Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1886 — DECEMBER 3. [ARTICLE]

DECEMBER 3.

That Is the Day Set Apart lor the Dkecation of the Convicted Anarchists . '< Judge Gary Asks Them for Reasons Why They Should Not; Be Hanged, AaA They Reply with Argirtnent, Denunciation, InTeclivc, and Tirade Against Capital. The motion to secure a new trial for the convicted Chicago anarchliU has failed, and Frl...4ay, the Sd of December, been fixed aa the dxj of execution. .U IXiK GARY'S DECISION. Seasons for Kl'Finiinf to Grant the Anarchists a New Trial. The Court bej;an by saying that the case was no voluminous that it was ini]>ossible, within reasonable limits, to Rive a synopsis. Be did not understand that either upon the trial or the argument on the motion had the defense attempted to deny tliat the defendants, except Nee be. w ere combined for some purpose. The object of that oombination had been debated by the counsel. It whs important to know wbat that fact was, whether it w hs merely Jo encourage the workingmen to resist unlawful attacks, or whether it was something else. There wae no better way than to read what they had apoken and written as to the object of the combination while the events were occurring. He would therefore read from the files of the Alarm and ArbeiUr-Zeitiing w hat the defendants tbe naelves have said, beginning as far back as Jau. BUMS. The court then read at length from the flies of the pajiers In question, choosing such articles as would throw the clearest light upoii the purposes of the defendants. He then said : “The papers and s)leeches furnish an answer to the argument of the counsel, that w hat they proposed was simply that they should ana themselves, so as to resist any unlawful attacks which the police or tin* militia might make upon them. “Now, there can be no claim thaj this was a lawful object. There can he no claim but that the force which would extend In the carrying out of that object to taking human life is murder. It is Impossible to argue that any set of men have a right to dictate to other men whether they shall work or not for a particular individual, and if they choose to work in defiance of that dietHtion to drive them off by force, and if the police undertake to prevent the use of that force, thentbev have the right to kill the police. It is impossible to contend for any such principle as that" He review ed at length the connection of Neebe with the conspiracy, and clearly showed that be was associated generally with it in encouraging the movement which had for its object the destruction of the Government. Upon the question whether the defendants or any of them did anticipate or expect the throw- ' ing of the bomb, he Bald that it was a question not necessary to consider, because the instructions to the jury did not go upon that ground, but upon the ground that they had generally by •peech and print advised a large class to commit murder, and had left the occasion, time, and place to the individual will, whim, and caprice of the individuals so advised, and that in consequence of that advice and in pursuance of it and influenced bv it somebody not known did throw the bomb. The crime was nothing leas than murder, and manslaughter was not to be considered. If verdicts were to be set aside for the cause urged.it was a sure way to bring about anarchy, since there would be no way to maintain government and administer Jaw. The Court closed by saying: “I think that no case at such magnitude could be tried with less in the way of irregularity of proceedingdn the trial than in this case, and the motion must be Overruled." “Prisoners at the bar,” spoke Judge Gary, “for the first time during these painful and protracte l proceed Inga it is my duty to speak to you, and call upon you individually and'separately now to ask whether you have anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon you according to the verdict of -the Jury. I will first call upon Mr. Neebe."

