The first speaker was Capt. Black, who presented a long petition, which he read, signed by Schwab, Fielden and Spies. It set forth the grounds upon which an exercise of the pardoning power was invoked, claiming that the signers were wholly innocent of any knowledge of the throwing of the bomb, and giving a brief epitome of the history of the case. It gave ten reasons for asking a pardon. These reasons may be summarized as follows: 1. They were innocent of the bomb-throwing, alike in act and intent. 2. They had no knowledge of any purpose or arrangement for the throwing of the bomb. 3. They (those present) counseled peace at the Haymarket meeting and there disclaimed any purpose of violence. 4. A great deal of evidence was permitted to be presented in court which had no specific reference to the crime charged, and an effort was made to prove that their utterances and advice had reference alone to “defensive action by the wage class as against any unlawful attacks upon them,” and in thus publicly expressing their sentiments by pen and speech they were not conscious that they were violating the law. 5. Under a rule of responsibility allowed, which was contrary to Anglo-Saxon legislation but expressed in the statute law of the State, they were held to be accessories “for the act of a supposed but absolutely unknown and unidentified principal, when the actor in the commission of the crime charged may have acted, not as the agent, but the enemy, of the accused;” and they had been tried as “the supposed leaders of a general movement or conspiracy embracing a much larger number of men.” 6. Their trial was at a time of great public excitement, when press and public demanded their conviction as enemies of public order. 7. That men were allowed to sit upon the jury with strong prejudices against them. 8. They were not tried by men according to constitutional rights, but had jurors “with a prejudgment of their guilt induced and inflamed by the daily reading of the papers,” whose columns had never ceased to denounce them. 9. Some of them were subjected to illegal cross-examinations, and “the provisions of the Constitution and the law were set aside, and property unlawfully seized in unauthorized searches was introduced to bring about a conviction.” 10. They believed and charged that the special bailiff who was intrusted with securing talesmen for the jury had deliberately selected men whose views he was assured were hostile to them.
Capt. Black commented upon each point made in the petition, and explained that up to the time of the Haymarket meeting his clients had had the absolute, uniform acquiescence of the municipal authorities in all their public and secret gatherings. He also read an affidavit of Otis S. Favor, to show that the bailiff had said to affiant that he was “managing this case” (meaning selection of the jury to try the Anarchists) and “he knew what he was about.”
The plea was an eloquent and forcible one, but the Governor never gave the slightest sign as to how far it had affected his judgment of the case.
Mrs. Richmond spoke with reference to the petitions which her committee had presented, containing many signatures, and explained that “the majority of those who had signed them had done so because they considered it a matter of public policy that these men should not be hanged.” Another reason she advanced was that “these men did not intend a murder, and the fact cannot be shown that they had any direct connection in the throwing of the bomb which caused the death of Officer Degan.” She held that public opinion was unanimous that these men could not afford to be sacrificed. “The shock upon the rising generation will be such that it will take fifty or one hundred years to wipe it out, and we believe it never could be wiped out from the records of this State.” She asked that the sentence be commuted “on the higher ground that it should be done for the welfare of the people,” and then, after deploring the existence of capital punishment in Illinois, she said that if mercy was shown by the Governor, his name would forever be written on the scroll of humanity along with that of the martyred Abraham Lincoln. “I again implore you, sir, to extend clemency to these condemned men, and enroll your name among those who have dared to do for humanity what all the courts of the land have denied.”
Gen. M. M. Trumbull had had a pamphlet prepared respecting the trial, and after presenting a copy of it to the Governor, and calling attention to the fact that he had therein reviewed the unfairness of the trial, he made a few remarks, closing as follows: “In behalf of the families of these men; in behalf of the men themselves; in behalf of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people who sympathize with them in their misfortunes, I implore your Excellency to show mercy in their case.”
Elijah M. Haines, ex-Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, said: “I do not come here, your Excellency, like others, to appeal to the executive of this State to exercise an act of clemency; neither do I come here representing petitioners. But I come here representing a sentiment appealing to the executive branch of the government for an act of justice.” His plea was based simply on the ground of justice, not policy, and he held that what had been a crime years ago was not a crime now, and that “this sentence, at this time, would not have been the sentence of the barbarous race that preceded us.” He held that no conspiracy had been proven, and that the men had been condemned to die through prejudice. He did not believe in capital punishment, and concluded that “the peculiar complication of this case would make the execution of these men hazardous to the best interests of society.”
State Senator Streeter made a short address. He began by saying: “We are not here to favor any crime, but we do believe that this case marks an epoch in our history; that you and I, Governor, and the people who are living, probably never met or never will again meet an emergency in history like this. It is almost without parallel.” He then pleaded for clemency on the ground of “the common good of society,” and asked the Governor to give the petition a careful consideration.
Messrs. Bailey and Campbell, representing the Trades and Labor Assembly of Quincy, Ill., each spoke a few words for the doomed men, and they were followed by William Urban, who spoke “for the German workingmen of North Chicago,” and presented a set of resolutions passed by the Central Labor Union.
L. S. Oliver, on behalf of the “Amnesty Committee,” made a few statements and presented a petition containing 41,000 names.
Mr. Shullenberg, of Detroit, Mich., said he represented forty-five organizations, and he asked, on their behalf, that executive clemency be extended.