The Canton, Ohio Anti-War Speech — by Eugene V. Debs (June 16, 1918)

The Canton, Ohio Anti-War Speech
by Eugene V. Debs
June 16, 1918

Debs was later imprisoned for giving this speech, having been found guilty of "uttering words intended to cause insubordination and disloyalty within the armed forces of the United States, to incite resistance to the war, and to promote the cause of Germany."

He was sentenced to ten years in prison and was disenfranchised (i.e., lost his U.S. citizenship) for life. His sentence was commuted on December 25, 1921 by President Warren G. Harding; however, his citizenship was not reinstated until 1976 (posthumously). He died in 1926, having never recovered his health which deteriorated during his time in prison.

[...] it is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world. [...]

These are the gentry who are today wrapped up in the American flag, who shout their claim from the housetops that they are the only patriots, and who have their magnifying glasses in hand, scanning the country for evidence of disloyalty, eager to apply the brand of treason to the men who dare to even whisper their opposition to Junker rule in the United Sates. No wonder Sam Johnson declared that "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." He must have had this Wall Street gentry in mind, or at least their prototypes, for in every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the people. [...]

Every solitary one of these aristocratic conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false pretense! These autocrats, these tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers, the "patriots," while the men who have the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victims-they are the disloyalists and traitors. If this be true, I want to take my place side by side with the traitors in this fight. [...]

Click here for the full speech via the Pomona College History Department website. This webpage also includes Mr. Debs' statement to the court upon his conviction of violating the Sedition Act.

I would like to thank Tom at Information Clearing House for the above (and below) excerpts, and for inspiring me to research and read the whole of these two speeches as well as additional biographical information on Mr. Debs.
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"For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are."

~ Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527): Italian statesman and political philosopher.