National Security League

[1] The National Security League was founded by attorney Solomon Stanwood Menken and General Leonard Wood in December 1914, but the impetus for the formation of the group was US Representative Augustus Peabody Gardner.

Putnam encouraged Menken to appoint an honorary president to lend the organization prestige and to give it access to respected speakers and additional funding.

"[5] The conference cemented the NSL's place as a leader among the military preparedness movement during the months before American intervention in the war.

In August 1915, a splinter group formed the American Defense Society, largely composed of Republicans unhappy with the NSL's uncritical support of the administration of US President Woodrow Wilson.

[2] The NSL drew members and supporters from a wide range of the political spectrum, and its policies changed dramatically over time.

[7] This "Americanism" and universal conscription were meant not only to strengthen the military but also to weed out "religious or political dissenters, sexual 'deviants,' those who frequented prostitutes, and people convicted of crimes who had completed their punishment...."[8] The goal was to create an elite meritocratic class that would take decision-making away from the electorate.

With the support of US Department of Justice, the NSL began to question the patriotism and the loyalty of thousands of Americans suspected of being pro-German or, later, communists.

McElroy then broadened his accusation to include the chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, who was also in attendance, and the entire population of the state of disloyalty as well.

Many mainstream supporters of the League, unaware of the jingoistic tendencies of some of the more senior members of the organization's inner circle, quit in protest.

[10] The NSL established a rating system to analyze a variety of congressional votes on preparedness measures that it considered critical.

Honorary president Charles Lydecker, a New York state national guard colonel and the League's new executive director, began advocating an extreme form of property rights.