Opór wobec poboru wojskowego w Stanach Zjednoczonych Ameryki podczas Wielkiej Wojny na podstawie wspomnień tzw. conscientious objectors .......... 203

RESISTANCE TO CONSCRIPTION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DURING THE GREAT WAR BASED ON MEMORIES OF THE SO-CALLED CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

The military structures formed after the declaration of the war on the German Reich by the United States of America did not receive the approval of certain social groups. They included representatives of Christian minorities, supporters of socialist, anarchist and pacifist views. The federal government had taken steps to take action against those who resisted. The aim of the article is to answer the question of what motives guided the so-called conscientious objectors and what their path looked like after the decision not to engage in military structures. Selected diary sources written by the objectors themselves will allow us to trace the individual motives and past that determined their approach to the involvement of their homeland in the war on the side of the Allies. This will allow us to map the character of individuals who represented views that were gaining popularity in American society at that time. The structure of the article first focuses on the analysis of the ethnic factor in politics towards the Allies and the Central Powers before and during the war. On the basis of immigration statistics to the United States, the impact of individual generations is presented: naturalized, first, and second generation. From the reform of the Monroe Doctrine at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, to the specific reasons why the United States of America declared war on the Second Reich and how it reacted on the so-called Homefront. In the background are the characteristics of the new associations formed during the reforms of the Progressive Era under Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. The legal bases on which the subsequent imposition of penalties by the military administration were enforced were also presented. The scheme of the initial conscription system, its chronology and the effects of each stage were also characterized. The essence of the article analyses excerpts from the biographies of Arthur Dunham – a pacifist and socialist, who belonged to the Presbyterian congregation before the war, Albert Voth – a Mennonite and pacifist, as well as Philip Grosser – anarchist, and (which may seem contradictory) a pacifist. The source database was analyzed against the background of the professed beliefs of the conscientious objectors, which are cited in quotes reflecting the nature of the ideas for which they were willing to be punished.