http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0504sedition0504.html
Montana pardons 78 in sedition cases
Maurice Possley Chicago Tribune May. 4, 2006 12:00 AM
CHICAGO - Not long after Fay Rumsey was married in 1901 in Sherwood, Mich., he and wife Sarah went west where they raised 12 children and settled a homestead in southeastern Montana.
Their world fell apart in 1918 when Rumsey, 49, was convicted under the state's sedition law and sentenced to two to four years in prison.
He was among 78 people who were convicted of sedition in Montana during the waning days of World War I. Rumsey and 40 others were sentenced to prison terms from one to 20 years and ordered to pay fines.
Rumsey's crime?
He said that "he wished the Germans would come in and clean up the U.S. and especially Sarpy Creek; that President Wilson was in cahoots with the money power of this country, and that if he was drafted, he would not fight for the U.S. but would fight for the Kaiser," according to court records.
With Rumsey behind bars, the ranch failed and was sold out of foreclosure. Most of the children were sent to orphanages or were placed with other families, according to family members.
Rumsey was released after 12 months and moved back to Michigan, where he died less than three years later.
On Wednesday, Gene Dalton of Rock Falls, Ill., a grandson of Rumsey, was among more than 40 relatives of the convicted defendants who gathered at the Montana state capital where Gov. Brian Schweitzer granted a blanket posthumous pardon.
"This is closure," said Dalton, 68. "This is very important. This is a time when you think you can say what you want - to just have freedom of speech. They (the convicted defendants) thought they did, but they really didn't."
For Dalton, his wife, Shirley, and other relatives, the pardon was a long time coming.
Schweitzer said just before the ceremony, "I think this sends a signal to the rest of the folks across the country that in times of insecurity and xenophobia, sometimes we lose our minds. It takes cooler minds and cooler heads to say; 'This wasn't right.'
"We cherish our constitutional rights," he said. "We made some mistakes and we are going to try to get it right this time. Spying on your neighbor is not the American way, it's sure not the Montana way and it's definitely not the cowboy way."