Better Days Ahead: Warren Harding Frees Eugene Debs
Throughout history it seems that whenever America was at war or war seemed imminent, free speech and first amendment rights were among the first casualties. For example, in 1798, when war with France appeared possible, the administration of John Adams brought about the Alien and Sedition Acts, which, among other things, restricted speech which was critical of the federal government. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln put limits on free speech, even going so far as to "deport" Ohio Congressman Clement Vlandingham to Confederate territory for his activities that were critical of the government's prosecution of the war and his efforts to organize a peace movement, called "Copperheads" by their critics. Sometimes these limitations are justified, other times they are not, or they go too far. Sometimes the law is enforced not for valid security reasons, but for political ones.
During the first world war, the administration of President Woodrow Wilson passed the Espionage Act of 1917. This was expanded on by the Sedition Act of 1918 (technically a set of amendments to the Espionage Act), which prohibited many forms of speech, including "any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States...or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy". As a Senator, Warren Harding believed that these amendments went too far. Harding had been a newspaper publisher and editor in Marion, Ohio, and he was very concerned about how far the act went to muzzle a free press and how legitimate criticism of government might be contorted into an act of subversion out of purely political motives.
Eugene Victor Debs was a former Indiana congressman, and a prominent labor leader. On three occasions, he ran for President of the United States as the candidate for the Socialist Party. When the United States entered World War One, Debs was a very vocal critic of President Wilson. He gave a number of speeches against the Wilson administration and the war. It's probably not too strong to say that Wilson hated Debs, whom he called a "traitor to his country." On June 16, 1918, Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio, urging Americans to resist the military draft that had been established World War I. Among other things, he said that the president was using the nation's young men as "cannon fodder". Debs was arrested on June 30 and charged with ten counts of sedition. He was found guilty on September 12 and on November 18, 1918, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. When sentenced, he told the court:
"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
Debs served his sentence in an Atlanta penitentiary. According to historian David Pietrusza and others, Debs was loved and admired both by his fellow prisoners, as well as by the Warden and prison staff. In his wonderful book 1920: The Year of Six Presidents, (reviewed here), Pietrusza portrays Debs in almost saint-like terms in describing how well-regarded he was for his charitable manner. When Debs was transferred to the Atlanta prison, Warden Joseph Z. Terrell of Moundsville State Prison wrote to Atlanta's Warden Fred Zerbst and said of Debs, "I never in my life met a kinder man. He is forever thinking of others, trying to serve them and never thinking of himself." The prison authorities even allowed Debs to campaign for President from his prison cell in 1920. It was in that election that Debs received his greatest number of votes, 913,693.
When Warren Harding became President on March 4, 1921, he decided to review the Debs case. Later in the year, there were reports that Debs' health was deteriorating. Harding commuted Debs sentence to one of time served so that Debs could be released in time for Christmas of 1921. Harding did not issue a pardon. The White House released a statement saying this about Debs' case:
"There is no question of his guilt. He was by no means as rabid and outspoken in his expressions as many others, and but for his prominence and the resulting far-reaching effect of his words, very probably might not have received the sentence he did. He is an old man, not strong physically. He is a man of much personal charm and impressive personality, which qualifications make him a dangerous man calculated to mislead the unthinking and affording excuse for those with criminal intent."
When Debs was released from the Atlanta Penitentiary, the other prisoners sent him off with "a roar of cheers" and a crowd of 50,000 greeted his return to Terre Haute to the accompaniment of band music. On the way home to Terre Haute, Debs stopped off in Washington at the White House, where he was warmly received by President Harding. On meeting Debs, Harding said: "Well, I've heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now glad to meet you personally."
Though Harding often ranks among the worst presidents because of the scandals that others in his administration perpetrated, author James David Robenalt has a more complimentary assessment of Harding, one I tend to agree with. in his 2009 book The Harding Affair (reviewed in a separate post in this community here), Robenalt writes at pages 3-4:
He had a rare political attribute: courage. In his first address to Congress, he asked for the passage of an anti-lynching law. Six months after taking office, he was the first sitting president to travel into the deep south to make a bold civil rights speech. Democracy was a lie if blacks were denied political equality, he told an enormous crowd separated by color and a chain-link fence in Birmingham, Alabama. A few months later, on his first Christmas in the White House, he pardoned Socialist leader Eugene Debs, who was rotting away in an Atlanta prison. Debs's crime? He spoke out against the draft and the war after America entered the conflict.
