The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

102
ADDREflS OF ALBERT R. PARSONS.
ADDRESS OF ALBERT R. PARSONS.
103
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the othe~ workingmen into submission and frighten them back into the
acceptance of the ten hour plan.
Your honor, if you please, I would like to take a short recess. I am much
fatigued. I have a few more word's to say, and I will finish them this afternoon.
The Court-I had intended not to have but one session of the court today j
there has been now two'hours and three-quarters this morning and an hour
yesterday, three hours and three-quarters of time spent upon that which, as
the speaker and the auditors know, has had very little to do with the question
that is before me, and it does not seem to me that I ought to have repeated
sessions of court in listening to repetitions from newspapers, etc., which never
c'mld be used upon any trial, never could have been, and never can be. I
would very much prefer to finish up the matter. I shall not restrict you as
to time.
Mr. Parsons-I will ,say, your honor, I am now in the midst of that part
of my statemen,t which refers more directly to the Haymarket matter.
The Court-Go on, say all that you'wish to say.
[It was plain to be seen, however, that the speaker was physically unable
to "go on."]
Mr. Parsons--The absolute proof that the missile thrown was not dynamite,
but what was known in the late civil war as an, infernal bomb, is in the
evidence of every surgeon who testified that all incisions were clean, and
that the flesh was torn as from an explosive in the interior. It was testified
by these scientific men, your honor, that dynamite is percussive, and had a
shell the size of Lingg's manufacture, on exhibition in evidence, been thrown
in the closed ranks of the police, as was this infernal machine; instead of killing
but one on the spot, and wounding a few others, it would have blown to
unrecognizable fragments the platoons in the vicinity, and the wounds, where
there were wounds, would have been as clean as with solid projectiles.
This was an infernal bomb from New York, brought there by the Indianapolis
traveler, and not a dynamite bomb, the descriptions in its effects upon
its victims, exactly corresponding with the description of those explosives,
when once used in battle on the Potomac. The hollow bullets within the
shell, after entering the victim, 'exploded, lacerating the flesh and inflieting
ugly internal and really infernal wounds.
But, dynamite is an explosive which annihilates its victims. All experiment
and experience demonstrates that fact. The State of Illinois, to convict
any man for using a dynamite ,bomb at the Haymarket, must show that it
was dynamite j because the absolutely necessary link to connect these defendants
with the explosion, (and especially Lingg, whom they charge, and are
going to hang, for merely its supposed m.anufacture by him) is the proof that
it was a dynamite bomb, and not an infernal machine, as they were called in
war times. The positive proof that it was not such a bomb as Lingg made,
lies in the fact that but one man was killed outright, and others being merely
wounded, though the bomb fell between two close platoons of heavily massed
men.
Mark, sir, dynamite is an explosive which annihilates its victims. A
pound displaces the air within a radius of one thousand feet. The adjacent
latoon would have been blown, as we have already sai~, into unrecognizable
toms, had it been a Lingg dynamite bomb. I cite the case of France, and
oran, and Berrige, at Warren, Pennsylvania. In each case the singular
haracteristic of their death, is the fact of the complete annihilation of matter,
pecially of the human body. Beside human, the iron frames of wagons, and
ven ponderous nitro glycerine safes, have been removed from human vision
as effectually as if they had never been formed.
This is not merely circumstantial evidence. It,is proof positive that it
was not a dynamite bomb, such as the alleged conspirators distributed at the
Monday night meeting of the armed group, which did not attend the Haymarket,
Lingg himself being absent some miles distant. It is confirmation
strong as proof of Holy Writ that the agency used to destroy our lives and the
eight hour movement was a new New York infernal machine.
Six of these condemned men were not even present at the Haymarket
meeting when the tragedy occurJ:ed. One of them was five miles away at the
Deering Harvester Works in Lake View, addressing a mass meeting of 2,000
workingmen. Another was at home in bed and knew not of the meeting being
held at all until the next day. These facts, your honor, stand uncontradicted
before this court. Only one witness-Gilmer-and his testimony is overwhelmingly
impeached, as I remarked before-connected the other two-two
only-of these men with the tragedy at the Haymarket at all.
Now, with these facts, the attempt to make out a case of conspiracy
against us is a contemptible farce. What were the facts testified to by the
two so-called informers? They said that two of these defendants were present
l!ot the so-called conspiracy meeting of Monday night. What then have you
done with the other six men who were not members-whd were not present,
and did not know of the meeting being held Monday night? These two socalled
informers testified that at the so-called conspiracy meeting of May 3, it
was resolved that in the future, when police and militia should attack and
club and kill workingmen at their meetings, then, and then only, they were
in duty bound to help defend these working people against such unlawful,
u.nrighteous, and outrageous 8esaults. That was all that was said or done.
Was that a conspiracy? If it was, your honor, it was a conspiracy to do right
and oppose what is wrong.
But your sentence says that it is·criminal for the..workingmen to resolve
to defend their lives and their liberties and their happiness against brutal,
bloody and unlawful assaults of the police and militia.
Look at this jury for a moment, observe the material of which it was composed.
There was Juryman Todd; when he was accepted on the jury he described
himself as a clothing salesman, and a Baptist. As soon as the verdict
bad been rendered he was, of course, interviewed. He ~aid :
"This was a picked jury; they were all gen.tleman. You see, Major Cole,
who was the first juror accepted, and myself took the other jurors in hand as
oon as they were accepted." Major Cole, you will remember, described him­
B If as a bookkeeper, and an Episcopalian. Todd, in his interview, went on
tell how, nQtwithstanding their virtuous professions, when they went tEl
ih jury rOom they played cards; they also played the' fiddle and guitar
Illl p11\110, and sang songe. In fact, these gentlemen had a very merry