Sarah's APUSH Blog

Wilson's 14 points are idealistic because the if the points were to be accepted many nations would have to make major changes that affect the way that they conduct business. The points are also idealistic because they would require counties to trust their neighbors but have little protection. The points tried to be fair to all nations involved, but others had plans of their own for how they thought that the end of the world should go. Wilson's 14th point set the stage for the League of Nations which was one of the main ideas that Wilson stood behind but the U.S. never joined which led to its downfall. At the end of WW2, the United Nations was created which was basically a version of the League of Nations that the U.S. joined after seeing what had happened when they didn't join the first time around, which connects to Wilson's final point.

During the Great War Charles Schenck and Elizabeth Baer thought that the draft violated the thirteenth amendment and they distributed pamphlets that declared their views. The pamphlets said that people should resist the draft peacefully. Schenck was accused of violating the Espionage Act by obstructing recruitment. Both Schenck and Baer were convicted of violating the Espionage Act and later tried appealing this ruling on the grounds of the first amendment. According to Oliver Wendell Holmes, the "clear and present danger test", he said the first amendment regarding freedom of speech is not protected as it approaches creating a clear and present danger of an evil that Congress can protect. He also compared their handing out of pamphlets to a person yelling "fire" in a public place, which is not permitted under the first amendment. Both Schenck v US and Brown v Board of Education were landmark supreme court cases in which the power of the supreme court was teste...