It makes the land as ocean free,
And plants an empire on the sea—
Always the banner of the free,
The starry flower of liberty.
“That is the flag that these men want to wipe out and supplant with the black and the red. No wonder those flags over there (indicating flags offered in evidence) disturbed Foster. He is an American citizen, not tinctured or tainted with any of the Anarchy of his clients.
“There is one other suggestion I want to make to you in this connection. I wish to hurry along and be as brief as possible. As has been said to you by counsel, the case in its magnitude and scope is so great that no one man can cover it. Some branches of this case, and nearly all, have been well covered by Mr. Walker and Mr. Ingham, who preceded me. But there is one forcible suggestion brought to my attention by Mr. Ingham, and I wish to again ask: Why all these threats? Why all this talk? Why so many threats of murder, outside of the question of the desire to accomplish that end? Ah! gentlemen, it is so that the revolution could more easily take place by causing terror in your hearts and my heart. That is what it meant: causing terror in the heart of every American citizen, and thereby making more easy the accomplishment of that which they desire and preach. Why all these armed groups, scattered throughout and operating in the city of Chicago, as they all say, as Most explains in his book, as Spies explains and as Parsons and all in their speeches explain? Why this network of groups? It was the nucleus, the foundation from which that social revolution was to spring, and these armed men were to do their part of the duty. There was a desire to strike terror—that is the watchword—to strike terror to the hearts of the capitalists and their minions, the bloodhounds of the police. That is what it meant. Threaten life—specific in one direction—and threaten the peaceful citizens and the law-abiding citizens on the other hand, so that they would throw up both hands at once, and let it go on. That was their scheme. Why? Because these men, in their craven spirit, supposed that one hundred thousand honest laboring men in this town would at once wheel in behind the ranks of the three thousand and mow down everybody else. Lingg, who told Capt. Schaack of all the bombs, not admitting that he had made the bomb that killed Degan, admitted and told Schaack that they were pills and medicine for the police and capitalists.
“They were not the friends of the laboring man, although they were always talking about that in public—such wonderful friends of the laboring man! Gentlemen, they wanted to kill the system. They said they wanted to kill the system, and on the witness-stand here they said that on that night of the Haymarket massacre they meant the system. What system? The system of law. They have no malice in their hearts against the seven officers—Oh! no. They did not know them. It was not the seven officers, as persons, they desired to kill; but they desired to kill the officers, and all of them, in order to kill the system—the system of law.
“Besides the frequent declarations that have been proven here as to the designs of these men foolishly and dishonestly to represent themselves as the friends of the laboring man, they have said in their writings, and they have preached on the stump, that the eight-hour movement, as a movement, would not help the laboring man. And why? Because the laboring man must have Anarchy—must have what other people have got in the way of property, as they have defined in their ideas of property. Black calls that a theory.
“Declarations threatening dynamite were made in our midst for the purpose of terrorizing the people, and causing them to believe that these men were more powerful than they were, and thereby causing the laboring man to come to their ranks. It was a bid for the laboring man—that is what it was, and that is why Wilkinson’s interview was so easily obtained. Wilkinson interviewed these men, and published in the Daily News] of the 14th day of January, 1886, his interview with Spies as to the purposes and objects of the revolutionists and Anarchists in the city of Chicago. What did he say? He told about the bombs, the dynamite, their preparation, their network of groups, their thousands of armed men in the city of Chicago, their drilling from day to day or week to week. He gave him a sample of a bomb, and told him further that the Arbeiter-Zeitung office was a place for the distribution of bombs in the city of Chicago, and upon his own testimony it appears that he received bombs, as Mr. Ingham has explained to you, from one part of the country; and then samples were brought in—two more, of which the one here presented and called the Czar bomb was one.
“And now, why did he do all that? Why did this foolish man do that? They want you to acquit him because he is foolish. Why did this foolish man do all that? Gentlemen, the answer is plain and simple. First, vanity—the second Washington of this country! God save the memory of the father of our country.
“Another thing, he wanted to demonstrate through the public press to the one hundred thousand honest laborers in Chicago that Anarchy had come. That is what he wanted. That is why it was advertised. That is why he so flippantly discussed open secrets in that way. He wanted the laboring man to follow in the wake of the despoilers of our country, the Anarchists. Yes, and fearing that such talk in the newspapers would scare some of his conspirators and co-workers in evil, he goes to Fielden when they were having a meeting at Greif’s Hall a day or two after, and says to him, ‘Go light on that interview among our companions; they may be scared off.’ He was obliged to hedge among his companions to keep them in control, and by his vaporings, as they call it, seek to pull to them the one hundred thousand laborers in this town. If there had been a possibility of the accomplishment of his designs, what would we have done in this city with one hundred thousand men let loose? Parsons says he was a Knight of Labor. His very paper abuses Powderly, the genius and inspiration of the Knights of Labor in this country. Their honest leaders in this country are men who are opposed to Anarchy, and in the organization of the Knights of Labor, gentlemen, the one element in it to-day which is dangerous to it and the rights of the laboring man is the very element of Anarchy—dangerous wherever it is.
“Parsons was buying arms, negotiating for them; Engel was negotiating for them; Lingg was making bombs; Fischer was doing the work of Spies in the promulgation of their ideas; Fielden was making speeches preparing the public; Parsons, in his humanitarian designs against his own country, where his fathers were born and lived—he was writing and speaking for the social revolution and against all law, as was Schwab and Spies, and it was to take place the 1st of May, 1886. Gentlemen, as I said in the opening, I say again, Spies appeared at the McCormick meeting for the purpose of inflaming that crowd to the highest intensity, as expressed in their editorials—to the highest pitch of excitement—appeared at that crowd and spoke. It appears from his own lips, and appears in proof here, that before he spoke there had been no riot; that while he was speaking the rioting occurred and the difficulty was precipitated. I take, gentlemen, his explanation, given by himself, written that night, as the full explanation. He in that article says: ‘If there had been one dynamite bomb.’ Think of the horror! It makes one’s blood run cold—these men deliberating with such infamy the destruction of life and property in a country which has freedom for its basis and freedom for its glory, and talking riot and bloodshed.
“I am not going to discuss further that McCormick meeting, except to make this suggestion that seems to have been omitted. It is in regard to the ‘Revenge’ circular. I say, gentlemen, that the basis of the ‘Revenge’ circular is a lie, premeditated, deliberate, infamous, and is the key-note to the situation.