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Have you ever heard of the word sedition? Many of us have, but how many of us know what it really means? Webster's online dictionary defines sedition as separation, from, act of going, from and incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority. In many years past, it didn't take much to be convicted of sedition. There are some people that think that we are headed that way again. The word didn't make it's appearance until about 1590 in England. It was connected with treason but sort of a lesser state.

If you think that sedition is old fashioned or goes against free speech today let me tell you about a woman who was a nurse in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Yes that is the same agency that lost 22,000,000 records of veterans in May, 2006. She wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper which criticized the government and then found herself under investigation for sedition. It is said that the letter was sent through "VA Channels" to the FBI. The story goes on to say that the nurse wrote to one of higher ups in the VA and supposedly he stated that even though there was no proof that she wrote the letter at work, the office is bound by law to investigate and pursue any act which potentially represents sedition. There it is again folks, the "s" word.

The Sedition Act of 1918, was appealed in 1921, but before that, it was responsible for the arrest and conviction of the famous socialist Eugene V. Debs who received 10 years in prison when he was 66 years old. He had made an anti war speech about World War I and this is all it took for imprisonment. While he was in prison he received over 1,000,000 votes for president but lost. He was released on Christmas of 1921 by President Harding who commuted his sentence to time served. Hundreds of people went to prison under this law.

Montana had a sedition law under which 79 people were sent to prison. All the arrests were between 1918 and 1919. Feelings ran high at the end of the war, World War I, and I am sure that accounted for the massive amounts of arrests, but free speech was rather trampled on at the time. The prisoners varied in age from 29 years old to 74 years old. Can you imagine some poor old guy, maybe someone who lost a close relative in the was, saying that we shouldn't have entered the war and then being slapped in jail for it? Many of the so called witnessed statement were made in drinking establishments and some of the people, no doubt, were under the influence. Even if they weren't drunk, being in a bar tends to loosen one's tongue. It is said that some of these people were put in prison for criticizing the soundness of Liberty Bonds, can you believe this? The Montana sedition law was enacted in 1918 and made it a criminal act to say almost anything negative about the war. The maximum penalty was 20 years in jail and a fine of $20,000.

A sedition act was passed in this country in 1798. This law was very strict and instantly prevented free speech. The pertinent part stated

.......that if any person shall write, print, utter, or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any 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, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them. or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against the United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.

As you can see, most of the above paragraph has to do with treason but the part about uttering, publishing, writing etc. effectively stops any criticism of the government.

Laws like the sedition law have been with us a long time, off and on. They make a powerful weapon in the hands of the unscrupulous and give Stalin like abilities to those that would enforce them. It is one thing to sentence spies, but if some poor guy voices his opinion of the government and it happens to be unfavorable, isn't that his right? All our lives we have heard that we have free speech, but it turns out that it was not free speech for all. Sure most of us had it and still do, but if one is perceived as an enemy of a certain politician or in the way of one of his programs, beware, you may be the next victim of sedition.