Following the assassination of President McKinley in 1901,
tolerance for free speech declined even further. Repression
culminated in the passage of the draconian Espionage and
Sedition Acts of 1917 and 1918, which resulted in long prison
terms for those who protested United States entry into the First
World War. At the same time, liberal and radical Americans
became more vocal in their opposition to the abridgement of
first amendment rights. The government's attempts to suppress
Goldman's unconventional views actually led many who disagreed
with her to support nonetheless her right to express her ideas
freely. It was in this context that Goldman began lecturing
regularly on freedom of speech and, in 1903, worked with the
newly formed Free Speech League. The extremity of the situation
sometimes led to amusing results. Once, expecting the police to
disrupt a lecture in Philadelphia, Emma chained herself to a
podium in order to make it physically impossible for the police
to remove her before she finished speaki