The Case of the Anti-American "Peace Party"

The Case of the Anti-American "Peace Party" was a trial which occured between March 26, 1925 and April 2, 1925 which charged prominent members of the Peace Party, which ran Bennett Shaw and Victoria Goodale for President and Vice President in the 1924 elections on an anti-war platform, on charges of treason and espionage. Aside from Shaw (or more accurately, a double of Shaw) and Goodale, seven other people were tried in the Case of the Anti-American "Peace Party" trial as well.

## Background

The Peace Party was formed in 1924 after the start of the Second American Civil War where the United American State broke away from the Union under the leadership of Fionnthan Ulfsson, who was proclaimed the "Pater" of the United American State under the National American Worker's Party. The Peace Party ran on an anti-war platform with Staff Sergeant Bennett Shaw as the Presidential candidate and the controversial Congresswoman Victoria Goodale as their candidate for Vice President. While the major political parties had all endorsed the "National Union" ticket of Jack Long and Montgomery Corwin, two seperate draft efforts ran candidates for President, Cedric K. Arthur and William Robinson. Loyalist members of the True Conservative Party also ran South Carolina Governor William Hyanes-Andrews (who had narrowly escaped the AmNat lynch mobs when the AmNats took over South Carolina) for President under the "American Conservative" banner. While many expected the National Union ticket to cruise easily to victory, gaffes by President Jack Long where he condemned Robinson and Arthur as "UAS agents" for allowing draft efforts to proceed along with a token campaign by Senator William Robinson led to the election going to a second round between President Jack Long and Cedric K. Arthur. At this moment, Bennett Shaw executed a scheme to cause chaos in the elections by endorsing President Jack Long over Arthur due to Arthur's ties to the "Natural Fundamentalists". This led to a major backlash with Long seen as a UAS agent as well. In addition, the UAS leadership carried out large-scale terrorist attacks against the voting booths on election day as well. On election day, Cedric K. Arthur won the election by less than 1,000 votes, making him the 37th President of the United States, now a nation at war. It wasn't long before the retribution against the Peace Party began. On December 2, 1924, the government officially outlawed the Peace Party and arrested it's leaders, but unbenownst to them, Shaw had escaped and the one they arrested was a body double.

## Charges

The nine defendants in the Case of the Anti-American "Peace Party" were the prominent members of it's leadership:

1. Bennett Shaw-Presidential Candidate and Head of the Peace Party
2. Victoria Goodale-Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peace Party and Congresswoman for New York's 12th District
3. Ben Salmon-Prominent Christian Pacifist and deputy head of the Peace Party
4. Layton Morris-Head of Shaw's campaign
5. Julia Palmer-Victoria Goodale's secretary
6. Reese Burton-Pacifist Intellectual
7. Hugo Key-Candidate the Peace Party put for California's Senate Seat
8. Fabian Wiener-Victoria Goodale's closest adviser
9. Samuel Cunningham-Lawyer with pacifist leanings who supported the Peace Party

The nine were charged with being part of a "UAS spy ring" that used the Peace Party as a front for spying on the USA. Meant to totally discredit the Peace Party, it alleged the Peace Party's leadership was now guilty of the following:

* Plotting to assassinate President Cedric K. Arthur, Vice President Elijah Coleman, Secretary of State William Robinson, Attorney General Darren Wilson, Governors Audrey Wilson, Paul Elliot, and Clark Forsyth, Secretary of War Karlimir Vladikarl Marxin Lenimarx, Senator Francis "Frank" Charles Townsend, Ambassador to the League of Nations Porter Frinton-Smith (and his daughter Rosa Frinton-Smith), Secretary of Commerce William Hyanes-Andrews, Armaments Secretary Katherine Leighton, Treasury Secretary Al Smith, Environment Secretary Sophia Andrews, Secretary of the Navy Chester Nimitz, Secretary of Propaganda William Randolph Hearst, General David Wilson, and Former Presidents Montgomery Corwin, William Elliot, and Jack Long
* Spying for the intelligence agencies of the Kingdom of Italy and the Republic of France, both under Fascist governments with Goodale sailing to Rome to make agreements with Benito Mussolini and Jean-Claude Geymere regarding espionage for said governments
* Aiding terrorist attacks on voting booths during the 1924 elections
* Planning to hand over the United States of America to Fionnthan Ulfsson, Pater of the United American State in a secret meeting in Charleston
* Sabotaging the war economy (via encouraging workers to strike, blowing up factories in ways which made it look like accidents, sabotaging mines, derailing trains, burning crops, placing nails and glass in butter, poisoning pigs, destroying chicken eggs, and killing cattle) and the armed forces (by encouraging soldiers to desert or mutiny)
* Making secret agreements with the Mexican and Japanese governments via a "Swiss intermediary", promising to hand over Southern California to Mexico and the Philippine Islands to Japan

In addition, Victoria Goodale, Fabian Wiener, and Julia Palmer were charged with the following in addition to the charges the entire Peace Party leadership was charged with:

* Secretly adhering to the illegal cult known as Natural Fundamentalism
* Helping Kenneth Jay Adams with rigging the 1916 Presidential Elections to favor the American Restoration Party
* Helping Fundamentalists burn down New York City and kill Meyer London, James Hayes, and Woodrow Wilson
* Taking part in the plotting of Bloody 20th and giving the Fundamentalist terrorists who carried out the attack intelligence regarding the targetted locations and personalities
* Accepting funding from "wealthy fundamentalists" during Goodale's failed bid to run as Governor of New York in 1918
* Helping assassinate Michael Leighton in 1921 by providing the sole Fundamentalist who gunned him down with funding and weapons

## Trial and Verdict

While the trial was initially scheduled for January 1925, the trial was delayed until March 26, 1925 for the new President to be inaguated and set up his cabinet. Victoria Goodale was the most prominent defendant and refused to admit her guilt for the charges that the special military tribunal had prepared for her, denouncing it as a "politically motivated show trial" and at one point, pointing out that President Arthur himself was the running mate of Kenneth Jay Adams. Goodale also declared that the trial was technically unconstitutional as only Shaw was a soldier and civilians cannot be tried by a military court, to which the prosecution replied that the nation was under a state of martial law at the time and that they were being tried for treason. The trial lasted for 5 days but on April 1, 1925, the court made a decision that all nine were found guilty of all charges and sentenced to death via hanging via piano wire, which was carried out the next day in public.

## Reaction to the trial

Most Americans had a positive reaction to the trial and the execution, seeing it as a way to "remove the AmNat sympathizing traitors from the Union" but some are shocked by the executions and even many of those who supported the trials were horrified at the brutal executions of the nine people. Amongst Unionist politicians, private reactions to the trials were mixed with some supporting it and others calling it a "travesty of justice". In addition, foreign observers sympathetic to the Union's cause found it hard to stomach the absurdity of the charges that were being given out against the leadership of the Peace Party as well.