The sentiments of the commercial classes were voiced by Robert Lindblom, one of the most prominent members of the Board of Trade, who delivered a masterly address. In his peroration he said:
"We have come here to emphasize our rights as men, and as American citizens, and to protest against these rights being domineered by foreign influences and conspiracies. We have also come here for one other purpose, and that is to protest against any influences of church, nationality or societies being interposed between the great criminals guilty of the assassination of Dr. Cronin and even-handed justice, and to demand in the name of the civilization that this gory spot upon its robes shall be covered by the mantle of stern justice.
"We are not there to sit in judgment on the Irish people, but rather to ask them to sit in judgment on their petty leaders, and in impeaching these I do not reflect upon that great Irish leader, Parnell, than whom there are few purer characters in modern history. Is the fame of Ireland so great that it can afford to condone murder? Are the Irish servant girls to have no protection against those who play upon their sensibilities as a matter of business.
"When the history of this epoch is being written this bloody assassination will appall the historian. Shall he write that Ireland's sons and daughters were so jealous of their honor that they hurled the traitor to it from his false position, or shall he write that Irish prejudices were so strong that even gory blood did not look bloody red?"
Several other addresses were made. C. G. Dixon, a prominent labor leader, spoke for the working classes, Dr. G. Frank Lydston for the medical profession, Louis Nettelhorst, a member of the Board of Education, for the youth of the city, and Frank Adams, Member of Congress, touched upon the crime in its national aspect. The singing society rendered Frech's exquisite song, "Suess und Ruhig ist der Schlummer," and an original poem, entitled, "Cronin, the Martyr," was read by H. E. Bartholomew. After this the resolutions prepared by the Personal Rights League were presented. They read in this wise:
We, as citizens of the United States, residents of the cosmopolitan city of Chicago, in mass meeting assembled to do honor to the memory of a fellow-citizen, Dr. P. H. Cronin, who, because he advocated that which seemed right to him, we believe to have been the victim of a conspiracy concocted for basest purposes, and appalled by the monstrous cruelty of his murder, we declare:
1. That from the facts so far made public, it seems the assassination of Dr. P. H. Cronin was instigated by most foul and criminal malice.
2. Every citizen has a right to life, liberty and property guaranteed by the laws of the land, and it is utterly foreign to the spirit of our people, as well as to the laws, that any man be deprived of either except by due process of law.
3. That we hold no nationality or organization responsible for the crime nor for the causes which led to it.
4. That we honor and respect love for native land, but condemn perversion of that noble sentiment to personal ends.