The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

84 ADDRESS OF ALBERT R. PARSONS. ADDRESS OF ALBERT R. PARSONS.
ciful ag:ainst this sl~very, this enslavement. I know it is wrong; I know it
should be'denounced, but keep inside of the law; keep inside of the consti·
tution.;'
I Your honor, I quote from the speech of Charles Sumner, that great
American, in answer and in reply to that remark. Said he: "Anything for
human rights is constitutional. No learning in books, no skill acquired in
court~, no sharpness in forensic dealings, no cunning in splitting ; hairs can
impair the vigor thereof. This is the supreme law of the land, anything in
the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." I
never said anything that could equal that in lawlessness. Go, gentlemen of
the prosecution, dig up the ashes of Sumner and scatter them in disgrace to
the winds, tear down t'he monument that the American peeple have erected
to his honor, and erect thereon some emblem of your contempt!
I will read you now an extract from the Alarm, a little editorial: "Any
pretense called freedom, however loudly heralded, which does not bring peace,
plenty and comfort to all the members of the human race, is a lie and a fraud
on the face of it." AnothE:r expression from the Alarm-a little editorial: "A
man gets rich by meanness and poor because he is generous. How long can
we tolerate the vile system which rewards meanness and starves generosity?"
Your honor, one of the most startling facts in connection with this trial,
the labor movement, and the general situation of affairs is to be found in the
fact that d)lJ'ing the last t",o or three years at least one-half of the large industrial
establishments of the United States, the larjl;er corporations, monopolies,
and industries;have been'conducted under military supervision. A startling
fact this is. Armed men, armed guards, either· the Pinkertons or the police,
the police of the municipalities in the cities, or the militia, or the United
States army, as has been done in some cases, are supervising one-half of the
industries of Amedca, that is, the larger industries. It is a positive fact.
Think of this! Who is doing this? Now, as an offset to this state of affairs, we
find 1,200 delegates assembled in Richmond, Va., representing our American
workingmen in the convention of the Knights of Labor. That congress, that
organization is the reply which is being made by peaceable laborers to the
rifle diet advice, the strychnine business, and the hand grenade business, and
club business advice by the Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and other large
papers in this country. These men are assembled in self-defense. The conflict
is the struggle between liberty and authority-authority in any and every
form. Those who are in authority tell the workingmen that if they want to
enjoy the law and the protection oithe law, they must render a cheerful obedience
to the law. Why a man, when he flogs his slave for disobedience, tells
him the same thing. Your honor, according to your construction of sentence,
or the reason which you propose as a portion of the ground work upon which
you expect to render your proposed sentence, you deny the right of America.ns
to defend them~elvesagainst the rifle diet, and to protest against these outrageous
things, to object to the strychnine business. These are the things that
have made us what we are. If there be any wrong in. me I am the product of
these conditions. I am the creature of circumstances; I am the effect of a
cause. Now, where is that cause? What is that cause? But, if it comes to
that, the right of free speech, the right of free press, the right of peaceable
assemblage, and the right of self-defepse is de'nied to the workingman j if that
~ going to be denied us by the courts of law, what is going to be the result?
Why, the workingmen will immediately say as a matter of necessity, "W~~.
of what use to us is the law? What is the constitution for? Of what value IS It
to us? It certainly must belong to somebody. Yes, it is used for somebody
else's benefit and protection, not surely for ours." This will be the natural
qonclusion, inevitably.
There was no evidence produced to implicate me with the Haymarket
bomb. Why, the evidence that was produced only touched two of us, on~y
iinplicated two of us, and that evidence, as your honor must know, was pal?
for. Everybody knows it. Your h~nor knows it. Your honor does ~ot credIt
that testimony of Gilmer. You cannot do it. It was overwhelmmgly and
irresistibly impeached. This man is the slender thread that connects two of
us .with that Haymarket affair. Now, what are the facts about this Haymarketaffair?
On Tuesday evening, May 4, several thousand persons, working
people, assembled at the Haymarket to discuss their grievances, namely
the eight hour strike, and the attack and killing of several workingmen by
the police the day before. Thol3e citizens, thus assembled in the peaceable
exercise of free speech, free press, and public assembly under their constitutional
rights, were upon the eve of adjourning, it being after 10 o'clock, when
they were charged upon by 200 arme~ police, and under pain and penalty of
instant death and wholesale slaughter, commanded to disperse, ordered lIke
slaves to sneak and cringe and crawl away from the presence of their masters.
Now was not that an affront? Was not that a most grievous outrage? Was
not ;hat a violation of all those principles for which our forefathers strug!!;led in
this country? At. this juncture some unknown and unproven person throws a
bomb among the police, killing several men. You say that I did it, or you
Bay that I knew of it. Where is your proof, gentlemen of the prosecution?
You have none. You didn't have any. Oh, but you have a thE:ory, and that
theorv IS that no one else could have had any motive to hurl that missile'of
deathexcept myself, and, as is the common remark of the great papers of the
. city, the police are never short of a theory. There is always a theory'on hand
for everything. A theory they have got, and especially the detectives; they
hatch out a theorY at once and begin to follow that up. There was a theory
carried out during this trial. Let us examine that theory. I say that a Pinkerton
man, or a member of the Chicago police force itself, had as much
inducement to throw that bomb as I hail, and why? Because it would demonstrate
the necessity for their existence and result in an increase of their pay
and their wages. Are these people too good to do such a thing? Are they
any better than I am? Are their motives any better than my own? Let us
look at this thing from every standpoint. Perhaps, on the other hand, the
dread missile was hurled in revenge by some poor man or woman, or child
even whose parent or protector or friend was killed by the police in some
one ~f their numerous massacres of the people before. 'iVho knows? And if
it was, are we seven to suffer death for that? Are we responsible for that act?
Or, might it not be that some penon with the fear of death in his eyes threw
that bomb in self-defense? And if they did, am I responsible for that? ~m
t b executed for that? Is it law to put me to death for that? 4nd who