Overview: Throughout Theme: Approaches to History, you have been guided through beginning your Project 1: Writing Plan assignment, which you will continue to work on in Theme 2 and formally submit for

Jane Doe

HIS 200: Applied History

Southern New Hampshire University

April 10, 2016

Preliminary Writing Plan

For my historical event analysis, I have chosen to focus on Congressman John F. Fitzgerald of Boston, the son of Irish immigrants, and his opposition to an 1897 immigration bill which would have barred illiterate foreigners from entering the United States. According to contemporary observers, Fitzgerald's opposition helped convince President Cleveland to veto the bill in one of his final official acts as President.

In examining Fitzgerald's opposition to the immigration reform bill, I will try to recreate the political calculations that drove Fitzgerald to champion the idea of open immigration. Specifically, I will try to answer the following research question: How did John Fitzgerald's political ambitions, and the interests of the Democratic Party in Massachusetts, affect his position on the 1897 immigration reform bill?

Why was this issue so important to Fitzgerald, who would go on to become mayor of Boston and a major figure in Massachusetts politics? Was he simply trying to make a political name for himself? How much of a factor was Fitzgerald's personal distaste for Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Sr., the Republican sponsor of the immigration bill?

Search terms that I have used in my research so far include: FITZGERALD, John F.; LODGE, Henry Cabot; Emigration and immigration law; Massachusetts politics; 1897 immigration bill; and LODGE, Henry Cabot and CLEVELAND, Grover AND Immigration.

My analysis needs to take into account how this issue played out, both for Fitzgerald and for the nation, in the ensuing years. One valuable secondary source, then, is "Honey Fitz" Three Steps to the White House: the Colorful Life & Times of John F. ("Honey Fitz") Fitzgerald, by John Henry Cutler (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs Merrill, 1962). This book, the only full-length biography of Fitzgerald, traces Fitzgerald's political career and contains several revealing anecdotes about Fitzgerald's contentious relationship with Senator Lodge.

Another extremely valuable secondary source is The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga, by Doris Kearns Goodwin (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987). This book, the definitive history of the Fitzgerald family, places Fitzgerald's career in broad historical context and relates his efforts to the development of the Irish-controlled Massachusetts Democratic Party.