Riding roughshod over civil rights
Woodrow Wilson’s attorney general had no time to waste infringing on liberty
Of all the Cabinet positions of an American president, the office of attorney general has been the most controversial in recent decades. And the reason is fairly obvious; the AG is the nation’s top law-enforcement officer and has enormous power. In the old days, the officeholder was mostly obscure, but in the 20th century the AG was not only influenced by legal matters but partisan ones. For that reason, John Mitchell (1913-1988) would serve 19 months in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal, Eric Holder under President Barack Obama would be the first AG held in contempt by the U.S. House of Representatives, and Jeff Sessions has been embroiled in legal and partisan matters dealing with the election of President Donald Trump as well as hot-button policy issues including crime, immigration and sanctuary cities.
In time, AGs get an overall assessment of their terms in office, and usually one litmus test is to compare and contrast them with others who held the office. So the passage of time will provide historians with more source materials for analyzing recent AGs (did they get booted, for instance?), just as it did in the 19th century when the length of an AG’s term was a standard. William Wirt (1772-1834) would be highly rated, having served 4,126 days in office (the longest in history): Nov. 15, 1817, to March 3, 1829. Second only to Wirt is Janet Reno (1938-2016), the first woman AG, who served 2,871 days, March 12, 1993, to Jan. 20, 2001.
But there was one attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer (1872-1936), who served from 1919 to 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson, who tarnished his office but was lauded by the American public, creating a permanent stain on the nation’s history as the public failed to recognize his shocking, unbelievable misdeeds.
There was no outcry from Capitol Hill over Palmer’s invasion of civil rights. Although Congress did not pass a sedition bill Palmer wanted in order to deport radical aliens and jail suspected citizens, he did so anyhow. Hundreds were illegally deported, and on Jan. 2, 1920, the wholesale arrest, often without warrants, of some 4,000 suspected radicals — many legal citizens — across 33 cities in 23 states captured the nation’s attention. The suspects were often held in chains and jailed without adequate food, heat and bathrooms. There was almost no media outcry. Opined the Washington Post on Jan. 4, 1920: “There is no time to waste on hairsplitting over infringement of liberty . ... ”
Instead of holding Palmer accountable, Congress followed his illegal lead, as illustrated by its treatment of Victor Berger in the House of Representatives. A socialist from Wisconsin, Berger was no newcomer to the House. He had been first elected in 1910 and re-elected in 1912 and 1914 and occasioned little notice. However, in February 1918, he was indicted for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 for criticizing America’s entry into World War I. Before his trial, he ran again for his old seat, easily winning in November 1918.
His trial in January 1919 resulted in a conviction and sentence of 20 years at Ft. Leavenworth. Immediately appealing the decision, Berger went to Congress in April 1919 to take his seat, but the House refused to seat him. So the Wisconsin governor called a special election, and Berger ran again and won; still, the House voted 330 to 6 to exclude him. The Supreme Court, however, in 1921 threw out the conviction, and Berger successfully ran for his old seat in 1922, serving until 1929.
Palmer’s running roughshod on civil rights bore him no lasting infamy. He was a major contender for the Democratic presidential nod in 1920 and even served on his party’s prestigious platform committee in 1932. On Palmer’s death in May 1936, the then AG called him “a great lawyer, a distinguished public servant, and outstanding citizen.” Nor did the passage of time serve to subject his faults to a greater scrutiny. His hometown of Stroudsburg, Pa., upped the hallelujah ante on Oct. 13, 2007, when it dedicated a historical marker in Palmer’s honor that read, in part: “As Attorney General, led ‘Palmer Raids’ during the ‘Red Scare,’ prosecuting those suspected of being anti-American.”
The marker was placed — you might have guessed — near one of the entrances to the town’s courthouse.