December 18, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, every country has moments it would rather not rewatch, and the Palmer Raids sit high on America’s list. What began as scattered bomb scares and loud political rhetoric slowly slid into mass arrests, borderless investigations, and a government convinced that civil liberties were optional when the stakes felt high enough. Larry Reed unpacks how fear, politics, and a restless Justice Department collided in nineteen twenty, turning a national anxiety spike into one of the clearest case studies of how the rule of law can warp under pressure.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
And we returned to our American stories. And now it's
time for another rule of law story as a part
of our Rule of Law series, where we show you
what happens when there's either an absence or presence of
the rule of law in our lives. Here's our own
Monte Montgomery with the story of a particularly dark time
in our nation's history.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We value our rights. They're important, and for the most part,
they're protected. But on January third, nineteen twenty, the rule
of law in this country faced an unprecedented threat. Here's
Larry Reed, President Emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education
or FEE with more.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
It was on the morning of January nineteen twenty that
Americans woke up to discover just how little their own
government regarded the cherished Bill of Rights. It was during
the night that some four thousand of their fellow citizens
were rounded up and jailed for what amounted in most
cases to no good reason at all and no due
(01:20):
process either. This was the worst night of the Palmer Raids.
They're largely forgotten today, but unfortunately they shouldn't be. They
were a horrific, shameful episode in American history, one of
the lowest moments for liberty since King George the Third
quartered troops in private homes. The terror during the wee
(01:41):
hours of January third, nineteen twenty literally shocked and frightened
Americans from coast to coast.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
But to understand why the Palmer raids occurred, you have
to understand the times in which they happened and know
about the other infractions on civil liberties that occurred in
tandem with.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Them during this time. Roughly from the start of the
First World War or American entry, I should say, into
World War One, and in nineteen twenty, there was widespread
suppression of speech and print publication. The Wilson administration knew
that many Americans were conflicted about whether or not we
(02:21):
should enter the First World War, and so as a
response to that, it launched a sweeping propaganda campaign to
instill hatred of both the German enemy abroad and disloyalty
at home. Wilson himself publicly stated that disloyalty to the
war effort quote must be crushed out, and that disloyal
(02:42):
citizens had sacrificed their right to civil liberties like free
speech and expression. Under intense pressure from the President, the
Congress passed the Espionage Act. Any person who made quote,
false reports, or false statements with intent to interfere with
the official war effort could be punished with twenty years
(03:03):
in prison or a fine of ten thousand dollars, and
in today's money that would be about a quarter million.
It was amended in May nineteen eighteen by the Sedition Act,
which made the repression even worse. That made it a
crime to write or speak anything disloyal or abusive about
the government, about the Constitution, the flag, or US military uniform.
(03:26):
Now you can just imagine how arbitrary such a provision
in law is and how terrible the implementation of it is.
It was totally arbitrary and quite abusive towards a lot
of people. A good example of the administration's repression concerns
the Hutter Rights. The Hutter Rights were pacifists, a religious
(03:47):
community in the Upper Great Plains, primarily North and South Dakota,
and his administration, Wilson's harassed and imprisoned hut To Right
men who opposed the draft. Two of them were actually
killed in federal custody. Finally, the Hutter Rights did what
they'd been forced to do so many times in their history.
They picked up and left. The entire population of hutter
(04:08):
rights in America, and estimated eleven thousand left the country
and migrated to Canada. Wilson's Attorney General strongly encouraged Americans
to spy on each other. He wanted them to become
what he called volunteer detectives and report every suspicion to
the Justice Department, And in a matter of months, the
(04:31):
department was receiving about fifteen hundred accusations of disloyalty every
single day. And meantime, the Postmaster General, Albert Burleson jumped
into the cause with both feet. He ordered that local
postmasters must send him any publications they discovered that might
imburse the government. The post Office even began destroying a
(04:53):
certain mail instead of delivering it, even banning certain magazines altogether.
In one case, an issue of a particular periodical was
outlawed for no more reason than it suggested that the
war be paid for by taxes instead of loans. Reverend
Clarence Waldron is a great example of how personal this
(05:16):
repression was. He distributed a pamphlet claiming that the war
was Unchristian. That's all he did, and for that he
was sentenced to fifteen years. In another case, there was
a filmmaker named Robert Goldstein, and he got a ten
year prison sentence for producing a movie about the American Revolution.
It was called The Spirit of seventy six, and his
(05:39):
crime was depicting the British in a negative light, which,
of course in seventy six seventeen seventy six they were
on the other side, but they were allies now, so
that sort of thing was a no no.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
The administration was violating the rule of law by throwing
the First Amendment to the Curb in order to advance
their political position, which you can't do because we're a
nation of laws. Another dramatic violation of the rule of
law was the Palmer Raids themselves, which violated the right
to do process for many people who had done nothing wrong.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
The Palmer Raids really describe a couple different days, two
months apart. Their name for Wilson's Attorney General a Mitchell Palmer.
