Espionage and Sedition Acts

Following the immigration waves of the late 19th and early 20th centuries—further stoked by Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution of 1917—anti-communist, anti-radical sentiment ballooned in America. On June 15th of that same year—just two months after America’s entry into the First World War—Congress passed the Espionage Act, which criminalized the conveyance of any information intended to hinder America’s ability to wage war, as well as acts that might advance the causes of the nation’s Axis enemies.

Aimed at Radical Immigrants

Aimed specifically at disloyal immigrants from Eastern and Southern European nations, those radicals found guilty of violating the Espionage Act were subject to a 20-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine—some $235,000 in today’s currency. Enforcement of the Espionage Act fell on the shoulders of President Woodrow Wilson’s attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer, which was further strengthened by the Sedition Act of 1918, imposing additional harsh penalties on anyone found guilty of making false

Protecting the War Effort

statements intended to hinder America’s war effort, as well as stiff penalties on anyone accused of insulting or abusing the federal government, the American flag, the U.S. Constitution or the U.S. armed services. In tandem, the Espionage & Sedition Acts were put in place to muzzle immigrant and homegrown socialists, pacifists and anti-war activists, although enforcement measures frequently devolved into attacks on African Americans.

Communist Paranoia

As Americans became increasingly paranoid about anti-communist, anti-socialist sentiment, during the Red Scare of 1919 and 1920, thousands of radicals were rounded up during the now infamous Palmer Raids, leading to the trial and deportation of 556 radicals aboard the USAT Buford, which soon earned her nickname, The Soviet Ark. Most famous of those imprisoned and fined under the Espionage & Sedition Acts was socialist labor activist Eugene Debs, who was sentenced to ten years in prison for a 1918 speech he made in Canton Ohio, where he criticized the Espionage Act and America’s entry into the First World War.

Sentence Commuted

After Debs’ sentence was commuted following the repeal of the Sedition Act in 1920, the Espionage Act was further deployed during the Second Red Scare of the 1940s and 50s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover rooted out suspected communist sympathizers during the early years of the Cold War, making the Espionage & Sedition Acts, a major pushback against radical ideologies in America.