Woodrow Wilson
Suppression of Civil Liberties
President Wilson’s justification for entering World War I was making the world “safe for democracy” — at the cost of democracy in the United States.
Two months after Americans joined Britain, France, and the other Allied powers, Wilson signed the Espionage Act, giving postal authorities the ability to declare certain newspapers “nonmailable matter” intended to urge “treason.” The law also enacted a $10,000 penalty and twenty-year prison sentence for those obstructing the draft.
Within one year, seventy-four publications had been denied mailing privileges — a plain violation of the First Amendment.
In his war message, Wilson likewise announced that any “disloyalty” to the United States from people of “German birth and native sympathy” would be handled “with a firm hand of stern repression.” The Sedition Act of 1918, therefore, made it a federal offense to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the Constitution, the federal government, or the flag. Over 2,100 people were prosecuted under the statute.
Suppression of Civil Liberties
President Wilson’s justification for entering World War I was making the world “safe for democracy” — at the cost of democracy in the United States.
Two months after Americans joined Britain, France, and the other Allied powers, Wilson signed the Espionage Act, giving postal authorities the ability to declare certain newspapers “nonmailable matter” intended to urge “treason.” The law also enacted a $10,000 penalty and twenty-year prison sentence for those obstructing the draft.
Within one year, seventy-four publications had been denied mailing privileges — a plain violation of the First Amendment.
In his war message, Wilson likewise announced that any “disloyalty” to the United States from people of “German birth and native sympathy” would be handled “with a firm hand of stern repression.” The Sedition Act of 1918, therefore, made it a federal offense to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the Constitution, the federal government, or the flag. Over 2,100 people were prosecuted under the statute.