By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here.
Thank you for signing up for The Nation’s weekly newsletter.By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here.
Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue.The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.
In the wake of the Selective Service Act, which instituted a mandatory military draft, many Americans refused to participate and suffered the consequences, including jail time and deportation. Roger Nash Baldwin was a founder and the first executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He spent about a year in prison as a conscientious objector, and later played a leading role in the Snopes and Sacco and Vanzetti trials, as well as the effort to lift the ban on James Joyce’s Ulysses. (He is also the godfather of the current editor of The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel.) The following article in The Nation from November 1918, “The Faith of a Heretic,” was a reprint of the speech he delivered in court when he had been sentenced two weeks earlier for violating the draft. He ended up spending roughly a year in prison.
I am before you as a deliberate violator of the Draft Act…. The compelling motive for refusing to comply with the Draft Act is my uncompromising opposition to the principle of conscription of life by the State for any purpose whatever, in time of war or peace. I not only refuse to obey the present conscription law, but I would in future refuse to obey any similar statute which attempts to direct my choice of service and ideals. I regard the principle of conscription of life as a flat contradiction of all our cherished ideals of individual freedom, democratic liberty, and Christian teaching….
Though at the moment I am of a tiny minority, I feel myself part of a great revolt surging up from among the people—the struggle of the masses against the rule of the world by the few—profoundly intensified by the war. It is a struggle against the political State itself, against exploitation, militarism, imperialism, authority in all its forms. It is a struggle to break in full force only after the war. Russia already stands in the vanguard, beset by her enemies in the camps of both belligerents; the Central Empires break asunder from within; the labor movement gathers revolutionary force in Britain; and in our own country the Non-partisan League, radical labor, and the Socialist party hold the germs of a new social order. Their protest is my protest. Mine is a personal protest at a particular law, but it is backed by all the aspirations and ideals of the struggle for a world freed of our manifold slaveries and tyrannies.
To mark The Nation’s 150th anniversary, every morning this year The Almanac will highlight something that happened that day in history and how The Nation covered it. Get The Almanac every day (or every week) by signing up to the e-mail newsletter.
What’s at stake this November is the future of our democracy. Yet Nation readers know the fight for justice, equity, and peace doesn’t stop in November. Change doesn’t happen overnight. We need sustained, fearless journalism to advocate for bold ideas, expose corruption, defend our democracy, secure our bodily rights, promote peace, and protect the environment.
This month, we’re calling on you to give a monthly donation to support The Nation’s independent journalism. If you’ve read this far, I know you value our journalism that speaks truth to power in a way corporate-owned media never can. The most effective way to support The Nation is by becoming a monthly donor; this will provide us with a reliable funding base.
In the coming months, our writers will be working to bring you what you need to know—from John Nichols on the election, Elie Mystal on justice and injustice, Chris Lehmann’s reporting from inside the beltway, Joan Walsh with insightful political analysis, Jeet Heer’s crackling wit, and Amy Littlefield on the front lines of the fight for abortion access. For as little as $10 a month, you can empower our dedicated writers, editors, and fact checkers to report deeply on the most critical issues of our day.
Set up a monthly recurring donation today and join the committed community of readers who make our journalism possible for the long haul. For nearly 160 years, The Nation has stood for truth and justice—can you help us thrive for 160 more?
Onwards,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation
Richard Kreitner is a contributing writer and the author of Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union. His writings are at www.richardkreitner.com.
The Almanac Today in history—and how The Nation covered it.