SPIES SPEAKS. He Denounces Capitalists, Berates Justice and Says He'll Die Game. August Spies rose before a little table upon ■which his notes were placed, along with a glass of water, wearing a plain black suit with a but-ton-hole bouquet, stroked his hair back over his •oxnewhat intelligent forehead, and perspired freely, indicating the great strain upon his physical powers which the critical situation imposed upon him He spoke for three-quarters Of an hour. We present a few choice extracts from his remarkable speech. He began by asserting that there was no evidence connecting him with the Haymarket massacre, and declared that the execution of the sentence •gainst him would be "nothing less than a willful, malioious and deliberate murder, as foul a murder as may be found in the annals of religious, political or ahy other sort of persecution. “The class that clamors for our lives, the good and devout Christians, have attempted in every way, through their newspapers and otherwise, to conceal the true and only issue in this case by designating the defendants anarchists and picturing them as a ticwl_y dis-y oovered frilfe or species of canniSali",'~hy inventing shocking and horrifying stories of their ■conspiracies. Tnese Christians sought to keep the naked evidence from the working people—namely, that the evening of May 4 two hundred armed men under the command of a notorious rolliau attacked a meeting of peaceable citizens —with w hat intention ? With the intention of murdering them—of murdering as many as the v could. I refer to the testimony, given' by two of our witnesses. Tbe wage-workers of this city began to object to being fleeced too much. They began to say some truths that were highly disagieeable to our patrician “class. They were discontented. They put forth some very modest demands. They thought that •eight hours' hard toil a day for scarcely two hours' pay was too much. This* low rabble had to be silenced The only way to silence them was to frighten them and'murder those whom they looted up tn as Unlit leaders. Yea. these foreign dogs had to be taught a lesson, so that they might never again interfere with the higb-h&nded exploitation of their benevolent and Christian families. Bonfield, the man who would brine a blush of shame to the murderers of St. Bartholomew night—Bonfield, the IHustridus. with a visage that woiild have ■done excellent service to Dore in portraying Dante's Fiends of Hell— Bdnfield was the man to consummate the conspiracy of the Citizens' Association of our patricians; And if I had thrown that bomb, or caused it to be thrown, or had known of it, I would not hesitate a moment to state so. It is true a number of lives were lost and many were wounded.; but hundreds of lives were thereby saved. Hut for that bomb there would have been a hundred widows and hundreds of orphans where now there are a few. These facts have been suppressed, while we were accused and convicted of conspiracy by the real conspirators and their agents. Tins, your Honor, is one reason why sentence should not be passed by a court justice. ■ “It has always been the opinion of the ruling classes that the people must, be kept in ignorance. They lose their servility, their inodestv, and obedience to the arbitrary' powers that be as their intelligence grows. The education of a blacksmith a quarter of a century ago was a criminal offense. Why? Because the intelligent slave would throw off his shackles at whatever cost, my Christian gentlemen. Why is tbe education of the working people to-day looked Upon by a certain class as treason against tbe «tate? For the same reason. Tbe state, however, wisely avoided this point in the prosecution of the case. Tbe court this momihg stated that there is no ease in history like this. I have noticed during this trial thai the gentlemen of

tiie legal profession are not well versed in history- Again, in all historical cases of this kind the truth had to be perverted by the priests of the established powers that were nearins their «nds. 'We have explained to the people the different phenomena of the social laws and circumstances under which they occur. We have further stated that the wage system as a specific form of social development would, by the necessity of logic, have to make room for a higher form of civilization; that ths tem was preparing the way arid fr.mi-iim.' oie foundation for a social system of co-operation That is socialism. We have said that the tendency of progress seemed to be toward anarchism ; that is, a free society, without king and classes—a society of sovereigns in which the liberty and economic quality of all will furnish an unshakable equilibrium as a condition of natural order. It is not likely that the Hon. Bonfield and Grinnell can conceive of a condition of social order not held intact by the policemen's club and pistol, nor of a free society without prisons, gallowses, and State's Attorneys. In such a society they would probably tall to find a place for themselves. And is this

