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[Editor’s note: Make sure to read Daniel Greenfield’s masterpiece contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
A year after the start of WWI, President Woodrow Wilson addressed his message to Congress and warned that the “gravest threats against our national peace and safety” did not come from “other governments”, but from “within our own borders”.
“Citizens of the United States,” Wilson continued, “born under other flags but welcomed under our generous naturalization laws to the full freedom and opportunity of America, who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life.”
Wilson, a notorious racist and a supporter of the KKK who had contempt for a wide variety of other peoples, likely had German immigrants, but not just them, in mind when he called for what would become the Espionage Act so that “we may be purged of their corrupt distempers.”
“I need not suggest the terms in which they may be dealt with,” Wilson concluded.
While there were indeed pro-German terrorist conspiracies in those days, including the Black Tom bombing which damaged the Statue of Liberty and a plot to infect the country’s horses, the Espionage Act of 1917 went far beyond prosecuting criminal activities. Wilson had sought, but not received, the power to censor the press, he did get the power to censor the mail.
Most of those prosecuted under the Espionage Act were not terrorists, but political opponents of the war. They included leftist socialists like Charles Schenck whose Supreme Court case birthed the misleading cliche about “shouting fire in a crowded theater”, as well as Robert Goldstein, a filmmaker whose crime was making a movie, ‘The Spirit of ’76’, about the American Revolution.
Also prosecuted under the Espionage Act were members of the Watch Tower Society for their religious pacifism. This was described as almost “the only time in American history when almost all the leaders of a denomination were in jail”.
When former President Trump was indicted under the Espionage Act, he was being targeted by a law that from its very inception had been created to suppress the political opposition. While elements of the Espionage Act were watered down over the years and only media hacks still quote “shouting fire in a crowded theater” as if it were standing law, that hasn’t really changed.
Widely loathed by liberals and leftists, who were justly often the targets of it, the Espionage Act was mostly used against actual spies during the Cold War. That changed dramatically under Obama who dusted it off and used it to go after reporters and whistleblowers. A decade ago, the Obama administration used the Espionage Act to target FOX News reporter James Rosen.
The Espionage Act allowed Obama to use warrantless wiretapping to bust leakers who were in many cases acting as whistleblowers and trying to expose his administration’s misconduct.
The abuse of the Espionage Act against reporters foreshadowed Russiagate. Having realized how useful the package of national security tools could be against political opponents in the press, the Obama administration decided to go ahead and use them against Trump.
When Obama and Clinton associates in the Justice Department targeted Gen. Flynn for conducting preemptive diplomacy for the incoming Trump administration, they explored using the Espionage Act and the Logan Act. The current charges against Trump are not an unexpected development, they’re what Russiagate was always about.
Power corrupts. And once the Obama administration realized that it could use the Espionage Act to kill unfavorable stories in the media, it was obvious that its members would not stop until they had escalated to using it directly against political opponents from Gen. Flynn to Trump.
Leftists used to hate the Espionage Act, like all forms of government power, until they were able to take control of it. And then, instead of being targeted by it, they wielded it and, with the inevitably corrupt predictability of human nature, used it to settle political disputes.
There are any number of parallels between Woodrow Wilson and Joe Biden. Both men were parochial narcissistic racists who ran as moderates only to rule as radicals. And their public profiles seemed so absurd that their opponents had a bad habit of underestimating them.
In a foreshadowing of what could happen to Biden, Wilson became non-functional in office and the country was temporarily run by his wife, yet he went on dreaming of a third term in office.
Wilson, like Biden, might have also been thinking of using the Espionage Act to cover up his own corruption.
For nearly a decade, Wilson had been conducting a secret affair with another woman. Fearful of discovery, he sent her thousands of dollars, a fortune by today’s standards, and drafted a partial admission of guilt. Wilson had called for the Espionage Act earlier that year which would give his administration the authority to censor the mail. It would have been a convenient means of suppressing revelations about his affair that might have damaged his reelection campaign.
Fortunately for Wilson, former President Theodore Roosevelt, his 1914 election opponent, had dismissed the idea of exposing the affair. “No evidence could ever make the American people believe that a man like Woodrow Wilson, cast so perfectly as the apothecary’s clerk, could ever play Romeo,” Roosevelt, a barrel-chested man of action, had sneered.
By 1916, Republicans, stuck with the uninspiring candidacy of Charles Evans Hughes, appeared ready to take off the gloves and were trying to aggressively get hold of Wilson’s letters. The version of the Espionage Act that allowed Wilson to censor the mails, but not the press, may have been a compromise to protect the use of the ‘nuclear option’ of the affair.
