughout 1863, in speeches to the 3rd Minnesota Regiment, and at Columbia, at Shelbyville, at Nashville on the Fourth of July,[7] and at Franklin on August 22.[5] 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."[8] A speech on theme was also made in Washington, D.C. on April 3, 1865 when he was Vice President.[9] 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."[10]
"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."[11] 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."[12]
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:[13]
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.[13]
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.[5] 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),[14] 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."[15] 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."[16]
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."[17][18]
Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States, serving 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 as well as pardoning ex-Confederates. 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 Reconstruction era was a period in United States history and Southern United States history that followed the American Civil War and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the abolition of slavery and the reintegration of the eleven former Confederate States of America into the United States. During this period, three amendments were added to the United States Constitution to grant citizenship and equal civil rights to the newly freed slaves. To circumvent these legal achievements, the former Confederate states imposed poll taxes and literacy tests and engaged in terrorism to intimidate and control people of color and to discourage or prevent them from voting.
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.
William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow was an American newspaper publisher, Methodist minister, book author, prisoner of war, lecturer, and politician who served as the 17th governor of Tennessee from 1865 to 1869 and as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1869 to 1875. Brownlow rose to prominence in the late 1830s and early 1840s as editor of the Whig, a polemical newspaper in East Tennessee that promoted Henry Clay and the Whig Party ideals, and also that repeated Brownlow's opposition to secession by the southern slave states in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Brownlow's uncompromising and radical viewpoints made him one of the most divisive figures in Tennessee political history and one of the most controversial Reconstruction Era politicians of the United States.
Isham Green Harris was an American and Confederate 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.
The 1866–67 United States House of Representatives elections were held on various dates in various states between June 4, 1866, and September 6, 1867. They occurred during President Andrew Johnson's term just one year after the American Civil War ended when the Union defeated the Confederacy. Each state set its own date for its elections to the House of Representatives. Members were elected before or after the first session of the 40th United States Congress convened on March 4, 1867, including the at-large seat from the new state of Nebraska. Ten secessionist states still had not yet been readmitted, and therefore were not seated.
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. During the War, Tennessee was a Confederate state, and the last state to officially secede from the Union to join the Confederacy. Tennessee had been threatening to secede since before the Confederacy was even formed, but didn’t officially do so until after the fall of Fort Sumter when public opinion throughout the state drastically shifted. Tennessee seceded in protest to President Lincoln's April 15 Proclamation calling forth 75,000 members of state militias to suppress the rebellion. Tennessee provided a large number of troops for the Confederacy, and would also provide more fleeing soldiers for the Union Army than any other state within the Confederacy.
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.
John Hugh Smith (1819–1870) was an American Whig politician. He served as the Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, three times, from 1845 to 1846, from 1850 to 1853, and from 1862 to 1865.
Richard Mitchell Edwards was an American attorney, politician and soldier who served one term in the Tennessee House of Representatives (1861–1862). A Southern Unionist, he represented Bradley County at the East Tennessee Convention in 1861, and served as colonel of the 4th Tennessee Cavalry of the Union Army during the Civil War. He ran unsuccessfully for governor on the Greenback Party ticket in 1878 and 1880.
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."
The Andrew Johnson alcoholism debate is the dispute, originally conducted amongst the general public, and now typically a question for historians, about whether or not Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, drank to excess. There is no question that Andrew Johnson consumed alcohol ; the debate concerns whether or not he was governing drunk, how alcohol may have altered his personality and disrupted his relationships, and if, when, or how it affected his political standing, and even his current bottom-quartile historical assessment. Less so today, but in his own time, Johnson's alleged drinking contributed substantially to how his peers evaluated his "attributes of mind, character, and speech...where the good ruler is temperate, Johnson is an inebriate; where the good ruler is selfless, Johnson is self-regarding; where the good ruler is eloquent, Johnson is a rank demagogue...behind all these assumptions is the still and silent image of the Great Emancipator, but that is another story."
"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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