Louis Freeland Post
Louis Freeland Post was a multifaceted American figure known for his roles as a journalist, author, government official, and social reformer. Born in northwestern New Jersey in the 19th century, Post's early career began as a clerk and printer before he pursued law, eventually becoming an assistant U.S. attorney. His experiences during the Reconstruction era in South Carolina shaped his views on social justice, particularly in relation to the challenges faced by African Americans and labor movements. Post was a strong advocate for the single-tax movement, inspired by the economic theories of Henry George, and he played a significant role in promoting Labor Day in the United States. Throughout his career, he remained committed to civil liberties, notably opposing government actions during the "Red Crusade," which targeted suspected radicals. Post's writings on democracy, economics, and social ethics reflect his enduring dedication to reform and advocacy for civil rights. He continued to write prolifically until his death in Washington, D.C., at the age of seventy-eight. His legacy includes a commitment to the ideals of social service and economic fairness, influencing discussions on rights and justice in American society.
Subject Terms
Louis Freeland Post
- Louis Freeland Post
- Born: November 15, 1849
- Died: January 10, 1928
Journalist, author, government official, and social reformer, was born on a farm in northwestern New Jersey, the first child of Eugene J. Post and Elizabeth (Freeland) Post. He was a descendant of Stephen Post, who emigrated to New England from England in 1633. Post attended country schools and a school in New York City, then left school at the age of fourteen for a clerkship in a New York pawnshop. He joined the Presbyterian church, but left it immediately after reading Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason. Post pursued a career in the newspaper business next, working as a printer for the Hackettstown Gazette in New Jersey and the Brooklyn Union, which he left in 1866. He entered the New York law office of Thomas, Glassey & Blake, and in 1870 was admitted to the bar.
Post was able to gain appointment as a clerk to David T. Corbin, U.S. attorney at Charleston, South Carolina, and a senator in the state’s Reconstruction legislature. He acquired experience of legal and social conditions in the South during Reconstruction and made stenographic reports of the trials of Ku Klux Klan members held in 1871. During his years of work in South Carolina he courted Anna Johnson, whom he had met while he was a printer’s apprentice in Hackettstown. They were married in July 1871.
Post returned to New York City and his law practice, then served for more than a year (1874-75) as assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district. Appalled by political abuses, he quit in disgust, formed the law partnership of Lockwood & Post, and in 1880 became an editorial writer for Truth, a penny paper. Post’s advocacy of the labor movement in this paper helped establish the first observance of Labor Day, in 1882.Post’s acquaintance with the writings and work of Henry George, the proponent of the single-tax idea, led to a friendship between the two men, and Post’s support of George’s proposals for reform of the economic system consumed much of the rest of his career. George argued that economic injustice was due to a system of taxation heavily weighted in favor of landowners and urged elimination of all taxes except that on property. When George ran for mayor of New York City in 1886 Post edited his campaign daily, the Leader. After George’s defeat, which occurred partly as a result of illegal elections practices by the opposition, Post edited the Standard, the weekly of the single-tax movement. Anna Post died in 1891, and in December 1893 Post married Alice Thacher, an editor of Swedenborgian papers.
From 1892 to 1897 Post lectured widely on the single tax, and in 1894 he published an account of George’s work entitled Post’s Outlines, which appeared in a fifth edition in 1915 as Taxation of Land Values. Post became an editorial writer on The Cleveland Recorder, and he and Alice Post established and edited a liberal journal, the Chicago Public. Appointed to the Chicago school board by a reform mayor, he stood for academic freedom and fiscal honesty. In 1908 and 1910 he made trips to Great Britain in support of economic reform. In 1913 he was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson assistant secretary of labor, and he served through two administrations, until 1921.
During the “Red Crusade” of the 1920s—a series of attacks on resident aliens allegedly harboring bolshevik principles and suspected of trying to overthrow the government—Post worked to oppose the Department of Justice’s arbitrary suspension of the aliens’ civil liberties. The Deportation Delirium of Nineteen Twenty (1923) is Post’s account of this affair—a vigorous defense of the freedoms of speech and assembly.
Post retired after completing his government service, but continued his habit of industrious writing. He died in Washington, D.C., at the age of seventy-eight. The Prophet of San Francisco: Personal Memories and Interpretations of Henry George was posthumously published in 1930.
Post’s wide experience of American society and his dedication to the cause of social reform made him an articulate and persuasive supporter of the civil and economic rights of Americans. In later life a Swedenborgian, he believed in and practiced the religion of social service from the beginning of his career.
Post’s writings, in addition to the works already mentioned, include The Ethics of Democracy (1903); Ethical Principles of Marriage and Divorce (1906); What Is the Single Tax? (1926); and The Basic Facts of Economics (1927). A brief but detailed sketch, including a bibliography, appears in the Dictionary of National Biography (1935).