Editing Eugene V. Debs (section)

=== Sedition conviction and appeal to U.S. Supreme Court ===
{{Wikisource|Debs' Speech of Sedition}}
[[File:Debs, Eastman, Rose Pastor Strokes.jpg|thumb|Debs with [[Max Eastman]] and [[Rose Pastor Stokes]] in 1918]]
Debs's speeches against the Wilson administration and the war earned the enmity of President [[Woodrow Wilson]], who later called Debs a "traitor to his country".{{sfn|Noggle|1974|p=113}} On June 16, 1918, Debs made a speech in [[Canton, Ohio]], urging resistance to the military draft. He was arrested on June 30 and charged with ten counts of [[sedition]].<ref name="Zinn 1999"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Eugene Debs in jail|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=July 1, 1918|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115358863/eugene-debs-in-jail/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

His trial defense called no witnesses, asking that Debs be allowed to address the court in his defense. That unusual request was granted, and Debs spoke for two hours. He was found guilty on September 12. At his sentencing hearing on September 14, he again addressed the court and his speech has become a classic. [[Heywood Broun]], a liberal journalist and not a Debs partisan, said it was "one of the most beautiful and moving passages in the English language. He was for that one afternoon touched with inspiration. If anyone told me that tongues of fire danced upon his shoulders as he spoke, I would believe it."{{sfn|Pietrusza|2007|pp=267–269}} Debs said in part:

<blockquote>Your honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the form of our present government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in the change of both but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means.&nbsp;...

I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in the remorseless grasp of [[Mammon]], and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul.&nbsp;...

Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own.

When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the [[Southern Cross]], burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches the Southern Cross begins to bend, and the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of Time upon the dial of the universe; and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the look-out knows that the midnight is passing{{spaced ndash}}that relief and rest are close at hand.

Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is bending, midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.{{sfn|Pietrusza|2007|pp=269–270}}</blockquote>

Debs was sentenced on September 18, 1918, to ten years in prison and was also disenfranchised for life.<ref name=time/> Debs presented what has been called his best-remembered statement at his sentencing hearing:<ref>{{cite web |last=Debs |first=E.&nbsp;V. |year=2001 |orig-year=1918 |title=Statement to the Court upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1918/court.htm |url-status=live |website=Marxists Internet Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080803232851/http://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1918/court.htm |archive-date=2008-08-03 |access-date=July 21, 2008}}</ref>

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

Debs appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. In its ruling on ''[[Debs v. United States]]'', the court examined several statements Debs had made regarding World War I and socialism. While Debs had carefully worded his speeches in an attempt to comply with the [[Espionage Act of 1917]], the Court found he had the intention and effect of obstructing the draft and military recruitment. Among other things, the Court cited Debs's praise for those imprisoned for obstructing the draft. Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]] stated in his opinion that little attention was needed since Debs's case was essentially the same as that of ''[[Schenck v. United States]]'', in which the court had upheld a similar conviction.

Debs went to prison on April 13, 1919.<ref name=bio/> In protest of his jailing, [[C. E. Ruthenberg|Charles Ruthenberg]] led a parade of unionists, socialists, [[anarchism|anarchists]], and [[communism|communists]] on May 1 (May Day) in [[Cleveland]], Ohio. The event quickly broke into the violent [[May Day riots of 1919]].