Many of us were shocked when Donald Trump threatened/suggested Hillary Clinton would be prosecuted and imprisoned if he had control of the Justice Department. Here’s a typical response:

There’s a fair amount of implicit jingoism and racism in the view that this sort of thing only happens in the “3rd world”. The assumption is that we’re too good for it. Except we’re not. It has happened here.

When he wasn’t re-segregating federal agencies, mandating forced sterilization of criminals and mentally unwell and applauding neo-confederate propaganda, US president Woodrow Wilson also managed to imprison a candidate who had run against him for the presidency.

Eugene Debs ran for president on the Socialist party ticket five times. In 1900 (earning 0.63% of the popular vote), 1904 (2.98%), 1908 (2.83%), 1912 (5.99%) and 1920 (3.41%) from a prison cell.

The 1912 election was a four-way race prompted by a schism within the Republican party. Former Republican president Teddy Roosevelt created his own Progressive (Bull-Moose) party and ran on that ticket, while Taft (the incumbent) ran on the Republican ticket. Debs came in fourth, Woodrow Wilson won on the Democratic ticket. Wilson was the first Democrat from the south elected to the the presidency after the Civil War. At the time, Southern Democrats dominated the party and formed the pro-segregation “solid south”.

As if all this wasn’t interesting enough, Teddy Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt while on the campaign trail. He proceeded to give a 90 minute speech after the shooting, with blood seeping through his shirt, saying "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." I would call that a #bossmove

Wilson won re-election in 1916, Debs was not on the Socialist ticket. Instead, he ran for Congress that year. Then, in 1918, Debs gave a speech advocating resistance to World War I and the military draft. In the speech he said:

Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose towers may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to enlarge their domains, to increase their power, their prestige and their wealth they declared war upon one another. But they themselves did not go to war any more than the modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street go to war. The feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic predecessors of the capitalists of our day, declared all wars. And their miserable serfs fought all the battles. The poor, ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their masters; to believe that when their masters declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall upon one another and to cut one another’s throats for the profit and glory of the lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives.

They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.

And here let me emphasize the fact—and it cannot be repeated too often—that the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace.

Yours not to reason why;
Yours but to do and die.

That is their motto and we object on the part of the awakening workers of this nation.

If war is right let it be declared by the people. You who have your lives to lose, you certainly above all others have the right to decide the momentous issue of war or peace.

Debs was arrested and prosecuted by Wilson’s justice department for this political speech. He was accused of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and the court ruled the speech had the “intention and effect of obstructing the draft and recruitment for the war." Debs’ defense relied entirely on his right to free speech under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court ruled against him and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and disenfranchised for life.

In a 1930 review of two biographies on Debs, Rose Feld recalled what Debs said during his trial:

I have been accused of obstructing the war. I admit it. Gentlemen, I abhor war. I would oppose the war if I stood alone. When I think of a cold, glittering steel bayonet being plunged in the white, quivering flesh of a human being, I recoil with horror. I have often wondered if I could take the life of my fellow men, even to save my own.

Men talk about holy wars. There are none. Let me remind you that it was Benjamin Franklin who said, 'There was never a good war or a bad peace.'

In a September 12, 1918 article on the jury trial, the NY Times reported:

Debs expended his eloquence in admitting every fact alleged by the government, even declining to repudiate the rabidly anti-war program of the Socialists adopted at St. Louis. He pleaded only that the constitution granted the right to free speech. [...]

Debs said that history showed that minorities had always been right on great questions, and recounted the martyrdom of men who, like Socrates, thought in advance of their time. Lincoln and Webster, he said, bitterly opposed the Mexican war, and criticized the administration of President Polk.

Wertz [the prosecuting DA] later reminded the jury in his turn that in the days of Polk there was no Espionage Act such as that under which Debs was accused.

In a March 12, 1919 on Debs’ sentencing, the Times said:

Debs openly violated the law so passed, and rested his case on his own theory of the constitution. That theory, in a nutshell, was that the government had no power to defend itself against unbridled speech, even though that speech might lead to the government’s own destruction.

It is remarkable to read these words today, “rabidly anti-war”, “unbridled speech” all employed to advocate for control on political speech.

At his sentencing, Debs addressed 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.

If the law under which I have been convicted is a good law, then there is no reason why sentence should not be pronounced upon me. I listened to all that was said in this court in support and justification of this prosecution, but my mind remains unchanged. I look upon the Espionage Law as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with democratic principles and with the spirit of free institutions.

Your Honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to form of our present Government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believed in the change of both—but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means.

Debs wasn’t the only person imprisoned for opposing World War I. Fellow Socialist Kate Richards O'Hare was sentenced to five years in prison (she was one of the few segregationists in the Socialist party). Across the pond, the philosopher Bertrand Russell also spent time in his prison for making anti-war speeches.

Wilson received numerous appeals to pardon Debs. Debs himself never requested a pardon, saying that would amount to admitting he was wrong. In response to one of the requests Wilson wrote:

I know that in certain quarters of the country, there is a popular demand for the pardon of Debs, but it shall never be accomplished with my consent… While the flower of American youth was pouring out its blood to vindicate the cause of civilization, this man, Debs, stood behind the lines sniping, attacking, and denouncing them.… This man was a traitor to his country and he will never be pardoned during my administration. Before the war he had a perfect right to exercise his freedom of speech and express his own opinion, but once the Congress of the United States declared war, silence on his part would have been the proper course to pursue.

Wilson’s sentiment is no different from the vitriol directed against activists who opposed the war in Vietnam, including Muhammad Ali and John Kerry. War has always been used to silence dissent.

In 1921, President Harding commuted Debs’ sentence to life served. He was never pardoned.

Incidentally, Edward Snowden is also charged with violating the 1917 Espionage Act.

h/t to @duckspeech for the reminder: