ABSTRACT
Federal legislation relating to sedition and subversion is directed to three great evils. One evil is getting the nation into war, or increasing the duration and hazards of war, or obstructing the efforts to prosecute the war. A second evil is the overthrow or destruction of government within the United States or interference with the operations of government. The third evil is establishment of a regime that now carries the statutory designation "totalitarian dictatorship". In analysis of the Sedition Act of 1798 the people found it helpful to identify four stages in campaigns to accomplish something that the lawmakers wish to prevent. A society assumes some risk of injuring innocent people in every enactment of criminal law. Supporters of the statute are convinced that their democratic condition does not rest on as precarious a base as some critics of the law seem to think. The nation's liberties are not destroyed if the people curtail speech at a few points.
