Sedition Act of 1918
Encyclopedia
The Sedition Act of 1918 was an Act of the United States Congress
that extended the Espionage Act of 1917
to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. One historian of American civil liberties has called it "the nation's most extreme antispeech legislation."
It forbade the use of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt. Those convicted under the act generally received sentences of imprisonment for 5 to 20 years. The act also allowed the Postmaster General
to refuse to deliver mail that met those same standards for punishable speech or opinion. It applied only to times "when the United States is in war." It was repealed on December 13, 1920.
Though the legislation enacted in 1918 is commonly called the Sedition Act, it was actually a set of amendments to the Espionage Act.
Therefore many studies of the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act find it difficult to report about the two "acts" separately. For example, one historian reports that "some fifteen hundred prosecutions were carried out under the Espionage and Sedition Acts, resulting in more than a thousand convictions." Court decisions do not use the shorthand term Sedition Act, but the correct legal term for the law, the Espionage Act, whether as originally enacted or as amended in 1918.
made it a crime to interfere with the war effort or with military recruitment or to aid a nation at war with the U.S. Wartime violence on the part of local groups of citizens, sometimes mobs or vigilantes, persuaded some lawmakers that the law was inadequate. In their view the country was witnessing instances public disorder that represented the public's own attempt to punish unpopular speech in light of the government's inability to do so. Amendments to enhance the government's authority under the Espionage Act would prevent mobs from doing what the government could not.
and Hiram Johnson
, the former speaking in defense of free speech and the latter assailing the administration for failing to use the laws already in place. Former president Theodore Roosevelt
voiced opposition as well. President Wilson and his Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory
viewed the bill as a political compromise. They hoped to avoid hearings that would embarrass the administration for its failure to prosecute offensive speech. They also feared other proposals that would have withdrawn prosecutorial authority from the Justice Department and placed it in the War Department, creating a sort of civilian court-martial process of questionable constitutionality. The final vote for passage was 48 to 26 in the Senate and 293 to 1 in the House of Representatives, with the sole dissenting vote in the House cast by Meyer London
of New York.
Officials in the Justice Department who had little enthusiasm for the law nevertheless hoped that even without generating many prosecutions it would help quiet public calls for more government action against those thought to be insufficiently patriotic.
The legislation came so late in the war, just a few months before Armistice Day
, that prosecutions under the provisions of the Sedition Act were few. One notable case was that of Mollie Steimer
, convicted under the Espionage Act as amended by the Sedition Act. U.S. Attorneys at first had considerable discretion in using these laws, until Gregory, a few weeks before the end of the war, instructed them not to act without his approval. Enforcement varied greatly from one jurisdiction to the next, with most activity in the Western states where the I.W.W.
was active. For example, Marie Equi
was arrested for giving a speech at the I.W.W. hall in Portland, Oregon, and was convicted after the war was over.
In April 1918, the government arrested industrialist William Edenborn
, a naturalized citizen from Germany, at his place of his railroad business in New Orleans
, Louisiana
. He was accused of speaking "disloyally" when he allegedly belittled the threat of Germany to the security of the United States.
In June 1918, the Socialist Party figure Eugene V. Debs
of Indiana
was arrested for violating the Sedition Act by undermining the government's conscription
efforts. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. He served his sentence in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary from April 13, 1919 until December 1921, when President Harding commuted Debs' sentence to time served, effective on December 25, Christmas Day.
In March 1919, President Wilson, at the suggestion of Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory
released or reduced the sentences of some two hundred prisoners convicted under the Espionage Act or the Sedition Act.
With the act rendered inoperative by the end of hostilities, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer
waged a public campaign, not unrelated to his own campaign for the Democratic nomination for president, in favor of a peacetime version of the Sedition Act. He sent a circular outlining his rationale to newspaper editors in January 1919, citing the dangerous foreign-language press and radical attempts to create unrest in African American communities. He testified in favor of such a law in early June 1920. At one point Congress had more than 70 versions of proposed language and amendments for such a bill, but it took no action on the controversial proposal during the campaign year of 1920. After a court decision later in June cited Palmer's anti-radical campaign for its abuse of power, the conservative Christian Science Monitor found itself unable to support him any more, writing on June 25, 1920: "What appeared to be an excess of radicalism...was certainly met with...an excess of suppression." The Alien Registration Act
of 1940 was the first American peacetime sedition act.
The U.S. Supreme Court
upheld the Sedition Act in Abrams v. United States
(1919),, althought Oliver Wendell Holmes used his dissenting opinion to make a commentary on the marketplace of ideas
. Subsequent Supreme Court decisions, such as Brandenburg v. Ohio
in 1969, make it unlikely that similar legislation would be considered constitutional today.
