Montana’s Fight for Free Speech: The Forgotten Law That Silenced a State

Spend more than five minutes in Montana and you’ll pick up on something really fast: we love our freedom and although we might not always agree with everything going on, we love our country.

Montana is known for being fiercely independent, deeply patriotic, and proud of our heritage. That’s why it’s so hard to believe that at one point in our state’s history, Montana made it illegal to speak out against the government. Sounds impossible, right? Unfortunately, it’s true, and the consequences were heartbreaking.

World War I and a Rising Tension

Around the time that the United States joined World War I, tensions in Montana were running high. Many Montanans were against entering the war in the first place. However, once America entered the war, things shifted fast. Criticizing the president or the war effort became not just frowned upon, but flat out dangerous.

When Words Became a Crime

In 1918, the Montana Legislature passed the Montana Sedition Law. Just saying something against the war, even in a private conversation, could land a person in jail and sadly, many were imprisoned.

The law was an aggressive extension of the federal Espionage Act, and it gave local authorities broad power to arrest people simply for speaking their minds. Conversations in bars, letters to family, even an offhanded remark could turn into a criminal charge.

Montana’s Crackdown on Its Own Citizens

Over the course of just two years, 76 men and 3 women were convicted of sedition. Of those, 40 men and one woman were sentenced to time in the state penitentiary in Deer Lodge. One man received up to 20 years for joking about wartime food regulations.

These weren’t violent criminals or dangerous revolutionaries. They were regular people: farmers, ranchers, clerks, and homemakers. They just had opinions and they paid dearly for them.

The Heartbreaking Story of Herman Bausch

Perhaps no story illustrates the injustice of the Montana Sedition Law more than Herman Bausch’s. A German immigrant who moved to America at 16, Herman worked hard to build a life in Montana. He became a citizen, learned English, and started a family near present day Billings.

But Then Came the War

Bausch’s roots were in Bavaria, and like many German-Americans at the time, he didn’t support the idea of the U.S. getting involved in World War I. Unfortunately, in Montana, that kind of thinking didn’t fly.

An Unexpected Visit

On April 13, 1918, a group of local men calling themselves a “third degree committee” marched onto Herman’s property. These types of groups were forming all over Montana, trying to sniff out anyone not fully on board with the war effort. Since Herman was doing well financially, they demanded he buy Liberty Bonds.

Herman refused. And he reportedly said something that didn’t go over well: “We should have never entered this war and this war should be stopped immediately and peace declared.”

Things Got Ugly, Fast

The men decided that Herman's words were treason. Fueled by rage and self righteousness, they threatened to hang Herman from an apple tree right in his own yard. But his wife, Helen, wasn’t having it. She stood in front of the mob, clutching their baby, and bravely talked them down. She may have saved his life that day.

A Swift and Harsh Sentence

Just days later, Herman was arrested and put on trial. The trial lasted only a day and a half and Herman was convicted under Montana’s brand-new Sedition Act and sentenced to four to eight years in prison. He would end up serving 28 months in Deer Lodge.

A Family’s Pain

While Herman was behind bars, tragedy struck. His baby son became gravely ill during the 1918 flu pandemic. Helen begged the prison warden to let Herman visit their son, even just once. The answer was no. Their baby died, and Herman never got the chance to say goodbye.

Life After Prison

Though he was eventually released, nothing was the same. The trauma lingered. Herman and Helen eventually separated. The man who had once embraced America with open arms lived out his final years in quiet pain. He died in 1958 from complications related to Parkinson’s disease.

Women Faced Harsh Punishments, Too

Janet Smith, the only woman to serve time at Deer Lodge, was arrested after speaking out against the Red Cross, saying she wished people would revolt, and declaring she’d "shoulder a gun and get the president with the first one."

Fueled by Fear, Not Fact

Much of this crackdown was less about real threats and more about fear and nationalism. Governor Sam Stewart, swept up in patriotic fervor, called a special legislative session to pass the Sedition Act. And with the help of Wilson’s Committee on Public Information, which flooded the country with pro war messaging, Montanans began to turn on each other.

People were encouraged to report their neighbors, and many who were arrested had simply made offhanded comments while drinking or venting frustration.

A Long Overdue Reckoning

By 1921, the Montana Sedition Law was finally repealed. The war was over, the national mood shifted, and people began to realize how far things had gone. Still, the scars remained. The people who had served time carried that shame with them for decades. Families kept quiet about it, unsure how to process the injustice.

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That is, until 2006, when then Governor Brian Schweitzer did something extraordinary. He issued full pardons to 78 people convicted under the Sedition Law (one man had been pardoned in 1921), finally restoring their dignity nearly a century later.