Wartime Raids and Mass Arrests At the same time, the government stepped up its campaign against radicals. The nation was at war in Europe -- and a draft had been reintroduced for the first time since the Civil War.
Military recruitment posters -- like James Montgomery Flagg's famous pointing Uncle Sam — were striking a patriotic chord with the American public. On September 5, , federal agents raided Industrial Workers of the World offices nationwide. On September 28, people who were or had been active in the I. One hundred and one defendants were found guilty, and received prison sentences ranging from ten days to twenty years.
In , it was used to send labor leader and former presidential candidate Eugene Debs to jail for a decade, because of a speech he delivered. Yet in some quarters, the law was still deemed insufficient to deal with the problem of radicalism, and particularly with the influence of the I. This more wide-ranging law would establish penalties for speaking against the American government, constitution, flag, or uniform; interfering with wartime production; promoting the cause of America's enemies; inciting refusal of military duty; obstructing military recruitment, and more.
It also criminalized advocating or suggesting any of these activities, so that a radical public speaker like Emma Goldman became a target. According to Alice Wexler, the war provided an excuse "for the prosecution of labor activists, dissidents, and radicals -- especially the anarchists, Wobblies, and left-wing socialists -- who had gained considerable strength during the previous decade.
Underlying Political Motivations The bill was clearly aimed at the I. Its implications for civil liberties were clear. Georgia Senator Thomas W. Hardwick stated at the time: "I understand that the real, in fact practically the only, object of this section is to get some men called I. I dislike to be confronted by a situation in which in the name of patriotism we are asked to justify the fundamental rights and liberties of ,, American people in order to meet a situation in a few Northwestern states.
Free Speech? Despite the total repeal of the Sedition Act, several provisions of the Espionage Act of remain in effect today. The outbreak of World War I shook America and Americans out of a more than year-long self-imposed period of isolationism. Fears of internal threats posed especially by foreign-born Americans grew quickly. In his State of the Union address on December 7, , almost two years before the U. On February 3, , the U. Although the Senate passed a version of the Espionage Act on February 20, the House decided not to vote before the end of the current session of Congress.
After weeks of debate, the Senate, by a vote of 39 to 38, removed the censorship provision from the final law. Despite the removal of his press censorship provision, President Wilson signed the Espionage Act into law on June 15, However, in a memorable bill signing statement , Wilson insisted that press censorship was still needed. Since World War I, several Americans have been convicted or indicted for violations of the espionage and the sedition acts.
A few of the more notable cases include:. In , prominent labor leader and five-time Socialist Party of America presidential candidate Eugene V. As a result of the speech, Debs was arrested and charged with 10 counts of sedition. On September 12, he was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 10 years in prison and denied the right to vote for the rest of his life. Debs appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled against him.
United States, which held that speech that could potentially undermine society or the U. Debs, who actually ran for president from his jail cell in , served three years in prison, during which his health deteriorated rapidly.
On December 23, , President Warren G. At a time when the United States was the only country in the world known to have nuclear weapons, the Rosenbergs were accused of giving the USSR top-secret nuclear weapon designs, along with information about radar, sonar, and jet engines.
After a long and controversial trial, the Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage and sentenced to death under Section 2 of the Espionage Act of The sentence was carried out at sundown on June 19, In June , Daniel Ellsberg, former U. On January 3, , Ellsberg was charged with violations of the Espionage Act of , as well as theft and conspiracy.
In all, the charges against him carried a total maximum prison sentence of years. In July , former U. Army Private First Class Chelsea Manning was convicted by a military court-martial for violations of the Espionage Act relating to her disclosure of nearly , classified or sensitive military documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
Originally facing 22 charges, including aiding the enemy, which could have brought the death penalty, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of the charges. In her court martial trials in June , Manning was convicted on 21 of the charges but was acquitted of aiding the enemy. Manning was sentenced to serve years at the maximum-security disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. However, on January 17, , President Barack Obama commuted her sentence to the nearly seven years she had already been held.
Download the public record from LegisWorks. In this state of the union address, Wilson addresses the threat of sedition by disloyal immigrants and asks Congress to pass what would eventually be the Espionage Act.
Read it at the American Presidency Project. Anastaplo, George. United States ; Abrams v.
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