Document Group: CDGA

Size: 5 linear inches

Provenance: Unknown

Restrictions: None

Microfilm: None

Finding Aid: Checklist revised by Anne Yoder, September 2001

This checklist is the property of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Introduction

The Anti-Imperialist League was formed in June 1898 [?] to oppose the war of the United States with Spain over Cuba's fight for independence from Spanish rule as well as the desire of the United States to annex the Philippine Islands and Puerto Rico. It included among its members such persons as Jane Addams, Fanny Baker Ames, Edward Atkinson, Mary Emma Byrd, Andrew Carnegie, Mary Fells, Maria Freeman Gray, William James, David Starr Jordan, Josephine Shaw Lowell, Lucia Ames Mead, Emily L. Osgood, Mary G. Pickering, Alice Thacher Post, Mary Schieffelin, Emma J. Smith, Mark Twain, Fanny Garrison Villard, and Erving Winslow. Eventually, the League grew into a bipartisan mass movement of some 30,000 members. It reached into 30 states, with various branches springing up. The League moved its main office from Boston to Chicago and then back to Boston (when the New England Anti-Imperialist League changed its name to the Anti-Imperialist League).

A peace treaty passed in the U.S. Senate on February 6, 1899 allowed for the independence of Cuba, and for the U.S. acquisition of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Two days later, Filipinos led by Emilio Aquinaldo, were fighting Americans. In protesting the treaty, the 1899 Platform of the League stated: "We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We regret that it has become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is 'criminal aggression' and open disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our Government. We earnestly condemn the policy of the present National Administration in the Philippines. . . . We denounce the slaughter of the Filipinos as a needless horror. We protest against the extension of American sovereignty by Spanish methods." Andrew Carnegie offered to buy the Philippines from the United States to give the islands their independence. Instead, American troops killed between 250,000 and 600,000 Filipinos, probably most of them civilians, and captured Aguinaldo in February 1902, at which time President Roosevelt pronounced that the war was over.

The Anti-Imperialist League continued to challenge American intervention abroad until 1920, but it was largely isolated from the peace movement and had lost most of its impact.

[sources for this introduction included Web pages and published books -- reliability of the information is unknown]

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Contents of Collection

Box 1

Checklist / history

Boston [Anti-Imperialist League], 1899-1919
"Letter from The Hon. George F. Hoar, March 29, 1899," 1899
"A Straightforward Tale" by Clay MacCauley, 1899
"The Economic Situation in the Philippines" by Prof. H. Parker Willis, 1905
"The Cost of War" by Prof. Charles J. Bullock, 1904
"Philippine Independence; Why?" by Hon. James H. Blount, 1907
"The Calamities of Balayan, P.I.: Reply to a Criticism of a Petition Made to the Taft Expedition of

1905, by the Petitioners Felix Unzon, Vicente Paz Rillo, Vivencio Ramos, Vicente Almanzor," 1907

"Report of the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Anti-Imperialist League, November 27, 1909 and Its

Adjournment November 30"

"Neutralization: America's Opportunity" by Erving Winslow, Secretary of the Anti-Imperialist League

[printed in the Congressional Record May 14, 1912]

"Report of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Anti-Imperialist League, December 17, 1917"
"Report of the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Anti-Imperialist League, February 17, 1919"

Boston [New England Anti-Imperialist League]: 1900-1904
"Address by the Hon. W. Bourke Cockran Delivered in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Feb. 23, 1900"
"Brief of Statement to Be Made by Edward Atkinson Before the Committee on the Philippines," 1902
"Report of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the New England Anti-Imperialist League, November 28, 1903

and Its Adjournment, Nov. 30"

"An Epitome of Historical Events and of Official and Other Correspondence Connected with the

Acquisition and Other Dealings with the Philippine Islands" prepared by Erving Winslow, Secretary of New England Anti-Imperialistic League, 1902

"Anti-Imperialism: The Great Issue: Addresses by The Hon. Charles R. Codman & Mr. Henry W.

Hardon; Reply by The Hon. Alton B. Parker, October 15, 1904"

"The Philippine Policy of Secretary Taft Analyzed by Moorefield Storey," [1904?]
"The Cost of War and Warfare from 1898 to 1905, Inclusive Twelve Hundred Million Dollars" by Edward

Atkinson, 1904

Chicago: 1899-1901
Liberty Tracts:

- #4: "The Policy of Imperialism: Address by Hon. Carl Schurz at the Anti-Imperialist Conference in Chicago, October 17, 1899
- #5: "Mr McKinley's Declaration of War" by Albert H. Tolman, Jan. 1900
- #7: "The President's Policy: War and Conquest Abroad, Degradation of Labor at Home: Address by Hon. George S. Boutwell, President, American Anti-Imperialist League, at Masonic Hall,
Washington, D.C., January 11, 1900"
- #8: "Is It Right? An Address by Moorefield Storey at the Philadelphia Conference, February 23, 1900"
- #9: "Republic or Empire with Glimpses of 'Criminal Aggression': An Address Delivered by Edwin Burritt Smith to the Philadelphia Conference, February 23, 1900"
- #14: "Will the United States Withdraw from the Philippines" by John Foreman / "The 'Single Tribe' Fiction" by Edward C. Pierce, 1900

"The Menace to America" by Joseph Henry Crooker, 1900"
"The Constitution and Inequality of Rights" by Edwin Burritt Smith, 1901

Minneapolis Branch: 1899?
Liberty Leaflet #4 "Americanism vs. Imperialism," [1899?]

