The American Anti-Imperialist League was an organization established on June 15, 1898, to battle the American annexation of the Philippines as an insular area. The anti-imperialists opposed forced expansion, believing that imperialism violated the fundamental principle that just republican government must derive from "consent of the governed". The League argued that such activity would necessitate the abandonment of American ideals of self-government and non-intervention—ideals expressed in the United States Declaration of Independence, George Washington's Farewell Address and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The Anti-Imperialist League was ultimately defeated in the battle of public opinion by a new wave of politicians who successfully advocated the virtues of American territorial expansion in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War and in the first years of the 20th century, although the organization lasted until 1920.

Organizational history

Forerunners

The idea for an Anti-Imperialist League was born in the spring of 1898. On June 1, retired Massachusetts banker Gamaliel Bradford published a letter in the Boston Evening Transcript in which he sought assistance gaining access to historic Faneuil Hall to hold a public meeting to organize opponents of American colonial expansion. An opponent of the Spanish–American War, Bradford decried what he saw as an "insane and wicked" colonial ambition among some American decision-makers which was "driving the country to moral ruin." Bradford's organizing efforts proved successful, and on June 15, 1898, his protest meeting against "the adoption of an imperial policy by the United States" was held.

The June 15 meeting gave rise to a formal four-member organizing committee known as the Anti-Imperialist Committee of Correspondence, headed by Bradford. This group contacted religious, business, labor, and humanitarian leaders from around the country and attempted to stir them into action to stop what they perceived as a growing menace of American colonial expansion into Hawaii and the former colonial possessions of the Spanish Empire. Unsurprisingly given the localized origins of the organization, the initial members of this leadership group all hailed from the Boston metropolitan area. Included among these were religious philosopher Felix Adler, former Iowa Governor William Larrabee, Republican Congressman Henry U. Johnson, and Stanford University president David Starr Jordan.

In February 1899 the national office of the Anti-Imperialist League would peg the group's total membership at "considerably over 25,000." The total number of local branches of the group was reckoned as "at least 100" by November of that year. The roster of officers of the New York branch was nearly as expansive and impressive as that of the original Boston organization, including a corps of 23 Vice-Presidents.

Three leagues become one

In October 1899 a Chicago group inspired by the Boston organization which had previously styled itself as the Central Anti-Imperialist League held a convention merging with another organization to form the American Anti-Imperialist League. This organization would in turn merge with the Boston-based Anti-Imperialist League in the following month, rechristening the Boston organization as the New England branch of the American Anti-Imperialist League. These publications began to emerge immediately in 1898. Included among these were a series of "Broadsides" which made use of extensive quotations from founding fathers of America such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe, attempting to demonstrate a fundamental contradiction between the ideas upon which the American republic was founded and designs for colonial expansion being advanced by the nation's contemporary political leaders.

thumb|[[Mark Twain, 1907]]

thumb|In 1901, [[Mark Twain wrote a satirical essay titled To the Person Sitting in Darkness, in which he expressed strong anti-imperialist views against certain ongoing conflicts such as the Philippine-American War. At one point, Twain sarcastically described what the flag of an American-controlled Philippines should look like; "And as for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can have a special one—our States do it: we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones."]]

Mark Twain, perhaps the most prominent member of the league, offered his voice through the publication of his essay "To the Person Sitting in Darkness," which appeared in the North American Review in February 1901. In his essay, Twain satirically portrayed the moral and cultural superiority of Americans compared to Filipinos to comment on what he believed to be the great irony of the Philippines' annexation. Twain successfully gained popular support for the Anti-Imperialist League by claiming that America's international role was not to subjugate other nations for material gain, but to see "a nation of long harassed and persecuted slaves set free."

The Anti-Imperialist League of New York was particularly prominent in the production of propaganda pamphlets, drawing upon the impressive array of writers, public intellectuals, and politicians among its members.

