States Department of War for a list of soldiers serving in the Philippines so that he might send them his privately published pamphlets. Failing to receive a reply, Atkinson announced to the press that he was sending copies to Generals Lawton, Miller, and Otis, Admiral Dewey, correspondent J. F. Bass, and to Jacob Shurman and Dean Worcestrer on the Philippine Commission. On February 17, 1899, Edward Atkinson sent three pamphlets to test the right of citizens of the United States to the free use of the mail: "The Cost of a National Crime," detailing the American military oppression of the Filipinos and the spiraling cost of the war to American taxpayers. "The Hell of War and Its Penalties" "Criminal Aggression: By Whom Committed?" United States Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith ordered that the pamphlets be seized in San Francisco, declaring them "seditious". The United States Attorney General hinted that he would charge Atkinson with treason and sedition, but decided against it, as officials feared that charging him would only make the 72-year-old a martyr. The US pro-expansion press called Atkinson a "latter-day copperhead". Atkinson seemed to enjoy the infamy, and he effusively and sarcastically thanked the Administration for calling national attention to his essays and increasing their demand in every state in the union. Death and legacy Edward Atkinson died on December 11, 1905. He was 78 years old at the time of his death. Atkinson's papers are housed at the Massachusetts Historical Society and include 32 cartons and six bound volumes of material. Works For nearly four decades, Atkinson was actively engaged in the distribution of brochures of which he was the author on banking, competition, cotton manufacture, economic legislation, fire prevention, industrial education, the money question, and the tariff. In addition to his 1899 series of pamphlets, broadcast over the United States, which he entitled "The Anti-Imperialist:" Cheap Cotton by Free Labor (Boston, 1861) The Distribution of Products (New York, 1885) Margin of Profits (1887) Industrial Progress of the Nation (1889) Taxation and Work: A Series of Treatises on the Tariff and the Currency (New York 1892) Footnotes Further reading Robert L. Beisner, Twelve Against Empire: The Anti-Imperialists, 1898–1900. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Harold Francis Williamson, Edward Atkinson: The Biography of an American Liberal, 1827–1905. Boston: Old Corner Book Store, 1934. —Reprinted by the Arno Press, 1972. External links Biography and Bibliography of Edward Atkinson: "Liberty and Anti-Imperialism"