Biden, likely unknowingly, followed in Wilson’s footsteps by deploying claims of foreign election interference to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story during the election.
The abuse of national security by Democrats to go after the political opposition is not a new phenomenon. It’s been underway for over a century with the Espionage Act.
Charging Trump under the Espionage Act is no accident: it’s a proud tradition. It’s also a deeply corrupt and illegal attack on the Constitution. But that’s the function that the Espionage Act has served for over a century under Democrats. Corrupt megalomaniacal Democrats like Wilson, Obama and Biden use claims of national security to illegally investigate their opponents.
And whether it’s Wilson’s affair with a married woman, Hunter Biden’s harem of Uber prostitutes, or Joe Biden’s money from China, the Espionage Act is a red flag for presidential corruption.
National security is legitimate when it protects Americans from foreign enemies, not when it’s used, as Wilson and Biden have, to target Americans under the facade of national security.
It would be worth noting that when Woodrow Wilson was president, most of the American population would have received there newspaper subscriptions via delivery by the US Post Office. If he obtained the means to censor the mail, he easily could have used that sledge hammer to threaten publishers concerning potential editorials that his administration would deem to promote insurrection.
Or he could simply raid their homes or offices, as Biden did to Trump.
Anarchist Emma Goldman criticized US involvement in World War I, and according to Wikipedia:
“On June 15, 1917, Goldman and Berkman were arrested during a raid of their offices, in which authorities seized “a wagon load of anarchist records and propaganda”…. The pair were charged with conspiracy to “induce persons not to register”… under the newly enacted Espionage Act,.. and were held on US$25,000 bail each. Defending herself and Berkman during their trial, Goldman invoked the First Amendment, asking how the government could claim to fight for democracy abroad while suppressing free speech at home:..”
Interesting that today we’re defending “democracy” in Ukraine while destroying it here at home.
Not true, newspapers were NOT delivered by the mail…they would have been too late to be “news” that is why they were hand delivered by “PAPERBOYS”, And sold on street corners in the big cities and newsstands across the land.
Some papers were delivered by mail and thus could be censored, as they were during the Civil War, but local papers, as you pointed out, wouldn’t be stopped by control of the mails.
Thus papers like the New York Daily News, censored during the Civil War for its incitement of race riots, could not travel elsewhere, but was widely popular in New York City.
OK I don’t doubt that “some” were censored….but I do doubt that many were mailed, it would just take too many days to receive them….do you know which papers were delivered by mail.
Right after they got to those out of city newstands the NEXT DAY becasue they went by horseback!!! So does that mean it’s still news? And would it remain NEWS to someone who did not get a newspaper each day? I’m beginning to think you should re-think your whole comment.
A much smaller country population wise, mailed news papers to subscribers outside the area. “paper boys” or news boys distributed the papers morning and evening. I know. I was one of them.
I remember the paper boys. Mr. Greenfield’s articles always teach me new things. I watched a Tom Hanks movie called “News of the World.” It is about reading the news in small towns in covered-wagon America as a vocation. Excellent movie.
I do not know how true the movie is to history, but Hanks’ character goes from town to town reading the news to crowds of people who pay a very small price to hear it read entertainingly and comment amongst themselves on each topic. It seems quite plausible, even when most people were literate.
Thanks Daniel! Wilson was always portrayed in a certain way while I was growing up, so I never learned about these issues until recent years.
Wow. Had no idea Wilson was such a hater and conniver. My US history book in the seventies had nothing but good things to say. This was in California, of course.
The Marxist left has been on the warpath against this nation for a very long time. Our elementary and secondary school books have painted the leftist presidents with too much graciousness – a quality of conservatives exploited to great effect by the left.
One of the many great advantages we readers of FPM have is Daniel Greenfield, whose broad, powerful mind distills historic trends and the current zeitgeist into small, heavy, well-worded essays. Truth bombs. God bless him, preserve and establish the work of his hands. Psalm 90:17.
What’s not surprising is that the last thing this Espionage Act would ever be used for is islamic jihadists.
The FBI was warned TWICE about the Tsarnaev brothers, and dropped it. They had been ubiquitous on social media with a foreign terrorist.
The San Bernadino jihadists had posted their intentions loudly on social media. (Jug-eared Barry quipped about respecting the privacy of such posters; apparently unable to comprehend that social postings are public domain.)
Barry likely wanted the death and destruction that the Tsarnaev brothers were invoking. Barry is a POS and always was. He would never stand in the way of jihadists in the USA.
It cannot be understated that B. Hussein was a devotee & acolyte of Saul Alinsky.
Alinsky is in the top 5 of the America-hating hall of fame.
