Editing Eugene V. Debs (section)

== Socialist leader ==
[[File:Eugene Debs Martin Elliott 300.jpg|thumb|right|Rogers, Elliott, Keliher, Hogan, Burns, Goodwin and Debs, the seven ARU officers jailed following the loss of the 1894 [[Pullman Strike]]]]
At the time of his arrest for mail obstruction, Debs was not yet a [[Socialism|socialist]]. While serving his six-month term in the jail at [[Woodstock, Illinois|Woodstock]], Illinois, Debs and his ARU comrades received a steady stream of letters, books and pamphlets in the mail from socialists around the country.<ref name=HowIBecame>{{cite web |last=Debs |first=Eugene V. |date=April 1902 |title=How I Became a Socialist |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1902/howi.htm |url-status=live |work=The Comrade |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111142522/http://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1902/howi.htm |archive-date=2011-11-11 |access-date=July 15, 2021 |via=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref> Debs recalled several years later:

<blockquote>I began to read and think and dissect the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered at a single stroke. The writings of [[Edward Bellamy|[Edward] Bellamy]] and [[Robert Blatchford|[Robert] Blatchford]] early appealed to me. ''The Cooperative Commonwealth'' of [[Laurence Gronlund|[Laurence] Gronlund]] also impressed me, but the writings of [[Karl Kautsky|[Karl] Kautsky]] were so clear and conclusive that I readily grasped, not merely his argument, but also caught the spirit of his socialist utterance&nbsp;– and I thank him and all who helped me out of darkness into light.<ref name=HowIBecame /></blockquote>

Additionally, Debs was visited in jail by the [[Milwaukee]] socialist newspaper editor [[Victor L. Berger]], who in Debs's words "came to Woodstock, as if a providential instrument, and delivered the first impassioned message of Socialism I had ever heard".<ref name=HowIBecame /> In his 1926 obituary in ''Time'', it was said that Berger left him a copy of ''[[Das Kapital|Capital]]'' and "prisoner Debs read it slowly, eagerly, ravenously".<ref>{{cite magazine |date=1 November 1926 |title=Eugene V. Debs |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,722648,00.html |magazine=Time |volume=8 |issue=18 |page=14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012203523/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,722648,00.html |archive-date=2007-10-12 |url-status=dead |access-date=2007-09-07}}</ref> Debs emerged from jail at the end of his sentence a changed man. He spent the final three decades of his life proselytizing for the socialist cause.

After Debs and Martin Elliott were released from prison in 1895, Debs started his socialist political career. Debs started agitating for the ARU membership to form a [[Social democracy|Social Democratic]] organization. In 1896, Debs supported Democratic candidate [[William Jennings Bryan]] in the [[1896 United States presidential election|presidential election]] following Bryan's [[Cross of Gold speech]]. After Bryan's loss in the election, a disappointed Debs decided for certain that the future for socialist policies lay outside the Democratic Party. In June 1897, the ARU membership finally joined with the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth to form the [[Social Democracy of America]].

=== Split to found the Social Democratic Party ===
The Social Democracy of America (SDA), founded in June 1897 by Eugene V. Debs from the remnants of his American Railway Union, was deeply divided between those who favored a tactic of launching a series of colonies to build socialism by practical example and others who favored establishment of a European-style socialist political party with a view to capture of the government apparatus through the ballot box.

The June 1898 convention would be the group's last, with the minority political action wing quitting the organization to establish a new organization, the Social Democratic Party of America (SDP), also called the [[Social Democratic Party of America|Social Democratic Party of the United States]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Social Democratic Herald, 1898–1913 |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/social-democratic-herald-us/ |url-status=live |website=Marxists Internet Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190303194951/https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/social-democratic-herald-us/ |archive-date=2019-03-03 |access-date=2019-03-03}}</ref> Debs was elected to the National Executive Board, the five-member committee which governed the party,{{sfn|Heath|1900|p=1}} and his brother, [[Theodore Debs]], was selected as its paid executive secretary, handling day-to-day affairs of the organization.{{sfn|Kipnis|1952|p=62}} Although by no means the sole decision-maker in the organization, Debs's status as prominent public figure in the aftermath of the Pullman strike provided cachet and made him the recognized spokesman for the party in the newspapers.

