Treason

Treason

John Harington invented the precursor to the modern flush toilet in England around1596 hence the reason we often refer to the bathroom as "the John". Sir John was an avid writer and wrote about his invention, which he referred to as the Ajax, in his 1596 work A New Discourse on a Stale Subject: The Metomorphasis of Ajax. Although he did present his new invention Harington also used the volume as a political allegory in which he attacked the excrement that he felt was poisoning society. John is known for epigram: “Treason doth never prosper, what is the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”

Treason is not a term we often hear in this country as it is a rarely prosecuted crime. Article III, Section 3 of the United States Constitution defines treason against the United States as levying war against the US or giving aid and comfort to enemies of the US. Treason is a crime punishable by death. The last truly famous trial for treason was of the infamous Julius and Ethel Rosenburg who were accused and convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and executed for it June 19, 1953 in Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, NY. More recently (2001) Robert Hanssen, whose treason was made famous by a major motion picture, pled guilty to espionage. For 22 years, Hanssen spied for the Soviets and the Russians all while appearing to be a loyal FBI and competent agent in the FBI. Hanssen's involvement with the Soviets and later the Russians has been called the worse intelligence disaster in US history. If we wanted to go further back to the first infamous traitor to the country, we must go back to Benedict Arnold show while the general in command of a fort at West Point, NY plotted unsuccessfully to surrender his fort to the British. When his plan was revealed, Arnold defected to the British army. At the time, Arnold was viewed in a harsher light than Judas Iscariot who, as Benjamin Franklin noted, "sold only one man" whereas Arnold sold three million. Knowing how we as a country punish those who we deem betrayers to the Union, many of us continue to celebrate the treasonous acts committed by those who seceded from the Union and for four years chose to exist as another country: The Confederate States of America.
Beginning on December 20, 1860 with the state of South Carolina, 11 states asserted that they had the legal right to secede from the United States of America--Abraham Lincoln did not agree. These states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina (Kentucky and Missouri have been claimed by the Confederacy although they never formally seceded from the Union. The New Mexico Territory which consists of modern day Arizona and New Mexico also seceded though for very different reasons) were in dispute with the Union states over the expansion and maintenance of slavery. The spark that lit the fire was the magnitude of the support for Lincoln's party in the northern states. According to Civil War historian, James M. McPherson quoting the Richmond Examiner, the Lincoln's Republican Party was viewed as "A party founded on the single sentiment...of hatred of African slavery" and the New Orleans Delta referred to the party as a revolutionary party. It was for this reason, that southern states in their belligerence rebelled against the United States and chose to commit the greatest act of treason ever recorded in American history: The American Civil War.
In Virginia and across the South, treason has endured. Confederate influence remains remarkably poignant the death of this "nation" 145 years ago. The Confederacy little more than an outlaw band of traitors responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of Americans. They murdered not for patriotic cause but, as Lincoln so eloquently stated, to continue “wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces.” The actions of the Confederacy are not cause for celebration. In remembering the Confederacy we should honor the sacrifice of life and limb by thousands of Union solders and the theft of the lives and labor of Blacks in this country. Yet, like a petulant child the South cries and longs for the return of the antebellum norms and mores. For them, a simpler time when cotton was king, women were at home, and when a nigger knew his place. This White supremacist attitude is clearly expressed in the motto of the Arlington Confederate Monument which reads "Victrix causea Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni" which translates into "The winning cause pleased the Gods but the losing cause pleased Cato", a stoic advocate of freedom. To imply that Cato would have sided with the Confederacy in support of their freedom proves that they viewed (and still view) the defense of the enslavement of Blacks as a just and righteous cause.
What simultaneously disturbs and surprises me is that American establishment at large, including the United States government, tolerates the remembrance of Confederacy and its treasonous past. Confederate flags wave atop of capital buildings, in state schools and in and around the homes and vehicles of many Americans and not just those in these 11 states. How the display of Confederate flags is not seen as unlawful and seditious behavior is beyond my comprehension. It would seem that a state that flew a Confederate flag would at the very least place its federal funding in jeopardy for essentially advocating the overthrow of the United States government. It would be appropriate for a governor who advocated for a state sponsored celebratory period of the Confederacy be immediately removed from office for violating his oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.
Besides being seditious, the major issue with the Confederacy is that it fuels (and is fueled by) racist and xenophobic behaviors. Southern obsession with their illicit past has lead to the mistrust of government resulting in the lack social safety nets that have stunted the type of economic growth that leads to large gains in quality education and employment opportunities. If you want to find the states that are the unhealthiest, most illiterate, polluted, underpaid and uneducated look to the states of the Confederacy.
As a nation, we should begin to marginalize Confederate romantics. We should threaten to withdraw funding to states and institutions that wave the Stars and Bars. Politicians that advocate views of the Confederacy (such as Texas Governor Rick Perry, Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour) should be charged with treason. For the many Americans who claim that the remembrance of the Confederacy is about heritage and not hate, let us revisit the words of Alexander Hamilton Stephens, the vice president of the Confederacy, as quoted in his famous Cornerstone Speech:

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth"

With every Confederate flag displayed and purchased, symbolic violence is inflicted upon Blacks in this country and warfare is declared: a treasonous act. Those who claim the Confederacy as heritage should be reminded that a patriot cannot exist where treason is a celebrated and their heritage is one of hate. In our country if we are to exist as a people we must call the Confederacy what it really is: treason and we should force our people to turn away from treasonous acts and work to heal the rupture that these actions have caused and continue to cause.

I think about John Harington and his invention of the early flush toilet and his controversial book. How odd is it that a man who would invent the toilet would speak so eloquently about treason? Maybe it is not such a stretch to think that treason, if left to fester can sink an entire nation down the toilet.