Ernest Freeberg Quotes & Sayings

Harriet Thomas, a leader of the Women's Peace Party, startled the committee [debating the Espionage Act] when she told them, 'It seems to me that under this act I would be liable to imprisonment for life, or a more drastic penalty, perhaps, if I should say that I would rather my sons be shot for refusing to go out and kill and bear arms against a supposed enemy of this country.' A congressman interrupted her to ask, 'Then you do not honor your citizenship in this country?' Thomas stood her ground. 'I feel I have the right to interpret my loyalty to my own country in my own terms of citizenship, and according to my own conscience, and I do not need any bill to tell me what my of country shall represent. — Ernest Freeberg