Question

"Treason is a crime and must be made odious", Johnson said soon after becoming president. "Traiters must be impoverished ... They must not only be punished, but their social power must be destroyed."

Why is it an opinion

Answer 1

I'd surmise it's because Johnson's view at that point spoke more from emotional rhetoric than anything else. He wanted to the tear the South a new one after the Civil War. He was also a Southerner himself, but he made no secret of his contempt for secessionists at that time.