Why Liberty Suffer In Wartime Analysis

I don’t feel that I can accurately form an opinion on the article “Why Liberty Suffers in Wartime” due to the fact that I was neither alive during the time periods mentioned nor do I know any people who were therefore I cannot comprehend the atmosphere of the situations to accurately judge the decisions. Towards the end of the French Revolution, American Congress proposed the Alien and Sedition Acts seemingly due to the threat of the French Revolution, but in actuality it not only affected the revolution but also Thomas Jefferson’s Republican political party. The acts essentially undermined the first amendment of the Constitution. They criminalized the right to “write, print, utter or publish… false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States or the president of the United States.” Of course many states disagreed with this and regularly stated the unconstitutionality of the acts. But the fear of a war with France and the Democratic-Republican’s criticism of Federalists swaying aliens loyalties the Acts stayed until after the election of 1800. During the Civil War President Lincoln also limited rights allowed by the

Despite this blatant disregard for rights President Wilson decided to push even further and create the Espionage Act. This law (if broken) would result in a $10,000 fine and 10 years imprisonment. Despite this debilitating act it gave way to the ciliv liberties case, US v. Charles Schenck. In this case Schenck was convicted for printing pamphlets that encouraged Americans to resist the draft. Unfortunately for him, the Supreme Court upheld this decision. During all of this the Justice Department also wanted to enact a law, punishable by death, for interference with the war