Anti-Imperialist League of New York: 1901
Leaflet "A Soldier's Solution: The Striking Letter of Missourian Who Has Served in the Philippines, and

Who Urges that We Should Let the Natives Govern the Islands"

Leaflet "Extract from Speech of Hon. Seth W. Brown, February 9th, 1901"

American League of Philadelphia: 1900
"An Open Letter to Bishop Potter, of New York, by the American League of Philadelphia, October 1,

1900"

Bound volume containing:
"Letter from The Hon. George F. Hoar, March 29, 1899," 1899
Liberty Tract #1: The Chicago Liberty Meeting Held at Central Music Hall, April 30, 1899" published by

Central Anti-Imperialist League, Chicago, 1899

Liberty Tract #2: "Patriotism and Imperialism" by J. Laurence Laughlin, published by Central Anti-

Imperialist League, Chicago, 1899

[Resolution of] The Conference of Anti-Imperialists, May 16, 1899; [Report of a] Meeting held in Tremont

Temple, Boston, April 4, 1899

"Soldiers' Letters: Being Materials for the History of a War of Criminal Agression"
"Annual Meeting of the Anti-Imperialist League, Now The New England Anti-Imperialist League, at

Wesleyan Hall, Boston, Saturday, November 25, 1899, at 3 P.M." published by the N.E. Anti-Imperialist League, 1899

"The Social Forum" vol. 1:1 (June 1, 1899) ["American Imperialism: An Address" by Prof. George D.

Herron, April 12, 1899]

 

Bound volume containing:

Liberty Tract #3: "A Literary Catechism" by Frederick W. Gookin, Nov. 1899

"An Arraignment of President McKinley's Policy of Extending by Force the Sovereignty of the

United States over the Filipinos," [1899?]

"I. The Cost of a National Crime. II. The Hell of War and Its Penalties: Two Treatises Suggested by the

Appointment of a Day of National Thanksgiving by the President of the United
States" by Edward Atkinson, [1900?]

"III. Criminal Agresion: By Whom Committed? An Inquiry" by Edward Atkinson, February 22, 1899
The Anti-Imperialist vol. 1:2 (June 3, 1899)
"Memorial to the Senate of the United States," 1899
The Anti-Imperialist vol. 1:5 (Sept. 15, 1899)
Anti-Imperialist No. 5: Special Edition for Circulation in the First District of Ohio and in Other Districts

Now Misrepresented, 1899

Anti-imperialistischer Bund, Mai 1899
"The Commercial Aspect of Criminal Aggression," 1899
"A Protest Against the President's War of 'Criminal Aggression'" by James W. Stillman, 1899
Liberty Tract #4: "The Policy of Imperialism: Address by Hon. Carl Schurz at the Anti-Imperialist

Conference in Chicago, October 17, 1899

Reference Material, 1899-1908
Special Anti-Imperialist Supplement to The Evening Post, Oct. 18, 1899
"What Shall We Do With Our Dependencies? The Annual Address Before the Bar Association of South

Carolina" by Moorfield Storey, 1903

"Philippine Tariff -- Imperial Policy: Speech of Hon. John F. Shafroth, of Colorado, in the House of

Representatives, Tuesday, December 17, 1901"

"Speech of Hon. George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, in the Senate of the United States, April 17, 1900"
"Debate in the Senate of the United States, February 6, 1902, on the Philippine Treason Law," 1902
"General Hughes and Mr. Nelson: Philippine Army Defended -- General Hughes Replies to the Anti-

Imperialists," [1902]

"Courts-Martial in the Philippines: Speech of Hon. E.W. Carmack, of Tennessee, in the Senate of the

United States, February 9, 1903"

"Address of Jacob Gould Shurman . . . on Present Duties in the Philippines . . . January 29, 1903"
"Address by Dr. Felix Adler on "Coolie Labor in the Philippines," Jan. 29, 1903
Notes by ???
Misc. newsclippings, 1905-1908


Removed to Poster Collection
Broadside by Edward Atkinson "Cost of War and Warfare," 1904

 

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Swarthmore College Peace Collection

For more information, contact Wendy Chmielewski, Curator, at
wchmiel1@ swarthmore.edu or call 610-328-8557.

For other resources, see the college's online library catalog (Tripod).
 

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