Debs on Violating the Sedition Act: Paragraphs 1-3 Summary

How Debs Got Himself into This Mess

  • Debs begins all humble by admitting how he's no better than anyone else and is a man of the people…which is actually true, given his dropping out of school at fourteen and doing manual labor.
  • He's so sensitive to the suffering of others that he can't rest until everyone is doing well in this world. And not only can't he rest, he doesn't want to.
  • Debs' mind remains unchanged about the Espionage Law; it's a bad law, and he has no remorse for having violated it.
  • Not only that, he's against the whole social system in the U.S.
  • Yeah, he went there.