===Presidential elections===
[[File:Debs campaign.jpg|thumb|Campaign poster from his [[1912 United States presidential election|1912 presidential campaign]] featuring Debs and vice presidential candidate [[Emil Seidel]]]]

Along with Elliott, who ran for Congress in 1900, Debs was the first federal office candidate for the fledgling socialist party, running unsuccessfully for president the same year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Wn7neVbyPMC&q=martin+J+elliott+montana+1900+legislature&pg=PA338|title=The Tribune Almanac and Political Register|last1=Greeley|first1=Horace|last2=Cleveland|first2=John Fitch|date=2 June 2018|publisher=Tribune Association|via=Google Books|access-date=2 June 2018|last3=Ottarson|first3=F. J.|last4=McPherson|first4=Edward|last5=Schem|first5=Alexander Jacob|last6=Rhoades|first6=Henry Eckford|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405201026/https://books.google.com/books?id=7Wn7neVbyPMC&lpg=PA338&ots=t1K5ulffIP&dq=martin+J+elliott+montana+1900+legislature&pg=PA338#v=onepage&q=martin+J+elliott+montana+1900+legislature&f=false|archive-date=5 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Debs and his running mate [[Job Harriman]] received 87,945 votes (0.6 percent of the popular vote) and no electoral votes.<ref name="Election1900">{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1900|title=1900 Presidential General Election Results|access-date=2008-07-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081102023556/http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1900|archive-date=2008-11-02|url-status=live}}</ref>

Following the [[1900 United States presidential election|1900 Election]], the Social Democratic Party and dissidents who had split from the [[Socialist Labor Party of America|Socialist Labor Party]] in 1899 unified forces at a Socialist Unity Convention held in Indianapolis in mid-1901&nbsp;– a meeting which established the [[Socialist Party of America]] (SPA).<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Theodore and Eugene Debs.png|thumb|left|Debs with his brother [[Theodore Debs]] while he was running for president in the [[1908 United States presidential election|1908 election]].]]

Debs was the Socialist Party of America candidate for president in [[1904 United States presidential election|1904]], [[1908 United States presidential election|1908]], [[1912 United States presidential election|1912]], and [[1920 United States presidential election|1920]] (the final time from prison). Though he received increasing numbers of popular votes in each subsequent election, he never won any votes in the Electoral College.<ref name = "Election1904">[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1904 1904 Presidential General Election Results] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930181703/http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1904 |date=September 30, 2007}}. Retrieved July 21, 2008.</ref><ref name ="Election1908">[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1908 1908 Presidential General Election Results] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081101142653/http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1908 |date=November 1, 2008}}. Retrieved July 22, 2008.</ref><ref name="Election1912">[https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1912&f=0 1912 Presidential General Election Results] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406022749/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1912&f=0 |date=April 6, 2019}}, ''U.S. Election Atlas'', David Leip. Retrieved January 5, 2019.</ref><ref name ="Election1920">[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1920 1920 Presidential General Election Results] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421002606/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1920&off=0&f=1 |date=April 21, 2017}}. Retrieved July 10, 2020.</ref> In both 1904 and 1908, Debs ran with running-mate [[Ben Hanford]]. They received 402,810 votes in 1904, for 3.0 percent of the popular vote and an overall third-place finish.<ref name = "Election1904"/> In the 1908 election, they received a slightly higher number of votes (420,852) than in their previous run, but at 2.8 percent, a smaller percentage of the total votes cast.<ref name ="Election1908"/> In 1912, Debs ran with Milwaukee mayor [[Emil Seidel]] as a running mate and received 901,551 votes, which was 6.0 percent of the popular vote, which remains the all-time highest percentage of the vote for a Socialist Party candidate in a U.S. presidential election. Though Debs won no state's electoral votes, in Florida, he came in second behind Wilson and ahead of President [[William Howard Taft]] and former President [[Theodore Roosevelt|Teddy Roosevelt]].<ref name="Election1912"/> Finally, in 1920, running with [[Seymour Stedman]], Debs won 914,191 votes (3.4%), which remains the all-time high number of votes for a Socialist Party candidate in a U.S. presidential election. Notably, the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]] passed in 1920, granting women the federal right to vote across the country, and with the expanded voting pool, his vote total accounted for only 3.4 percent of the total number of votes cast.<ref name="Election1920"/>{{sfn|Chace|2004}} The size of the vote is nevertheless remarkable since Debs was at the time a federal prisoner in jail for sedition, though he promised to pardon himself if elected.

Although he received some success as a [[Third party (United States)|third-party]] candidate, Debs was largely dismissive of the electoral process as he distrusted the political bargains that [[Victor L. Berger|Victor Berger]] and other "[[sewer socialism|sewer socialists]]" had made in winning local offices. He put much more value on organizing workers into unions, favoring unions that brought together all workers in a given industry over those organized by the craft skills workers practiced.

