In an earlier blog post, I described the authoritarian practices of the Wilson administration, with its racist government policies, repression of dissent, early initiatives in surveillance, and attempts to deport people who were considered politically undesirable.
Leading the charge in opposition to these practices were two African American journalists, William Monroe Trotter and Ida B. Wells. Trotter was born into a prosperous family in Boston (he graduated from Harvard and was the first African American Phi Beta Kappa honoree there) and pursued a life of activism against racial discrimination. He spoke out against Wilson’s segregation of the government workforce, led nonviolent protests, and distanced himself from other African American leaders who he saw as too slow in advocating for racial justice. Wells had been active in the 1890s in tracking and condemning lynchings and orchestrating boycotts of discriminatory white businesses. Along with her forceful advocacy for racial justice during the Wilson years, she was a life-long voice on behalf of women’s suffrage and feminist issues. Both Trotter and Wells were involved in the formation of the NAACP.
The roles of Trotter and Wells in speaking out against Wilson authoritarian policies are well documented in The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It (W. W. Norton, 2024). As I have said, this has been a helpful resource in this blog series, and I highly recommend this to you.
In this post I want to highlight the courageous, vital, and less prominent role of a civil servant.
Louis F. Post was born in New Jersey in 1849. After a brief but successful legal career, he was active as a newspaper editor in the 1880s and 1890s. He brought an equalitarian spirit to his work, writing regularly about “Progress and Poverty” and supporting the Single Tax movement, which was aimed at funding government operations in equitable ways.
Post was appointed as Assistant Secretary of Labor in 1913. This role included oversight of what was then called the “Bureau of Immigration.”
When Post served in these roles, immigration policies were defined by the Immigration Act of 1903. At the turn of the 20th century, there was a prominent anarchist movement (it was a self-proclaimed anarchist who assassinated William McKinley in 1901) and the 1903 act prohibited the immigration of anarchists (along with people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes).
As the First World War ground to a conclusion, the Wilson administration became increasingly concerned about people who they perceived were threats to national security and, broadly, political opponents. This included not only frank anarchists, but people from the labor movement and from the growing international communist movement.
The Immigration Act of 1918 expanded the definition of groups of people who were eligible for deportation. It prescribed a broad definition of “anarchist,” to include any writing, advocacy, or organizational membership that was opposed to “all organized government.”
The 1918 law provided the justification for targeting members of organizations, or people who had attended meetings of organizations, that held politically undesirable positions even without advocating or supporting violence. Included were people connected with the International Workers of the World and the Communist Labor Party.
Arrests and deportations got off to a slow start. In 1919, two people determined to be anarchists sere prevented from entering the United States, and 37 were deported. With widely reported bombings in 1919 and 1920, the pace quickened. Ultimately, several thousand people were arrested and subject to deportation under the act.
Post was determined to apply the law and to treat accused people justly. He insisted that people arrested under the law were entitled to due process. He acceded to the deportation of subjects who were demonstrably committed to violence and overthrow of the government, but he also recognized that many people had been unjustly caught up in a large net. He denied some search warrants. He reduced or eliminated bail requirements for some accused people. People who had merely attended meetings of organizations that voiced opposition to the government were released. He concluded that membership in some organizations, notably the Communist Labor Party, was not grounds for deportation because membership did not meet the requirements of the law.
All told, Post reviewed thousands of cases of accused individuals and dismissed a majority of them, saving an estimated 3000 people from deportation.
Post’s courageous stands earned him the wrath of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer (the widespread raids to round up suspected radicals are known by his name) and an eager, early-career J. Edgar Hoover. Post was both vilified and supported in Congress and in the press, and a Kansas congressman demanded Post’s impeachment in 1920. Post defended his actions in Congressional testimony and the impeachment did not proceed.
In his 1923 autobiography, Post quoted the New York Evening Post:
The simple truth is that Louis F. Post deserves the gratitude of every American for his courageous and determined stand in behalf of our fundamental rights. It is too bad that in making this stand he found himself at cross-purposes with the Attorney General, but Mr. Palmer's complaint lies against the Constitution and not against Mr. Post.
There you have it. In the last four blog posts about “Dissidents and heroes,” we’ve seen a variety of people who have stood against authoritarianism. In the Adams administration, it was journalists. In the Jackson era, it was an oppressed citizen. In the Buchanan administration, into the Civil War, it was legislators. And in the Wilson administration, in the wake of the Great War, it was a civil servant. The act of speaking truth to power comes from all corners.