But he staged the first of the raids on November seventh,
nineteen nineteen, and he had J. Edgar Hoover we know,
as of course, the longtime head of the FBI. He
(06:36):
had a young J. Edgar Hoover, spearheading the operation, and
federal agents scooped up hundreds of alleged radicals, subversives, communists, anarchists,
undesirable but legal immigrants in twelve cities on that November
nineteen nineteen day alone, some six hundred and fifty in
New York City. Now, the second round of Palmer raids
(06:59):
was the bigger one. It was January two, nineteen twenty,
That very night and the wee hours of the next morning,
that was when the largest and most aggressive batch of
federal raids was carried out. It was a night of terror,
about four thousand arrests across twenty three states, often without
legitimate search warrants. The arrestees were frequently tossed into makeshift
(07:22):
jails in substandard conditions. Leftists and leftist organizations were the targets,
but even visitors to their meeting halls were caught up
in the dragnet. Beatings even in police stations were not uncommon.
The Attorney General, mister Palmer actually said, quote, if some
of my agents out in the field were a little
(07:44):
rough and unkind, or short and curt with these alien agitators,
I think it might well be overlooked well, he overlooked
things like the First Amendment as well. The First Amendment
to the United States Constitution is the bedrock of American liberty.
Everything flows from that because the First Amendment says, very specifically,
(08:08):
Congress shall make no law, not some law, not occasional law,
but Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom
of speech or of the press, or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government
(08:30):
for a redress of grievances. Well, the middle part of that,
the prohibition against abridging the freedom of speech and of
the press, is pivotal. I mean, once freedoms of speech
and press are muzzled by a government, it does not
typically stop there. And so to me, the First Amendment
is so critically important and so few people in the
(08:52):
history of the world have been afforded the kind of
protections that it is supposed to guarantee. We know from
the experience under the Will administration that if government can
take an inch, it will and it will take a
mile beyond it. Fortunately, a new administration came into office
and got rid of a lot of this stuff, but
we should look back and be able to say to
(09:13):
ourselves that that is a frightful experience in the repression
of civil liberties that the First Amendment prohibited, and we're
not going to let that ever happen again.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And a special thanks to Larry Read of the Foundation
for Economic Education and what a story about the Palma Raids.
The Voltaire quote, I disapprove of what you say, but
I will defend to the death you're right to say it.
That's what the First Amendment is really all about. Our
Rule of Law series The Palmer Raids a story about
government power and government abuse. Here on our American Stories
And we returned to our American stories. And now it's
time for another rule of law story as a part
of our Rule of Law series, where we show you
what happens when there's either an absence or presence of
the rule of law in our lives. Here's our own
Monte Montgomery with the story of a particularly dark time
in our nation's history.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We value our rights. They're important, and for the most part,
they're protected. But on January third, nineteen twenty, the rule
of law in this country faced an unprecedented threat. Here's
Larry Reed, President Emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education
or FEE with more.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
It was on the morning of January nineteen twenty that
Americans woke up to discover just how little their own
government regarded the cherished Bill of Rights. It was during
the night that some four thousand of their fellow citizens
were rounded up and jailed for what amounted in most
cases to no good reason at all and no due
(01:20):
process either. This was the worst night of the Palmer Raids.
They're largely forgotten today, but unfortunately they shouldn't be. They
were a horrific, shameful episode in American history, one of
the lowest moments for liberty since King George the Third
quartered troops in private homes. The terror during the wee
(01:41):
hours of January third, nineteen twenty literally shocked and frightened
Americans from coast to coast.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
But to understand why the Palmer raids occurred, you have
to understand the times in which they happened and know
about the other infractions on civil liberties that occurred in
tandem with.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Them during this time. Roughly from the start of the
First World War or American entry, I should say, into
World War One, and in nineteen twenty, there was widespread
suppression of speech and print publication. The Wilson administration knew
that many Americans were conflicted about whether or not we
(02:21):
should enter the First World War, and so as a
response to that, it launched a sweeping propaganda campaign to
instill hatred of both the German enemy abroad and disloyalty
at home. Wilson himself publicly stated that disloyalty to the
war effort quote must be crushed out, and that disloyal
(02:42):
citizens had sacrificed their right to civil liberties like free
speech and expression. Under intense pressure from the President, the
Congress passed the Espionage Act. Any person who made quote,
false reports, or false statements with intent to interfere with
the official war effort could be punished with twenty years
(03:03):
in prison or a fine of ten thousand dollars, and
in today's money that would be about a quarter million.
It was amended in May nineteen eighteen by the Sedition Act,
which made the repression even worse. That made it a
crime to write or speak anything disloyal or abusive about
the government, about the Constitution, the flag, or US military uniform.
