USH Honors Assignment Guide
Unit 5: Modern America Emerges: 1890 – 1920
Chapters 17, 18 & 19
Expected
Completion
Date:
Tues., Jan 20th
Date Due
Tues., Jan. 27th
Wed., Jan 21st
Tues., Jan. 27th
Chapter 17 Assignments
1. Read p. 512 to 518
2. Answer questions 3, & 4 on pages 518
3. Find a partner for your Progressive Era Newspaper.
1. Read p. 519 to 522
2. Answer questions 3, 4 & 5 on pages 522
3. Begin Working on Your Progressive Era Newspaper.
Thurs., Jan 22nd Tues., Jan. 27th
1. Read p. 523 to 531
2. Answer questions 3, 4 & 5 on pages 531
3. Work on Your Progressive Era Newspaper.
Fri., Jan 23rd
Tues., Jan. 27th
Sat., Jan 24th
Tues., Jan. 27th
Mon., Jan 27th
Mon., Jan 27th
1. Read p. 534 to 537
2. Answer questions 3, & 4 on pages 537
3. Work on Your Progressive Era Newspaper.
1. Read p. 538 to 543
2. Answer questions 3, & 4 on pages 537
3. Complete Your Progressive Era Newspaper.
1. Online quiz
2. All readings, questions and answers
3. Newspaper Website
Forrester’s Class; all work must be submitted to your file on google drive.
Terms You Should Know
Progressive movement
Muckraker
Suffrage
Susan B. Anthony
Theodore Roosevelt
NAACP
Gifford Pinchot
Woodrow Wilson
Clayton Antitrust Act
Federal Reserve System
1
Progressive Era Newspaper Project
You will be WORKING WITH A PARTNER TO assume the role of a “muckraker”
& will CREATE A Progressive era newspaper that deals with issues from
that era.
(My partner’s name is___________________________________ class period_______)
Your paper will need to include the following:
 3 Articles- 2 news stories (reporting on events that actually happened)
 1 editorial or interview- (this should be a call to action)
o Your articles should be at least 2 paragraphs in length
 At least 1 images relating to the articles or a political cartoon that relate to your articles
 You must include a bibliography of the sources you used
 You will be using a website that will have automatic newspaper formats to choose from
and will be printing ONE copy to turn in as a group.
Website: http://www.scoop.it/t/creating-newspapers-in-the-classroom
 YOU MAY NOT CREATE YOUR NEWSPAPER UNTIL YOUR ROUGH DRAFTS HAVE BEEN
CHECKED BY ME_____________
type your rough drafts in Word before proceeding!
Some potential topics and people are listed below, if you want to do a
topic or interview a person not on this list just see me before selecting!
 Women’s suffrage
 Living conditions in tenements
 Reform in the workplace (improving
 Political Corruption ( Political machines and
working conditions)
Bosses)
 Preserving natural resources
 Unsafe food production & products
 Treatment of African Americans
 Pollution and natural resources
 Child labor
 Prohibition and Social Gospel Movement







Eugene V.Debbs
John Spargo
Licoln Steffens
Jacob Riis
Jane Addams
Upton Sinclair
Carry A Nation







Carry Chapman Catt
Alice Paul
Teddy Roosevelt
Robert La Follette
W.E.B DuBois
NAACP
Booker T Washington
2
Expected
Completion
Date:
Tues., Jan 27th
Date Due
Tues., Feb 3rd
1. Read p. 548 to 551
2. Answer questions 3, 4 & 5 on pages 551
Wed., Jan 28th
Tues., Feb 3rd
1. Read p. 552 to 557
2. Answer questions 3, 4 & 5 on pages 557
Thurs., Jan 29th
Tues., Feb 3rd
1. Read p. 558 to 564
2. Answer questions 3, 4 & 5 on pages 564
Fri., Jan 30th
Tues., Feb 3rd
1. Read p. 565 to 571
2. Answer questions 3, 4 & 5 on pages 571
Sat., Jan 31st
Tues., Feb 3rd
MARK TWAIN ON IMPERIALISM
Mon., Feb 2nd
Tues., Feb 3rd
1. Online quiz
2. All readings, questions and answers
3. MARK TWAIN ON IMPERIALISM
Forrester’s Class; all work must be submitted to your file on google drive.
