Anarchy and Anarchists / A History of the Red Terror and the Social Revolution in America and Europe; Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed; The Chicago Haymarket Conspiracy and the Detection and Trial of the Conspirators

by Michael J. Schaack

C. G. Dixon, of Chicago, also submitted a long petition, and addressed the Governor at some length. He was followed by Samuel Gompers, of New York, President of the American Federation of Labor, who went into an account of the eight-hour movement, and held that the police were responsible for the Haymarket riot. He said that thousands would consider that the men had been executed because they had stood up for free speech and free assemblage, and maintained that throughout the civilized world there had arisen a protest against the execution of the men. He concluded by saying that the throwing of that bomb had killed the eight-hour movement, and that, had it not been for that, it would have been successful to a great extent.

Other addresses were made by Edward King, of District Assembly 49, of New York; President Quinn, of the same organization, and George Schilling. The various delegations then withdrew to permit the relatives of the doomed men to confer personally with the Governor, and then each in turn gave a few reasons why the Governor should be lenient.

After this conference Mr. J. R. Buchanan and Mrs. George Schilling, accompanied by two friends, sought an audience with the Governor and presented a personal letter from August Spies. In that letter, dated November 6, among other things he wrote:

“I care not to protest my innocence of any crime, and of the one I am accused of in particular. I have done that, and leave the rest to the judgment of history.... If a sacrifice of life there must be, will not my life suffice? The State’s Attorney of Cook County asked for no more. Take this, then! Take my life! I offer it to you so that you may satisfy the fury of a semi-barbaric mob, and save that of my comrades.”

This extract fully indicates the whole tenor of the letter.

Messrs. Salter, Lloyd and McConnell next visited the Governor and spoke on behalf of the men.

Mr. Edward Johnson, a slate and stone dealer of Chicago, presented a petition on behalf of Fielden’s former employers, numbering thirty-one firms, and in that document they set forth that they had known Fielden for fifteen years as an honest, hard-working, sober, reliable employé, with no brutal or bloody instincts, and that the only trouble with him was that “he was cursed with a gift of rude eloquence, a fatal facility of speech, and had a consuming desire for the praise and applause of his fellow-men, and in this lay the cause of his downfall.”

This petition was accompanied by a personal letter from Fielden, dated November 5, 1887. After speaking of his earlier years, and his interest in the cause of workingmen, the letter concludes:

“I was intoxicated with the applause of my hearers, and, the more violent my language, the more applause I received. My audience and myself mutually excited each other. I think, however, it is true that, for sensational or other purposes, words were put in my mouth and charged to me which I never uttered; but, whether this be true or not, I say now that I no longer believe it proper that any class of society should attempt to right its own wrongs by violence. I can now see that much that I said under excitement was unwise, and all this I regret. It is not true, however, that I ever consciously attempted to incite any man to the commission of crime. Although I do admit that I belonged to an organization which was engaged at one time in preparing for a social revolution, I was not engaged in any conspiracy to manufacture or throw bombs. I never owned or carried a revolver in my life and did not fire one at the Haymarket. I had not the slightest idea that the meeting at the Haymarket would be other than a peaceable and orderly one, such as I had often addressed in this city, and was utterly astounded at its bloody outcome, and have always felt keenly the loss of life and suffering there occasioned.

“In view of these facts I respectfully submit that, while I confess with regret the use of extravagant and unjustifiable words, I am not a murderer. I never had any murderous intent, and I humbly pray relief from the murderer’s doom. That these statements are true I do again solemnly affirm by every tie that I hold sacred, and I hope that your Excellency will give a considerate hearing to the merits of my case, and also to those of my imprisoned companions who have been sentenced with me.”