Common sense disappears and so can the First Amendment if we’re not careful | Opinion – The News Journal

John Sweeney| Special to the USA TODAY Network

One day in 1798, a tipsy LutherBaldwin looked up from his drink and muttered a sentence that must have come close to toppling the United States of America.

His words seemed so dangerous that a civilian informant promptly reported him to outraged authorities. In turn, the federal government arrested, tried, and imprisoned the scoundrel.

Baldwins crime? He made a crude joke about the presidents backside.

You couldnt do that in 1798.

The First Amendment was just more than six years old at that point. It would take more than a century before anyone took it seriously. So, President John Adams and his Federalist Party friends in Congress ignored it. France was making menacing noises against us. That made it a crisis. The political establishment quickly made it illegal to insult, criticize, demean or embarrass in any way Adams, his cabinet, Congress, the Supreme Court, or any branch of the federal government.

As Adams saw it, the Alien and Sedition Acts were a quartet of laws designed to keep Americas experiment in freedom secure. They protected freedom by restricting it. They prevented enemies or irresponsible people from spreading lies, rumors, or what we today call misinformation. In other words, you couldnt disagree with those in power.

Adams taught his fellow politicians well. Ever since they have protected their power or covered up scandals by ignoring the First Amendment, going around it or vilifying dissenters. Declare something an existential threat, then bully and shame doubters. If you can, legally squelch the brazen articles who persist in questioning the purity of your motives. If you cant, badger the newspapers and movie studios into creating blacklists or pressure internet platforms to ban dissenters outright. Its so much easier than arguing with them.

The Adams administration routinely arrested, tried, and jailed newspaper editors who opposed its policies. They even jailed a member of Congress for writing a critical letter to the editor about Adams.

But more than partisan disagreements were at stake. The Federalists found their opponents rude, uneducated and insulting. They were the mob.

Baldwin operated a garbage barge. His case wasnt the first prosecuted under the Sedition law. It was the silliest. He was, as a local newspaper said, a little merry when he and his tavern companions heard cannon firing on that 1798 afternoon. The booming was in honor of Adams who was passing through Baldwins hometown, Newark, New Jersey.When informed why the cannons roared, Baldwin quipped he hoped the next one went up the presidents arse.

That sealed his fate.

World War I brought another Sedition Act. This time it was illegal to utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language against the U.S. government.

The jailing of Eugene Debs is the most famous case. Near the end of the war, the socialist leader criticized Wilsons policies and the draft. His words prompted the feds to arrest and sentence Debs to five years in prison.

Debs was not alone. The feds and state governments rounded up, convicted, and jailed or deported countless anti-war protesters, union organizers and socialists. Their crimes: writing pamphlets, giving speeches, or marching on picket lines. Montana even jailed a labor organizer who refused to kiss the American flag.

It seems that Wilson, like Adams, thought he was above criticism. Both fooled the public by whipping up pro-administration sentiment. Of course, it didnt sound like pro-administration rhetoric. It came across as righteous pro-American sloganeering. But it conveniently silenced critics.

We would do this sort of thing again during the McCarthy era, the civil rights movement, and after the 9/11 attacks. It is easier to shut down the marches and censor the speeches than to beat the critics arguments. It is even easier to pressure social media platforms to cut them off.

It would be one thing if these antics only hit intended targets, right or wrong. But, as things happen, common sense disappears as easily as First Amendment protections.

John Adams had his Luther Baldwin. Woodrow Wilson had Robert Goldstein.

Goldstein was a would-be movie producer who wanted to cash in on the patriotism craze. He decided to produce what he called Wave the Flag movies that celebrated good old Americanism. His crowning effort, The Spirit of 76, depicted Washington enduring Valley Forge, Patrick Henry declaiming Liberty or Death, and brave Minutemen battling treacherous Redcoats.

Unfortunately for Goldstein, the Redcoats were British. In World War I, the British were on our side. The feds arrested Goldstein. They tried and convicted him for demeaning an ally, the British, thereby aiding an enemy, the Germans.

For such treachery, Goldstein served three years in prison.

The court case was U.S. v. The Spirit of 76.

That seems fitting somehow.

John Sweeney is a writer living in Wilmington, Delaware.

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Common sense disappears and so can the First Amendment if we're not careful | Opinion - The News Journal