The Montreal Spy Ring of 1898 and the Origins of "Domestic" Surveillance in the United States

Abstract

The Watergate affair has reminded Americans of the abuses that can occur when surveillance is instituted in the name of national security. The affair induces the suspicion that national security is too often and too lightly invoked in justification of normally unacceptable acts of intrusion. Con- tinuous, central surveillance was, however, begun by the United States during the Spanish-American War of 1898, when the Treasury Depart- ment's Secret Service organized an "emergency force" for counter-intelli- gence work. This special force was expected to guard the United States against enemy espionage, and to keep a watch on Spanish sympathizers internally. Ironically and prophetically, however, the special force's one notable success came on Canadian soil, when its agents discovered and dislocated Spanish espionage activities centred in Montreal.1 The success of the special force in splintering the Montreal spy ring blinded most Americans to the high-handed nature of its actions. Its agents were directly responsible for the detention of men without trial, for burglary, for interference with private correspondence, and for leaking to privileged politicians information calculated to injure their enemies. The Spanish- American War supplied visible proof of America's emergence as a world power. At the same time, it created more than one moral dilemma.