Hey I just finished my report. I decided to go with the Palmer Raids'. I really enjoyed the topic and many others I would have enjoyed typing but not enough problem's that I could exactly discuss. Anyways I figured I would post it up and see what everyone thought. I am looking for any suggestion's but just so you know there may be a few half truth's because it is supposed to be powerful and all of my point of view. Any response's are welcome...
and im still waiting for a title i was thinking of going with...The Palmer Raids; More Like The Amendment-Breaking Revengeful Hypocritical Raids’! and im not looking to discuss and trade views...
The United States of America is a country that was built on the many ideas, one of them being, maintaining personal freedoms. From 1918 to 1921 is a fact that the basis of this country is not always enforced and was a corrupt moment in our history. The constitution is not a foundation that can be chosen when to be followed. The Palmer Raids directly broke the constitution. The reason The Palmer Raids were supposedly justified, was because of the national security was at stake. The question raised in this situation is whether or not citizen’s rights can be of no concern when their safety is at harm?
The acts that caused the start of the Palmer Raids were no doubt criminal acts of anarchist and revolutionist groups on political figures. Eight bombings occurred, attempting harm of some sort on political figures, one of which was the newly appointed General Attorney A. Mitchell Palmer. The bomb detonated outside of his house prematurely, killing the man who planted it. After these bombings and other previous exaggerated ideas of Palmer, he saw it necessary to not only target the few people behind the attempted bombing of political figures, but anyone ever associated with the idea of revolution in the country at that time.
Palmer’s views on the problem’s in the country were onto another level of overboard that were yet to be discovered. He believed that Communism was “eating it’s way into the American workman.” To state this idea that the America’s workman were so able to swayed is insult from my standpoint. He also went on to describe that the political party these groups belonged to were causing almost all social problems in the U.S. To believe that a physical attack towards him, and their beliefs were causing the social problems, which I will add was racism, in that time era is absurd. He also believed that a revolution was to occur in the U.S. to overrun the country and bring anarchism to ruling.
The responses following the bombings of the political figures, can be compared to the flat out absurdity behind the justification’s of slavery. The next action taken by the government was a build up of information, including a list of 150,000 names that were supposedly to be associated the revolution to be taking place. Using the information that was gathered, a series of publicized raids against citizens of the United States of American to persecute occurred. The information was obtained by acts directly breaking amendment number’s one, two, six, eight, and nine. Many of the captured had information beaten out of them, along with being charged for crimes and being held for long periods of time without trial. After the first 10,000 of supposed anarchists were captured, another 6,000 was captured, all being held without trial. The reason of slight justification of these actions was that Palmer used the Sedition acts to “investigate” immigrants. The supposed anarchists was a majority of immigrants. Also large amounts of immigrants at this time were also in the IWW union, Industrial Workers of the World. At that time, it was a helping hand to those without jobs.
The Palmer Raids' do not end after 16,000 wrongfully accused persons were held without trial. 249 supposed anarchist leaders were DEPORTED to Russia, because of the bogus idea that a revolution was to occur four months from then. The reason that idea was bogus, is that their was no proof just purely speculation. The idea that we shipped out citizens of the United States of America on the basis of complete presumptions, is sickening. There was never a spec of proof that a revolution was going to occur, just a rumor put out into the public’s eye by Palmer himself.
With a statement of this caliber out in the public, not known to be a rumor yet, many people of the U.S. decided to even take matters into their own hands. A man by the name of Wesly Everest, was brutally lynched and shot by vigilantes. Everest was just a man who was a member of IWW, who had no association with the ideas of anarchism. Even after that injustice was done, it did not stop there. On his coroner report, it stated he “jumped off with a rope around his neck and then shot himself full of holes.” That statement by Palmer caused an innocent man’s death.
Palmer’s actions that followed his attempted killing, were completely malicious and self-centered. All of his action’s were supposedly to be to protect the American citizen’s, while it actually only hurt them. The raids conducted by this man were completly hypocritical acts of ludicrous. He was not the only one responsible for this, many people from all branches of the government were corrupt through out these raids. The “raids” were the gathering of thousands of undisruptive American citizens, and broke six of the supposed “rights” of theirs. They first, persecuted many for the act of free speech, breaking the first amendment. Secondly, they broke the 2nd amendment by the revenge-filled raids that took place. They broke the 6th amendment by the thousands of citizens that were held without trial for extended periods of time. They broke the 8th amendment by the allowing of acts of violence towards the captured “anarchists.” The 14th amendment was broken because naturalized citizens of the United States of America were revoked of their citizenship and deported to Russia.
To answer the question I gave you above, the answer is NO. Palmer’s reaction to the bombings were completely unjustified at all times. He tried to endorse that the jailing, harm and deportation of persons were justified because their safety was at stake. The fact is that the safety was never at stake, he was just angry at the fact that his life could have been taken and retaliated by unjustifiable measures. The reason the answer to the question is no is because of the last amendment broken by Palmer and the government. The 9th amendment states “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” This means that in no situation can the rights of the citizens of the United States of America can be taken away. Palmer and the government reacted immaturely to a situation where traits of adults were needed and never shown. The actions of the anarchists were not correct in any, way, shape or form. The reactions of the government should have served a peaceful solution because this is what is of expected of them. All in all, The Palmer Raids’ is a disgusting part of our American History