Queen Liliuokalani
Imperialism
Jose Marti
Yellow journalism
Chapter 18 Assignments
Terms You Should Know
USS Maine
Protectorate
Open Door noted
Boxer Rebellion
Panama Canal
Roosevelt corollary
3
Name __________________________________________
Date _________
Period ______
MARK TWAIN ON IMPERIALISM
Directions: Read the short biography of Mark Twain. Then, read the selections from his writings about
imperialism (these quotes are primary documents…) and answer the questions which follow. After that,
choose one of the three creative options and complete the assignment.
Biography: Mark Twain was an American writer known for satire and humor when dealing with social
and political topics. Samuel Langhorn Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain, spent most of his
boyhood years in Hannibal, Missouri, a port on the Mississippi River which later became the setting for
some of his most famous stories. He volunteered as a soldier for a short period of time in the
Confederate cavalry in 1861, and in 1862 became a reporter on the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City,
Nevada after giving up on silver mining.
Twain’s books were often influenced by his own personal travels and experiences. His travels
to Europe and Palestine were later depicted in The Innocents Abroad which he wrote in 1869. Roughing
It, written in 1872, described his life as a miner and journalist. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer delivers us
to his childhood town on the Mississippi. Readers travel with him on the Mississippi River in Life on the
Mississippi (1883) as Clemens relives his life as a pilot when he returns to the river ten years later and
discovers the changes that occurred while he was away. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written in
1884, displayed the cruelty and hypocrisy of people and their ideas from the eyes of a young boy helping
a runaway slave get to freedom.
\
The Anti-Imperialist League did not come into being until November 1889. The group was
organized as opposition to the overriding principles of imperialism in international affairs concerning
Cuba and the Philippines. Their strongest weapons at the time were the "Declaration of Independence"
and Lincoln’s "Gettysburg Address" which obviously condemned the actions of imperialism as
contradictory to the ideals for which America’s independence was fought.
At beginning of the Spanish-American War, Twain was residing in Europe and for the most part
was in support of the conflict with Spain and the Philippines. He believed that the U.S. was fighting
exclusively for the freedom of Cuba. The Treaty of Paris, which gave control of Cuba, Guam, Puerto
Rico, and the Philippines to the U.S. quickly changed his opinion on the matter. Twain was disgusted by
the fact that a war which had been meant to give freedom was really only a pretext for further
expansion for the U.S.
Twain’s return to the United States in 1900 was widely publicized, as were his strong views on
imperialism. Soon after he joined the Anti-Imperialist League. After sending his condemnation of
imperialism, “A Salutation Speech From the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth” to both the League
and the New York Herald, Twain was asked to take the position as vice-president of the League.
Although he declined to work on customary tasks he would continue to write and speak in support of
anti-imperialism.
Mark Twain strongly believed that the U.S. could not be an empire and a republic at the same time. He
condemned the racism against the Filipinos and argued that the Filipinos were perfectly able to govern
4
themselves. Twain was an admirer of Emilio Aguinaldo, the revolutionary leader who resisted Spanish
rule and later continued to lead the struggle against American occupation. Because the Spanish
concentration camps in Cuba had given the U.S. extra incentive to support Cuban freedom, Twain
especially spoke out against similar camps set up by the U.S. in the Philippines. In 1901, Twain published
“To the Person Sitting in Darkness” which criticized war in the Philippines and the missionary activities in
China. The same year, Mark Twain was invited to sign a July 4th address “To the American People”
which was published in newspapers nationwide. A petition to the Senate comparing Spanish and
American concentration camps was signed by Twain in an effort to put a stop to U.S. hostile negotiations
with the Philippines in 1902. In 1903, Twain was enlisted to help with the League’s campaign against
atrocities committed by the U.S. military in the Philippines. He was asked to focus on the water torture
done to a Filipino priest, Father Augustine, by U.S. soldiers because the priest was raising money for the
Filipino army. Up until his death in 1910, Twain continued to be in the Anti-imperialist League.
