Congress Declares War – Suppression of Civil Liberties Begins
Four days after President Woodrow Wilson asked for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917, Congress on this day declared war on Germany. The vote came at 3 a.m. in the morning, following a long debate.
A massive suppression of civil liberties followed, including prosecution of anti-war leaders under the Espionage Act (passed on June 15, 1917), the banning of anti-war materials from the mails, and vigilante attacks on suspected war opponents by private citizens. The government prosecuted Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs under the Espionage Act (June 16, 1918); excluded the radical magazine The Masses from the mails (July 24, 1917) because of its opposition to the war.
The American Protective League, a private vigilante group that acted with government support, rounded up hundreds of young men believed (without evidence) to be evading the draft in what were called “Slacker Raids” (September 3, 1918) (“slacker was a term of abuse for young men thought to be evading military service).
The repression of dissent and other violations of individual rights during the war was followed by the Red Scare after the war. The two major events were the two “Palmer Raids,” first a small one on November 7, 1919 and then a massive national raid on January 2, 1920. The repression led to the creation of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on January 19, 1920, the first permanent civil liberties organization in America.
One of 50 members of the House of Representatives voting against U.S. entry into the war on this day was Jeannette Rankin, Republican from Montana, who was the first woman ever elected to Congress (November 7, 1917). Because of the pro-war hysteria, Rankin was defeated for re-election in 1918. She was re-elected to Congress in 1940, however, and on the day after Pearl Harbor was the only member of Congress to vote against U.S. entry into World War II (December 8, 1941).
View World War I Posters at the Library of Congress:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wwipos/Read: Paul L. Murphy, World War I and the Origins of Civil Liberties in the United States (1979)
Learn more about the WW I prosecutions: Stephen Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts (1994)
Jeanette Rankin on April 6, 1917: “I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war.”
Jeanette Rankin on December 8, 1941: “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.”
Read: Christopher M. Finan, From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America (2007)