LAD/Blog #32: Wilson's 14 Points of Peace

To President Wilson, these points may have seemed realistic, as many of them are, but most could have only happened in his wildest dreams. He wanted to treat the losing side fairly, so as to prevent another war. Unfortunately, the Allies had different plans and wanted Germany to pay for the long years of suffering they had put them through. They tried their best to restore Europe and its countries back to the way they were, except Germany. Despite Wilson's insistence to go easy on them, the Treaty of Versailles took away most freedoms that Germans enjoyed and sank them deeply in debt. The thing that really stuck to the guidelines of Wilson's 14 Points of Peace was the 14th point, forming a general association of nations to keep the peace throughout the world. Thus, the League of Nations was born. The 14 Points of Peace may have seemed like the best way to restore Europe at the time, but most points were idealistic.

At the end of World War II, the Axis powers

signed peace treaties with the Allies which were

as harsh, if not more than the treaties signed after

the Great War.

LAD/Blog #31: Schenck v United States

Pamphlet telling the public
to resist the draft.

Charles Schenck and Elizabeth Baer distributed leaflets telling people to peacefully resist the draft, since they believed it violated the Thirteenth Amendment. Both Schenck and Baer were convicted of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and appealed to the court by saying that the statute violated the First Amendment. The court upheld that the First Amendment was not actually violated, and defined, for the first time, the "clear and present danger" doctrine. Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes compared it to shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theatre, which would cause massive amounts of panic and destruction.

Peter Zenger also went on trial for speaking out 

against the government. In this case, he was 

acquitted and became the defining factor

in free speech.