Source: Common Dreams
by Jeffrey C Isaac
“On November 22, 1895, Eugene V. Debs was released from Woodstock Jail, where he had been imprisoned for six months for his leadership of the 1894 Pullman strike. Later that day, before a large crowd of supporters at Battery D in Chicago, he spoke on the topic of ‘Liberty’. Debs was a great orator, and ‘Liberty’ is a brilliant speech, powerfully evoking both ‘the spirit of liberty’ as heralded by the Declaration of Independence, and the promise of a freedom yet to be redeemed by American workers in thrall to plutocratic government. As Nick Salvatore noted in his classic biography, Eugene V. Debs, Citizen and Socialist, this speech marked an important moment in the evolution of Debs from a radically republican labor activist to the country’s leading socialist.” (11/22/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/eugene-v-debs-speech-on-liberty