ABSTRACT
The crusade against Negro slavery had dominated the activities of American liberals. Yet the voice of liberal protest was sorely needed in the years following Colonel Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. The panic of 1873 and the subsequent economic depression spurred liberals and reformers to intensified activity. Most liberals were unwilling to consider so radical a proposal. Wealth Against Commonwealth became a quarry and a source of inspiration for the succeeding generation of liberals, and thus became a milestone on the road to social reform. Conservative editors, preachers, and politicians began to confuse the issues and to vilify the aggressive liberals. Throughout the 1900’s Theodore Roosevelt, first as President and then as elder statesman, posed as the nation’s leading liberal. In a very real sense the New Deal brought to copious fruition the desires and dreams of generations of liberal Americans.