the reason why anarchism is such a pernicious and damnable doctrine T Griitpell has informed us that anarchism was on trial. If that is the ease, your Honor, very wall, yon may sentence roe, for I am an anarchist I believe with Itnckle, with l’aiha, Jefferson, with Emerson, with Spencer, and many other great thinkers of this century that the state of caste and classes, the state where one class dominates and lives upon the labor of another class, and., calls it order, should be abolished. You may pronounce your sentence upon me. honorable Judge, but let the world know that in the year Anno Domini IKHB, in the State of Illinois, seven men were sentenced to death because they had not lost their faith In the ultimate victory of liberty and jnstios "We, who have jeopardized our lives to save society from the fiend that has grasped her by the throat, that seeks her life-blood and devours her substance : we, who would heal her bleeding wounds, who would free her from the fetters you have wrought around her, from the misery you have brought upon ber—we are her enemies. We navel preached dynnunte, it is .said, and we have predicted from the lessons history has taught us that the ruling clasess of , to-day would no more listen to the voice of reason than their predecessors, and they would attempt by brute largo to stay the march at progress. Are not all the large industries of this once free courttry conducted under tho surveillance of th” police, the militia, and the Sheriff? “If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement, then call your hangman. Hut you will tread upon tho spark. Here and there, behind yon, in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. Tho ground is on fire on which,ton Rtund. You cannot understand (t, Y'ou do not believe in witcncraft, but you do holies e in ‘conspiracies.' 'You want to stamp out .the conspirators, the agitators? All, stamp out every factory lord who has grown wealthy upon the unpaid laliorof his employes ; stamp out every landlord* who has amassed a fortuno from the reut < t overburdened w< rkingrneri and farmers. Y'ou, gentlemen are the revolutionists. Do you, in your blindness; think you can stop the tidal wave of civilization and human emancipation by facing a sow jkilieemen, a few Gatling guns, some regiments of the shore? Do you tliink you can frighteiMUio rising waveß back into their unfaMiomahtc depths by erecting a few gallowses in tha perspective ? Y’ou w ho oppose the natural forces of things, you are the real revolutionists. You and you alone are the conspirators and deBtruetionists.

"Skid the Court vosterdav : 'These men (referring to the Board of Trade demonstration) started out with the express purpose of sacking the Board of Trade Building.’ Well, I cannot see what sense there would have been in such an undertaking. Hut I will assume that the 3,000 workingmen who marched in that procession really intended to sack the building. In this esse they would have differed from the respectable Board of Trade men in that they sought to recover the stolen property in a lawful way, while the others sack the entire country lawfully and unlawfully. This being a very highly respectable profession, this court of justice and equity proclaims the principle that when two persons do the same thing it is not the same thing. I thank the Court for this confession. It contains all that we have taught, and for which we are to be hung, in a nutshell. It iH a respectable profession when practiced by the privi'Bged class, but it is felony when resorted to in self-preservation by the other class. This is order. Unis is the kind of order that wo have attempted, and are still trying as long a.-i we live, to alsilish. . ' ' "Cook ujion tho economic battlefield. Look at the starving pariahs,.the miners in the Monongahela Valley, or pass along the railroads of that great benefactor, the most orderly and lawabiding citizen in tue country, Jay Gould, and then tell me whether this order has in it any moral principle, and why it should be preserved. I say that tho preservation of such an order is criminal, is murderous. It means the preservation of the systematic slaughter of children and women in factories. And last, but not least, it means the preservation of past struggles and riots and bloodshed. That is your order, gentlemen. Yes, and it is worthy of you to be the champions of such an order. You are excellently fitted for that purpose. You have my compliipenti / ’ ’ " ‘These men.’ GrinnOll said repeatedly, 'have no principles. They are common murders, robbers, assassins,’ and so forth. I admit that our aspirations and objects are incomprehensible to the unprincipled ruffians. But the assertion is an infamous falsehood. Articles have been read here from the Arbn ter-Zritu ng and the Alarm to show the dangerous character of the defendants. Those articles generally followed and commented upon some atrocity committed by the authorities upon striking workingmen. They were picked out and read to you. Other articles were not read to you The other articles were not what the State wanted. And upon these articles the State's Attorney, who well knows he tells a falsehood when he says so, says these men have no principles. “When anarchism gains its point there will not longer be any use for policemen and militia to preserve so-called peace and order—the order that the liussian General telegraphed to the Czar after he had massacred half of Moscow, “Order is retored in Moscow." Anarchism does not mean bloodshed, does not mean chaos, arson, and so forth. These monstrosities are the characteristic features of capitalism. Anarchism means peace and tranquillity to all. "It is true that we have told the people time and again that the great day of a change was comiug It is' true that we have called upon -the people to arrote prepare Tor that day. This seems to.be the ground upon which the' verdict is to be sustained. But ‘when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing unvaryingly the same objects evinces the design to reduce the people uuder absolute desjrotism it is their right and duty to throw off such Government and provide new guards for their future safety.’ This is a quotation from the Declaration of Independence. If you think you can crush out these ideas that are gaining ground more and more every day, ii you would once more have people suffer tie penalty of death because they dare to tell the truth, then I say you may call your hangman and tam acsiiii mv frlt-ndsovorto farm. YYe have not told anything but the truth. I defv you to show us where we told a lie. I shall die proudly and defiantly in the cause of truth, as so many martyrs have done whom I could name to you, and among them is Christ."

