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Executive Action

Commutation of Eugene V. Debs' Prison Sentence

On December 25, 1921, President Harding commuted the remaining portion of Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs's ten-year sentence for his 1918 antiwar speech, resulting in Debs's release from federal prison.

Commutation of Eugene V. Debs' Prison Sentence

The commutation signaled Harding's willingness to heal wartime divisions and addressed controversies over free speech and wartime prosecutions by restoring a prominent political dissident to public life.

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