In the same manner he went through the evidence proving the guilt of Schwab, Fielden and Neebe.
“Was Engel in the conspiracy? He proposed the plan at both meetings. He said to Captain Schaack, at the Chicago Avenue Station, that ‘what was in him had to come out,’ and he called it the dangerous power of internal eloquence. He planned the conspiracy of the Emma Street meeting, and has been an Anarchist for years, and instructor in the use of weapons, and adviser in the making of bombs. He not only was that, but he absolutely and unqualifiedly advised the Socialists to buy weapons for the express purpose of killing the police, maiming them, and then with all the cunning of a conspirator who has placed his neck within the noose, on the morning of the 4th of May he finds this infernal machine and takes it to the Chief of Police, and then comes the exhibition between Captain Bonfield and the leading counsel for the defense on that proposition. The counsel says: ‘He brought it to you freely,’ and he emphasized it, and then the tinner came, and the counsel says: ‘What is there about this piece of iron that makes you identify it? You only made that sheet; is that all? You just cut a piece of iron off for Mr. Engel.’ The witness says: ‘Please look at the mark on the inside; that is my mark.’ Was Engel in the conspiracy?
“Was Fischer, the lieutenant of Spies, in the conspiracy? Was Fischer, the messenger of Spies to the meeting at 54 West Lake Street, in the conspiracy? He was at the office on Monday afternoon between five and six o’clock, when the ‘Revenge’ circular was printed, and from there he went to 54 West Lake Street. Was he in the conspiracy—the man with the revolver nearly two feet long, and with the file dagger with grooves? What does that mean? Why, prussic acid evaporates; it dries off the instrument. ‘Use something with grooves.’ And the revolutionists must use files that are ground down, in order to have an instrument that is capable of holding poison. If you remember, there was another file dagger found in the office of the Arbeiter-Zeitung besides this one. Verdigris, which anyone can easily produce by dipping copper or brass into vinegar, and exposing it to the atmosphere, may also be mixed with gum arabic and applied to weapons, but the weapons ought to be grooved, so that the poison will remain on easier and in larger quantities. That is the explanation of the file dagger and the revolver. Was Fischer in the conspiracy, with the Lehr und Wehr Verein belt strapped upon his person, and traveling in the streets of the city of Chicago with an armament worse than any Western outlaw—because no outlaw ever carried on his person a dagger grooved, the slightest scratch of which meant death. It was conceived by nobody except the mind of the revolutionist and lieutenant of Spies.
“Was Lingg in the conspiracy? He made the very bomb that was used on that night, and it was used on that night in furtherance of the common design. Do you remember the analysis of that bomb? Do you remember the nuts used to fasten the half-globes together, identical with the one found in the wounded man upon the night of May 4? Do you remember Neff’s testimony and Seliger’s testimony—that after the bomb had been thrown, and Lingg was at 58 Clybourn Avenue, some one accused him and said: ‘You are responsible for all this—see what you have done’? Hubner said: ‘You are responsible for all this.’ This does not come from the lips of any indicted man, but from the lips of Mr. Neff, the proprietor at the place 58 Clybourn Avenue. Then Louis Lingg goes home and complains because he has been upbraided for his good work in this case, and then he flees, changes his appearance—and he is the only living man that changes his appearance in this case except the bomb-thrower. They are the two who shaved and cut their hair—Louis Lingg and Rudolph Schnaubelt. Was Lingg in the conspiracy? He was not only in the conspiracy, but he did everything in the world to carry out his part of it that night. ‘Lehman, you come to 58 Clybourn Avenue to-night, and you will find out what the meeting in the basement at 54 meant.’ And Lehman came, and on the next day he was at Lingg’s house, and bomb after bomb was distributed from that place before night. Where was Lingg in the morning, between eight and one? Looking after the revolution in the central part of the city. Men coming and going all day after bombs and with bombs—as Mrs. Seliger says—all day long, taking them away from that place.
“‘Seliger, make haste!’ ‘Hubner, make haste!’ ‘Muntzenberg, make haste!’ ‘Put the cloth over your heads so that you can’t get headache. Make haste. These bombs must be done so as to be used to-night!’ What a nice thing it would be, as he and Seliger stood at the corner of North Avenue and Larrabee Street, to throw a bomb in that station, Lingg says. Then it is 10:30, and the telephone has called for assistance from the North Avenue Station, and the patrol wagon goes out, and there stand Lingg and Seliger with bombs, and Lingg says, ‘Seliger, give me a light; they are going to the assistance of the others. It has happened; the revolution has come. Give me a light’—and here I am reminded that when a man throws a bomb in furtherance of the social revolution they do it by twos; one furnishes the light and the other throws the bomb. And this shows that it was not a solitary and single instance that occurred in the alley south of Crane’s when a match was lighted and Schnaubelt threw the bomb. The same thing was duplicated by Lingg and Seliger when Seliger was to furnish the light and Lingg throw the bomb. It was only because Seliger hesitated that those men were not killed by Lingg at North Avenue. Was Lingg in this conspiracy then? Why, he fled the next day, and he is the man who had the courage to give up all hope. You see, Lingg is a practical annihilator. He don’t believe in preaching; he believes in acting, and not only believes in it, but he will do it at any time. He saw Schuettler come into the room and jumped upon him the moment he passed the door, with one of those large revolvers. And then you will remember the fight and struggle there. Most’s book says when there is a possibility to annihilate an opposing party, or where it becomes a question of life and death, that death or resistance, or both, are advisable.
“That is the advice that Lingg acted on and that Spies acted on, but: ‘If you are sure that the arrest is made only on vague suspicion, then submit to the inevitable. It is easier in such case to extract yourself again. Prove an alibi.’ Was Lingg in this conspiracy? Was it a Lingg bomb? Hubner, Neff and Seliger swear that Hubner said to Lingg, ‘You are responsible for this, Louis Lingg,’ and they had a dispute and a violent discussion when it was discovered there. After he tries to throw the bomb at the station he goes home and he sees ‘Ruhe,’ and he is almost crazy, and he wants to go to the Haymarket, and he goes back to 58 Clybourn Avenue and finds that it is over and that the revolution is not accomplished; and then he gets angry because he is upraided as the one to blame for the whole thing. ‘You have done this,’ Hubner tells him. Hubner was there all day and helped to make bombs, and Muntzenberg and the Lehmans were in and out all day. Was it Louis Lingg’s bomb?”
Mr. Walker then made a close examination of the evidence in rebuttal, and closed his magnificent address with a high tribute to the valor of the police and their services to law and order.