The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

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ADDRESS OF ALBERT R. PARSONS.
ADDRESS OF ALBERT R. PARSONS.
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States senate. These organized, legalized conspiracies that are bringing abont
wholesale bankruptcies; conspiracies that inflate the railway stock of the
country from two billion dollars to six billion dollars; which compel thll people
of this country to pay interest upon four billion dollars of watered stock
upon railroads alone, compeIling the workingmen of America to pay in wages
for this inflation, for labor in the end mus.t foot the bill. Now, these men
urge this is a conspiracy. So do I, and so do the workingmen of this country.
We agree with them. Now, this is a part of theprogramme culminating here
in this Haymarket affair on the 4th of May last. This deplorable conspiracy
to which I referred incidentally before, and which I now wish to give to the
, court in detail, to break down the eight hour movement and avenge itself
upon the leaders of the labo~ movement, furnishes indisputable proof that
we, the eight hour men, here at this bar, are the victims of that foul conspiracy
to rob and enslave the American people.
What are the real facts of that Haymarket tragedy? Mayor Harrison, of
Chicago', has caused to be published his opinion, because, ma.rk you, this is
all a matter of conjecture. It is only presumed that I threw the bomb. They
have only assumed that some one of these men threw the bomb. It is only
an inference that any of us had anything to do with it. It is not a fact, and
it is not proven. It is merely an opinion. Your honor admits that we did
not perpetrate tJ1e deed, or know who did it, but that we, by our speeches,
instigated some one else to do so. Now, let us see the other side of this case.
Mayor Harrison of Chicago, has .caused to be published in the New York
World, and which was copied in the Tribune of this city, this statement: "I
do not believe there was any intention on the part of Spies and those men to
have bombs thrown at the Haymarket. If so, why was there but one thrown?
It was just as easy for them to throw a dozen or fifty, and to throw them in
all parts of the city, as it was to have thrown one. And again, if it was intended
to throw bombs that night, the leaders would not have .been there at
all, in my opinion. Like commanders in chief, they would have been in a
safe place. No, it cannot be shown that there was any intention on the part
of these individuals to kill that particular man who was killed at that Haymar~et
meeting." Now, your honor, this is the mayor of Chicago. He is a
sensible man. He is in a position to know what he is talking about. He has
first-rate opportunities to form an intelligent opinion, and his opinion is
worthy of respect. He knows more about this thing than the jury that sat in
this room, for he knows-I s11spect that the mayor knows-of some of the
methods by which most of this so-called evidence and testimony was manufactured.
I don't charge it, but possibly he has had some intimatioll of it,
and if he has he knows more about this case and the merits of this case than
did the jury who sat here. There is too much at stake to take anything for
granted. Your honor can't afford to do that.
Is it nothing to destroy the lives of seven men? Are the rights of the
poor of no consequence? Is it nothing, that we should regard it so lightly,
as a mere pastime? That is why I stand here at such length to present this
case to you, that you may understand it; that you may have our side of this
question as well as that of the prosecution. Now, this opinion of Mayor Harrison
was based upon his personal observation on the ground at the Haymarket
eeting. Mark you, he was there, and this is his opinion, both· as to the
aracter of the speeches and the deportment both of the speakers a~d of the
udience, on the night of the 4th of May, in which opinion Inspector Bonfield
'mself concurred with the mayor: that it was a peaceable meeting, calling for
DO interference to within ten minutes of the unlawful order to disperse the
BaIlle by the guardians of the peace and the praservers of order. Now, the'
two witnesses for the prosecution, who are they? Waller and Schroeder.
Those were the State's informers, called" squealers," upon whom the State
attempted to base the proof and charged the conspiracy against us. Have
tliey made out a case ~n the testimony of these men? Let us take the evidence
for a moment. These men were the first witnesses called, and they
"'psolutely and completely negative the idea, and not alone the idea, but the
fact itself, that the collision of the Haymarket was ever contemplated at that
meeting, much less provided for by any perpetrator whatever. Now, that
Btands as a fact in the testimony here. It was not brought about. by any
person or by any individual, or by any member of the so-ca:Ued armed group,'
and your honor won't claim that we have not a right to have an armed group.
Your honor will not say it is unlawful to have an armed group if we want it.
As I understand the law and the constitution, if we want an organized
group we have the right to it. The constitution defines that treason against
the government consists in the fact, only in the fact, of an overt act proven,
indisputably proven, by at least two persons. This is what I, as an American,
understood the constitution to mean. You say in your remarks upon' the sentence
that there can be no doubt but what this was an unlawful combination.
WelI, suppose it was. If I am a member of an unlawful combination, am I
to be hung for that? Are seven men to be exterminated for that? Are there·
not surely some degrees in punishment? Because I belong to an unlawful
combination am I to be put to death? Why, that would he cruel. That
would be a verdict of hate. That would be a penalty of vengeance, not of
justice, and it is not proven; it has not been alleged, even, nor has it been
shown, that I was a member of an unlawful combination. That question has
not been put in consideration in this court; it has not been here to be established
by this jury whether or not I am new or ever was a member of an unlawful
combination. Now, for proof of the charge to which I wish to call
your honor's attention, that there was no conspiracy, and given out of the
mouths of these witnesses of the. State, I will cite the very words of the wit­
Dess Waller himself. In reply to interrogatories by the State's attorney as
to what was said at the meeting after he had called it to order, WalIer said,
"It was said that these men had been killed at McCormick's," referring to
the strikers killed by the police the day before..
Engel brought forward a resolution at the April meeting, and what did
Engel say? He said that if through the falI of the strikers the other men
Ihould come into conflict with the police, we should aid them. He then told
ua that the northwestern group had resolved to bring aid to these men;' that
If, n a 'count of this work, something should happen to the police, we must
oml'lll at the comers. What else did Engel say? He said that if tumults
llrt'od 10 the city, then we should meet in Wicker Park; if the word should
p I' In th })l\per, that tbe northwestern group and the Lehr and }Vehr-