Most notably was its denunciation of Tom Brearley and its defense of Roger Kimball sinking the USS Ericsson. It was around this time that the Freedom Party acquired its main newspaper the Sentinel which followed the party line. In Congress, its members often came into political and even physical conflict with the Whigs, the traditional ruling party, and the Radical Liberals, the main opposition. In the 1919 Congressional election, the Freedom part won 11 seats (including Richmond) whilst the Redemption league won 4. The freedom party forged a political alliance with the Redemption League under its leader Willy Knight and agreed not to field candidates in the same district to avoid splitting the vote. It was not the only such organization in the postwar Confederate States: the Redemption League, the Red-Fighters, the Tennessee Volunteers, the Knights of the Gray, and others all had similar ideas, but the Freedom Party rose further and faster than any of its rivals (excluding the Tin Hats, a veterans' organization which did not contest political offices). Under Featherston's direction, the Freedom Party rose quickly to national prominence, electing several Representatives to the Confederate Congress in 1919. Featherston became the Party Chairman, and never forgot Koenig's loyalty. He was then voted out of his own organization by Party Secretary Ferdinand Koenig. He attempted to have a floor vote of confidence for his abilities, but he was defeated. Dresser worried that the Party was looking to Featherston as its leader rather than himself and his committee. Featherston drew in members by the score, and it was clear that the Party's future lay in his skills and talents. He quickly became the head of propaganda after he discovered he could speak better in public than any other member. While Jake Featherston had initially scorned Dresser and company as being too amateurish, he joined the Party as the seventh member in the second half of 1917. Its rather vague ideology, which was made Party policy after Jake Featherston took control, encompassed extreme Confederate nationalism and white supremacy, and hatred for blacks, socialists, the United States, and the Southern aristocracy that dominated the political and military establishments. ![]() The Freedom Party was founded by Anthony Dresser in Richmond, Virginia in 1917, immediately after the Great War. 5 Prominent Members of the Freedom Party.
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