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United States Congress
Americans take pride in the Constitution and the liberties it guarantees in the Bill of Rights. As
a nation, we have faced outside threats and sometimes wars to ensure that this government and Constitution
are preserved. Ironically, during these wars to protect and promote our ideal government overseas we often
violate those very liberties we prize so dearly, suppress them in order to preserve them. Both of the
following pieces of legislation are examples of extremism in defense of American liberties.
During the spring of 1798, a spirit of rabid nationalism swept the nation. After insults to our national
honor in the XYZ correspondence, seizures of ships and sailors, a state of quasi-war with France, and
years of intense partisan political rivalry, the Federalist Party used the national fervor to pass four
pieces of legislation collectively known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. Using the enlarged army for the
war and these acts, the Federalists intended to proscribe all "internal enemies" of the government,
i.e., Jefferson’s opposition Republican Party. Under the Sedition Act, common-law principles were applied,
which meant that truth was not a defense against libel charges and that malicious intent of the writers
did not have to be proved. It was simply up to the Federalist judges to decide if Republican editors,
publishers, and politicians had violated the law. Their attitude was that when the country is beset by
enemies, the nation cannot afford the luxury of discussing both sides of the question. In emergencies,
they asserted, truth has but one side and all other truths are not proper for publication. Using this
act, Federalists jailed Republicans around the country and shut down opposition newspapers. There was
no "clear and present danger" to the government ever proven; the Federalists acted out of vindictiveness
and a desire to uphold the established order.
Government struck again 120 years later. The Espionage Act of 1918 was aimed at silencing critics of the
government as much as at enemy agents. This act was passed at the insistence of military leaders and politicians
alarmed by the activities of a few pacifists, labor organizers, and "radical" groups. The purpose
was to undercut any activity or person described as anti-war. This included strikes by labor, people ethically
and morally opposed to the draft, newspaper critics, and pacifists. Abusive language, insults to members
of the armed forces [or the uniform of the armed forces], or insults to the flag or the government, as
well as any attempts to disrupt recruiting were all felonious offenses. To guard against such crimes all
forms of communication were screened and censored, including the mails, cables, and radio. Even the Saturday
Evening Post and the New York Times were temporarily banned under this patriotic censorship.
How far should the government go to preserve the Constitution, or to force national unity, all in the
name of "national security"? Should there be some standards that even the government must observe
during wartime?
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