Having now told stories about four episodes of authoritarianism in American history and the dissent that followed, the next blog will explore what I’ve learned and some themes that stand out. Stay tuned.
Leading the charge in opposition to these practices were two African American journalists, William Monroe Trotter and Ida B. Wells. Trotter was born into a prosperous family in Boston (he graduated from Harvard and was the first African American Phi Beta Kappa honoree there) and pursued a life of activism against racial discrimination. He spoke out against Wilson’s segregation of the government workforce, led nonviolent protests, and distanced himself from other African American leaders who he saw as too slow in advocating for racial justice. Wells had been active in the 1890s in tracking and condemning lynchings and orchestrating boycotts of discriminatory white businesses. Along with her forceful advocacy for racial justice during the Wilson years, she was a life-long voice on behalf of women’s suffrage and feminist issues. Both Trotter and Wells were involved in the formation of the NAACP.
The roles of Trotter and Wells in speaking out against Wilson authoritarian policies are well documented in The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It (W. W. Norton, 2024). As I have said, this has been a helpful resource in this blog series, and I highly recommend this to you.
In this post I want to highlight the courageous, vital, and less prominent role of a civil servant.
Louis F. Post was born in New Jersey in 1849. After a brief but successful legal career, he was active as a newspaper editor in the 1880s and 1890s. He brought an equalitarian spirit to his work, writing regularly about “Progress and Poverty” and supporting the Single Tax movement, which was aimed at funding government operations in equitable ways.
Post was appointed as Assistant Secretary of Labor in 1913. This role included oversight of what was then called the “Bureau of Immigration.”
When Post served in these roles, immigration policies were defined by the Immigration Act of 1903. At the turn of the 20th century, there was a prominent anarchist movement (it was a self-proclaimed anarchist who assassinated William McKinley in 1901) and the 1903 act prohibited the immigration of anarchists (along with people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes).
As the First World War ground to a conclusion, the Wilson administration became increasingly concerned about people who they perceived were threats to national security and, broadly, political opponents. This included not only frank anarchists, but people from the labor movement and from the growing international communist movement.
The Immigration Act of 1918 expanded the definition of groups of people who were eligible for deportation. It prescribed a broad definition of “anarchist,” to include any writing, advocacy, or organizational membership that was opposed to “all organized government.”
The 1918 law provided the justification for targeting members of organizations, or people who had attended meetings of organizations, that held politically undesirable positions even without advocating or supporting violence. Included were people connected with the International Workers of the World and the Communist Labor Party.
Arrests and deportations got off to a slow start. In 1919, two people determined to be anarchists sere prevented from entering the United States, and 37 were deported. With widely reported bombings in 1919 and 1920, the pace quickened. Ultimately, several thousand people were arrested and subject to deportation under the act.
Post was determined to apply the law and to treat accused people justly. He insisted that people arrested under the law were entitled to due process. He acceded to the deportation of subjects who were demonstrably committed to violence and overthrow of the government, but he also recognized that many people had been unjustly caught up in a large net. He denied some search warrants. He reduced or eliminated bail requirements for some accused people. People who had merely attended meetings of organizations that voiced opposition to the government were released. He concluded that membership in some organizations, notably the Communist Labor Party, was not grounds for deportation because membership did not meet the requirements of the law.
All told, Post reviewed thousands of cases of accused individuals and dismissed a majority of them, saving an estimated 3000 people from deportation.
Post’s courageous stands earned him the wrath of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer (the widespread raids to round up suspected radicals are known by his name) and an eager, early-career J. Edgar Hoover. Post was both vilified and supported in Congress and in the press, and a Kansas congressman demanded Post’s impeachment in 1920. Post defended his actions in Congressional testimony and the impeachment did not proceed.
In his 1923 autobiography, Post quoted the New York Evening Post:
The simple truth is that Louis F. Post deserves the gratitude of every American for his courageous and determined stand in behalf of our fundamental rights. It is too bad that in making this stand he found himself at cross-purposes with the Attorney General, but Mr. Palmer's complaint lies against the Constitution and not against Mr. Post.
There you have it. In the last four blog posts about “Dissidents and heroes,” we’ve seen a variety of people who have stood against authoritarianism. In the Adams administration, it was journalists. In the Jackson era, it was an oppressed citizen. In the Buchanan administration, into the Civil War, it was legislators. And in the Wilson administration, in the wake of the Great War, it was a civil servant. The act of speaking truth to power comes from all corners.
Having now told stories about four episodes of authoritarianism in American history and the dissent that followed, the next blog will explore what I’ve learned and some themes that stand out. Stay tuned.