=== Founding the Industrial Workers of the World ===
After his work with the [[Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen|Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen]] and the [[American Railway Union]], Debs's next major work in organizing a labor union came during the founding of the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (IWW). On June 27, 1905, in Chicago, Illinois, Debs and other influential union leaders including [[Bill Haywood]], leader of the [[Western Federation of Miners]]; and [[Daniel De Leon]], leader of the [[Socialist Labor Party of America|Socialist Labor Party]], held what Haywood called the "Continental Congress of the working class". Haywood stated: "We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working-class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working class".{{sfn|Haywood|1966|p=181}} Debs stated: "We are here to perform a task so great that it appeals to our best thought, our united energies, and will enlist our most loyal support; a task in the presence of which weak men might falter and despair, but from which it is impossible to shrink without betraying the working class".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/debs1905.html |title=Eugene V. Debs Speech at the Founding of the IWW |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080308173424/http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/debs1905.html |archive-date=2008-03-08 |work=Documents for the Study of American History |access-date=July 29, 2008 }}</ref>

=== Socialists split with the Industrial Workers of the World ===

[[File:Eugene Debs running for president.png|thumb|right|Debs during one of his presidential campaigns]]

Although the IWW was built on the basis of uniting workers of industry, a rift began between the union and the Socialist Party. It started when the electoral wing of the Socialist Party, led by [[Victor L. Berger|Victor Berger]] and [[Morris Hillquit]], became irritated with speeches by Haywood.{{sfn|Carlson|1983|p=156}} In December 1911, Haywood told a [[Lower East Side]] audience at New York City's [[Cooper Union]] that parliamentary Socialists were "step-at-a-time people whose every step is just a little shorter than the preceding step". It was better, Haywood said, to "elect the superintendent of some branch of industry, than to elect some congressman to the United States Congress".{{sfn|Carlson|1983|p=157}} In response, Hillquit attacked the IWW as "purely anarchistic".{{sfn|Carlson|1983|p=159}}

The Cooper Union speech was the beginning of a split between Haywood and the Socialist Party, leading to the split between the factions of the IWW, one faction loyal to the Socialist Party and the other to Haywood.{{sfn|Carlson|1983|p=159}} The rift presented a problem for Debs, who was influential in both the IWW and the Socialist Party. The final straw between Haywood and the Socialist Party came during the [[1912 Lawrence textile strike|Lawrence Textile Strike]]. The decision of the elected officials in [[Lawrence, Massachusetts|Lawrence]], Massachusetts, to send police, who subsequently used their clubs on children, disgusted Haywood, who publicly declared that "I will not vote again" until such a circumstance was rectified.{{sfn|Carlson|1983|p=183}} Haywood was purged from the National Executive Committee by passage of an amendment that focused on the [[direct action]] and [[sabotage]] tactics advocated by the IWW.{{sfn|Carlson|1983|p=200}} Debs was probably the only person who could have saved Haywood's seat.{{sfn|Carlson|1983|p=199}}

In 1906, when Haywood had been on trial for his life in Idaho, Debs had described him as "the Lincoln of Labor" and called for Haywood to run against [[Theodore Roosevelt]] for president,{{sfn|Carlson|1983|p=109}} but times had changed and Debs, facing a split in the party, chose to echo Hillquit's words, accusing the IWW of representing anarchy.{{sfn|Haywood|1966|p=279}} Debs thereafter stated that he had opposed the amendment, but that once it was adopted it should be obeyed.{{sfn|Carlson|1983|p=199}} Debs remained friendly to Haywood and the IWW after the expulsion despite their perceived differences over IWW tactics.{{sfn|Haywood|1966|p=279}}

[[File:Debs Canton 1918 large.jpg|thumb|left|Debs speaking in [[Canton, Ohio]], in 1918, being arrested for sedition shortly thereafter]]

Prior to Haywood's dismissal, the Socialist Party membership had reached an all-time high of 135,000. One year later, four months after Haywood was recalled, the membership dropped to 80,000. The reformists in the Socialist Party attributed the decline to the departure of the "Haywood element" and predicted that the party would recover, but it did not. In the election of 1912, many of the Socialists who had been elected to public office lost their seats.{{sfn|Carlson|1983|p=199}}