Twain On Imperialism:
1) "I thought it would be a great thing to give a whole lot of freedom to the Filipinos, but I guess now
that it's better to let them give it to themselves."
- Anti-Imperialist Homecoming, 1900
2) "Citizenship? We have none! In place of it we teach patriotism which Samuel Johnson said a hundred
and forty or a hundred and fifty years ago was the last refuge of the scoundrel -- and I believe that he
was right. I remember when I was a boy and I heard repeated time and time again the phrase, 'My
country, right or wrong, my country!' How absolutely absurd is such an idea. How absolutely absurd to
teach this idea to the youth of the country."
- On True Citizenship at the Children's Theater, 1907
3) "I was not properly reared, and had the illusion that a flag was a thing which must be sacredly
guarded against shameful uses and unclean contacts, lest it suffer pollution; and so when it was sent out
to the Philippines to float over a wanton war and a robbing expedition I supposed it was polluted, and in
an ignorant moment I said so. But I stand corrected. I concede and acknowledge that it was only the
government that sent it on such an errand that was polluted.”
- On The American Flag, 1901
4) “Once I was not anti-imperialist. I thought that the rescue of those islands from the government
under which they had suffered for three hundred years was a good business for us to be in. But I had not
studied the Paris Treaty. When I found that it made us responsible for the protection of the friars and
their property I changed my mind.”
- New York Tribune, 1900
5) “It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal
with their own domestic questions in their own way…I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having
the eagle put its talons on any other land.”
5
- New York Herald, 1900
6) “There must be two Americas: one that sets the captive free, and one that takes a once-captive's new
freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with nothing to found it on; then kills him to get
his land. . .we have turned against the weak and the friendless who trusted us; we have stamped out a
just and intelligent and well-ordered republic; we have stabbed an ally in the back and slapped the face
of a guest;…we have robbed a trusting friend of his land and his liberty; we have invited clean young
men to shoulder a discredited musket and do bandit's work under a flag which bandits have been
accustomed to fear, not to follow; we have debauched America's honor and blackened her face before
the world. . .And as for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can have a special
one…we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the
skull and cross-bones.”
- From “To The Person Sitting In Darkness”, 1901
Reflective Questions (on a separate piece of paper):
1) Explain what each quote means in your own words.
2) What is Mark Twain’s position on imperialism? Use examples from the quotes to support your
argument.
3) Do you think America’s treatment of the Filipinos and Cubans aligns with the founding ideals of the
nation? Explain why or why not.
Creative Assignment Options (do one – use your notes for reference/information):
1) Create a political cartoon which either supports or condemns U.S. imperialism in the Philippines or
Cuba.
2) Write an editorial which either supports or condemns America’s actions in the Philippines or Cuba.
This must be a minimum of a page. Use historical evidence and information to support your argument.
3) Write a brief (1/2 page) proposal for a film about the Spanish American War and its global impact.
Then, storyboard your film; provide at least 10 different scenes with brief descriptions of each.
6
Expected
Date Due
Completion
Date:
Tues., Feb. 3rd Mon., Feb. 9th
Chapter 19 Assignments
1. Read p. 578 to 586
2. Answer questions 3, 4 & 5 on pages 586
Wed., Feb. 4th Mon., Feb. 9th
1. Read p. 587 to 593
2. Answer questions 3, & 4 on pages 593
Thurs., Feb 5th Mon., Feb. 9th
1. Read p. 594 to 601
2. Answer questions 3, 4 & 5 on pages 601
1. Read p. 604 to 609
2. Answer questions 3, 4 & 5 on pages 609
PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: AMERICA’S ROLE IN WWI
Fri., Feb. 6th
Mon., Feb. 9th
Sat., Feb. 7th
Mon., Feb. 9th
Mon., Feb. 9th
Mon., Feb. 9th
1. Unit Exam; In class
2. All readings, questions and answers
3. PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: AMERICA’S ROLE IN WWI
Forrester’s Class; all work must be submitted to your file on google drive.