(03:26):
Now you can just imagine how arbitrary such a provision
in law is and how terrible the implementation of it is.
It was totally arbitrary and quite abusive towards a lot
of people. A good example of the administration's repression concerns
the Hutter Rights. The Hutter Rights were pacifists, a religious
(03:47):
community in the Upper Great Plains, primarily North and South Dakota,
and his administration, Wilson's harassed and imprisoned hut To Right
men who opposed the draft. Two of them were actually
killed in federal custody. Finally, the Hutter Rights did what
they'd been forced to do so many times in their history.
They picked up and left. The entire population of hutter
(04:08):
rights in America, and estimated eleven thousand left the country
and migrated to Canada. Wilson's Attorney General strongly encouraged Americans
to spy on each other. He wanted them to become
what he called volunteer detectives and report every suspicion to
the Justice Department, And in a matter of months, the
(04:31):
department was receiving about fifteen hundred accusations of disloyalty every
single day. And meantime, the Postmaster General, Albert Burleson jumped
into the cause with both feet. He ordered that local
postmasters must send him any publications they discovered that might
imburse the government. The post Office even began destroying a
(04:53):
certain mail instead of delivering it, even banning certain magazines altogether.
In one case, an issue of a particular periodical was
outlawed for no more reason than it suggested that the
war be paid for by taxes instead of loans. Reverend
Clarence Waldron is a great example of how personal this
(05:16):
repression was. He distributed a pamphlet claiming that the war
was Unchristian. That's all he did, and for that he
was sentenced to fifteen years. In another case, there was
a filmmaker named Robert Goldstein, and he got a ten
year prison sentence for producing a movie about the American Revolution.
It was called The Spirit of seventy six, and his
(05:39):
crime was depicting the British in a negative light, which,
of course in seventy six seventeen seventy six they were
on the other side, but they were allies now, so
that sort of thing was a no no.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
The administration was violating the rule of law by throwing
the First Amendment to the Curb in order to advance
their political position, which you can't do because we're a
nation of laws. Another dramatic violation of the rule of
law was the Palmer Raids themselves, which violated the right
to do process for many people who had done nothing wrong.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
The Palmer Raids really describe a couple different days, two
months apart. Their name for Wilson's Attorney General a Mitchell Palmer.
But he staged the first of the raids on November seventh,
nineteen nineteen, and he had J. Edgar Hoover we know,
as of course, the longtime head of the FBI. He
(06:36):
had a young J. Edgar Hoover, spearheading the operation, and
federal agents scooped up hundreds of alleged radicals, subversives, communists, anarchists,
undesirable but legal immigrants in twelve cities on that November
nineteen nineteen day alone, some six hundred and fifty in
New York City. Now, the second round of Palmer raids
(06:59):
was the bigger one. It was January two, nineteen twenty,
That very night and the wee hours of the next morning,
that was when the largest and most aggressive batch of
federal raids was carried out. It was a night of terror,
about four thousand arrests across twenty three states, often without
legitimate search warrants. The arrestees were frequently tossed into makeshift
(07:22):
jails in substandard conditions. Leftists and leftist organizations were the targets,
but even visitors to their meeting halls were caught up
in the dragnet. Beatings even in police stations were not uncommon.
The Attorney General, mister Palmer actually said, quote, if some
of my agents out in the field were a little
(07:44):
rough and unkind, or short and curt with these alien agitators,
I think it might well be overlooked well, he overlooked
things like the First Amendment as well. The First Amendment
to the United States Constitution is the bedrock of American liberty.
Everything flows from that because the First Amendment says, very specifically,
(08:08):
Congress shall make no law, not some law, not occasional law,
but Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom
of speech or of the press, or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government
(08:30):
for a redress of grievances. Well, the middle part of that,
the prohibition against abridging the freedom of speech and of
the press, is pivotal. I mean, once freedoms of speech
and press are muzzled by a government, it does not
typically stop there. And so to me, the First Amendment
is so critically important and so few people in the
(08:52):
history of the world have been afforded the kind of
protections that it is supposed to guarantee. We know from
the experience under the Will administration that if government can
take an inch, it will and it will take a
mile beyond it. Fortunately, a new administration came into office
and got rid of a lot of this stuff, but
we should look back and be able to say to
(09:13):
ourselves that that is a frightful experience in the repression
of civil liberties that the First Amendment prohibited, and we're
not going to let that ever happen again.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And a special thanks to Larry Read of the Foundation
for Economic Education and what a story about the Palma Raids.
The Voltaire quote, I disapprove of what you say, but
I will defend to the death you're right to say it.
That's what the First Amendment is really all about. Our
Rule of Law series The Palmer Raids a story about
government power and government abuse. Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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