THE LESSEK LIGHTS. Neebe Wishes He Was Going to Hang, Too Lingg Becomes Abusive. Michael Schwab followed the chief anarchist, reading a manuscript speech, which he held in both hands, through a pair of old-fashioned -spectacles, in an awkward position, and with a bad voice. He remarked that he would have kept silence if keeping silence did not look cowardly. He went over much of the same ground occupied by Spies, pictured the sufferings and Jiardsbiivs of the working people, and extolling the excellence of socialism and anarchy. Oscy Neebe then took the floor, speaking without notes in a firm, strong, grating voice, with a decided German accent He said that he had been marshal of a procession and chairman of a laepr meeting, and for those offenses he had.been accounted it criminal and convicted. He devoted some "time to denouncing the detectives of Chicago, called Grinuell and Furthmau scoundrels to their faces, and said that Mr. Ingham was the only gentleman aiming the attorneys for the State. Mr. Grinnell had caused him to be indictee in order to crush out the Arbeiter-Zeitunff, but he hud found his mistake. To-day that paper had two pressesmstead of one, a’ud now the workingmen reading its language owned their own paper. He explained bis connection with the labor moVement, and disclaimed all connection-with the Havmarket business. He enumerated tins various “crimes' which, he said, he had committed, but according to his own account these were all virtuous deeds on liehalf of the cause of labor. He pictured the terrible poverty of the lower classes of laboringmen in the city, and said that - when “these rats were let out of their holes then lookout.' The police had searched his home and found a red flag and a revolver. They had acted like wild Indians. He was sorry t hat he could not be hanged with the rest of the prisoners. Then liis wife and children cotttd'visit his grave. Now they would have to live under the stigma that he was a criminal in the penitentiary. *

Adolph Fischer explained as to the printing of the -Hevenge' circular, .and said that when he would be, sentenced to death it would be not because he was a murderer, but be-* cause he was an anarchist When he first began to speak Attorney Salomon advanced with the intention of giving the prisoner some instructions, but was rtceivcd with a rebuff; "lion't bother me ; I know what to say," was the reply. He made but a brief address, was very sulkv, and out of temper w ith his attorneys and all concerned. . t He was followed by Txnris I.ingy. who spoke in German. He said that the bombs he nn.de were not the sabie as that exploded at the Havmarket He spoke it; a vpry lon l voice, and frequently pounded the table with his clenched fist in .accentuation of his remarks, w’alking ' nervously ~np— and down the —space— which had been cleared to accommodate the speakers. He frequently turned upon Mr. Grinnell and his co-attorneys with outtmrsts of wrath and'German invectives in a style which led to some apprehensions that he was about to pounce upon them. His address was simply a tirade against the police and the authorities generally. He concluded by saying that' if he was hanged thousands of others would use dynamite after he was bead. He defied the law and despised 'its administrators, and would go to the gallows in ■ the cause of dynamite against unjust oppression of the capitalists.

