what's up beautiful people today we're going to take a look at the espionage and sedition acts we're going to explain them but first some super quick context world war one began on july 28 1914 and very quickly after that president wilson issues a declaration of neutrality stating the us has no interest in getting mixed up in this drama in 1916 president wilson ran for re-election largely on the slogan he kept us out of the war his campaign even had these swanky campaign buttons nevertheless on april 2nd 1917 president wilson went before a joint session of congress to seek a declaration of war against germany in this declaration of war wilson argued it was necessary to go to war and order that the world be made safe for democracy and remember part of the reason the us gets into this european conflict was wilson's call for the defense of humanitarian and democratic principles but as big brain history people know that wasn't the only reason if you don't know the other reasons we got into world war one i highly suggest you check out the link in the description for a video on us entry into world war one now remember in the us constitution it is congress that has the power to declare war and four days after wilson's speech congress voted to declare war with six senators and 50 house members dissenting voting against u.s entry into the war the reason i mentioned the congressional vote numbers for the declaration of war is it reveals something important about the homefront during war any time there is a war not everyone in the country may be on board with the war effort in congress when they voted for it six senators voted against the war and 50 congressional representatives also opposed fun fact time one of the members of congress who voted against u.s entry in world war one was jeannette rankin of montana a lifelong pacifist who would later become the only member of either chamber of congress to vote against declaring war against the japanese empire on december 8 1941 so homegirl said no to world war one and world war ii during world war one there were americans who were not exactly thrilled with the prospect of the us joining the war effort in this image you could see a group protesting at the capitol to u.s entry into world war one and while most folks supported the war effort there were those who opposed american entry into the war pacifists are individuals who are opposed to all war seeing war as immoral various groups such as anarchists socialists thought the war was being fought to benefit capitalism and american business interest some women's groups found it pretty laughable we were claiming to fight to make the world safe for democracy when democracy wasn't exactly happening for women or for most african-americans and there were various other individuals who opposed u.s entry into world war one for some german immigrants in the united states they didn't want their new country shooting up the spot where grandpa lived some intellectuals and union members also opposed the war but by and large public opinion during world war one was generally supportive of the u.s war effort during the war the u.s government actively sought to promote nationalism or more specifically to get the american public to support the war effort not long after war was declared president wilson created the committee on public information cpi as the cool kids called it on the streets was basically a propaganda agency that sought to increase public support for the war effort just in case you don't know propaganda is the spreading of information in support of a cause usually the dissemination of information involves a highly organized campaign and the information may be true or it may be highly biased or misleading or just completely false but the point of propaganda is to influence public opinion and to further some type of agenda during world war 1 the committee on public information used every type of mass communication available to mobilize public opinion behind the war effort this included creating movies speeches and most famously posters like you see right here the point of all this propaganda was to convince the american people to do everything they could on the home front to support the war effort the american people were encouraged to do everything from buying war bonds to conserving certain food items in addition another goal of the government during world war one was to restrict dissent or rather to limit opposition to the war effort shortly after the u.s entered the war the espionage act of 1917 was passed and it made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the us armed forces war effort for instance you can get yourself in a bunch of trouble if you protested the draft or encourage men not to enlist in the military the sedition act was passed in 1918 this made it a crime to say anything disloyal profane or abusive about the government or the war effort basically the sedition act suppress any speech or actions that were pro-german anti-war or even anti-british because you know they were the us homies during world war one these two laws applied to speech writing printed or published material and any activity deemed treasonous or harmful to the war effort could lead an individual to be found guilty and subject to a fine of over ten thousand dollars and up to 20 years in prison in the midst of all this patriotic promotion there was also an increase in hatred towards immigrant groups particularly german and those who came from austria-hungary those were the people we were fighting during the war and with nearly two million people living in the united states who were born in germany many of those individuals suffered discrimination and various other hardships such as deportation and finally over 1500 people were arrested and prosecuted for violating the espionage and sedition acts so in summary during world war 1 many individuals were sent to jail for dissent against the war foreign-born people were deported in some cases and anti-war individuals were oftentimes seen as un-american that's gonna do it for this video i hope i helped you out if i did click like tell a friend about the channel and as always have a beautiful day peace