The Palmer Raids
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Printed: February 25, 2013
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C ONCEPT
Concept 1. The Palmer Raids
1
The Palmer Raids
In 1917, a revolution toppled Russia’s Czar, and replaced him with a communist government. Also, immediately
after World War One, the country experienced high inflation, high unemployment, and a number of labor strikes.
Against this backdrop, the United States began arresting and deporting anyone suspected of “radical” thinking
(e.g., Communism, socialism, anarchism, pro-labor). These arrests became known as the “Palmer Raids” after
the Attorney General of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer.
The Case Against the “Reds” – A. Mitchell Palmer
Source: Excerpt from an essay written by A. Mitchell Palmer called “The Case Against the ’Reds,’” 1920.
Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American institution of law and order a year ago.
It was eating its way into the homes of the American workmen, its sharp tongues of revolutionary heat were licking
the altars of the churches, leaping into the belfry of the school bell, crawling into the sacred corners of American
homes, seeking to replace marriage vows with libertine laws, burning up the foundations of society. . . .
The whole purpose of communism appears to be a mass formation of the criminals of the world to overthrow the
decencies of private life, to usurp property that they have not earned, to disrupt the present order of life regardless
of health, sex or religious rights. By a literature that promises the wildest dreams of such low aspirations, that can
occur to only the criminal minds, communism distorts our social law. . . .
It has been impossible in so short a space to review the entire menace of the internal revolution in this country as
I know it, but this may serve to arouse the American citizen to its reality, its danger, and the great need of united
effort to stamp it out, under our feet, if needs be. It is being done. The Department of Justice will pursue the attack
of these “Reds” upon the Government of the United States with vigilance, and no alien, advocating the overthrow
of existing law and order in this country, shall escape arrest and prompt deportation. . . .
My information showed that communism in this country was an organization of thousands of aliens who were direct
allies of Trotzky. Aliens of the same misshapen caste of mind and indecencies of character, and it showed that
they were making the same glittering promises of lawlessness, of criminal autocracy to Americans, that they had
made to the Russian peasants. How the Department of Justice discovered upwards of 60, 000 of these organized
agitators of the Trotzky doctrine in the United States is the confidential information upon which the Government is
now sweeping the nation clean of such alien filth. . . .
Questions:
1. Sourcing: Who wrote this document? What is his perspective?
2. Sourcing: What do you predict he will say?
3. Close reading: Palmer says, “Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American
institution of law and order a year ago.” What is he referring to? How do these words make the reader feel?
4. Close Reading: How does Palmer describe Communism? Why does he think it’s dangerous?
1
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Deportation Statement – Emma Goldman
Source: Excerpt from the statement Emma Goldman gave at her deportation hearings. Goldman was an anarchist
and socialist who sympathized with the working poor. She was deported during the Palmer Raids.
At the very outset of this hearing I wish to register my protest against these star chamber proceedings, whose very
spirit is nothing less than a revival of the ancient days of the Spanish Inquisition or the more recently defunct Third
Degree system of Czarist Russia. . . .
Today so-called aliens are deported, tomorrow native Americans will be banished. Already some patrioteers are
suggesting that native American sons to whom Democracy is not a sham but a sacred ideal should be exiled. . . .
The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society. In
truth, it is such free expression and discussion alone that can point the most beneficial path for human progress and
development. But the object of deportations and of the Anti-Anarchist law, as of all similar repressive measures,
is the very opposite. It is to stifle the voice of the people, to muzzle every aspiration of labor. That is the real and
terrible menace of the star chamber proceedings and of the tendency of exiling and banishing everyone who does
not fit into the scheme of things our industrial lords are so eager to perpetuate.
Emma Goldman
New York, October 27, 1919
Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Sourcing: Who wrote this document? What is her perspective?
Sourcing: What do you predict she will say?
Close Reading: According to Goldman, what is the goal of the Palmer raids? What is wrong with them?
Contextualization: What else was going on at this time?
Section Questions:
1. Corroboration: Considering both of these documents, why did Palmer arrest thousands of people and deport
hundreds between 1919-1920?
2