Америкалық империяға қарсы лига: Қарсыласу қозғалысы (1898-1920)

Late 1890s 1920s U. S. group opposed to forced expansion

The American Anti Imperialist League was an organization established on June 15, 1898, to battle the American annexation of the Philippines as an insular area. The anti imperialists opposed forced expansion, believing that imperialism violated the fundamental principle that just republican government must derive from "consent of the governed." The League argued that such activity would necessitate the abandonment of American ideals of self government and non intervention—ideals expressed in the United States Declaration of Independence, George Washington's Farewell Address and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The Anti Imperialist League was ultimately defeated in the battle of public opinion by a new wave of politicians who successfully advocated the virtues of American territorial expansion in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War and in the first years of the 20th century, although the organization lasted until 1920.

The idea for an Anti Imperialist League was born in the spring of 1898. On June 2, retired Massachusetts banker Gamaliel Bradford (banker) published a letter in the Boston Evening Transcript in which he sought assistance gaining access to historic Faneuil Hall to hold a public meeting to organize opponents of American colonial expansion. An opponent of the Spanish–American War, Bradford decried what he saw as an "insane and wicked" colonial ambition among some American decision makers which was "driving the country to moral ruin." Bradford's organizing efforts proved successful, and on June 15, 1898, his protest meeting against "the adoption of an imperial policy by the United States" was held. The June 15 meeting gave rise to a formal four member organizing committee known as the Anti Imperialist Committee of Correspondence, headed by Bradford. This group contacted religious, business, labor, and humanitarian leaders from around the country and attempted to stir them into action to stop what they perceived as a growing menace of American colonial expansion into Hawaii and the former colonial possessions of the Spanish empire. Unsurprisingly given the localized origins of the organization, the initial members of this leadership group all hailed from the Boston metropolitan area. Included among these were religious philosopher Felix Adler, former Iowa Governor William Larrabee, Republican Congressman Henry U. Johnson, and Stanford University president David Starr Jordan. In February 1899 the national office of the Anti Imperialist League would peg the group's total membership at "considerably over 25,000." The total number of local branches of the group was reckoned as "at least 100" by November of that year. The roster of officers of the New York branch was nearly as expansive and impressive as that of the original Boston organization, including a corps of 23 Vice Presidents.

In October 1899 a Chicago group inspired by the Boston organization which had previously styled itself as the Central Anti Imperialist League held a convention merging with another organization to form the American Anti Imperialist League. This organization would in turn merge with the Boston based Anti Imperialist League in the following month, rechristening the Boston organization as the New England branch of the American Anti Imperialist League. These publications began to emerge immediately in 1898. Included among these were a series of "Broadsides" which made use of extensive quotations from founding fathers of America such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe, attempting to demonstrate a fundamental contradiction between the ideas upon which the American republic was founded and designs for colonial expansion being advanced by the nation's contemporary political leaders. Mark Twain, perhaps the most prominent member of the league, offered his voice through the publication of his essay "To the Person Sitting in Darkness," which appeared in the North American Review in February 1901. In his essay, Twain satirically portrayed the moral and cultural superiority of Americans compared to Filipinos to comment on what he believed to be the great irony of the Philippines' annexation. Twain successfully gained popular support for the Anti Imperialist League by claiming that America's international role was not to subjugate other nations for material gain, but to see "a nation of long harassed and persecuted slaves set free." The Anti Imperialist League of New York was particularly prominent in the production of propaganda pamphlets, drawing upon the impressive array of writers, public intellectuals, and politicians among its members.

Address Adopted by the Anti Imperialist League: February 10, 1898. Boston: Anti Imperialist League, 1899. —Leaflet. Report of the Executive Committee of the Anti Imperialist League, February 10, 1899. Boston: Anti Imperialist League, 1899. —Leaflet. Erving Winslow, The Anti Imperialist League: Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Boston: Anti Imperialist League, n. d. [c. 1909]. Twain, Mark. "To the Person Sitting in Darkness." Anti Imperialist League of New York. 1873. Accessed October 10, 2017.