The US Supreme Court Ruled in Pierce v. Society of Sisters that States could not Compel Children to Attend Public Schools. “The Child is Not the Mere Creature of the State”
Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a 1922 Oregon law that compelled children aged eight to sixteen to attend not just a school, but the public schools. The Oregon compulsory public education law was sponsored by the Ku Klux Klan, Federated Patriotic Societies, the Masons, and smaller groups that appealed to white supremacist, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, and nativist beliefs. Drawing on popular ...
The Palmer Raids Biggest Raid
Americans woke up to discover just how little their own government regarded the cherished Bill of Rights. During the night, some 4,000 of their fellow citizens were rounded up and jailed for what amounted, in most cases, to no good reason at all and no due process, either. Welcome to the story of the Palmer Raids, named for their instigator, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Though largely ...
Sedition Act of 1918 Enacted. Imprisons Hundreds for Anti-War Speech
The Sedition Act of 1918 was an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917 passed by Congress at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, who was concerned that any antiwar speech and organizing to oppose the draft and the war effort constituted a real threat to an American victory. Congress passed a measure, signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, that made it punishable by up to 20 years in prison ...
Espionage Act of 1917 Enacted by Congress
Congress enacted the Espionage Act of 1917 on June 15, two months after the United States entered World War I. Just after the war, prosecutions under the act led to landmark First Amendment precedents. The Espionage Act of 1917 prohibited obtaining information, recording pictures, or copying descriptions of any information relating to the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information may be used ...
John Swinton, NY Times Chief Editor Speech: “The Business of Journalists is to Destroy the Truth…We Are Tools… of Rich Men Behind the Scenes.”
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dare to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I ...
The Secret Treaty of Verona between Austria, France, Prussia and Russia to Suppress the Freedom of the U.S.A. – with the Help of the Pope?
In the secret 1822 Treaty of Verona (between Austria, France, Prussia and Russia) the Jesuits agreed to smash the US Constitution and suppress the freedom of the US. Their methods included destroying free speech, destroying and suppressing the press, universal censorship, sustaining the cooperation of the Pope and clergy to use religion to help keep nations in passive obedience and financing wars against countries with representative ...
Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address
Thomas Jefferson FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and ...
Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation: America’s First Federal Thanksgiving
On October 3rd, 1789, following a resolution of Congress, President George Washington proclaimed Thursday the 26th of November 1789 a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted to “the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.” Reflecting American religious practice, Presidents and Congresses from the beginning of the republic ...
The Bill of Rights was Passed by Congress to Protect the Civil Liberties of American Citizens and Prevent the Government from Abusing Power
The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. Written by James Madison in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties, the Bill of Rights lists specific prohibitions on governmental power. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason, strongly influenced Madison. One of the many points of contention between Federalists and Anti-Federalists was the Constitution’s lack of a bill ...
A Congressman from Massachusetts, Fisher Ames, Proposes the Wording of the First Amendment
He sat next to George Washington in the pew at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York during the religious service following Washington’s presidential inauguration. He helped ratify the U.S. Constitution. His name was Fisher Ames. He was a Congressman from Massachusetts where, on Aug. 20, 1789, he proposed as the wording of the First Amendment (Annals of Congress, 1:766): “Congress shall make no law establishing religion, ...
