RESTORATION OF FULL CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS TO EUGENE V. DEBS

WHEREAS, Eugene V. Debs, a native son of the State of Indiana, brought lasting recognition to the goals and aspirations of the working man throughout the United States by being a founder of industrial unionism as it is known in America today; and

WHEREAS, among the goals and aspirations tenaciously advocated by Eugene V. Debs were the eradication of poverty and inequality through such programs as the eight-hour day, the forty-hour week, workmen's compensation, pension plans and social security; and

WHEREAS, his tenacity in avocations of such programs led him through the oppression of prison to the honor of membership in the Indiana General Assembly in 1885 and of candidacy for President of the United States in five (5) presidential elections, and

WHEREAS, many of the programs he strove to attain are now accepted and have been adopted by the majority of the American people as weapons in the historic struggle to eliminate poverty and inequality; and

WHEREAS, his ultimate goal in the true American tradition was the fullest and most meaningful human freedom and liberty for all citizens, as evidenced by these words from his speech to the Court after the jury returned a verdict finding him guilty: "While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free!"; and

WHEREAS, the Debs home at 451 North Eighth Street in Terre Haute, Indiana, is a National Historic Landmark of the National Parks, Department of the Interior of the United States, and an official historic site of the State of Indiana, and is now the Debs Memorial and headquarters for the Eugene V. Debs Foundation; and

WHEREAS, Debs was convicted and sentenced to serve 10 years in prison at hard labor, and disenfranchised for life, for allegedly violating the wartime espionage law after making his now famous anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio on June 16, 1918, protesting World War I, which was then raging in Europe; and

WHEREAS, no citizen of these United States has since been sentenced to prison for speaking out against war; and

WHEREAS, although Debs was released from prison by President Warren G. Harding on Christmas Day, 1921, after serving two years and 258 days, his rights as a citizen of the United States were never fully restored to him:

RESOLVED, by the Congress of the United States of America:

Section 1. That all rights as a citizen of the United States of America be completely and fully restored to Eugene Victor Debs, posthumously, retroactive to April 12, 1919, the date Debs began serving his sentence in federal prison.

Section 2. That the members of the 94th Congress of the United States do hereby honor and pay respect to the memory of Eugene V. Debs, and pledge themselves to do whatever is in their power to keep alive the principles of liberty, freedom and equality for which Eugene V. Debs so nobly and freely dedicated his life.