Terms You Should Know
Nationalism
Trench warfare
Zimmermann note
Selective Service Act
General John J. Pershing
Armistice
Espionage and Sedition
Acts
Great Migration
Fourteen Points
Treaty of Versailles
7
PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: AMERICA’S ROLE IN WWI
Directions: Read the primary documents and answer the questions.
Majority Opinion in Schenck v. United States – Oliver Wendell Holmes (1919)
1) Summarize the three counts in the indictment (in this context an indictment is criminal charges).
2) Explain what Schenck wrote in the pamphlet about the 13th Amendment and conscription (a military
draft). Do you think that it makes sense?
3) Why does Schenck’s pamphlet argue that all Americans must resist the draft?
4) Why do you think the Court says that the “most stringent protection of free speech would not protect
a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.”?
5) Do you think Schenck’s pamphlet presented what the Supreme Court called a “clear and present
danger”?
America and WWI – Calvin Coolidge (1919)
6) What does Coolidge say that the U.S. flag represents?
7) What does Coolidge say that the American military sailed under?
8) What do you suppose Coolidge means by “militant liberty”?
9) What benefits does Coolidge say will be the result of the American victory in WWI?
The American Soldier – Warren G. Harding (1919)
10) What three characteristics does Harding say all WWI soldiers shared?
11) To soldiers from what two previous wars does Harding compare WWI veterans?
Democrats in WWI – A. Mitchell Palmer (1919)
12) What things does Palmer say were “welded into an irresistible force”? What does he mean?
13) Palmer says that the American effort and victory in WWI will have been wasted if some things do not
happen. What are those things? Which was the most important?
14) How does this speech by Palmer and the speeches you already read by Harding and Coolidge reflect
a sense of American exceptionalism? (If you are unclear on American exceptionalism, here is a little
background: In the 1830s a French author named Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States. He
published a two volume treatise on American government called Democracy in America. Part one was
published in 1835 and part two was published in 1840. Within the work he asserted that a sense of
American exceptionalism (that is that the U.S. is different from other countries and peoples) developed
from its emergence from a revolution, becoming "the first new nation" in the modern world, and
developing a uniquely American ideology based on liberty, equality of opportunity, individualism,
populism and laissez-fair. Exceptionalism does not assert American superiority, just uniqueness, but
many conservatives have used the idea of exceptionalism to promote American superiority. They argue
that the U.S. represents and international “city on a hill”. In a sense, they use the idea of exceptionalism
to justify nationalism. On the contrary, most liberals reject that belief and argue that not only is the U.S.
not exceptional, but that every nation and people group believes itself to be exceptional.
8
MAJORITY OPINION IN SCHENCK V. UNITED STATES – OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1919)
Schenck v. United States upheld the defendants' convictions under the Federal Espionage Act. The
defendants were charged under the Act with distributing leaflets aimed at inciting draft resistance during
World War I; their defense was that anti-draft speech was protected under the First Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court rejected this argument, holding that whether speech is protected
depends on the context in which it occurs. Because the defendants' anti draft rhetoric created a "clear
and present danger" to the success of the war effort, it was not protected. Below are excerpts from the
Majority Opinion of the Supreme Court.