Technically, Harding didn't pardon Debs, he commuted his sentence. But the result was the same, in that Debs was now a free man. It was a generous and charitable act on Harding's part, one that many presidents may have lacked the courage to do.
During the first world war, the administration of President Woodrow Wilson passed the Espionage Act of 1917. This was expanded on by the Sedition Act of 1918 (technically a set of amendments to the Espionage Act), which prohibited many forms of speech, including "any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States...or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy". As a Senator, Warren Harding believed that these amendments went too far. Harding had been a newspaper publisher and editor in Marion, Ohio, and he was very concerned about how far the act went to muzzle a free press and how legitimate criticism of government might be contorted into an act of subversion out of purely political motives.
Eugene Victor Debs was a former Indiana congressman, and a prominent labor leader. On three occasions, he ran for President of the United States as the candidate for the Socialist Party. When the United States entered World War One, Debs was a very vocal critic of President Wilson. He gave a number of speeches against the Wilson administration and the war. It's probably not too strong to say that Wilson hated Debs, whom he called a "traitor to his country." On June 16, 1918, Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio, urging Americans to resist the military draft that had been established World War I. Among other things, he said that the president was using the nation's young men as "cannon fodder". Debs was arrested on June 30 and charged with ten counts of sedition. He was found guilty on September 12 and on November 18, 1918, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. When sentenced, he told the court:
"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
Debs served his sentence in an Atlanta penitentiary. According to historian David Pietrusza and others, Debs was loved and admired both by his fellow prisoners, as well as by the Warden and prison staff. In his wonderful book 1920: The Year of Six Presidents, (reviewed here), Pietrusza portrays Debs in almost saint-like terms in describing how well-regarded he was for his charitable manner. When Debs was transferred to the Atlanta prison, Warden Joseph Z. Terrell of Moundsville State Prison wrote to Atlanta's Warden Fred Zerbst and said of Debs, "I never in my life met a kinder man. He is forever thinking of others, trying to serve them and never thinking of himself." The prison authorities even allowed Debs to campaign for President from his prison cell in 1920. It was in that election that Debs received his greatest number of votes, 913,693.
When Warren Harding became President on March 4, 1921, he decided to review the Debs case. Later in the year, there were reports that Debs' health was deteriorating. Harding commuted Debs sentence to one of time served so that Debs could be released in time for Christmas of 1921. Harding did not issue a pardon. The White House released a statement saying this about Debs' case:
"There is no question of his guilt. He was by no means as rabid and outspoken in his expressions as many others, and but for his prominence and the resulting far-reaching effect of his words, very probably might not have received the sentence he did. He is an old man, not strong physically. He is a man of much personal charm and impressive personality, which qualifications make him a dangerous man calculated to mislead the unthinking and affording excuse for those with criminal intent."
When Debs was released from the Atlanta Penitentiary, the other prisoners sent him off with "a roar of cheers" and a crowd of 50,000 greeted his return to Terre Haute to the accompaniment of band music. On the way home to Terre Haute, Debs stopped off in Washington at the White House, where he was warmly received by President Harding. On meeting Debs, Harding said: "Well, I've heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now glad to meet you personally."
Though Harding often ranks among the worst presidents because of the scandals that others in his administration perpetrated, author James David Robenalt has a more complimentary assessment of Harding, one I tend to agree with. in his 2009 book The Harding Affair (reviewed in a separate post in this community here), Robenalt writes at pages 3-4:
He had a rare political attribute: courage. In his first address to Congress, he asked for the passage of an anti-lynching law. Six months after taking office, he was the first sitting president to travel into the deep south to make a bold civil rights speech. Democracy was a lie if blacks were denied political equality, he told an enormous crowd separated by color and a chain-link fence in Birmingham, Alabama. A few months later, on his first Christmas in the White House, he pardoned Socialist leader Eugene Debs, who was rotting away in an Atlanta prison. Debs's crime? He spoke out against the draft and the war after America entered the conflict.
Technically, Harding didn't pardon Debs, he commuted his sentence. But the result was the same, in that Debs was now a free man. It was a generous and charitable act on Harding's part, one that many presidents may have lacked the courage to do.