During the First World War , there was a nationwide campaign in the United States against the real and imagined divided political loyalties of immigrants and ethnic groups , who were feared to have too much loyalty for their nations of origin . Particular targets were Germans , with sympathies for their homeland , and Irish , whose countrymen were in revolt against America 's ally , the United Kingdom . In 1915 , President Wilson warned against hyphenated Americans who , he charged , had " poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life . " " Such creatures of passion , disloyalty and anarchy " , Wilson continued " must be crushed out " . The Russian Revolutions of 1917 added special force to fear of labor agitators and partisans of ideologies like anarchism and communism . The general strike in Seattle in February 1919 represented a new development in labor unrest . The fears of Wilson and other government officials were confirmed when Galleanists — Italian followers of the anarchist Luigi Galleani — carried out a series of bombings in April and June 1919 . At the end of April , some 30 Galleanist letter bombs had been mailed to a host of individuals , mostly prominent government officials and businessmen , but also law enforcement officials . Only a few reached their targets , and not all exploded when opened . Some people suffered injuries , including a housekeeper in Senator Thomas W. Hardwick 's residence , who had her hands blown off . On June 2 , 1919 , the second wave of bombings occurred , when several much larger package bombs were detonated by Galleanists in eight American cities , including one that damaged the home of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer in Washington , D.C . At least one person was killed in this second attack , night watchman William Boehner , and fears were raised because it occurred in the capital . Flyers declaring war on capitalists in the name of anarchist principles accompanied each bomb
bombings in April and June 1919
1919 United States anarchist bombings
Palmer Raids