President Woodrow Wilson's Purpose Of The Sedition Act In 1918

On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson made the decision to recognize the state of war that existed between the United States and Germany. Five months before this, he had just been re-elected with much of his support stemming from his fight for neutrality. President Wilson’s decision to go to war shocked much of the nation and many Americans strongly disagreed with it. After years of watching President Wilson fight to keep America out of war, even with the numerous attacks against the country resulting in the loss of many Americans, Americans felt betrayed by his decision to fight. Although war seemed necessary at this point, many Americans were blindsided by President Wilson’s quick change in his beliefs on war. Had Wilson not been so

Although the act’s intent seemed to be to benefit the war effort, it was unconstitutional and restricted the rights of Americans that didn’t agree with the war. Section 3 of the Espionage Act, just a portion of the Sedition Act, says that when the nation is at war, people who “willfully make or convey false reports and false statements…cause or attempt to cause, or incite or attempt to incite, insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty…obstruct or attempt to obstruct the recruiting or enlistment services of the United States…utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government…display the flag of any foreign enemy” and many other things that do not support the war will be punished with fines, jailtime, or both. This part of the Sedition Act shows how limited anti-war Americans could go with their efforts to display their disapproval with the government. In another part of the Sedition Act, under Section 4 in the Espionage Act, the government limits the use of mailing services for anti-war. If the Postmaster General found that any mail violated the Espionage Act’s provisions, they were ordered to mark it as “Mail to this address undeliverable under the Espionage Act” and return it to its sender. Both of these sections of the Espionage Act are examples of how hard the government fought against anti-war propaganda even though the restrictions took away many freedoms from the Americans that didn’t support the war. This is highly ironic because the country was involved with a war to protect its citizens, but was limiting many of its citizens’ liberties and rights at