This is an indictment in three counts. The first charges a conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act
of June 15, 1917...by causing and attempting to cause insubordination, &c., in the military and naval
forces of the United States, and to obstruct the recruiting and enlistment service of the United States,
when the United States was at war with the German Empire, to-wit, that the defendant willfully
conspired to have printed and circulated to men who had been called and accepted for military service
under the Act of May 18, 1917... a document set forth and alleged to be calculated to cause such
insubordination and obstruction. The count alleges overt acts in pursuance of the conspiracy, ending in
the distribution of the document set forth. The second count alleges a conspiracy to commit an offense
against the United States, to-wit, to use the mails for the transmission of matter declared to be nonmailable by title 12, 2, of the Act of June 15, 1917 ... to-wit, the abovementioned document, with an
averment of the same overt acts. The third count charges an unlawful use of the mails for the
transmission of the same matter and otherwise as above. The defendants were found guilty on all the
counts. They set up the First Amendment to the Constitution forbidding Congress to make any law
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,
and bringing the case here on that ground have argued some other points also of which we must
dispose.
The document in question upon its first printed side recited the first section of the Thirteenth
Amendment, said that the idea embodied in it was violated by the conscription act and that a conscript
is little better than a convict. In impassioned language it intimated that conscription was despotism in its
worst form and a monstrous wrong against humanity in the interest of Wall Street's chosen few. It said,
'Do not submit to intimidation,' but in form at least confined itself to peaceful measures such as a
petition for the repeal of the act. The other and later printed side of the sheet was headed 'Assert Your
Rights.' It stated reasons for alleging that any one violated the Constitution when he refused to
recognize 'your right to assert your opposition to the draft,' and went on, 'If you do not assert and
support your rights, you are helping to deny or disparage rights which it is the solemn duty of all citizens
and residents of the United States to retain.' It described the arguments on the other side as coming
from cunning politicians and a mercenary capitalist press, and even silent consent to the conscription
law as helping to support an infamous conspiracy. It denied the power to send our citizens away to
foreign shores to shoot up the people of other lands, and added that words could not express the
condemnation such cold-blooded ruthlessness deserves , &c., &c., winding up, 'You must do your share
to maintain, support and uphold the
rights of the people of this country.' Of course the document would not have been sent unless it had
been intended to have some effect, and we do not see what effect it could be expected to have upon
persons subject to the draft except to influence them to obstruct the carrying of it out. The defendants
do not deny that the jury might find against them on this point.
But it is said, suppose that that was the tendency of this circular, it is protected by the First
Amendment to the Constitution. Two of the strongest expressions are said to be quoted respectively
from well-known public men. It well may be that the prohibition of laws abridging the freedom of
9
speech is not confined to previous restraints, although to prevent them may have been the main
purpose, as intimated in Patterson v. Colorado, 205 U.S. 454, 462. We admit that in many places and in
ordinary times the defendants in saying all that was said in the circular would have been within their
constitutional rights. But the character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
Aikens v. Wisconsin, 195 U.S. 194, 205. The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a
man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. It does not even protect a man from an
injunction against uttering words that may have all the effect of force. Gompers v. Buck's Stove & Range
Co., 221 U.S. 418, 439 . The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such
circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about
the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. When
a nation is at war many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that
their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight and that no Court could regard them as
protected by any constitutional right. It seems to be admitted that if an actual obstruction of the
recruiting service were proved, liability for words that produced that effect might be enforced. The
statute of 1917 in section 4 (Comp. St. 1918, 10212d) punishes conspiracies to obstruct as well as actual
obstruction. If the act, (speaking, or circulating a paper,) its tendency and the intent with which it is
done are the same, we perceive no ground for saying that success alone warrants making the act a
crime. Goldman v. United States, 245 U.S. 474 , 477. Indeed that case might be said to dispose of the
present contention if the precedent covers all media concludendi. But as the right to free speech was
not referred to specially, we have thought fit to add a few words…
AMERICA AND WWI – CALVIN COOLIDGE (1919)
Calvin Coolidge rose to fame as the governor of Massachusetts, and later served as president of the
United States. In 1919, in the aftermath of the war, Governor Coolidge spoke the following words about
the Americans who fought for their country in World War I.
