[5] Both organizations emerged as powerful political entities, with the GAR serving as a mainstay of the Republican Party, which controlled the presidency from the Civil War through William Howard Taft's administration except during Grover Cleveland's two terms in office.

[6] With the termination of hostilities in World War I in November 1918, some American officers who had participated in the conflict began to think about creating a similar organization for the two million men who had been on European duty.

With the war at an end, hundreds of thousands of impatient draftees found themselves trapped in France and pining for home, certain only that untold weeks or months lay ahead of them before their return would be logistically possible.

[9] After three days, the officers presented a series of proposals, including eliminating restrictive regulations, organizing additional athletic and recreational events, and expanding leave time and entertainment programs.

[15] A provisional executive committee of four men emerged from the February 15 "Roosevelt dinner": Roosevelt in the first place, who was to return to the U.S. and obtain his military discharge when able, and then to gather assistants and promote the idea of the new veterans' organization among demobilized troops there; White, who was to travel to France touring the AEF camps and explaining the idea; veteran wartime administrator Eric Fisher Wood, who was to establish a central office and maintain contact with the various combat divisions and headquarters staffs, as well as publicize activities to the press; and former Ohio Congressman Ralph D.

[23] Having immediately received a blizzard of acceptances to attend the opening of the "Liberty League Caucus", as he had begun to call it, Temporary Secretary Eric Fisher Wood began to search for use of a room of sufficient size to contain the gathering.

[31] It was noted in passing during the course of debate on the topic that Roosevelt had been responsible for an earlier organization called "The American Legion" in 1914, a "preparedness" society with a claimed membership of 35,000 that had been absorbed into the Council of National Defense in 1916.

On April 10, 1919, Temporary Secretary Eric Fisher Wood mailed a letter to the governors of every state, informing them of the forthcoming gathering and making note of the League's nonpartisan and patriotic nature.

[40] Consequently, the gathering's passage of the program was largely a pro forma exercise, rushed through during the session's last day, with the actual decision-making about such matters as the constitution and the organization's publications done by committee at night.

[39] The preamble of the constitution adopted in St. Louis became one of the seminal statements of the Legion's orientation and objectives:[41] For God and Country we associate ourselves together for the following purposes:To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America; to maintain law and order; to foster and perpetuate a 100 Percent Americanism; to preserve the memories and incidents of our association in the Great War; to inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state, and nation; to combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses; to make right the master of might; to promote peace and good will on earth; to safeguard and transmit to prosperity the principles of justice, freedom, and democracy; to consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by devotion to mutual helpfulness.The St. Louis Caucus spent much of its time discussing resolutions: whether a stand should be taken on the League of Nations, Prohibition, or the implementation of universal military service; whether posts composed of Negro soldiers should be established; and whether Secretary of War Newton D. Baker should be impeached for his apparent leniency toward conscientious objectors in the months after the war.

The group wrote a specific prohibition of the endorsement of political candidates into its constitution,[46] declaring: this organization shall be absolutely non-political and shall not be used for the dissemination of partisan principles or for the promotion of the candidacy of any person seeking public office or preferment; and no candidate for or incumbent of a salaried elective public office shall hold any office in The American Legion or in any branch or post thereof.One semi-official historian of the organization has noted the way that this explicit refusal to affiliate with a political party had the paradoxical effect of rapidly building great political power for the organization, as politicians from both of the "old parties" competed for the favor of the Legion's massive and active membership.

[50] The Legion concentrated its lobbying effort in 1919 on passage of legislation increasing payment for total disability suffered in the war to $80 a month—a sum roughly sufficient to provide a living wage.

November 11, 1919, the first anniversary of Armistice Day and the occasion of the Legion's formal launch at its Minneapolis Founding Convention, was also a historic moment of violence and controversy.

[53] Some of the marchers planned at the conclusion of their patriotic demonstration to storm and ransack the local hall maintained by the Industrial Workers of the World, a labor union founded 14 years earlier at a convention of socialists, anarchists, Marxists, and radical trade unionists from all over the U.S., which had been the target of multiple arrests, large trials, and various incidents of mob violence during the months of American participation in World War I.

[54] Parade Marshal Adrian Cormier rode up on horseback and, according to some witnesses, blew a whistle giving the signal to the Legionnaires to charge the IWW headquarters building.

[56] The mob destroyed the hall's front porch and a large bonfire was built, upon which were torched the local Wobblies' official records, books, newspapers and mattresses.

[57] The Elks Hall gathering entered the jail without meeting resistance and took Everest, dragging him away to a waiting car but leaving other incarcerated Wobblies untouched.

[61] A grand jury ultimately indicted 12 IWW members for first-degree murder in connection with the killing of the four Legionnaires and a local left-wing lawyer was charged as an accessory to the crime.

[62] A memorial statue created by Alonzo Victor Lewis, known as The Sentinel, was dedicated in Centralia's George Washington Park in 1924 to honor the four legionnaires - Casagranda, Grimm, Hubbard, and McElfresh - killed during the Armistice Day Riot.

Instead the group worked to the spread of the ideology of Americanism and acted as a lobbying organization on behalf of issues of importance to veterans, with particular emphasis on winning a "soldier's bonus" payment from the government.

[71] The Legion supported legislation restricting immigration and seditious speech[72] and used its influence in an effort to deny public forums to speakers whose views it opposed.

After the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, which killed about 480 former servicemen and women, the Legion was very critical of the government and the safety of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration camps.

[78] When Col. Taylor testified about the event in front of the House Committee on World War Veterans' Legislation in 1937, he tried to have the Legion's report "Murder at Matecumbe" read into the Congressional Record.

Scathing editorials in The Oregonian and The New York Times eventually caused the post to reverse its course, restoring all the names of Nisei servicemen from Hood River to the wall.

It promoted the passage of state bills requiring loyalty oaths of school teachers, and supported the activities of anti-Communist newspaper publishers, including William Randolph Hearst, in identifying Communist sympathizers in academic institutions.

[94] The list of names and organizations the Legion provided to movie studios formed the basis for the Hollywood blacklist, and supported the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee and its predecessors before and during the Cold War.

[98] Its Counter-Subversive Activities Committee in 1946 began publishing the American Legion Firing Line, a newsletter for members which provides information on communist, fascist, and other extremist groups to its subscribers.

[104] After a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Texas v. Johnson), the American Legion launched and funded an unsuccessful campaign to win a constitutional amendment against harming the flag of the United States.

[111] On March 25, 2014, the Legion testified before Congress in favor of the bill "To amend title 38, United States Code, to reestablish the Professional Certification and Licensure Advisory Committee of the Department of Veterans Affairs (H.R.

The Legion said that "there is a definite need to resume this independent body with expertise in matters relating to licensing and credentialing which can present new solutions to VA's senior leadership and congressional members as well as other stakeholders.