Happy Birthday, C.E.S. Wood
Born in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1852, Wood graduated from West Point in 1874. Three years later, he was present at the surrender of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. It was Wood who translated, and perhaps embellished, Chief Joseph's famous speech:"My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." The two men became close friends.
In 1896, Wood, then a prominent corporate lawyer, was Oregon’s sole representative on the national committee of the National (Gold) Democratic Party. The party, which had the blessing of Grover Cleveland, championed defense of the gold standard and free trade.
Like many Cleveland Democrats, including his long time friend Mark Twain, Wood joined the American Anti-Imperialist League. The League called for the United States to grant immediate independence to the Philippines and other territories conquered in the Spanish-American war.
As a lawyer during the early twentieth century, Wood not only represented dissidents such as Emma Goldman but crossed the line into anarchism. He wrote articles for anarchist and other radical journals, such as Liberty, The Masses, and Mother Earth.
Until his death in 1944, Wood was unflagging in his opposition to state power as an advocate of such causes as civil liberties for anti-war protestors, birth control, and anti-imperialism. Writing in 1927, during high tide of the Coolidge Era, he lamented that "the city of George Washington is blossoming into quite a nice little seat of empire and centralized bureaucracy. The people have a passion to 'let Uncle Sam do it.' The federal courts are police courts. An entire system with an army of officials has risen on the income tax; another on prohibition. The freedom of the common man, more vital to progress than income or alcohol, has vanished.”