Today we highlight a document brand new to DocsTeach. We added this 1968 letter from an attorney condemning the conviction of the “Boston Five” just this morning!
Teachers at the National Archives at Boston who are participating in Primarily Teaching 2013 this week have been identifying primary source documents related to draft resistance during the Vietnam War.
The “Boston Five” were indicted on conspiracy to “counsel, aid, and abet diverse Selective Service registrants to unlawfully, knowingly and willfully neglect, fail, refuse and evade service in the armed forces.” They had been a part of rallies and protests at which men burned their draft cards in protest of the Vietnam War. Four of the five were convicted.
Edwin H. Hastings, a member of the bars of New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, wrote “I too have conspired and should be sentenced” in this letter to the U.S. Attorney in Boston.
You can find this and other documents related to draft resistance recently scanned at Primarily Teaching 2013 on DocsTeach.
You can read about this letter in “A Passionate Letter From a Lawyer in Support of Resistance to the Vietnam Draft,” on The Vault, Slate’s history blog.