Prominent members

  • Charles Francis Adams Jr.
  • Jane Addams
  • Felix Adler
  • Edward Atkinson
  • George S. Boutwell
  • Donelson Caffery
  • John G. Carlisle
  • Andrew Carnegie
  • Grover Cleveland
  • Theodore L. Cuyler
  • John Dewey
  • Finley Peter Dunne
  • George F. Edmunds
  • Edwin Lawrence Godkin
  • Samuel Gompers
  • Benjamin Harrison
  • William Dean Howells
  • Henry James
  • William James
  • Henry U. Johnson
  • David Starr Jordan
  • William Larrabee
  • Josephine Shaw Lowell
  • Edgar Lee Masters
  • William Vaughn Moody
  • Hazen S. Pingree
  • Carl Schurz
  • John Sherman
  • Moorfield Storey
  • Morrison I. Swift
  • William Graham Sumner
  • Mark Twain
  • Oswald Garrison Villard
  • Edward Holton James

See also

  • League against Imperialism
  • Treaty of Paris
  • New Imperialism
  • Classical liberalism
  • Overseas expansion of the United States
  • United States Senate Committee on the Philippines

Footnotes

Primary sources

  • Address Adopted by the Anti-Imperialist League: February 10, 1898. Boston: Anti-Imperialist League, 1899. <small>—Leaflet.</small>
  • Report of the Executive Committee of the Anti-Imperialist League, February 10, 1899. Boston: Anti-Imperialist League, 1899. <small>—Leaflet.</small>
  • Erving Winslow, The Anti-Imperialist League: Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Boston: Anti-Imperialist League, n.d. [c. 1909].
  • Twain, Mark. "To the Person Sitting in Darkness." Anti-Imperialist League of New York. 1873. Accessed October 10, 2017.

Further reading

  • Nathan G. Alexander, "Unclasping the Eagle's Talons: Mark Twain, American Freethought, and the Responses to Imperialism." The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 17, no. 3 (2018): 524–545.
  • Thomas A. Bailey, "Was the Presidential Election of 1900 A Mandate on Imperialism?" Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Jun., 1938), pp.&nbsp;43–52. in JSTOR
  • Robert L. Beisner, Twelve Against Empire: The Anti-Imperialists, 1898–1900. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968.
  • David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, "Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896–1900," Independent Review, vol. 4 (Spring 2000), pp.&nbsp;555–575.
  • Michael Patrick Cullinane, Liberty and American Anti-Imperialism, 1898–1909. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
  • Fred H. Harrington, "The Anti-Imperialist Movement in the United States, 1898–1900," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Sep., 1935), pp.&nbsp;211–230. in JSTOR
  • Fred Harvey Harrington, "Literary Aspects of American Anti-Imperialism 1898–1902," New England Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Dec. 1937), pp.&nbsp;650–667 in JSTOR
  • William E. Leuchtenburg, "Progressivism and Imperialism: The Progressive Movement and American Foreign Policy, 1898–1916," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Dec., 1952), pp.&nbsp;483–504. in JSTOR
  • Julius Pratt, Expansionists of 1898: The Acquisition of Hawaii and the Spanish Islands. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1936; pp.&nbsp;266–278.
  • Richard Seymour, American Insurgents: A Brief History of American Anti-Imperialism. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2012.
  • Richard E. Welch, Jr., Response to Imperialism: The United States and the Philippine-American War, 1899–1902. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
  • William George Whittaker, "Samuel Gompers, Anti-Imperialist," Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Nov.1969), pp.&nbsp;429–445 in JSTOR
  • Jim Zwick, Confronting Imperialism: Essays on Mark Twain and the Anti-Imperialist League. West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2007.
  • Jim Zwick, ed. Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1992.
  • Library of Congress webpage with short description
  • The League's Platform, from the Internet History Sourcebooks Project at the History Department of Fordham University
  • Historical Documents pertaining to the Anti-Imperialist League, at Liberty and Anti-Imperialism (archived 9 October 2007)