John B. Trevor Sr.

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John B. Trevor during World War I

John Bond Trevor Sr. (1878–1956) was an American lawyer and influential lobbyist for immigration restrictions. A wealthy nativist, he was an architect of the Immigration Act of 1924, which banned Asian immigration and established quotas that stood for forty years until 1964.[1][2][3][4]

Biography[edit]

Early life and education[edit]

Trevor was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1878. His father, John Bond Trevor, was an early Wall Street stockbroker.[4] His ancestors included a New York City mayor and William Floyd, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.[5]

He attended Columbia Law School and received his law degree from Harvard in 1902.[6]

Activism, military, and Lusk Committee[edit]

Trevor was wealthy and became a prominent New York socialite.[5][6] He was involved in the eugenics movement, in the circle of Madison Grant, whose office was next door to his in New York City's Financial District.[7][6][8] Trevor was a member of the Eugenics Research Association, the American Eugenics Society, the Immigration Restriction League, and the American Defense Society. He was also in the Society of Colonial Wars and was a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History.[6]

Trevor served in the U.S. Army in World War I and was decorated as chevalier in the French Légion d’Honneur.[5] After the 1918 armistice, he was put in charge of the Army's Military Intelligence Division branch in New York as a captain.[9][5] In the Red Scare he directed spying operations on the city's immigrants, especially Jews.[9] He was discharged in 1919 and was named a deputy attorney general of the State of New York.[5] In 1920, he was associate counsel for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Sub-Committee, and counsel of the New York State Legislative Committee Investigating Subversive Activities (the Lusk Committee).[10][better source needed] The latter, whose work Trevor helped orchestrate, launched raids against suspected radicals, arresting 500 and deporting 246.[11][12][9] He was also a lobbyist for patriotic societies.[when?][6]

Immigration restrictions[edit]

Trevor is described as having been "one of the most influential unelected officials affiliated with the U.S. Congress" and "the most influential lobbyist for restriction" of immigration.[13][1][14] Trevor's influential "national origins" proposal for the Immigration Act of 1924 assigned restrictive quotas similar to what Trevor deemed as the previous composition of the American population.[7][11][15] The act, which was signed by President Calvin Coolidge and took full effect in 1929, banned Asian immigration and sharply cut levels of immigration previously allowed from Southern Europe and Eastern Europe.[16][11][3] After the law passed, Trevor worked to defend the quota system.[5] The quotas stood until 1964.[17]

In 1927 Trevor founded a group that became the American Coalition of Patriotic, Civic and Fraternal Societies, with a slogan of "Keep America American".[5][9] It was an umbrella group of more than 100 civic groups, including the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution.[18] Trevor and his coalition campaigned against admitting Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s into the United States.[6] Immigration advocate Louis Adamic described Trevor as the top American promoter of fascism and "America's alien-bater No. 1", and wrote caustically of Trevor in 1936 that "if a man's love for his country is measurable by his detestation of all who had the bad taste to be born elsewhere, there probably is no greater patriot in America to-day."[19][20] Trevor unsuccessfully opposed a 1943 law to welcome some Chinese (who were World War II allies) into the United States.[21] He was the coalition's president until 1950.[5]

Other causes[edit]

Trevor was an advisor to the Christian Crusade of Billy James Hargis.[22] A committee associated with Trevor called Ten Million Americans Mobilizing for Justice defended Senator Joseph McCarthy against censure by the Senate.[11]

Trevor was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, which awarded him a gold medal for Americanism in 1951.[5]

Trevor was a founding trustee of Paul Smith's College of Arts and Sciences and was a vice president there.[23][5] He was also at various times a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History,[24] a trustee of New York University,[5] and Commodore of the St. Regis Yacht Club (1938-1939).[25]

Personal life[edit]

