Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1893 — PARDONED THE REDS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PARDONED THE REDS.

GOV. ALTGELD SETS THE ANARCHISTS FREE. Schwab, Fielden and Neebe Are Liberated from the Joliet Penitentiary After Nearly Seven Years’ Service—The Governor Scores the Courts. Prison Doors Flung Wide. The Chicago anarchists, Schwab, Fielden and Neebe, have been pardoned out of the Joliet Penitentiary by Gov.!

Altgeld. The news of the pardon caused the most profound surprise at Joliet, according to a dispatch, but it is said to have been' anticipated in Chicago py the friends of the imprisoned men.' Schwab, according to the Joliet corre-

spondent, has been looked upon as one of the most dangerous men in the horrible conspiracy that led up to the Haymarket massacre; Fielden was always considered al misguided but honest man; and Neebe was looked upon as one of August Spies’ misguided tools. It would! have caused no surprise to have pardoned Neebe. In extending executive clemency the Governor seems to have; acted without conference with or advice from anybody of influence or authority. The act is his alone, apparently. The pardon message contains 17,000 words. The Governor, takes the ground that these men did not have a,

fair trial and that the court was prejudiced. He scores Judge Gary and Chief of Police Bonfield severely. Schwab, Fielden and Neebe were sentenced to State’s prison on the charge of complicity in the Haymarket massacre on the night of May 4,1886. The details of the trial are too well remembered to demand recounting. Spies, Fielden, Parsons, Fischer, Lingg,

Schwab and Engel were sentenced to death and Neebe, whom many thought innocent, to fifteen years in the penitentiary. The case was carried up and fought' with great desperation in the Supreme Court of Illinois by the prisoners’ lawyers, but

the court finally adjudged the verdict correct in law and the sentence of the court was carried out in respect to Spies, Parsons, Fischer, Engel and Neebe. Louis Lingg killed himself horribly with a fulminating cap in the jail on the day preceding that set for the hanging. A determined attempt to secure a commutation of sentence was made before the execution. It was joined in by many, especially in behalf of Parsons, who was well known and popular, ana it might have been granted if that wild fellow had consented to recant in his faith. But he refused to do so, and Gov. Oglesby was obdurate in refusing

to grant a commutation to any who did not weaken. Spies, worn as his friends say by long confinement, consented to admit his error, but 'Oglesby, considering ■Mm the leader, would give him no mercy. Fielden and Schwab

made sentence was cut down to life imprisonment. Spies, Parsons, Fischer and Engel were hanged from the same gibbet in the north corridor of the jail in Chicago, on Nov. 11,1887. They were buried on Nov. 13 in Waldheim Cemetery, where a monument in their memory has just been unveiled. The others were quickly taken to Joliet Penitentiary. For the last three or four years strong efforts have been made to secure their pardon, and an amnesty association was formed in Chicago, which has worked unceasingly to this end. Many petitions were presented to Gov. Fifer during his term of office praying for executive clemency in the case of these men, but he refused to listen to the appeals. Unveiled Tiielr Monument. Sunday afternoon, in Waldheim Cemetery, near Chicago, a stately monument to the memory of Spies, Parsons, Fischer, Engel, and Lingg, the executed anarchists, was unveiled. It rested on the same spot which marked their several graves. President Schmidinger, of the society which erected the monument, delivered an address, reciting

matters of interest in connection with the movement. About 3,000 persons witnessed the ceremony. The monument was draped in the red which the organization so fondly clings to as an emblem of its order, and the men, women, and children who were grouped around the monument wore red in profusion and talked of “martyrs to the cause of human rights. ”

MICHAEL SCHWAB.

GOV. ALTGELD.

SAMUEL FIELDEN.

OBOAR W. NEEBE.

ANARCHIST MONUMENT.