On May 30, 2024, former President Donald Trump was convicted of felony business record fraud over his hush money payments to Stormy Daniels that has produced the predictable divides and is destined for appeals. Believe it or not, a candidate running for president while a convicted felon, or even in jail, is not unprecedented. This was the case with the Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926).
Debs was originally a Democratic politician who was twice elected City Clerk for Terre Haute, Indiana, and served a term in the Indiana House from 1885 to 1887. He then became a union activist, but was frustrated with unions being hindered by not standing together, leading him the found and head the American Railway Union (Constantine, 30). During the Pullman Strike of 1894, Debs’s union despite his counsel not to held a sympathy strike did so by boycotting the use of Pullman cars on all railroads with his union. He proceeded to defy a court injunction to halt the boycott, and was imprisoned for six months (Constantine, 30-31). While in prison, he was radicalized and in 1897 he announced that he was a socialist, and a socialist he would remain. Debs was the Socialist Party’s candidate in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and finally, 1920. In 1912, he had his best performance as he received 6% of the vote and even won four counties, a record high performance for the Socialist Party. It was noted in 1912 that Wilson and Roosevelt had “stolen Debs’ thunder” by embracing some planks of his platform (Constantine, 31). Debs called for policies in the 1912 platform that were later embraced in the United States including the establishment of a minimum wage, old age insurance, and adoption of the income tax. The latter was embraced by both the Democratic and Progressive platforms. Indeed, some of his planks we take for granted today. Part of Debs’ socialism was opposition to the US entering World War I, and on June 16, 1918, he made a speech in which he encouraged draft resistance. This was enough for President Wilson’s Justice Department to indict him for sedition under the 1918 Sedition Act, a law that constitutes one of the most severe infringements on civil liberties in US history. Debs was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment on September 18, 1918, and after his appeal to the Supreme Court was unanimously rejected in Debs v. United States, he started serving his sentence in 1919.
Despite his felony conviction and imprisonment, Debs decided to run for president, and received 3.4% of the vote, his second-best performance. However, 1920 wasn’t a total loss for the Socialist Party: Socialist Meyer London was elected to Congress that year, regaining the New York City seat he had lost in the 1918 election. By 1921, his health, declining even before he went to prison, was considerably worsening. Although Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, known for the “First Red Scare”, advocated he be released on health grounds, President Wilson refused to commute his sentence. His successor Warren Harding did so on December 23rd, with his release to occur on Christmas Day. Despite how some may view it now and that Harding had voted against the Sedition Act as a senator, this was not a repudiation of his conviction, rather a compassionate release. Harding said to Debs upon him visiting the White House on the 26th, “Well, I’ve heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now glad to meet you personally” (Robenhalt). Debs’ poor health persisted, and despite the urgings of his supporters he opted not to run again in 1924, endorsing Progressive candidate Robert La Follette. He also rejected calls for him join the Communist Party and condemned the USSR for its suppression of freedom of speech (Constantine, 33). Debs died of heart failure on October 20, 1926. If he had been made to serve his full sentence, he would indeed have died in prison. Debs is regarded as a hero by Bernie Sanders and other socialists today, not only as a compelling leader, but also as a man willing to face the penitentiary for his convictions.
References
Constantine, J.R. (1991, August). Eugene V. Debs: an American paradox. Monthly Labor Review.
Retrieved from
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1991/08/art4full.pdf
Robenhalt, J.D. (2022, January 6). 100 Years Ago, a president forgave his opponent’s alleged subversion. The Washington Post.
Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/01/06/warren-harding-eugene-debs/
The Socialist Party Platform of 1912. Teaching American History.
Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History 