College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  American History

Okay sports fans….how about a small history lesson?

With the ascendency of IS to the front pages of the papers we are once again looking hard at the Patriot Act and how to defend the ‘homeland’ from the crazies that want to do us harm.

Recently I wrote about the Patriot act because of all the debate and yelling to some…..some say we lost out rights and others say we need this to protect us from the bad guys that want to cause the country harm….I reminded my readers that the patriot act was not the first time that this country has gone about protecting its citizens from outside harm……in 1789 there was the Aliens & Seditions Act………check it out if your mind has left the room……http://lobotero.com/2014/04/28/the-1st-patriot-act/ ……….

After that act was beaten down in the Congress we thought all was well…..but then in1917,  basically because of the Russian Revolution that brought communists to the forethought, we passed yet another patriot-like act……..The Sedition Act of 1918…….and yet another Patriot Act, the second in our history……..

Thanx to about.com we have a look see……….

To punish unpatriotic speech during wartime. Rep. Percy Quin (D-MS), a co-sponsor of the bill, summarized its intent: “I want to curb these fellows,” he said, “who are disloyal in their hearts.” The Espionage Act of 1917, passed the previous year, had already criminalized speech that could have the effect of limiting military recruitment – but the Sedition Act broadened these penalties to include all criticism of the U.S. government. The intended targets were the leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), referred to as “pernicious vermin” by Sedition Act co-sponsor Sen. Kenneth McKellar (D-TN), who tended to be both labor organizers and socialists. The language of the amendment was based on Montana’s notorious anti-sedition law, under which 79 people were convicted.

The Sedition Act amended the text of the Espionage Act of 1917 to include the following paragraphs:

Amendment to section 3 of the Espionage Act:

Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements, or say or do anything except by way of bona fide and not disloyal advice to an investor or investors, with intent to obstruct the sale by the United States of bonds or other securities of the United States or the making of loans by or to the United States, and whoever when the United States is at war, shall willfully cause or attempt to cause, or incite or attempt to incite, insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct or attempt to obstruct the recruiting or enlistment services of the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute, or shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any language intended to incite, provoke, or encourage resistance to the United States, or to promote the cause of its enemies, or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully by utterance, writing, printing, publication, or language spoken, urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production in this country of any thing or things, product or products, necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war in which the United States may be engaged, with intent by such curtailment to cripple or hinder the United States in the prosecution of war, and whoever shall willfully advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated, and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or the imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both: Provided, That any employee or official of the United States Government who commits any disloyal act or utters any unpatriotic or disloyal language, or who, in an abusive and violent manner criticizes the Army or Navy or the flag of the United States shall be at once dismissed from the service.

Passage of Legislation:

WAR DEPARTMENT,

I. By direction of the President of the United States, it is hereby ordered that until further order no citizen liable to be drafted into the militia shall be allowed to go to a foreign country. And all marshals, deputy marshals, and military officers of the United States are directed, and all police authorities, especially at the ports of the United States on the seaboard and on the frontier, are requested, to see that this order is faithfully carried into effect. And they are hereby authorized and directed to arrest and detain any person or persons about to depart from the United States in violation of this order, and report to Major L. C. Turner, judge-advocate at Washington City, for further instructions respecting the person or persons so arrested or detained.

II. Any person liable to draft who shall absent himself from his county or State before such draft is made will be arrested by any provost-marshal or other United States or State officer, wherever he may be found within the jurisdiction of the United States, and be conveyed to the nearest military post or depot and placed on military duty for the term of the draft; and the expenses of his own arrest and conveyance to such post or depot, and also the sum of $5, as a reward to the officer who shall make such arrest, shall be deducted from his pay.

III. The writ of habeas corpus is hereby suspended in respect to all persons so arrested and detained, and in respect to all persons arrested for disloyal practices.

EDWIN M. STANTON,  Secretary of War.