=== Leadership style ===
Debs was noted by many to be a charismatic speaker who sometimes called on the vocabulary of Christianity and much of the oratorical style of evangelism, even though he was generally disdainful of organized religion.{{sfn|Salvatore|1982}} [[Howard Zinn]] opined that "Debs was what every socialist or anarchist or radical should be: fierce in his convictions, kind and compassionate in his personal relations."<ref name="Zinn 1999">{{cite magazine |last=Zinn |first=Howard |author-link=Howard Zinn |date=January 1999 |title=Eugene V. Debs and the Idea of Socialism |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/bio/zinn.htm |url-status=live |magazine=The Progressive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715201607/https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/bio/zinn.htm |archive-date=July 15, 2018 |access-date=21 February 2020}}</ref> [[Heywood Broun]] noted in his eulogy for Debs, quoting a fellow Socialist: "That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that's not the funniest part of it. As long as he's around I believe it myself".<ref>{{cite web |last=McGuiggan |first=Jim |title=Jesus and Eugene Debs |url=http://www.jimmcguiggan.com/reflections3.asp?status=Jesus&id=933 |website=Spending Time with Jim McGuiggan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127142308/http://jimmcguiggan.com/reflections3.asp?status=Jesus&id=933 |archive-date=2011-01-27 |access-date=July 21, 2008}}</ref>

Although sometimes called "King Debs",<ref>{{cite web |date=July 14, 1894 |title='King' Debs |url=http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/sk94debs.Html |url-status=live |work=Harper's Weekly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060505044027/http://catskillarchive.com/rrextra/sk94debs.Html |archive-date=May 5, 2006 |access-date=2006-04-21 |via=Catskill Archive}}</ref> Debs himself was not wholly comfortable with his standing as a leader. As he told an audience in Detroit in 1906:<ref>{{cite web |last=Freeland |first=Gene G. |date=February 2000 |title=Learn About Eugene Debs |url=http://www.labordallas.org/hist/hist1916.htm |url-status=live |work=Union Craftsman |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725081527/http://www.labordallas.org/hist/hist1916.htm |archive-date=2008-07-25 |access-date=July 21, 2008 |via=LaborDallas.org}}</ref>

{{blockquote|“I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, someone else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.”{{sfn|Ginger|1949|p=244}}}}

=== 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]].

=== 1920 presidential run ===
[[File:EugeneDebs.gif|thumb|right|[[Clifford K. Berryman|Clifford Berryman]]'s cartoon depiction of Debs's [[1920 United States presidential election|1920 presidential run]] from prison]]
Debs [[1920 United States presidential election|ran for president in the 1920 election]] while imprisoned in the [[Federal Correctional Institution, Atlanta|Atlanta Federal Penitentiary]]. Campaign pins reading "'''For President: Convict No. 9653'''"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Doherty |first=Thomas |date=2023-04-18 |title=The presidential campaign of Convict 9653 |url=http://theconversation.com/the-presidential-campaign-of-convict-9653-203027 |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref> accompanied his campaign.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eugene Debs: When a prisoner ran for president |url=https://www.brandeis.edu/now/2023/april/eugene-debs-tom-doherty.html |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=BrandeisNOW |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-09-25 |title=(2020) Convict 9653 at 100 – The Eugene V. Debs Foundation |url=https://debsfoundation.org/index.php/2020/09/25/convict-9653-at-100/ |access-date=2024-07-06 |language=en-US}}</ref> He received 914,191<ref>{{cite web |url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1920&minper=0&f=0&off=0&elect=0 |title=1920 Presidential General Election Results |publisher=uselectionatlas.org |accessdate=June 10, 2023}}</ref> votes (3.4 percent),<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h890.html| title=Election of 1920| access-date=2009-09-19| work=Travel and History| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100217203914/http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h890.html| archive-date=2010-02-17| url-status=live}}</ref> a slightly smaller percentage than he had won in 1912, when he received 6 percent, the highest number of votes for a Socialist Party presidential candidate in the United States.<ref name="bio" /><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h887.html| title=Election of 1912| access-date=2009-09-19| work=Travel and History| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100210185839/http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h887.html| archive-date=2010-02-10| url-status=live}}</ref> During his time in prison, Debs wrote a series of columns deeply critical of the prison system. They appeared in sanitized form in the [[Bell Syndicate]] and were published in his only book, ''Walls and Bars'', with several added chapters. It was published posthumously.<ref name="time" />