So your observation is more than plausible.
Afterall, the SOB released 5 high-level Al Quada for 1 dipshit army deserter, Bo Bergdahl.
(Those 5 released are up & running in Afghanistan.)
Also, his rules of engagement got several of Seal Team Six killed.
The Espionage Act was used against Debs.
Is there a betting line on resignation versus Marshall Law before election day?
I think you meant to write ” martial law.”
Marshall Law is when the US Marshals Service has your family standing at attention in your underwear on the lawn at 4am.
Funny how BOTH of you are right!
Biden is still the favorite according to a quick check.
Astounding at first, but when one considers how the destruction of the country is moving right along of course he’s their favorite.
Thank you for your characteristically clear and relevatory explication of the p’shat, remez and midrash of what the heck is going on. Depressing stuff; but somehow there’s always a positive radiance of truth that emanates from your words. It’s a comfort.
That’s Revelatory
(Slip of the finger)
Thank you. That is beautiful praise. Truly imrei shefer. Far more than I deserve.
Android™ seems to have revived an interest in Esperanto.
I seem to find it blurted out as if by time traveling epileptics. It’s either that or the Matrix is failing, as the Infrastructure Rebuild funds were embezzled along with the Covid Relief funds.
C’mon man, you white supreme maga extremists are damaging my chances of getting out of my basement, put a mask on and get vaccinated, or we will send the boys round. No, not just boys, girls and fags too, no not fags, LBJBKSL heroes.
Mr. President!
We’re beyond sick & tired of trying to impress upon you the need to just STFU . . . preferably before you blurt our plans for the next election cycle again. (Try not to say “election fraud” again, damn it!)
Reporters can’t beg you to shut up during a press conference, so they’ve asked us to pass on the request.
(Never forget that puppets are disposable.)
C’mon man, I am the president and I can do anything I want, you plebs can just go to h….. gulp!
Mares go into heat in the warmer months. That’s why Summer racing fans who visit the walking ring pre race are treated to expensive [ some of them ] stallions caught up in the equine erection cycle. Geldings are unaffected.
This the real reason the triple crown races for three year olds ( Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont ) are held in late spring. Horse hard ons.
The hard-ons give them emergy?
Consider every policy and agenda of the Biden administration. Obviously it is destruction by design.. It’s not coming from Joe. Although he’s that evil, he is not that sly.. This is the work of “O”. We have an alter ego presidency. It is everything “O” desired to do but could not get away with when he was president without destroying his fake persona. Now he hides behind a mindless old man. But I know it is him.
You are absolutely right! And O and the elites want to destroy this once great nation so they can have their New World Order, where they’ll have control over every single person in the world.
Daniel’s “Soft Secession” article is one of the best articles I’ve ever seen.
Strangely enough, I have some guilt feelings, as I suggested some of those tactics to SF Bay locals decades ago, when they asked me in despair “What is to be done?” about certain local problems of the time. They were Democrats of course. Eventually the Democrats adopted those tactics on a larger and larger scale until they are now “Nationwide” 🙂
Thank you.
The good and bad news is that the Left is pretty great with coming up with ideas to seize power on its own.
We have little to teach them
Remind me: which leading Democratic politician lost 13 laptops full of vital information?
The pseudo democrats are going to have to deal with a revolt of which they have no idea. These fascists are rotten. They are criminals who must be tried for their heinous crimes against America’s foundations. They are traitors to everything in the foundations of this country. Don’t make any concessions with these people.
Best!
Growing up in an American city and state where over 43% of the population were of mostly German origin, all of this was known and studied.
OPENLY
Frankly, the folks opposed to American involvement in WWI were probably right that it was the wrong war, and no matter what we did we’d be fighting on behalf of the wrong people.
In the 1916 election (as a map shows clearly), the areas dominated by Democrats voted FOR WAR and the areas dominated by Republicans voted against war.
States with large German origin populations voted against the war.
Some of the best of even British strategists said it would have been better if we’d stayed out of the war, and the war ended in a stalemate.
Why won’t you Germans just go back to Germany where you belong? I hear it’s very “cultured”.
Memories of Germany (1961):
A wizened old lady sitting alone at a table in the corner of the restaurant, smoking a cigar. First time I had ever seen a woman smoking a cigar 🙂
Krauts, even when we leave Europe we’re not rid of you.
That German Americans opposed the U.S. entering the war is inreresting. Where can I check that out?
Roosevelt told Churchill he rooted for the Afrikaans during the Boer War.
Trump’s political opposition can’t win on a level playing field., they can’t win unless they cheat. They use every deceptive, evil, propaganda, liberal deep state devices to play dirty and change laws. It’s obvious to all Americans too. Notice, the left are the ones who use the anarchist groups to create violence and demonization, and most of the woke media.