Congress repealed the Sedition Act on December 13, 1920.
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
that extended the Espionage Act of 1917
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law passed on June 15, 1917, shortly after the U.S. entry into World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code but is now found under Title 18, Crime...
to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. One historian of American civil liberties has called it "the nation's most extreme antispeech legislation."
It forbade the use of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt. Those convicted under the act generally received sentences of imprisonment for 5 to 20 years. The act also allowed the Postmaster General
United States Postmaster General
The United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...
to refuse to deliver mail that met those same standards for punishable speech or opinion. It applied only to times "when the United States is in war." It was repealed on December 13, 1920.
Though the legislation enacted in 1918 is commonly called the Sedition Act, it was actually a set of amendments to the Espionage Act.
Therefore many studies of the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act find it difficult to report about the two "acts" separately. For example, one historian reports that "some fifteen hundred prosecutions were carried out under the Espionage and Sedition Acts, resulting in more than a thousand convictions." Court decisions do not use the shorthand term Sedition Act, but the correct legal term for the law, the Espionage Act, whether as originally enacted or as amended in 1918.
Earlier legislation
The Espionage Act of 1917Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law passed on June 15, 1917, shortly after the U.S. entry into World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code but is now found under Title 18, Crime...
made it a crime to interfere with the war effort or with military recruitment or to aid a nation at war with the U.S. Wartime violence on the part of local groups of citizens, sometimes mobs or vigilantes, persuaded some lawmakers that the law was inadequate. In their view the country was witnessing instances public disorder that represented the public's own attempt to punish unpopular speech in light of the government's inability to do so. Amendments to enhance the government's authority under the Espionage Act would prevent mobs from doing what the government could not.
Enactment
While much of the debate focused on the law's precise language, there was considerable opposition in the Senate, almost entirely from Republicans like Henry Cabot LodgeHenry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot "Slim" Lodge was an American Republican Senator and historian from Massachusetts. He had the role of Senate Majority leader. He is best known for his positions on Meek policy, especially his battle with President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 over the Treaty of Versailles...
and Hiram Johnson
Hiram Johnson
Hiram Warren Johnson was a leading American progressive and later isolationist politician from California; he served as the 23rd Governor from 1911 to 1917, and as a United States Senator from 1917 to 1945.-Early life:...
, the former speaking in defense of free speech and the latter assailing the administration for failing to use the laws already in place. Former president Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
voiced opposition as well. President Wilson and his Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory
Thomas Watt Gregory
Thomas Watt Gregory was an American attorney and Cabinet Secretary.-Biography:Born in Crawfordsville, Mississippi, he graduated from The Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN in 1881, Southwestern Presbyterian University in 1883, and was a special student at the University of Virginia...
viewed the bill as a political compromise. They hoped to avoid hearings that would embarrass the administration for its failure to prosecute offensive speech. They also feared other proposals that would have withdrawn prosecutorial authority from the Justice Department and placed it in the War Department, creating a sort of civilian court-martial process of questionable constitutionality. The final vote for passage was 48 to 26 in the Senate and 293 to 1 in the House of Representatives, with the sole dissenting vote in the House cast by Meyer London
Meyer London
Meyer London was an American politician from New York City. He was one of only two members of the Socialist Party of America elected to the United States Congress.-Early years:...
of New York.
Officials in the Justice Department who had little enthusiasm for the law nevertheless hoped that even without generating many prosecutions it would help quiet public calls for more government action against those thought to be insufficiently patriotic.
Enforcement
Most U.S. newspapers "showed no antipathy toward the act" and "far from opposing the measure, the leading papers seemed actually to lead the movement in behalf of its speedy enactment."The legislation came so late in the war, just a few months before Armistice Day
Armistice Day
Armistice Day is on 11 November and commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day...
, that prosecutions under the provisions of the Sedition Act were few. One notable case was that of Mollie Steimer
Mollie Steimer
Mollie Steimer was born as Marthe Alperine in Tsarist Russia. She immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 15...
, convicted under the Espionage Act as amended by the Sedition Act. U.S. Attorneys at first had considerable discretion in using these laws, until Gregory, a few weeks before the end of the war, instructed them not to act without his approval. Enforcement varied greatly from one jurisdiction to the next, with most activity in the Western states where the I.W.W.
