The U.S. Department of Justice attempts to arrest and deport radical leftists, and anarchists especially, is known as the Palmer Raids. Immediately following World War I, the raids occurred largely during the Red Scare. This term refers to the time immediately after the war, meaning "fear of and reaction against political radicals in the U.S.". Witnessed during the First World War, the United States saw the immigrants and ethnic groups campaign against divided loyalties. Specific targets were Germans whose sympathies lay with their homeland and Irish whose countrymen were in revolt against America's ally, the United Kingdom. Instantly seeing this as a threat, President Wilson warned against these "hyphenated" Americans, stating they had "poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life.". In this statement made in 1916, Wilson continues to say that "such creatures of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out.". Three years later, after the anarchist bombings in April and June of 1919, it was made known that the threats Wilson feared had now become real. Palmer told the House Appropriations Committee in June of 1919 that all evidence was clear that the radicals would one day rise up and destroy the government. Having addressed this concern and potential fatal issue, General Attorney Palmer requested a increase in budget from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000 to fund his investigations of the radicals, but only received and increase of $100,000. After his first attempt in a July 1919 raid, where the judge threw out the case because the radicals that were arrested only attempted to change the government by using their free right to speech, Palmer realized it was time to hunt down and exploit the more powerful immigration statues who authorized the deportation of alien anarchists, whether they were violent or not.
Alexander Mitchell Palmer
Born on May 4, 1872,
Palmer is best known for his role as Attorney General of the United States from March 5,
1919 to March 4, 1921. Though Palmer faced contest with other candidates who
attained stronger legal credentials, President Woodrow Wilson was backed up by
party officials and Palmer's colleagues on the Democratic National Committee to
appoint him into office. They argued that while the office had "great power
politically", they should not trust it to anyone who is not fully with
them, heart and soul. The one who pressed the president most with this fact was
his private secretary, Joseph Tumulty. Reminding the President several times of
his encouragement to appoint Palmer into office as Attorney General, Wilson
agreed by saying that Palmer was a "young, militant, progressive, and
fearless man."Certainly well liked and thought highly of by President
Woodrow Wilson, Palmer was nominated by the President to the Senate in February
of 1919 and assumed his office position in March.
Against the Day:
As the end of the novel mentions the Palmer Raids activity during the Red scare, we can see how Pynchon keeps up his views of war as a struggle between those who pursue power versus those who transcend it. A period of time immediately following WWI, proving there was unresolved conflict, the Palmer Raids are mentioned in relation to what is going on in the last scenes of the novel. From the beginning of Against the Day, Pynchon has given numerous, blunt indications on how he views war, or perhaps how he thinks others view war. In any case, the mention of the Palmer Raids as a reference to what Lew witnesses (pages. 1057-1058) shows us that same power struggle between the pursuers and the transcenders. As Lew reaches Carefree Court, he surprised to find people of all cultures, religions and ethnicity's gathered together in a way he never thought possible. In a state of shock, Lew questions whether these people could possibly be those same ones he once spent his life chasing after, longing to capture.He goes on to realize that the one thing all the people of such diverse backgrounds have in common was their survival of some cataclysmic tragedy that neither of them spoke about in detail. He relates such tragedies to the Palmer Raids. It can be assumed that Pynchon does this as a way to reflect how all these people are anarchists themselves. Showing his readers how he believes in the anarchist movement, Pynchon continues his theme of war even to the very end of the story.
References:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApalmerR.htm
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mitchell_Palmer
As the end of the novel mentions the Palmer Raids activity during the Red scare, we can see how Pynchon keeps up his views of war as a struggle between those who pursue power versus those who transcend it. A period of time immediately following WWI, proving there was unresolved conflict, the Palmer Raids are mentioned in relation to what is going on in the last scenes of the novel. From the beginning of Against the Day, Pynchon has given numerous, blunt indications on how he views war, or perhaps how he thinks others view war. In any case, the mention of the Palmer Raids as a reference to what Lew witnesses (pages. 1057-1058) shows us that same power struggle between the pursuers and the transcenders. As Lew reaches Carefree Court, he surprised to find people of all cultures, religions and ethnicity's gathered together in a way he never thought possible. In a state of shock, Lew questions whether these people could possibly be those same ones he once spent his life chasing after, longing to capture.He goes on to realize that the one thing all the people of such diverse backgrounds have in common was their survival of some cataclysmic tragedy that neither of them spoke about in detail. He relates such tragedies to the Palmer Raids. It can be assumed that Pynchon does this as a way to reflect how all these people are anarchists themselves. Showing his readers how he believes in the anarchist movement, Pynchon continues his theme of war even to the very end of the story.
References:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApalmerR.htm
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mitchell_Palmer
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