The World's Columbian Exposition took place at Chicago in the year 1893. During one of my visits to it I had the pleasure of dining with Mr. and Mrs. Trumbull at their home on Lake Avenue. The only other guest was William J. Bryan, whom I had not met before. The leading issue in politics then was the free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. Mr. Bryan was an enthusiastic free-silver man and a firm believer in the early triumph of that doctrine. Trumbull was inclined to the same belief, although less confident of its success. We had an animated but friendly discussion of that question. President Cleveland had just called a special session of Congress to repeal the Silver Purchasing Act then in force, which was not a free-coinage law. I ventured to predict to my table companions that the purchasing law would be repealed and that no free-coinage law would be enacted in place of it, either then or later. None of us imagined that three years from that time Mr. Bryan himself would be the nominee of the Democratic party for President of the United States, on that issue. Trumbull's geniality and cordiality at this meeting were a joy to his guests. Our conversation, ranging over a period of nearly forty years, filled two delightful hours. He was then eighty years of age, but in vigor of mind and body I did not notice any change in him. We parted, not knowing that we should not meet again.
Aet. 80
Trumbull's next appearance on the public stage was in the case of Eugene V. Debs, who is still with us as a perpetual candidate of the Socialistic party for President. In 1894 he was president of an organization of railway employees known as the American Railway Union. In the month of May a dispute arose between the Pullman Palace Car Company and its employees in reference to the rate of wages, which resulted in a strike. Debs and his fellow officers of the Railway Union, for the purpose of compelling the Pullman Company to yield to the demands of their employees, issued an order to the railway companies that they should cease hauling Pullman cars, and, if they should not so cease, that the trainmen, switchmen, and others working on the railways aforesaid should strike also. As a consequence of this order twenty-two railroads were "tied up." All passengers trains composed in part of Pullman cars were brought to a standstill. Riots broke out in the streets of Chicago. An injunction was issued against Debs by Judge Woods, of the United States Circuit Court. Governor Altgelt, of Illinois, was called upon to restore order in the city, but before he did so President Cleveland, having been officially informed that the movement of the mails was obstructed by violence in the streets of Chicago, ordered a small body of troops to that city to break the blockade. This they accomplished without delay and without bloodshed. In the mean time Debs and his associates were put under arrest for violating the injunction of the court. Debs employed Mr. Clarence Darrow as his attorney, and Darrow applied for a writ of habeas corpus, which was refused. Darrow appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States and engaged Lyman Trumbull and S. S. Gregory as associate counsel. The appeal was argued by Trumbull at the October Term in Washington City. Trumbull had volunteered his service and refused a fee, accepting only his traveling expenses. The court rejected the petition for a writ of habeas corpus and affirmed the jurisdiction of the circuit court.
Both President Cleveland and the court were sustained by public opinion in this disposition of Debs. On the 6th of October, a large meeting was held at Central Music Hall in Chicago to consider the recent exciting events. It was addressed by Trumbull and Henry D. Lloyd. Trumbull's speech was published in the newspapers and in pamphlet form as a Populist campaign document. It was extremely effective from the Populist point of view, and was not, on the whole, more radical than the so-called Progressive platform of the present day. While expressing decided opinions on the subject of "judicial usurpation" (referring to the Debs case without mentioning it), he exhorted his hearers to seek a remedy by the action of Congress. "It is to be hoped," he said, "that Congress when it meets will put some check upon federal judges in assuming control of railroads and issuing blanket injunctions and punishing people for contempt of their assumed authority. If Congress does not do it, I trust the people will see to it that representatives are chosen hereafter who will." The recall of judges, as a remedy for unpopular decisions, had not yet been discovered.
The testimony of persons who were present at this meeting is that Trumbull showed no abatement of his powers as a speaker, and that the audience "went wild with enthusiasm."
In the month of December following, the leaders of the People's party in Chicago, ten in number, requested Trumbull to prepare a declaration of principles to be presented by them for consideration at a national conference of their party to meet at St. Louis on the 28th. This paper was drawn up and delivered to them in his own handwriting a few days before the meeting and was published in the Chicago Times of December 27, in the following words:
1. Resolved, That human brotherhood and equality of rights are cardinal principles of true democracy.
2. Resolved, That, forgetting all past political differences, we unite in the common purpose to rescue the Government from the control of monopolists and concentrated wealth, to limit their powers of perpetuation by curtailing their privileges, and to secure the rights of free speech, a free press, free labor, and trial by jury—all rules, regulations, and judicial dicta in derogation of either of which are arbitrary, unconstitutional, and not to be tolerated by a free people.
3. We endorse the resolution adopted by the National Republican Convention of 1860, which was incorporated by President Lincoln in his inaugural address, as follows: "That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially of the right of each state to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the endurance of our political fabric depends, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes."
4. Resolved, That the power given Congress by the Constitution to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, to suppress insurrections, to repel invasions, does not warrant the Government in making use of a standing army in aiding monopolies in the oppression of their employees. When freemen unsheathe the sword it should be to strike for liberty, not for despotism, or to uphold privileged monopolies in the oppression of the poor.
5. Resolved, That to check the rapid absorption of the wealth of the country and its perpetuation in a few hands we demand the enactment of laws limiting the amount of property to be acquired by devise or inheritance.
6. Resolved, That we denounce the issue of interest-bearing bonds by the Government in times of peace, to be paid for, in part at least, by gold drawn from the Treasury, which results in the Government's paying interest on its own money.
7. Resolved, That we demand that Congress perform the constitutional duty to coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin by the enactment of laws for the free coinage of silver with that of gold at the ratio of 16 to 1.
8. Resolved, That monopolies affecting the public interest should be owned and operated by the Government in the interest of the people; all employees of the same to be governed by civil service rules, and no one to be employed or displaced on account of politics.
9. Resolved, That we inscribe on our banner, "Down with monopolies and millionaire control! Up with the rights of man and the masses!" And under this banner we march to the polls and to victory.