The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists and communists, and deport them from the United States.
Palmer believed that communism was “eating its way into the homes of the American workman.” Palmer charged in this 1920 essay that communism was an imminent threat and explained why Bolsheviks had to be deported.
The Palmer Raids were attempts by the United States Department of Justice to arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists, from the United States.
Mitchell Palmer, was Attorney General of the United States from 1919 to 1921. He is best known for overseeing the "Palmer Raids" during the Red Scare of 1919-20. an American post-Civil War secret society advocating white supremacy.
What was the main reason Americans were upset by the Palmer Raids of 1919 and 1920? The raids ignored people's civil liberties. Which event contributed to the rise of anti-immigrant, anti-socialist, and anti-anarchist feelings in the United States in the years during and just after World War I?
The Palmer Raids were a series of government raids on suspected radicals in the U.S. led by the U.S. Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer. The Palmer Raids were highly unsuccessful in finding radical communists. Palmer believed that on May 1, 1920 would be the day of communist rioting.
Significance: The Palmer Raids were caused by the Red Scare which was the anti-radical and and anti-immigrant hysteria and fear that anarchists, socialists and communists were conspiring to start a workers revolution in America.
Explanation: Palmer faced significant opposition, especially from Congress, but the raids were justified as necessary in the face of a larger American panic over communists and other perceived subversives supposedly embedded in parts of the American government.
He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1909–15) and played a prominent role in securing the Democratic presidential nomination for Woodrow Wilson in 1912. He ran for the Senate in 1914 but was defeated. Upon U.S. entry into World War I, Palmer was appointed alien-property custodian.
Although he lost the Democratic presidential nomination in 1920, Palmer remained active in the Democratic Party until his death, campaigning for, among others, presidential candidates Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Palmer Raids.
Palmer Raids. …were led by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and are viewed as the climax of that era’s so-called Red Scare.…. Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States (1913–21), an American scholar and statesman best remembered for his legislative accomplishments and his high-minded idealism.
The disregard of basic civil liberties during the “ Palmer raids ,” as they came to be known, drew widespread protest and ultimately discredited Palmer, who nevertheless justified his program as the only practical means of combating what he believed was a Bolshevik conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government.
By Mark Kessler. Alexander Mitchell Palmer , attorney general of the United States after World War I, was known for the controversial "Palmer raids" that were criticized by civil liberties group. Relying on the new Espionage Act and Sedition Act, his agents raided headquarters of communist, socialist, and anarchist organizations as well as labor ...
After studying law for two years, he was admitted to the practice of law in 1893 and became a prominent lawyer and a leader of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party. He was elected to Congress in 1908 and ...
The Department of Justice and its Bureau of Investigation, an agency that later developed into the Federal Bureau of Investigation, began to conduct surveillance on immigrant anarchist groups suspected of bombings that had occurred throughout the country.
Although the public generally supported these efforts, Palmer and his federal agents were accused by civil liberties groups of using illegal and unconstitutional methods for obtaining evidence and conducting surveillance, including warrantless searches, illegal wiretaps, and cruel interrogation techniques.
After serving as attorney general, Palmer stayed in Washington to practice law and remained active in Democratic Party politics until his death. The Palmer raids illustrate that important legal rights are sometimes violated during times of war and perceived crisis. This article was originally published in 2009.
They remained at Ellis Island until investigation and deportation proceedings were completed. By the end of January, 10,000 individuals had been arrested in raids. Palmer's raids became the subject of public criticism and led to the rise of the ACLU. ( Corbis Images for Education via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.)
President Wilson offered Palmer a cabinet post — secretary of war — but he declined because of his pacifist Quaker beliefs.
PALMER, Alexander Mitchell, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born near White Haven, Luzerne County, Pa., May 4, 1872; attended the public schools and prepared for college at the Moravian Parochial School, Bethlehem, Pa.; was graduated from Swarthmore (Pa.) College in 1891; appointed offical stenographer of the forty-third judicial district of Pennsylvania in 1892; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1893 and practiced in Stroudsburg, Pa.; director of various banks and public-service corporations; member of the Democratic State executive committee of Pennsylvania; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-first, Sixty-second, and Sixty-third Congresses (March 4, 1909-March 3, 1915); was not a candidate for renomination in 1914, but was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1912 and 1916; member of the Democratic National Committee 1912-1920; appointed Alien Property Custodian October 22, 1917, by President Wilson, and served until March 4, 1919, when he resigned to become Attorney General of the United States, in which capacity he served from March 5, 1919, until March 4, 1921; engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D.C., and Stroudsburg, Pa.; died in Washington, D.C., May 11, 1936; interment in Laurelwood Cemetery, Stroudsburg, Pa..
Papers: 4 official letters (1911-1912) in the Woodrow Wilson collection. Finding aid in repository.