The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

30
ADDRESS!OF LOUIS LINGG.
US togl'Llur in our agitatiQn, not as persons, but as workers in -the same cause.
Such is the" conspiracy" of which you have convicted me.
I"protest against the conviction, against the decision of the court. I do
not recognize your law, jp.mbled together as it is by the nobodies of by-gone
centuries, and I do not recognize the decision of the court. My own counsel
have conclusively proven from the decisions of equally high courts that a Jilew
trial must be granted us. The State's attorney quotes three times as many
decisions from perhaps still higher courts to prove the opposite, and I am
convinced that if, in another trial, these decisions should be supported by
twenty-five volumes, they will adduce one hundred in support of the contrary
if it is Anarchists who are to be tried. And not even tinder such a law, ~
law that a schoolboy must despis'l, not even by such method1! they have been
able to "legally" convict us. They have suborned perjury to boot.
I tell you frankly and openly, I am for force. I have already told Captain
Schaack, ."If they use· cannons against us, we shall ulle dynamite against
them." .
I repeat that I am the enemy of the" order" of today, and I repeat that,
with all my power~, so lon~ as breath remains in me, I shall combat it. I
declare again, frankly and openly, that I am in favor of using force. I have
told Captain Schaack, and I stand by it, "If you cannonade us, we shan
dynamite you." You laugh! Perhaps you think, "You'll throw no more
bombs;" but let me assure you that I die happy on the gallows, so confident
am I that the hundreds and thousands to'whom I have spoken will remember
m! words; and when you shall have hanged us, then, mark my words, they
wIll do the bomb throwing I In this hope I say to you: I despise you. I
despise your order, your laws, your force-propped authority. Hang me for it!
A.ddress o:t
Geor&"e Engel.
WHEN, in the year 1872, I1eft Germany because it had become impossible
for me to gain there, by the labor of my hands, a livelihood such as man is
worthy to enjoy-the introduction of machinery having ruined the smaller
craftsmen and made the outlook for the future appear very dark to them-I
concluded to go with my family to the land of America, the land that had
been praised to me by so many as the land of liberty. ,
On the occasion of my arrival at Philadelphia, on the 8th of January,
1873, my heart swelled with joy in the hope and in the belief that in the futore
I would live among free men, aud in a free country. I made up my mind
to become a good citizen of this country, and congratulated myself on having
left Germany, and landed iii this glorious republic. And I believe my· past
history will bear witness that I have ever striven to be a good citizen of this
country. This is the first occasion of my standing before an American court,
and on this occasion it is murder of which I am accused. And for what reasons
do I stand here? For what reasons am I accused of murder? The same
that caused me to leave Germany-the poverty-the misery of the working
classes.
And here, too, in this" free republic," in the richest country of the world,
there are numerous proletarians for whom no table is set; who, as outcasts of
society, stray joylessly through life. I have seen human beings gather their
daily food from the garbage heaps of the streets, to quiet therewith their
knawing hungtor.
I have read of occurrences in the daily papers which prove to me that
here, too, in this great "free land," people are doomed to die of starvation.
This brought me to reflection, and to the question: What are the peculiar
causes that could bring about such a condition of society? I then began to
give our polit.ical institutions more attention than formerly. My discoveries
brought to me the knowledge that the same societaryevils exist here that
exist in Germany. This is the explanation of what induced me to study the·
. social question, to become a Socialist. And I proceeded with all the means at
my command, to make myself familiar with the new doctrine.
When in 1878, I came here from Philadelphia, I strove to better my condition,
believing it would be less difficult to establish a means of livelihood
here than in Philadelphia, where I had tried in vain to make a living. But
here, too, I found lDy~elf disappointed. I began to understand that it made
no differtlDceto the proletarian, whether he lived in New York, Philadelphia,
or Chicago..In the factory in which I worked, I became acquainted with a
man who pointed out to me the causes that brought about the difficult and
fruitless battles of the workingmen for the means of existence. Heexplained
to me, by the logic of scientific Socialism, how mistaken I was in believing
that 1 could make an independent living by the toil of my hands, so long as
ma 'hinary, raw material, etc., were guaranteed to the capitalists as private
proporty hy the State. That I might further enlighten my mind in regard to