The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

156
AL'l'GELD's REASONS FOR PARDONING
fired at the police while he waf! standing on the wag~n and before the. bomb
was thrown, while some of the others testified that be first climbed down off
the wagon and fired while standing by a wheel. On the other hand, it w~s
proven by a number of witnesses, and by facts and circumstances, that thiS
evidence must be ahsolutely untrue. A number of newspaper reporters, who
testified' on the part of the State, said that they were ~tanding near Fieldenmuch
nearer than the police were-and heard all that was said and saw what
was done; that tlrey had been sent there for that purpose, and that Fielden
did not make any such threats as the police SWore to, and that he d~d not use
a revolver. A number of other men who were near, too, and some of them on
the wagon on which Fielden stood at the time, swear to the same thing.
Fielden llimself swears that he did not make any such threats as the police
swore to, and further, that he never had or used a.revolver in his life. But if
there were any doubt about the fact that the evidence charging Fielden with
having used a revolver as unworthy of credit, it is removed by JUdg~ Gary
and State's Attorney Grinnell. On November 8, 1887, when the question of
commuting the death sentence as to Fielden was before the governor, Judge
Gary wrote a long letter in regard to the case in Which; in speaking of Fielden,
he, among other things, says: "There is in the nature and private character
of the man a love of justice, an impatience at undeserved sufferings. * * *
In his own private life he was the honest, industrious and peaceful laboring
man. In what he said in court before sentence he was respe