What were the Espionage and Sedition Acts?
Nearly one quarter of Americans in 1918 were of German ancestry, heightening fears that spies were rampant on the home front, and leading to intense pressure on all Americans to prove their loyalty to the war and to their country. “Everybody is either loyal or not loyal at a time like this,” one government announcement explained. To ensure loyalty, Congress in 1917 passed the Espionage Act, which made it illegal, “when the U.S. is at war,” to “willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military or naval forces of the United States, or “willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States.” According to Geoffrey R. Stone’s Perilous Times: Free Speech In Wartime, the law was intended to apply only to brazen attempts to disrupt America’s military efforts (such as conscripting and transporting troops), but in the hands of overzealous lawmen it was used to silence dissidents who so much as suggested that war was