George Engel spoke next, using the German tongue: "This Is the first time," said he, “I have ever stood before an American com t, and at that 1 find myself condemned to death. I am brought to this by the same causes that compelled me to leave the fatherland. I have seen »lth ray own eyes that ii> this freest and richest country in the world there are existing proletawho are cast out from every omer of society. I saw human beings who fished out their food from the slop-barrels on the streets in order to exist from day to day. I read of examples in the daily papers, which prove to me that in tlii. glorious oountry hero are people condemned to die from hunger. I became sorry for having left my own land, and asked myself what are the jr aeons that could bring about inch a state of things. / * -es-yrri "I liavo lost my respect for American laws. 1 am convinced, and this conviction no one can tear out of my heart, that the proletariat, by means of machinery, will gain power to educate themselves. Not even those can hinder It who tr*-i.lay arrogate to themselves the government of the workingmen." Engel lifted his voice and flourished his right hand over his Head os he cried : "In spite of all, anarchy will exist; if not in public, it w ill exist in private. It the State's Attorney thinks by sending seven men to the gallow s ami another one to the jieuiteutiary ho can break up anarchy, he is mistaken. He can only change the tactics, he cannot stop the movement. Nothing enn stop the workingmen from making bombs, and they will' be used. I am convinced anarchism cannot be rooted out." Engel wound up with a tirade-against the capitalists and coal barons. He was followed by Sam Bidden, wjho prefaced what he had to sav by reciting a poem from tho German of Ferdinand Freiligrdtb, entitled, "Bevolution." The first stanza was as follows : And tho’ ye caught your noble prey within your hangman’s sordid thrall, And tho' your Captive was led forth beneath your city's rampart wall, And tho' the grass lies o'er her green, where, at the morning's early red, The peasant girl brings funeral wreaths, I toll you still—she is not dead. After eulogizing the poet, Fielden declared he himself was a revolutionist; that it was only a crime to be a revolutionist w hen the man entertaining Ruch ideas was a poor man ; among intellectual jieople it was no crime. He declared he had been arrested and indicted for murder but had been tried for anarchy. Fielden took up the Haymarket meeting and discussed his speech at great length, claiming that it was not incendiary in any sense, and that there was no excuse for the interference of the police. In closing, he said : “Y’our Honor, with due respect to your years, I wish to say this, that it iH quite possible that you can not understand, having lived in a different atmosphere from what wo have lived in, how men can hold such ridiculous, ideas. T have no doubt that you have Jett that way. Y'et it is well known that jScrsons who live to a very ripe old age very seldoin chaiige their opinions. But I impute no wrong motive in that. It is a natural result. But we do claim that our principles will bear discussion, investigation, and criticism. “If I can say anything in the Interests of humanity, in the interests of liberty, equality, and fraternity. I would say it now. Take heed! take heed ! The time, my friends, is not far off. The swift process of reduction of the masses into a condition of depravity and degradation, as is evinced by the ni mbers of men out of employment, shows us clearly where we are going. YYe cannot deny it. No thinking man, no reasoning man, no friend of his kind can ignore the fact that wo are going rapidly onto a precipice. “Your Honor, I have worked at hard labor since I was eight years of age. I went into a cotton factory when I was eight years old, and I have worked continually since, and there has never been a time in my history that I could have been bought or could have been paid to say a single thing by any man or for any purpose which I did not believe to be true. To contradict the lie that was published in connection with the bill by the grand jury charging ub with murder, I wish to say that I have never received one cent for agitating. "To-day, as the beautiful autumn sun kissel with balmy breeze the cheek of every free man, I stand here never to bathe my head in its rays again. I have loved my fellow-men as I have loved myself. I have hated trickery, dishonesty, and injustice. The nineteenth century commits the crime of killing its best friend. It will live to repent of it. But, as I have said beforq, if if will do any good I freely give myself up. I trust the time will come when there will be a better understanding, more intelligence, and, above the mountains of iniquity, wrong, and corruption, I hope the sun of Righteousness, and truth, and justice will come to bathe in its balmy light an emancipated world. I thank your‘Honor