Edward Atkinson

Birth/Death:                             1827 / 1905

League Membership:              Faneuil Hall Meeting, June 15, 1898
                                               The Anti-Imperialist League, 1898-1899
                                               New England Anti-Imperialist League
                                               The Anti-Imperialist League, 1904-1921

Role in League:                      Executive Committee Member

Occupation:                             Economist

Brief Biography

A Bostonian, free-soil supporter, Atkinson was one of the foremost economists in support of free trade and the gold standard. He was President of the Boston Insurance Company where he earned most of his wealth. Atkinson was among the Boston Republicans to switch parties in 1886 and campaigned for Grover Cleveland. His anti-imperialism was influenced largely by his understanding of economics. According to Atkinson, colonialism smacked against Adam Smith's theory in his Wealth of Nations. Colonies would create economic depression not the generation of new market potential. Atkinson was also one of the most prolifically published anti-imperialist. His series The Anti-Imperialist was particularly influential. In 1899, Atkinson attempted to send similar pamphlets to soldiers fighting in the Philippines. All of Atkinson's post from his Brookline residence was censored and post going to the Philippines confiscated. It earned him severe condemnation from the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations, whereas anti-imperialists charged the government with breaching Atkinson's freedom of speech.

Primary:

Edward Atkinson Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Atkinson, Edward, The Distribution of Products. New York: G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1885.

———. Taxation and Work: a Series of Treatises on the Tariff and the Currency. New York: G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1892.

———. 'Jingoes and Silverites,' North American Review, Issue 161. (November 1895).

———. 'The Cost of a National Crime,' 'The Hell of War and Its Penalties,' 'Criminal Aggression: By Whom Committed?,' The Anti-Imperialist, Vol. 1, No. 2. (June 3, 1899).

———. The Anti-Imperialist, Vol. 1, No. 3. (July 4, 1899).

———. 'Slavery and Polygamy,' The Anti-Imperialist, Vol. 1, No. 5. (September 15, 1899).

———. 'The Commercial Aspect of Criminal Aggression,' The Anti-Imperialist, Vol. 1, No. 5. (September 15, 1899).

———. 'Eastern Commerce: What is it Worth?,' North American Review, Issue 170. (February, 1900).

———. 'The Cost of a National Crime,' The Anti-Imperialist, Final, No. 6. (October 1, 1900).

———. 'The Penalties for the Hell of War,' The Anti-Imperialist, Final, No. 6. (October 1, 1900).

———. The Cost of War and Warfare, 1903.

Secondary:

Beisner, Robert L. Twelve Against Empire: The Anti-Imperialists, 1898-1900. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968.

Dalton, Marshall B. Edward Atkinson: Patron Of Engineering Science And Benefactor Of Industry. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1950.

Dementyev, Igor. USA: Imperialists and Anti-Imperialists (Moscow: Progres Publishers, 1979). 

Schirmer, Daniel B. Republic or Empire: American Resistance to the Philippine War. Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman Publishing, 1972.

Tompkins, Berkeley E. Anti-Imperialism in the United States: The Great Debate, 1890-1920. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970.

Williamson, Harold F. Edward Atkinson: The Biography of an American Liberal, 1827-1905. Boston: Old Corner Bookstore, 1934.

Tompkins, Berkeley E. Anti-Imperialism in the United States: The Great Debate, 1890-1920. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970.

Wood, Gordon S. 'The Massachusetts Mugwumps,' New England Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 4. (December, 1960).

Michael Cullinane, Liberty and Anti-Imperialism, May 9, 2008.

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