The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

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ADDRESS Oll' ALBERT R. PARSONS•
not think that we stand alone. Some are crying out in more desperate toneA
than others, but all in tones that it will not do for any government, much lesA
a government-a pretended government-of the people-to disregard.
Now, in this state of things a murder is committed by some one. Not by
us, nor by any of us but by some one as yet unknown. We are confessed by
the chief agent in procuring our conviction to be innocent, and have had
apundant proof of our innocence, or if we had been permitted to do so we
could have proved ourselves innocent" a thousand times over," says Captain
~chaack. But the government which, in the opinion of the despairing milhons,
whose woes and whose miseries we voice here today-the government is
res~onsible for their wrongs, but the government does not brook any forcible
reSIstance by even so much as a single man. It regards this single man as a
torch that may explode vast numbers of others. It, therefore, demands not
only a victim, but victims. Victims they must have, whether they be innocent
or whether they be guilty. The innocent will answer for examples as
well as the guilty. "Away with them! Victims are what we want," say monopoly
and corporations. So, being unable to discover the guilty man, the
machinery iSliet to work to convict seven innocent men in his stead.
Your honor, there has been a great deal said in the trial of this case about
the" Board of Trade demonstration," and the red and black flags.
In your refusal to grant us a new trial you allege as one of the reasons
why Oscar Neebe should be sent to the penitentiary for fifteen years that
he .presided at mass meetings of workingmen and organized several Trades
Umons. You say:
" As to Neebe's part, there is the evidence of witnesses that he presided
at meetings called by the class of people from whom this combination was
drawn, and that he called meetings of the people who were engaged in the
~ovement.. There is. evidence that he marched in the Board of Trade proces­
SIOn, the obJect of WhICh was said to be the demolition of that building."
Now, sir, do you hold it to be a crime for a man to organize the working
people to defend themselves against" "ritle diet, police clubs, strychnine,"
etc., or to preside at mass meetings of workingmen? You say that the object
of the Board of Trade demonstration Was ~'the demolition of the building."
Who told you so? Where did yon get your information? There is no evidence
before this court to that effect. Not a particle. You say that our purpose
was "to sack the Board of Trade." Ridiculous I Where did your honor
get such an idea from? There is no testimony here to that effect. What
right has your honor to assume what our motives were to charge us with
intentions contrary to the proof? Now, sir, I deny it. It is not true.
Your honor, you say, in overruling our motion for a new trial, that our
purpose was "the demolition of the building," to "sack it." Where is the
proof? The article I have just read giving an account of the demonstration
says it was intended as a protest against the practices of these monopolists'
that was all. It was intended as a manifestation of the working people's dis:
content with the existing order of things; a protest against the practices of
the' class which the Board of Trade represents. Now, sir, is this the kind of
testimony upon which you intend to deprive us of our lives and liberty? Is
this the great crime for which we must suffer death? Because we have held
ADDRESS OF ALBERT R. PARSONS.
uch meetings, and made such·spee~hes,you claim that we are responsible for /
e action of the person who threw the bomb at the Haymarket. If this is
aw, then every dissatisfied workingman and woman in America could be conicted
for the same reason.
Your honor, this was a class verdict. I will admit one thing: I believe
the jury were to a large extent imposed upon. Now, when the State's attorney
comes in and brings the gory garments of the police, clotted with blood and
filled with holes, and exhibits these garments to the jury-nobody denies that
these men were killed-what was that done for? To prove that the policemen
had been killed? Nobody denies that, what was it done for? It was done to
prejudice that jury, to inflame tuat jury, and, in the language of Mr. Grinnell
~hen . he closed his speech, he says: "Let these things steel your hearts
against these miserable wretches and scoundrels."
Suppose this Indianapolis man, Rent by monopolists, came here and
threw the bomb, and these gory garments are to be thrown around here in.
the court room before the jury for the purpose of steeling their hearts to bring
about the conviction of eight innocenfmen. I ask your honor-I ask you for
~nother trial.
Lawyer Ingham with clenched fist, swollen neck and blood-shot eyes exclaimed
to the jury: "The State of Illinois is strong enough to hang everyone
of these Anarchists!" Well, who said it was not? But who would believe it
mean enough to do so just because it can? The burly brute rapes his helpless
victim simply because he is mean enough and strong enough to do eo. The
bow"geoisie society is not itself, however, unless it commits wholesale outrages
upon the proletariat and afterwards gloats over its victims.
The ballot. Your honor, you have heard of this Law and Order League
in these United States. It has been organized in Chicago and called a conservators'
league or association. It is an organization of big tax-payers, if you
have heard of it, aod they come out and openly declare that they do not intend
to permit the Knights of Labor and the workingmen to come into power
through the ballot box. That is their own declaration, made in the papers
here at their meetings, in their reports. Of course I don't .know anything
further about it. But I want to ask you this question, viz.: Don't you think
a man who is not able to control his bread-and you know what I mean by
that-has a poor chance to control his vote; not a very good chance to control
his vote? In other words, don't you think those who control the industries
of the country can and do control the votes of that country? Don't you think
that a man who,must sell his labor or starve will sell his vote when the same
alternative is presented? Does politics control wealth or wealth politics? Are·
the economically en'slaved politically free? Your honor, political liberty without
economic freedom is an empty phrase. The wage slave is a political freeman;
yes, he is free to choose from among his economic masters the one who
Iball rule and govern bim. A choice of masters, that is alt. So this" Law
and-Qfder" League proposes to control the ballots of thei~ wage slaves.
Now, tben, the Haymarket, what of it? r had been away to Cinci.nnati.
W nt to Cincinnati Saturday night, May 1. I spoke there SUI1day morning
r durill)!; til day, at a great labor rlemonstration, an eight hour demonstra­
U 0, I "lcllk of til \l'orkilli!meo at Cincinnati. They sent for me to com~
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