Served in June 9, — Married to Kate Metzel whom he loved and cherished until his death. They had no children. Not a wheel moved on Great Northern and at end of 18 days, the railway granted demands of union.
Finished sentences Nov. Given triumphal welcome by thousands on his arrival in Chicago, from Woodstock, Ill. The weekly magazine achieved a circulation of several hundred thousand due to the powerful writing of Debs. The bound files of the Appeal to Reason for the years of to are part of the library in the Debs home. Debs circa — Ran for Congress in his home district in Terre Haute on the Socialist ticket and was defeated.
For this speech he was arrested and convicted in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio under the war-time espionage law. He was his own attorney and his appeal to the jury and his statement to the court before sentencing, are regarded as two of the great classic statements ever made in a court of law. He was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison.
April 12, — Debs began serving his sentence in Moundsville, W. He declared himself a socialist in , helped found the Socialist Party of America in , and ran for U. An inspiring speaker, he drew thousands of fervent supporters to rallies in major cities, while inspiring equally fervent denunciations by mainstream politicians and newspapers.
He shocked the political system by winning , votes, or 6 percent of the vote, in the presidential election, more than Ralph Nader in or Gary Johnson and Jill Stein in Although many Americans agreed with Debs on the merits, fewer aligned with his socialist critique of entering the war.
It was a battle between the ruling classes of the warring nations, he argued — and in fact, an economic critique of the war, which notes that the U. In March , as news of the Zimmermann Telegram pushed the U. Empowered by the Espionage Act, passed by Congress in June , the government blocked the mailing of anti-war newspapers and arrested 2, protesters on charges of inspiring resistance to military recruitment.
States passed sedition laws and arrested dissenters. The American Protective League, a national group of , volunteers acting with the blessing of U. The same statements Eugene Debs has been making his whole life are now not just on the left of the political spectrum.
Debs protested censorship in his opinion columns in socialist newspapers such as Social Revolution , but as the war continued, the government shut down many papers that printed his writing. In May , Congress passed the Sedition Act, further tightening restrictions on dissent. Enraged, Debs set out in June on a new speaking tour of the Midwest. He knew he was courting prosecution, and maybe even welcomed it. He barnstormed Illinois and Indiana, speaking against the war without incident, before he headed to Ohio for the state Socialist convention in Canton.
Before speaking at the convention picnic, Debs visited the nearby Stark County Workhouse, where three Ohio Socialist leaders were serving one-year sentences for opposing the draft. For two hours on the bandstand in Canton, Debs defended imprisoned anti-war activists from accusations of disloyalty.
Salvatore, Nick. Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, Trickey, Erick.
Eugene Debs [electronic resource]. Other articles in Reformers. Want to support the Free Speech Center? Donate Now. Schenck v. Boston: Twayne Publishers, Lepore, Jill. Debs and the Endurance of Socialism.
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