The Court—“If he had had prior knowledge of the participation in the Haymarket meeting the question would be quite different, but if there is a general advice to commit murder, and the time and occasion not being forseenforeseen, the adviser is guilty if the murder is committed. Whether he did participate, concurred, assented, or encouraged the publication of the Arbeiter Zeitung is a question for this jury upon the testimony that he was frequently there, and that so soon as Schwab and Spies were away he took charge. Everything in which his name has been mentioned must be taken together, and then what the proper inference is, is for the jury to say.”
Capt. Black—“Does your Honor overrule the motion?”—The Court—“I overrule the motion.”
Counsel for Defendants.
Capt. Black—“We except, if your Honor pleases. We desire also to make a like motion, without arguing it, in behalf of all the defendants except Spies and Fischer.”—Motion overruled.
Mr. Salomon then began the opening argument for the defense. There were two leading points in his argument:
1. There connotcannot be accessories without a principal. The state must prove that somebody was a principal in committing murder before it can convict others as accessories.
2. The defendants did not throw the bomb: therefore they are not guilty.
“True, the defendants made bombs; true, they intended to use dynamite. What if they did?” asks Mr. Salomon. “They were preparing for a revolution by force of arms and by means of dynamite—but what has that to do with the case? Did they kill Matthias J. Degan, for which act they were specifically indicted? That is the question.”