for your attention." Albert R. Parsons followed Fielden. With a flower In his button T hole, water, lemon,-red handkerchief, and a bundle of manuscript on the taDle before him, it was seen at once that he is vain and affected. He rolled his “r’s” and his eyes, said “me" for my, was gentle as a lamb one second and frothed at the mouth the next. He paced up and down, stood on his toes, and crouched to the floor. Ho aimed to be dramatic, and Succeeded only in being sensational and“vehement. Almost his first utterance showed the character of his address, as with dramatic gesture and intense tone*, he thundered forth : “I will tell the truth though my tongue be torn from my mouth, and my throat cut from ear to ear, so hdp me God i” Continuing, he said fYour Honor, I Stand here as one of the people, a common,, man, a workingman, one of the millions, and I ask you to give ear to what I have to say. Y'ou stand as a bulwark ; you stand as a brake between them and us. You stand here as the representative of justice, holding the poised scales in your hands. You are expected to look neither to the right nor to the left, but to do that by which justice and justice alone shall be subserved. Now, the conviction of a man, your Honor, does not necessarily prove that he is guilty, Your law books are filled With instances where men have been carried to the scaffold and after their death it has been proven -that-the murder was judicial; that it was a .jasScM cud. tan lm sub*, served in hurrying this matter through in the manner in which it has been done? Where are the ends of justice subserved, and where is truth found in sending seven human beings at the rate of express speed upon a fast train to the scaffold and an ignominious death? Why, if your Honor please, the very method of our extermination, the deep damnation of our taking off. appeals to your Honor’s sense of justiee, of rectitude, and of honor, A judge may also be an unjust man. Such things have been known. ' < ?

“Now, I hold that our execution, as the matter stands just now, would be judicial murder, and judicial murder is for worse tlian\|ynch law—far worse. But, your Honor, bear in mind, please, this trial was conducted by a mob, Csecuted by a mob, hv the shrieks and the rls of a mob, an organized powerful mob. That trial is over. Now, your Honor, you sit here judicially, calmly and quietly, and it'is for you now to look at this thing from the standpoint of reason and of common sense. There is one peculiarity about the case, yoilr Honor, that I wantto call your attention to. It was the manner and the method of its prosecution. On the one side the attorneys for the prosecution conducted this case from the standpoint of capitalists as against labor. On the other side, the attorneys for the defense conducted this case as a defense for murderers, not for laborers, and not against capitalists. The prosecution in this case throughout has been a capitalistic prosecution, inspired bv the instinct of capitalism, and I mean by that by class feelings, by a dietatoriar right to rule and a'denial to common people the right to say anything or have anything to say to these men. They conducted this trial from that standpoint throughout. “The capitalistic press has taken great pains to say that socialists tight machinery ; that we light property. Why, sir, it is an absurdity, it is ridiculous, it is preposterous. No man ever heard one of us speak who ever heard an utterance front the mouth of a socialist advising anything of the kind. They know to the contrary. We don’t fight machinery; we don’t oppose these things. It is only the manner and the methods of it, your Honor, that we object to. That is all. It is tbe manipulation of these things. When we see little children huddling around the factory gates, die poor little things whose bones are not_yet hard, when we see them clutched from the hearthstone, taken - away from the family altar, and carried to the bastiles of labor, and their little bones ground up into gold dust to bedeck the farm of some aristocratic Jezebel, then it stirs the manhood in me, and I speak out. We plead for the little ones; we plead for the helpless ; we plead for the oppressed ; we seek redress for those who are wronged: we seek knowledge and intelligence for the Ignorant; we seek liberty for the slave; we seek the welfare of every human, being." i r-iiTTgr-. z. .. .u:. % A Torse, married woman was very much worried during the recent storm. Her husband had just bought a cow and pat it in tbe barn. As soon as it commenced to thunder, the lady rushed wildly to the kitchen and cried to her cook: “Run, Mary, and shut that stable door. If that cow hears that thunder.it will turn her milk sour.” ■ A Kentt cky woman has nearly reformed her husband by persuading him to use bottles of whisky as weights for the clock. The ofteuer he drinks the slower the dock goes, and the longer be has to , wait for his meals.