The American Anti-Imperialist League was formed on June 15, 1898 to fight U.S. annexation of the Philippines and other U.S. insular areas on economic, legal, moral, and even racial grounds. Its president was George S. Boutwell, a former United States Secretary of the Treasury. Well-known members included Jane Addams, Andrew Carnegie, Grover Cleveland, John Dewey, William Dean Howells, William James, David Starr Jordan, Samuel Gompers, Josephine Shaw Lowell , Carl Schurz, William Graham Sumner, Mark Twain, and Oswald Garrison Villard.

The League underwent a number of organizational changes and internal squabbles in its early years, due initially to its endorsement of William Jennings Bryan in the 1900 presidential election. It was disbanded in 1921.

See also

• Treaty of Paris
• New Imperialism, History of United States imperialism

External links and sources

• Library of Congress webpage with short description
• The League's Platform, from the Internet History Sourcebooks Project at the History Department of Fordham University
• Cuba and the Philippines: Both Entitled to Independence, published by the League in 1900
• A Brief Organizational History of the League
• Recalling the Anti-Imperialist League - a fact-based article about the anti-imperialist league with some biased conclusions and parallels towards the end.