Edward Atkinson 2949894 184064359 2008-01-13T16:54:23Z 194.125.35.115 {{for|the Antarctic explorer of the same name|Edward L Atkinson}} '''Edward Atkinson''' ([[February 10]] [[1827]] - 1905) was a founder of the [[Anti-Imperialist League]]. [[Image:Betrayed Moorfield Storey.gif|thumb|250px|Cartoon of Erving Winslow and Edward Atkinson of the Anti-Imperialist League mourning Aguinaldo's capture. By the imperialist paper, ''[[New York Tribune]]'', reprinted ''[[Literary Digest]]'', 22 ([[April 13]] [[1901]]).]] He was born in [[Brookline, Massachusetts]]. In the decade before the Civil War, Atkinson was a successful entrepreneur as an executive of some of the leading cotton mills of New England. Later, he was head of the [[Boston Insurance Company]]. He also fought against slavery by supporting the [[Free-Soil Party]] and a Boston committee to aid escaped slaves. Growing weary of compromise, he soon began raising money to pay for rifles and ammunition to support the insurgent guerrilla force of [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]]. In 1866 he was chosen a delegate to the national union convention, held in Philadelphia, but he took no part in its deliberations. Inspired by the ideas of [[Adam Smith]], [[Richard Cobden]], and [[John Bright]], Atkinson became a leading publicist for free trade. In many ways, he can be described as the American counterpart to [[Frédéric Bastiat]]. He spoke out against the inflationist ideas of [[William Jennings Bryan]] and others but, unlike some, favored the total denationalization, or privatization, of money. He campaigned for [[Grover Cleveland]] and participated in the formation of the Clevelandite [[National Democratic Party (United States)]] third party in 1896. Atkinson was appalled by the colonialist and imperialist policies of the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations in the wake of the Spanish-American War. He reacted by becoming a full-time activist in the American Anti-Imperialist League. As a vice president of that organization, Atkinson wrote to the [[United States Department of War]] for a list of soldiers serving in the Philippines so that he might send them his privately published pamphlets. Failing to receive a reply, Atkinson announced to the press that he was sending copies to Generals [[Henry Ware Lawton|Lawton]], Miller, and [[Elwell Stephen Otis|Otis]], Admiral [[George Dewey|Dewey]], the correspondent [[J. F. Bass]], and to [[Jacob Gould Schurman|Jacob Shurman]] and [[Dean Worcestrer]] on the [[Philippine Commission]]. On [[February 17]] [[1899]], Edward Atkinson sent three pamphlets entitled: :*"The Cost of a National Crime," detailing the American military oppression of the Filipinos and the spiraling cost of the war to American taxpayers. :*"The Hell of War and Its Penalties" :*"Criminal Aggression: By Whom Committed?" ...in order to test the right of citizens of the United States to the free use of the mail." [[United States Postmaster General]] [[Charles Emory Smith]] foolishly took the bait and ordered that the pamphlets be seized in San Francisco, declaring the pamphlets "seditious". The [[United States Attorney General]] hinted that he would charge Atkinson with treason and sedition. In the end, officials decided that charging him would only make the seventy-two year old into a martyr. The U.S. imperialist press called Atkinson a "latter-day [[Copperheads (politics)|copperhead]]". Atkinson seemed to enjoy the infamy. Atkinson effusively and sacrastically thanked the Administration for calling national attention to his essays and increasing their demand in every state in the union.{{ref|cooperhead}} ==Footnotes== # {{note|cooperhead}} *{{cite book | author=Miller, Stuart Creighton | title="Benevolent Assimilation" The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903 | publisher=Yale University Press | year=1982 | id=ISBN 0-300-02697-8}}, page 107; Boston Herald, [[22 April]], 23, 24, 1899; New York Times, [[23 April]] [[1899]]; San Francisco Call, [[24 April]] [[1899]] ==References== {{Reflist|2}} *David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=22&articleID=261 "Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896-1900,"] Independent Review 4 (Spring 2000), 555-75. ==External links== *Biography and Bibliography of Edward Atkinson [http://www.antiimperialist.com/webroot/PEOPLEdocuments/Membership/Peoplepages/EdwardAtkinson.html "Liberty and Anti-Imperialism"] *Edward Atkinson's ''The Anti-Imperialist''[http://www.antiimperialist.com/webroot/AILdocuments/AtkinsonAnti-Imp.html "Liberty and Anti-Imperialism"] {{DEFAULTSORT:Atkinson, Edward}} [[Category:1827 births]] [[Category:1905 deaths]] [[Category:American activists]] [[Category:American abolitionists]] [[Category:People from Norfolk County, Massachusetts]] [[Category:People of the Philippine-American War]]