78 convicted of sedition in Montana pardoned

As their families fought back tears, Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Wednesday apologized on behalf of the state and signed posthumous pardons for 78 people convicted of sedition during the anti-German hysteria that gripped Montana during World War I.

About 50 members of the families of eight people convicted of sedition were on hand for the ceremony in the Capitol rotunda, as several hundred spectators watched. One by one, Schweitzer read their ancestor's name and signed the pardon and handed it to a family member.

"Across this country, it was a time in which we had lost our minds," said Schweitzer, himself the grandson of German-speaking immigrants who settled in Montana. "So today in Montana, we will attempt to make it right. In Montana, we will say to an entire generation of people, we are sorry. And we challenge the rest of the country to do the same."

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