(November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926)
Debs Timeline
| Political Career of Eugene Debs | |
|---|---|
| Date | Event |
| 1855 | born in Terre Haute, IN to Jean Daniel and Marguerite Marie Bettrich Debs, emigrants from Alsace |
| 1870 | Left school to begin work on the Vandalia railroads |
| 1871 | Promoted to fireman on a train crew, attending business school during the day |
| 1873 | Laid off during the Panic of 1873, moved to St. Louis to find work |
| 1874 | Returned to Terre Haute and began work for wholesale grocer Hulman & Cox |
| 1875 | Secretary of Vigo Lodge no. 16 of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen |
| 1877 | Opposed the violence and lawlessness of the Railroad Strike of 1877 |
| 1879 | Won election to City Clerk of Terre Haute as a Democrat. Served two terms. |
| 1880 | Became secretary general of the BLF |
| 1884 | Elected Representative to Indiana General Assembly as a Democrat. Served 1885-1887. |
| 1885 | Married Kate Metzel, daughter of a Terre Haute drugstore owner |
| 1886 | Wrote in the BLF Magazine against the convictions in the Haymarket case on the basis of free speech. |
| 1888 | Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Burlington Railroad Strike |
| 1893 | Helped found American Railway Union |
| 1894 | With ARU helped organize the Pullman Strike |
| 1894 | While serving six months in jail for the Pullman Strike, became a Socialist |
| 1897 | Founding member, Social Democracy of America |
| 1898 | Founding Member, Social Democratic Party of America |
| 1900 | First Presidential Campaign |
| 1901 | Founding Member, Socialist Party of America |
| 1904 | Second Presidential Campaign |
| 1905 | Founding Member, Industrial Workers of the World |
| 1908 | Third Presidential Campaign |
| 1911 | Sided with Socialists in Split with IWW |
| 1912 | Fourth Presidential Campaign |
| 1916 | Campaigned for Congressman from Indiana |
| Sedition Trial | |
| 1918, 16 Jun | Canton, Ohio Address |
| 1918, 01 July | Indictment Filed |
| 1918, 9-12 September | Trial in Progress |
| 1918, 12 September | Verdict Filed |
| 1918, 14 September | Sentencing |
| 1919, 27-28 January | Supreme Court Arguments |
| 1919, 10 March | Supreme Court Decision |
| Political Career Continued | |
| 1920 | Fifth Presidential Campaign while imprisoned under the Sedition Act |
Texts
On this Site
Communist Party of America. Open Letter to Eugene V. Debs, April 25, 1920.
Debs, Eugene V. "The American Movement."
Debs, Eugene V. Address in Canton, Ohio.
Debs, Eugene V. Canton Trial Argument, United States v. Eugene V. Debs, 11 September 1918.
Debs, Eugene V. "The Issue", Girard, Kansas, 16 May 1908.
Debs, Eugen V. Statement to the Court.
In Print and on the Web
Debs, Eugene V., Bruce Rogers, and Stephen M. Reynolds. Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches: With a Department of Appreciations. The Appeal to reason, Girard, Kan, 1908.
Debs, Eugene V., and J. R. Constantine. Letters of Eugene V. Debs. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1990.
Sound recording: Eugene Debs, excerpt from "Winning a World," Recorded in 1904. G. Robert Vincent Voice Library, Michigan State University.
Web Resources
Debs v. United States, 249 U.S. 211 (1919), Justia U. S. Supreme Court.
Eugen V. Debs Foundation, Eugene V. Debs Museum, Terre Haute, IN.
Eugene V. Debs Project at Marxists Internet Archive.
Sources
Boase, Paul H. The Rhetoric of Protest and Reform, 1878-1898. Ohio University Press, 1980.
Brommel, Bernard J. "Eugene V. Debs: The Agitator as Speaker." Central States Speech Journal 20 (1969): 202-214.
Brommel, Bernard J. "The Pacifist Speech-Making of Eugene V. Debs." Quarterly Journal of Speech 52 (1966): 146-154.
Darsey, James. "The Legend of Eugene Debs: Prophetic ethos as Radical Argument." Quarterly Journal of Speech 74 (1988): 434-452.
Darsey, James. "Patricia Roberts-Miller, Demagoguery, and the Troublesome Case of Eugene Debs." Rhetoric and Public Affairs, vol. 9, no. 3, 2006, pp. 463-470
Darsey, James. The Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America. New York University Press, 1997.
Devinatz, Victor G. "“An Open Letter to Eugene V. Debs”: Debs' Relationship to the U.S. Communists, Circa 1919–1924." Workingusa: The Journal of Labor and Society, vol. 18, no. 2, 2015, pp. 267-289.
Eastman, Max. The Trial of Eugene Debs with Debs' Address to the Court on Receiving Sentence. Liberator pamphlet no. 3. New York: Liberator 1918.
“Eugene Debs Dies after Long Illness.” New York Times 21 October 1926, p. 25.
Freeberg, Ernest. Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent. Harvard University Press, 2008.
Ginger, Ray. The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene Victor Debs. Rutgers University Press, 1949.
Gould, Lewis L. Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics. University Press of Kansas, 2008.
Kulik, Brian. “Socialist Editor Eugene Debs: One-Million Votes in Jail.” Media History Digest 5, no. 2 (Spring 1985): 18–50.
Lee, R., and J. Andrews. "A Story of Rhetorical-Ideological Transformation: Eugene V. Debs as Liberal Hero." Quarterly Journal of Speech 77 (1991): 20-37.
Lomas, Charles W. The Agitator in American Society. Prentice-Hall, 1968.
Longacre, Glenn V. "Free Speech on Trial: Eugene Debs at Canton, Ohio." Prologue Magazine, Winter 2017-2018, vol. 49, no. 4. [https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2017/winter/debs-canton].
Morgan, H. Wayne. Eugene V. Debs: Socialist for President. Syracuse University Press, 1962.
Papke, David R. The Pullman Case: The Clash of Labor and Capital in Industrial America. University Press of Kansas, 1999.
Salvatore, Nick. Eugene Debs: Citizen and Socialist. University of Chicago Press, 1982.
Tunnell, Kenneth D., and Edward L. W. Green. "Critical Criminology in the Life and Work of Eugene Victor Debs." Critical Criminology, vol. 23, no. 1, 2015, pp. 39-55.