He married Caroline Murray Wilmerding (one of the oldest friends of Eleanor Roosevelt[6]) on June 25, 1908.[26] They had two sons. His son John B. Trevor Jr. also was involved with the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies, was on the board of the Pioneer Fund, and was a trustee of the Trudeau Institute.[27][28][29][11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Nelkin D, Michaels M. Biological categories and border controls: the revival of eugenics in anti-immigration rhetoric. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Volume 18, Number 56, 1998, pp. 35-63(29)
  2. ^ Daniels, Roger (2001). Debating American immigration, 1882--present. Otis L. Graham. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0-8476-9409-7. OCLC 44794904.
  3. ^ a b "John Tanton's Private Papers Expose More Than 20 Years of Hate". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  4. ^ a b Yang, Jia Lynn (2020). One Mighty and Irresistible Tide : The epic struggle over American immigration, 1924-1965 (1 ed.). New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-393-63584-3. OCLC 1120099419.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "John Trevor dies; Urged Alien Law; Lawyer Helped Set Up the quota System, Assisted in Congressional Inquiries Got Legion of Honor". The New York Times. February 21, 1956. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Spiro, Jonathan Peter (2009). Defending the Master Race : conservation, eugenics, and the legacy of Madison Grant. Burlington, Vt.: University of Vermont Press. ISBN 978-1-58465-810-8. OCLC 667076920.
  7. ^ a b John Higham. American Immigration Policy in Historical Perspective. Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 21, No. 2, Immigration (Spring, 1956), pp. 213-235
  8. ^ Jaher, Frederic Cople (2002). Bendersky, Joseph W. (ed.). "Anti-Semitism in the American Army". Reviews in American History. 30 (1): 132–135. doi:10.1353/rah.2002.0014. ISSN 0048-7511. JSTOR 30031724. S2CID 145139583.
  9. ^ a b c d Bendersky, Joseph W. The "Jewish Threat". United States: Basic Books, 2008.
  10. ^ Browne, Rollin (1957). "A Vile Slander Laid to Rest", National Republic, March 1957
  11. ^ a b c d e Fischer, Nick (2016). Spider Web : The birth of American anticommunism. Urbana. ISBN 978-0-252-09822-2. OCLC 948297292.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ Schmidt, Regin (2000). Red Scare : FBI and the origins of anticommunism in the United States, 1919-1943. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen. ISBN 87-7289-581-0. OCLC 45037963.
  13. ^ Margo Conk. The Census, Political Power, and Social Change: The Significance of Population Growth in American History. Social Science History, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Winter, 1984), pp. 81-106
  14. ^ Tucker, William H. (2002). The funding of scientific racism : Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02762-0. OCLC 48691381.
  15. ^ Schrag, Peter (2010). Not Fit for Our society : Nativism and immigration. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25978-2. OCLC 449860431.
  16. ^ Friedman, Saul S. (2017). No Haven for the Oppressed : United States policy toward Jewish refugees, 1938-1945. Detroit. ISBN 978-0-8143-4374-6. OCLC 1202490821.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  17. ^ Trevor, John B. An Analysis of the American Immigration Act of 1924.
  18. ^ New Perspectives on the Transnational Right. Martin Durham, Margaret Power (1 ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2010. ISBN 978-0-230-11552-1. OCLC 696313777.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  19. ^ Enyeart, John P. (2019). Death to fascism : Louis Adamic's fight for democracy. [Urbana, Illinois]. ISBN 978-0-252-05135-7. OCLC 1107989619.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  20. ^ Louis Adamic, "Aliens and Alien-Baiters," Harper's Monthly Magazine vol. 173 (June/November, 1936), p. 566.
  21. ^ Daniels, Roger (2004). Guarding the Golden Door : American immigration policy and immigrants since 1882 (1 ed.). New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 0-8090-5343-8. OCLC 52001965.
  22. ^ "The FAIR Files: Attacks On Multiculturalism Will Help". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  23. ^ St Regian, January 1, 1948
  24. ^ Fifty-Fifth Annual Report of the Trustees of The American Museum of Natural History, page xvii, July 15, 1924 [1]
  25. ^ St. Regis Yacht Club Centennial 1897-1997, Carl B Ely Shedd (1997)
  26. ^ Staff report (June 26, 1908). J.B. TREVOR WEDS MISS WILMERDING; Countess of Strafford's Daughter and Miss Drayton the Bridesmaids. R.W. GOELET BEST MAN Willard Duncan Howe of Pittston, Penn., Leads Miss Pauline Howard of This City to the Altar. New York Times
  27. ^ "Ellen Armstrong, Accountant, Married". The New York Times. 1974-09-22. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  28. ^ The Trudeau Institute, HSL-wiki Trudeau Institute Archived 2011-03-20 at the Wayback Machine
  29. ^ Miller, Adam (1994). "The Pioneer Fund: Bankrolling the Professors of Hate". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (6): 58–61. doi:10.2307/2962466. ISSN 1077-3711. JSTOR 2962466.

External links[edit]

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