Works which endure come from the soul of the people. The mighty in their pride walk alone to
destruction. The humble walk hand in hand with providence to immortality. Their works survive. When
the people of the colonies were defending their liberties against the might of kings, they chose their
banner from the design set in the firmament through all eternity. The flags of great empires of that day
have gone, but the stars and stripes remain. It pictures a vision of a people whose eyes are turned to the
rising dawn. It represents of the hope of a father for his posterity. It was never flaunted for the glory of
royalty, but to be born under it is to be the child of a king, and to establish a home under it is to be the
founder of a royal house. Alone of all flags, it expresses the sovereignty of the people which endures
when all else passes away. Speaking with their voice, it has the sanctity of revelations. He who lives
under it and disloyal to it is a traitor to the human race everywhere. What could be saved if the flag of
the American nation were to perish?
America has many glories. The last one that she would wish to surrender is the glory of the men
who have served her in war. While such devotion lives, the nation is secure. Whatever dangers may
threaten from within or without, she can view them calmly. Turning to her veterans, she can say: “These
are our defenders. They are invincible. In them is our safety.”
After more than five years of the bitterest war in human experience, the last great stronghold of
force surrendering to the demands of America and her allies agreed to cast aside the sword and live
under the law. America decided that the path of the Mayflower should not be closed. She decided to sail
the seas. She decided to sail not under an Edict of Potsdam, cramped in narrow lands, seeking safety in
unarmed merchant men painted in fantastic hues as the badge of an infinite servitude; but she decided
to sail under the ancient Declaration of Independence, choosing her own course, maintaining security by
10
the guns of her ships of the LINE, flying at the mast the stars and stripes forever, the emblem of a
militant liberty.
With peace has come prosperity. Burdens have been great, but the strength to bear them has
been greater. The condition of those who toil is higher, better, more secure than in all the ages past. Out
of the darkness of a great conflict has appeared the vision of a nearer, clearer than ever before, the life
on earth and less under the deadening restraint of course more and more under the vitalizing influence
of reason. Moral power has been triumphing over physical power. Education will tend to bring reason
and experience of the past into the solution of the problems of the future. We must look to service and
not selfishness, for service is the foundation of our progress. The greatest lesson that we have to learn is
to seek ever the public welfare, to build up, to maintain our American heritage.
THE AMERICAN SOLDIER – WARREN G. HARDING (1919)
Warren G. Harding ran successfully for the United States Senate in 1914. Although he introduced no
major bills in his six-year term, he became known for favoring high tariffs and opposing the League of
Nations and federal regulation of industry. In the following speech, Harding honors the American soldiers
who fought in World War I. Harding delivered the speech at the war’s end (1919), while campaigning for
the 1920 presidential election.
My countrymen, though not in any partisan sense, I must speak of the services of the men and
women who rallied to the colors of the Republic in the World War. America realizes and appreciates the
services rendered, the sacrifices made, and the sufferings endured. There shall be no distinctions
between those who knew the perils and glories of the battlefront or the dangers of the sea, and those
who were compelled to serve behind the lines, or those who constituted the great reserve of a grand
army which awaited the call in camps at home. All were brave. All were self-sacrificing. All were sharers
of those ideals which sent our boys twice armed to war.
Worthy sons and daughters these. Fit successors to those who christened our banners in the
immortal beginning. Worthy sons of those who saved the Union and nationality when civil war wiped
out the ambiguity from the Constitution. Ready sons of those who drew the sword for humanity’s sake
the first time in the world in 1898. The four million defenders on land and sea were worthy of the best
traditions of a people never warlike in peace and never pacifist in war. They commanded our pride. They
have our gratitude, which must have genuine expression. It’s not only a duty—it’s a privilege to see that
the sacrifices made shall be requited, and that those still suffering from casualties and disabilities shall
be abundantly aided and restored to the highest capabilities of citizenship and its enjoyments.
Much has been said of late about world ideals. But I prefer to think of the ideal for America. I
like to think there’s something more than the patriotism and practical wisdom of our founding fathers.
