Alexander Mitchell Palmer
Alexander Mitchell Palmer
President	Woodrow Wilson
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse	Roberta Dixon (d. 1922) Margaret Fallon Burrall
Profession	Statesman, lawyer
Religion	Religious Society of Friends

Alexander Mitchell Palmer (May 4, 1872 - May 11, 1936) was the Attorney General of the United States from 1919 to 1921. He was nicknamed The Fighting Quaker and he directed the controversial Palmer Raids.

Early life and education

Palmer was born near White Haven, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on May 4, 1872; he attended the public schools of his area and prepared for college at the Moravian Parochial School in Bethlehem. Palmer graduated from Swarthmore College in 1891, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.

Judicial, Congressional, and party service

He was appointed official stenographer of the forty-third judicial district of Pennsylvania in 1892. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1893 and practiced in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Palmer became director of various banks and public-service corporations and a member of the Democratic State executive committee of Pennsylvania. Palmer was elected as a Democrat to the 61st, 62nd, and 63rd Congresses (March 4, 1909 - March 3, 1915); he was not a candidate for renomination in 1914, but ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate. Palmer was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1912 and 1916, and a member of the Democratic National Committee from 1912 - 1920.

Attorney General

President Woodrow Wilson offered Palmer the post of Secretary of War, but Palmer declined because of his belief in pacifism. Instead, he was appointed Alien Property Custodian on October 22, 1917, by Wilson, and served until March 4 of 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. Palmer was a contender for the Presidential nomination at the 1920 Democratic National Convention.

Palmer Raids

His tenure as Attorney General was concurrent with the First Red Scare, and Palmer became a zealous opponent of anarchist communists, insurrectionary anarchists, and other radicals who advocated the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Twice the intended victim of anarchist bomb attacks, the bombing and destruction of his Washington, D.C. home (which killed the bomber, Carlo Valdinoci as he was placing the bomb on Palmer's porch) undoubtedly influenced his actions in this area. His campaign against radicalism culminated in what came to be called the Palmer Raids. These were a series of police roundups, warrantless wiretaps (authorized under the Sedition Act), and mass arrests of suspected leftists and radicals, during which a total of at least 10,000 individuals were arrested. Fearful of extremist violence and revolution, the American public widely supported the raids, and outside of criticism by those apprehended, some civil libertarian groups, and the radical left, condemnation of the raids did not surface until many years later.

Palmer also famously predicted that Communists would attempt to overthrow the United States government on May Day 1920. He had some reason for making this statement, as the original anarchist mail bombing had been timed to ensure delivery of the bombs by the Post Office on May Day 1919. The date came and went without incident, but on September 16 of that year, Wall Street was rocked by a violent blast, later known as the Wall Street bombing. The bomb was constructed with 100 pounds of dynamite and was wrapped with metal shrapnel in order to cause indiscriminate casualties. Concealed in a horse-drawn wagon, the bomb was precisely timed to catch people leaving for their lunch break. The Wall Street bombing killed 38 people and wounded or maimed over 400, causing extensive property damage and leaving visible marks on several Wall Street buildings to this day. In spite of the Palmer raids, the Galleanist (followers of Luigi Galleani) bomb campaign would continue for another twelve years, until most of its members had been prosecuted, deported, or become inactive.

See also

• Luigi Galleani
• Sacco and Vanzetti
• Communist Party USA

References

Avrich, Paul, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background, Princeton University Press, 1991

Multimedia

• Listen to Palmer speak

Sources

• * Alexander Mitchell Palmer at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• The Political Graveyard
• Who Built America V.II

Preceded by J. Davis Brodhead	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's At-large congressional district 1909-1915	Succeeded by Henry J. Steele
Preceded by Thomas Watt Gregory	United States Attorney General 1919–1921	Succeeded by Harry M. Daugherty

•  • [ e] United States Attorneys General

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