Eugene V. Debs was convicted of espionage in 1918 under the Espionage Act of 1917 because he publicly spoke out against the United States involvement in WW1. read more
Eugene V. Debs was convicted of espionage in 1918 under the Espionage Act of 1917 because he publicly spoke out against the United States involvement in WW1. This form of "insubordination" was considered an act of espionage and, by some, an act of treason. read more
A couple thousand anti-war speakers were arrested under the law, Debs among them, and about twelve-hundred were convicted, sentenced in many cases to ten or more years. But by the summer of 1918, the attorney general claimed that too many dissenters were slipping though his net, so Congress added amendments, known as the Sedition Act, which stand as a high-water mark of American intolerance. read more