The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

56
ADDRESS OF SAMUEL FIELDEN.
ADJ;lRESS OF SAMUEL FIELDEN.
57
proven-in the opinion of 'the' jurors. I was taken into the corridor of the
court house. Lieutenant Shea was sitting on the table with about twenty-five
detectives around him. Mr. Slayton said, CI This is Fielden." Lieutenant
Shea said, "You-- Dutchman, before you came to this country people were
getting good wages." I said, "Mr. Shea, I am not a Dutchman." He said,
"You are -'- -- worse, you------." That i8 the language of the
officers of the law. It makes no difference whether they are Dem?cratic or
Republican officers, I speak of them as a whole. And this is a prominent official
in the police department of the city of Chicago. I replied somewhat
sharply, using no epithets. It certainly occurred to me when I looked around
at those policemen, that perhaps this man, who will treat a helpless prisoner
in this way, is trying to provoke me. Perhaps he will shoot me. I think
it was a logical conclusion- to draw. A man who is II!ean enough and contemptible
enough to use that language to a helpless prisoner, would go
further. And I said to myself, "If he does, who is there here to testify that
. he murdered me? Are there not twenty-five professional liars here to testify
that I tried to murder him?" These' were the thoughts that went through
my mind, and I said no more. I said "You have me here'now, you can do
.as you like with me." I will not repeat that again in your honor's presence
and in the presence of ladies. I am sorry that I repeated it now. It came
out unthinkingly, and it is a very unpleasant word to use anywhere, and
,ought not to be used by anybody. 1 was met by the worthy chief before I got
down into the cellar, Mr. Ebersold. He was informed that I was wounded
and told me to take off the bandage and show him. I did so. He said:
" your soul, it ought to have gone in here," (pointing to his he~d
.between. the eyes). This is'the chief. And when I was about to be brought
here, and had begged and begged for some one to dress my wound (because
the doctor who dressed it the night before had told me that it must be dresse!!
in the afternoon following), I was told by a !letective whose name I don't
know, or an official, that they ought to put strychnine into it. Your honor
may not believe this. I know that it is the custom of all classes of criminals
who are charged with crime to turn around and charge indiscriminately
-everything they can possibly imagine against those who arrest tliem. I can
only make the statement. Your honor may not believe me. MIl Shea and
Mr. Ebersold may come here and say they did not say it. You may' believe
them in preference to me. But I will tell you one thing,·there is no man who
knows Samuel Fielden but will believe him.
Your honor, we are charged with being opposed to the law. I believe
your honor knows a great deal better than I do what the law is. It would
take a man a great number of years to find out what it is. I have seen
wagon loads of books brought into this court to find out what the law is.
It is generally thought and asserted, and I believe it is a fundamental prin­
.ciple of the law, that no man is to be exempted from punishment for a viola.­
tion of the law because of his ignorance of it. Now, working at my occupa­
·tion as teamster fourteen hours a day, I don't think that I could have read
all of· those authorities that haveoeen quoted here to find out what the law
is, in ten lifetimes. But we are required to answer to the charge of being
Jawless individuals who violated the law, who advised the abolition of the
law and all government. Your honor has put it "The government," as though
we were conspirators against this particular government. The very fact that
hundreds of authorities can be quoted on both sides and on a dozen sides of
~y particular question, is because of the impossibility of anyone man
prescribing laws to fit any other man or number of men.
I believe there is a law, and I don't know that there is any authority which
can be quoted against it, that before a man can go into a house of a citiz~n,
he must have the authority of the law, and show that he is an officer of the
~w and in pursuit of a lawful purpose. If any m~n calling himself a policeman
may go and search a house and say, "I am an officer of the law. I want
to search your house," the law requires, if I understand it, that before anyone
can search a house he shall have a search warrant. In every instance that
any house has heen searched in the prosecution of this case, there has been
Dq search warrant presented. Now, if men can violate the law who are its
aworn supporters, and who get their living by the pursuit of the law, do you
think it naturally tends to produce respect for the law on the part of those
on whom they prey, when they violate the law? If you say that very often
justice conld not under circumstances and emergencies be carried out if every
technicality of the law were obeyed, does it not show the impossibility then of
applying the law justly and rightly to every case? Now, I think that itis the
Datural tendency to beget disrespect for the law when those who are its repre­
I8ntatives show so little respect for it. And I wish to say that I was arrested
....jthout a warrant. Another violation of law; I was taken out upon the sidewalk,
while three men went through my house, turned it upside down, as the
"leader has admitted here, although they found nothing that indicated that I
was a dangerous character-not even an empty cartridge of a revolver. They
not only did this, but my wifOl tells me that about ten men went back there
again, and, without presenting any search warrant, w(mt through the househer
husband and protector in jail. Your honor, I merely state these things
to show that men hired by the law to defend it are the very one!! who throw
discredit upon it. Anyone could have gone thOlre at any time, searched that
honse, and robbed it of everything there was in it, and have just as much
jnstification in going in as any of these men had. I wish to call your attention
for a little while-it is going back to tbe question I spoke of before, but
I think it is necessary in my own defense-one of this class of persons wHo
bave been in the habit of going into houses without authority of law, testified
at the coroner,'s inquest, and he testified upon this case in court, that he had
laid in the coroner's jluy room that. he had heard me say, "Here come the
bloodhounds; you do your duty and I will do mine." I would submit to
Jour honor that it would be a very good thing for you to ask one of the couneel
on either side of this case to allow you to look at the report of the
coroner's jury, and see whether that man lied here or not. I have no fear of
the result of that investigation.
An interview has been held with Mr. Grinnell, and published in one of
'he papers of this city since his return from his vacation, in which Mr. Grin~
nel,l is' reported to bave said-but perhaps the reporter lied; I should not
yonder if he bad, they have done it before, and it would not be surprising­
"Why, these men have no p'rinciples. They did not defend themselves with