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
was active. For example, Marie Equi
Marie Equi
Marie Diana Equi was an American medical doctor and anarchist. Her father was Italian and her mother of Irish parentage.-Biography:...
was arrested for giving a speech at the I.W.W. hall in Portland, Oregon, and was convicted after the war was over.
In April 1918, the government arrested industrialist William Edenborn
William Edenborn
William Edenborn was a businessman, inventor and philanthropist, born in Altena in the Westphalia region of the Ruhr River Valley of the former Prussia, since Germany...
, a naturalized citizen from Germany, at his place of his railroad business in New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. He was accused of speaking "disloyally" when he allegedly belittled the threat of Germany to the security of the United States.
In June 1918, the Socialist Party figure Eugene V. Debs
Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor Debs was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World , and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States...
of Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
was arrested for violating the Sedition Act by undermining the government's conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
efforts. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. He served his sentence in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary from April 13, 1919 until December 1921, when President Harding commuted Debs' sentence to time served, effective on December 25, Christmas Day.
In March 1919, President Wilson, at the suggestion of Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory
Thomas Watt Gregory
Thomas Watt Gregory was an American attorney and Cabinet Secretary.-Biography:Born in Crawfordsville, Mississippi, he graduated from The Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN in 1881, Southwestern Presbyterian University in 1883, and was a special student at the University of Virginia...
released or reduced the sentences of some two hundred prisoners convicted under the Espionage Act or the Sedition Act.
With the act rendered inoperative by the end of hostilities, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer
Alexander Mitchell Palmer
Alexander Mitchell Palmer was Attorney General of the United States from 1919 to 1921. He was nicknamed The Fighting Quaker and he directed the controversial Palmer Raids.-Congressional career:...
waged a public campaign, not unrelated to his own campaign for the Democratic nomination for president, in favor of a peacetime version of the Sedition Act. He sent a circular outlining his rationale to newspaper editors in January 1919, citing the dangerous foreign-language press and radical attempts to create unrest in African American communities. He testified in favor of such a law in early June 1920. At one point Congress had more than 70 versions of proposed language and amendments for such a bill, but it took no action on the controversial proposal during the campaign year of 1920. After a court decision later in June cited Palmer's anti-radical campaign for its abuse of power, the conservative Christian Science Monitor found itself unable to support him any more, writing on June 25, 1920: "What appeared to be an excess of radicalism...was certainly met with...an excess of suppression." The Alien Registration Act
Smith Act
The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...
of 1940 was the first American peacetime sedition act.
The U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
upheld the Sedition Act in Abrams v. United States
Abrams v. United States
Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 , was a 7-2 decision of the United States Supreme Court involving the 1918 Amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917, which made it a criminal offense to urge curtailment of production of the materials necessary to the war against Germany with intent to hinder the...
(1919),, althought Oliver Wendell Holmes used his dissenting opinion to make a commentary on the marketplace of ideas
Marketplace of ideas
The "marketplace of ideas" is a rationale for freedom of expression based on an analogy to the economic concept of a free market. The "marketplace of ideas" belief holds that the truth or the best policy arises out of the competition of widely various ideas in free, transparent public discourse, an...
. Subsequent Supreme Court decisions, such as Brandenburg v. Ohio
Brandenburg v. Ohio
Brandenburg v. Ohio, , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case based on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It held that government cannot punish inflammatory speech unless it is directed to inciting and likely to incite imminent lawless action...
in 1969, make it unlikely that similar legislation would be considered constitutional today.
Congress repealed the Sedition Act on December 13, 1920.
See also
- Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 was a bill sponsored by Rep. Jane Harman in the 110th United States Congress...
- Smith ActSmith ActThe Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...
Sources
- Avrich, Paul, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991)
- Hagedorn, Ann, Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919 (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2007)
- Kennedy, David M., Over Here: The First World War and American Society (NY: Oxford University Press, 2004))
- Mock, James R., Censorship 1917 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941)
- Nelles, Walter, Seeing Red: Civil Liberty and the Law in the Period Following the War (American Civil Liberties Union, 1920)
- Stone, Geoffrey R., Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism (NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004)
Further reading
- Kohn, Stephen M., American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994)
- Murphy, Paul L., World War I and the Origin of Civil Liberties in the United States (NY: W.W. Norton, 1979)
- Peterson, H.C., and Gilbert C. Fite, Opponents of War, 1917-1918 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957)
- Preston, William, Jr. Aliens and Dissenters: Federal Suppression of Radicals, 1903-1933 2nd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994)
- Rabban, David M., Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years (NY: Cambridge University Press, 1997)
- Scheiber, Harry N., The Wilson Administration and Civil Liberties 1917-1921 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1960)