Sentence:  After all , it goes back to the days in which sedition <WSD>was</WSD> not un-American , the days in which the Sons of St. Tammany conspired to overthrow the government by force and violence - the British government that is . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)