In March 1919, President Wilson asked Attorney General [[A. Mitchell Palmer]] for his opinion on clemency, offering his own: "I doubt the wisdom and public effect of such an action."{{sfn|Coben|1963|pp=201–202}} Palmer generally favored releasing people convicted under the wartime security acts, but when he consulted with Debs's prosecutors{{snd}}even those with records as defenders of civil liberties{{snd}}they assured him that Debs's conviction was correct and his sentence appropriate.{{sfn|Coben|1963|pp=200–203}} The President and his Attorney General both believed that public opinion opposed clemency and that releasing Debs could strengthen Wilson's opponents in the [[Treaty of Versailles#United States|debate over the ratification of the peace treaty]]. Palmer proposed clemency in August and October 1920 without success.{{sfn|Coben|1963|p=202}} At one point, Wilson wrote: "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.&nbsp;... This man was a traitor to his country and he will never be pardoned during my administration."{{sfn|Noggle|1974|p=113}} In January 1921, Palmer, citing Debs's deteriorating health, proposed to Wilson that Debs receive a presidential pardon freeing him on February 12, Lincoln's birthday. Wilson returned the paperwork after writing "Denied" across it.{{sfn|Ginger|1949|p=405}}

In March 1921, soon after the inauguration of President [[Warren G. Harding]], Debs met Harding's Attorney General [[Harry M. Daugherty|Harry Daugherty]], but was returned to jail afterwards.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/04/01/trump-prison-eugene-debs/|title=Yes, Trump could run for president from prison. This candidate did it in 1920.|newspaper=The Washington Post|first1=Terence|last1=McArdle|first2=Gillian|last2=Brockell|date=April 1, 2023|access-date=September 13, 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Eugene Debs released from prison, 1921.jpg|thumb|left|Debs leaving the federal penitentiary in Atlanta on Christmas Day 1921 following commutation of his sentence]]

On December 23, 1921, President Harding [[commutation (law)|commuted]] Debs's sentence to time served, effective Christmas Day. He did not issue a pardon. A White House statement summarized the administration's view of Debs's case:

<blockquote>There is no question of his guilt.&nbsp;... He was by no means, however, 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=December 24, 1921 |title=Harding Frees Debs and 23 Others Held for War Violations |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B0DE2D71539E133A25757C2A9649D946095D6CF |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The New York Times |page=1 |access-date=2010-03-03}}</ref></blockquote>

=== Last years ===
[[File:Eugenedebs1921.jpg|thumb|Debs leaving the White House the day after being released from prison in 1921]]

When Debs was released from the Atlanta Penitentiary, the other prisoners sent him off with "a roar of cheers" and a crowd of fifty thousand greeted his return to Terre Haute to the accompaniment of band music.<ref name=obit>{{cite news |date=October 21, 1926 |title=Eugene V. Debs Dies After Long Illness |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/10/21/archives/eugene-v-debs-dies-after-long-illness-socialist-leader-succumbs-to.html |url-access=subscription |newspaper=The New York Times |page=25 |access-date=2008-05-17}}</ref> En route home, Debs was warmly received at the White House by Harding, who greeted him by saying: "Well, I've heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now glad to meet you personally."{{sfn|Dean|2004|pp=128–129}}

In 1924, Debs was nominated for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] by the Finnish Socialist [[Karl Wiik|Karl H. Wiik]] on the grounds that "Debs started to work actively for peace during World War I, mainly because he considered the war to be in the interest of capitalism."<ref>{{cite web| url=http://nobelprize.org/peace/nomination/nomination.php?action=show&showid=1347| title=The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Peace, 1901–1955| access-date=2006-04-21| publisher=Nobel Foundation|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070929133041/http://nobelprize.org/peace/nomination/nomination.php?action=show&showid=1347 |archive-date = September 29, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> The same year, he was named "national chairman" of the Socialist Party, a newly-created office that allowed him to step away from the taxing work of the National Executive Committee.<ref>{{cite news |title=Socialists climb on to bandwagon of La Follette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140390908/?match=1&terms=debs%20%22national%20chairman%22%20%22socialist%20party%22 |access-date=27 February 2025 |work=[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]] |date=8 July 1924 |location=St. Louis}}</ref>

He spent his remaining years trying to recover his health, which was severely undermined by prison confinement. In late 1926, he was admitted to [[Henry Lindlahr|Lindlahr]] [[sanatorium|Sanitarium]] in [[Elmhurst, Illinois|Elmhurst]], Illinois.<ref name=time/> He died there of [[heart failure]] on October 20, 1926, at the age of 70.<ref name=obit/> His body was [[Cremation|cremated]] and buried in [[Highland Lawn Cemetery]] in Terre Haute, Indiana.<ref name=bio/>