The blackmail of Woody Wilson was done by the lawyer Samuel Untermeyer. The amount was $40,000. That is easily 20 times more today. He had letters from Wilsons’ lady love in Princeton. He was employed by the usual bankers in NY. They were getting a bit antsy about the repayment of war loans by Britain.
One quote from Wilson upon hearing from his secretary that Untermeyer was outside was “I wonder what he wants this time)? Research in this area is easy and horrifying as I am sure it happens quite frequently today.
Yeah, I just checked. It is about 30 times more today according to the statistics.
COMMUNIST SANDINISTA DANIEL ORTEGA, installed and protected by the Democratic Party, the CPUSA, and THE SOVIET KGB, arrests all opponents as “a threat to our Democracy.” (Sounds like a familiar excuse that’s has taken over Central and South American governments, AND THE UNITED STATES!)
We’re joined by NPR’s Carrie Kahn, who covers Nicaragua, and Nicaraguan journalist Wilfredo Miranda Aburto. He fled the country and is now in Costa Rica, where he reports for the news website Divergentes.
FLORIDO: Carrie, why did Ortega arrest these people? And what does the government say that they were conspiring to do?
KAHN: They were arrested last summer before last year’s presidential election, and Ortega pretty much jailed all opposition to him, including seven presidential candidates. And he easily won reelection in November, giving him a fourth consecutive term in office.
And Ortega and his wife, who’s the vice president, say these people are enemies of the state. They’re terrorists causing damage to the nation. And under new laws, they can be prosecuted for charges akin to treason, and they’re facing as much as 15 years in prison. The trials have been short – just a few hours long inside a prison, not a public courtroom, and prisoners’ access to lawyers is very limited.
FLORIDO: Wilfredo Miranda, you used to work as a journalist in Nicaragua, and we’ll note that you’ve worked for NPR helping Carrie with stories when you were there. You’ve been to this prison before. What is it like, and what have you heard about how these trials are being conducted? (Speaking Spanish)”
*CALL FOR CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST HEADS OF DOJ AND FBI*
For violation of our constitutional rights, regarding their roles in the coup efforts against Donald Trump and consequently, against the American People.
The following rights have, been severely violated by the defendants:
Amendment 1: Freedom of Speech, Assembly, and Petition – for sending FBI agents to school and city council meetings to intimidate, harass and arrest those who exercise their rights under this amendment.
Amendment 4: Search and Seizure — for the raid on Trumps residence by the FBI, and on supporters of our freedoms and Trump
Amendment 5: Rights of the Accused
(Guarantees various rights for individuals accused of crimes, including protection against self-incrimination, double jeopardy, and ensures due process of law.) – pertaining to Trump, his lawyers, attorney-client privileges being illegally cancelled, entrapment, violating the secrecy and confidentially between the President and his security detail, etc.
Amendment 6: Right to a Fair Trial
(Ensures the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, the right to confront witnesses, and the right to legal counsel.) – as denied to Trump, and correspondingly the American People.
Amendment 8: Cruel and Unusual Punishment – for multiple violations of Trump’s rights, and correspondingly those of the American People.
Amendment 12: Presidential Elections – for violations in many areas, that were not yet brought to trial, and which demand accountability to prempt yet q repeat of criminal activities.
Amendment 14: Equal Protection and Due Process
(Grants equal protection under the law, due process of law, and defines citizenship.)- denied to Trump, as well as to all Americans.
Amendment 15: Right to Vote – whereby voting violations that affect the outcome decimate the rights of American citizens to vote in a fair process.
Great points. Could you put that in a memo to Congress so they can get on it?
Look at his stupid surliness. I guess he might be not passing any more executive orders with his pen and phone while the country flounders. Then again he he might and Dems would be glad of that too. His money is always good.
His money is always good but what’s better is his public spending. Like Crassus in Rome.
Caligula put a horse into the Senate.
Democrats put a donkey into the White House. He’s still there.
A long time ago the Founders tried to create a republic that wouldn’t flounder like Greece or Rome and then we got this clueless demagogue. A guy who doesn’t really believe a word coming out of his mouth but expects you to appreciate his showmanship. In other words a typical politician for a typical people.
There is a tradition of municipal corruption in the US. It runs deep in the Irish community. It explains why the Cosa Nostra in New England is run from Providence. The Irish run Boston.
Biden is an Irish American traditionalist, a professional criminal specializing in government corruption. It is indeed, his family’s business.
Where it as a Badge of Honor…So, What Color was your Triangle?