Bomb Explosion, U.S. Capitol

A few minutes before midnight on Friday, July 2, three sticks of dynamite exploded in the Senate reception room of the Capitol. Eric Muenter, a former German instructor at Harvard and Cornell, admitted to planting the explosives in order to draw attention to American sale of weapons and munitions to the Allied Powers. In a letter posted to local newspapers just prior to setting the bomb he wrote, "We stand for peace and good will to all men, and yet, while our European brethren are madly setting out to kill one another we edge them on and furnish them more effective means of murder. Is it right?”

The next day, Muenter forced his way into the Long Island home of J. P. Morgan and managed to wound the millionaire industrialist. Muenter believed that Morgan could prevent further shipments of arms and ammunition.

In covering the event, newspaper writers described Muenter as a "crank" and "fanatic," yet the incident illustrates the passions inflamed by the War long before America's direct military involvement.