Question

Taking these two documents together -- ( From Woodrow Wilson, War Message to Congress in 1917 and From Eugene v. Debs, Speech to the Jury before Sentencing under the Espionage Act (1918) in what contrasting ways are patriotism defined during The Great War? What constitutes a patriotic (or unpatriotic) act according to the Espionage Act, and according to Debs?

Answer 1

The ‘Espionage Act’ was formulated to crush agitation & silence opponents of the war. For those convicted of helping the enemy, hindering military recruitment, protesting mobilization, or saying / doing anything to impede the war endeavours, the maximum penalty was up to $10,000 & twenty years in a federal jail. Those citizens that were drafted but declined to fight also encountered prosecution under this Act.

This Act also empowered the U.S.A Postmaster General to halt the distribution & mailing of any publication he regarded treasonous / inadequately patriotic.

Federal agents detained scores of communists & other dissidents. Debs delivered a series of anti-war talks . The Canton lecture proved to be his last one before heading to jail.

In his lecture, he told the audience – a Socialist Party assembly that was infiltrated by U.S.A agents – that he was well aware that he had to talk carefully to avert federal prosecution. So whilst he gave a typical talk which criticized the capitalist arrangement & criticized big business for pushing the nation into battle & profiting from it, he was cautious not to mention World War 1 / particularly attack Wilson. Nonetheless, his lecture was hardly subtle.