1920's Law and Justice | Palmer, A. Mitchell 1872-1936

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, 1919-1921

"The Fighting Quaker."

A member of a Pennsylvania Quaker family, A. Mitchell Palmer was known as "The Fighting Quaker." In 1908 he left an active law practice to run for the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the House through 1915. In 1912 he was an early, vocal supporter of Woodrow Wilson's successful presidential bid.

Antiradicalism.

In 1917, after the United States had entered World War I, Wilson named Palmer head of an agency to supervise the expropriation of commercial properties owned by German nationals living in the United States. In February 1919 Wilson appointed Palmer attorney general of the United States. Until that time individuals in that post had displayed scant interest in the issue of political subversion, but after October 1919, when he survived an assassination attempt staged by anarchists, Palmer became a willing partner of J....