It’s good to believe that maybe destiny held this New World republic to be the supreme example of
representative democracy and orderly liberty by which humanity is inspired to higher achievement. It is
idle to think we have attained perfection, but there is the satisfying knowledge that we hold orderly
processes for making our government reflect the heart and mind of the Republic.
Ours is not only a fortunate people, but a very commonsensical people, with vision high, but
their feet on the earth, with belief in themselves and faith in God. Whether enemies threaten from
without or menaces arise from within, there is some indefinable voice saying: “Have confidence in the
Republic. America will go on.” Here is the sample of liberty no storms may shake. Here are the altars of
freedom no factions shall destroy. It was American in conception, American in its building. It shall be
American in the fulfillment. Factional once, we are all American now. And we mean to be all Americans
to all the world.
11
DEMOCRATS IN WWI – A. MITCHELL PALMER (1919)
Alexander Mitchell Palmer served as United States Attorney General (chief law enforcement officer in the
country and attorney for the nation) from 1919 to 1921,under President Woodrow Wilson. Palmer is
most famous for leading the “Palmer Raids” on immigrant neighborhoods in 1919 and 1920 in an effort
to find and arrest suspected anarchists, communists and other “un-Americans” living in the U.S. In the
following speech, delivered after World War I, Palmer honors the contributions of Americans in the war
and defends the actions of Democratic leaders during the war.
I do not put our victory in the World War in the proud list of Democratic achievements. Though
fought under the great leadership of the greatest Democrat since Jefferson, and although without the
support of his party in every crisis it could not have been brought to its successful and triumphant
conclusion, it was the people’s war in a peculiar sense. The patriotic support given to the government
during the war by men of every political faith, proves that passionate love of country and intense
devotion to our institutions are a part of the creed of every political party in the nation.
But I do insist that we shall hear no more of the old slander that the Democratic Party cannot be
trusted to lead in a great war. We may give to individual Americans the full measure of praise which a
grateful republic will always shower upon the men who sprang to its defense with unprecedented valor
and unhesitating devotion to its Christian cause. But the impartial historian must and will write it down
as an incontrovertible fact that the party in power rose with unstinted enthusiasm to the needs of the
hour, while its leadership translated the will and spirit of the American people into decisive and
courageous action, without which ignominious failure would have been our portion in the Armageddon
of the nation.
It has never been any reflection upon the courage or the patriotism of the millions of northern
Democrats who followed his leadership, for history to accord to Abraham Lincoln and the party which he
led the full measure of credit which was their due for saving the Union in the dark days of the Civil War.
The great empire on whose dominions the sun never sets gratefully acknowledges that success could
not have come to British arms without the superb political leadership of that masterful little Welshman,
David Lloyd George. While France—rescued from the very jaws of death by the courage of her sons,
whose blood has colored all the rivers that wash her sunny slopes— does honor to the skill of her
generals, the courage of her men, and the sacrifice of her women by acknowledging the chief debt to be
due the old tiger of France, Clemenceau.
Must we forever sit silent under partisan charges of waste, extravagance or mistake—many of
them the necessary accompaniment of war—without any credit for the great and overwhelming result
which we achieve? Let history begin to tell the truth now, and it will say that the common courage of
our men and women, the combined efforts of capital and labor, the joint support of city and farm, all
were welded into an irresistible force, by a leadership never surpassed in the history of parliamentary
government. And that was the leadership which the Democratic Party gave to the world when it joined
its practical achievements with its high ideals behind Woodrow Wilson.
The hard won victory of American arms will prove but a hollow and unavailing triumph if we do
not make certain that out of it shall come a greater liberty, a better America, and a surer peace—these
three, and the greatest of these is peace, for peace means liberty for everyone. Peace means America
forevermore. And peace means the bright new skies of that glorious day which was ushered in by the
Master when He blessed a weary world: My peace I give unto you. My peace I leave with you.
12