Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1886 — JUDGE GARY’S LAST WORDS. [ARTICLE]

JUDGE GARY’S LAST WORDS.

Passing Sentence Upon the Convicted Anarchists—To Be Hanged by the Seek Dec. 3. [From the Chicago Tribune. ] •Iq tones so-low and sympathetic that those not immediately around the bench cOuldwlth difficulty catch the import of his words, Judge Gary began his address to the prisoners. V\ hen he came to the formal pri nouncing of the sentence, even Parsons, seemingly In spite of himself, fixed his eye upon his face, Spies listened to the words of doom with steadfast eye and defiant smile. Schwab’s face was grave and inscrutable. Neebe looked excited. Fielden pulled at bin long beard. Lingg and Fischer gave no outward signs of emotion, and Engel's manner was as stolid as ever. Far more agitated than the prisoners was Judge Gary himself. His voice fell lower and lower. As he pronounced the words “hangid by tho neck" ho paused, turned in his chair, and the concluding wpriis, "until dead,” were barely audible. The full text of bis address and the sentence is as follows : I am quite well aware that what you have said, although addressed to me, has been said to the world; vet nothing has been said which weakens the force of the proof or the conclusions therefrom upon which the verdict is based. You are all men of intelligence, and know fffat* if the verdict stands it must be executed. The reasons why it shall stand I have already sufficiently Btated in deciding the mp-tion-for a new trial. I am sorry beyond any power of expression for your unhappy condition, and for tho terrible events that have brought it about. I shall address to- you neither reproaches nor exhortation. Whut I shall say shall be said in the faint hope that a few words from a place where the People of the State of Illnois nave delegated the authority to declare the penalty of a violation of their laws, and spoken upon an occasion so solemn and awful as this, may come to the knowledge of and be heeded by the ignorant, deluded, and mißguided men who hav6 listened to your counsels and, followed your advice. I say in the faint hojie; for if men are persuaded that because of business differences, whether about labor or anything else, they may destroy property and assault and beat other men, and kill the police if they, in the discharge of their duty, interfere to preserve the peace, there is little ground to hope that they will listen to any warning. It is not the least among the hardships of the peaceable, frugal, and laborious poor, to endure the tyranny of mobs w ho, \\ itb lawless force, dictate to them, under penalty of peril to limb and life, where, when, and upon what terms they may earn a livelihood for themselves and their families. Any government that is worthy of the name will strenuously endeavorto secure to all within its jurisdiction freedom to follow the lawful avocations and safety for their property and their persons, while obeying the law, and the law is common sense. It holds each man responsible for the natural and probable consequences of his own acts. It holds that whoever advises murder is himself guilty of the murder that is committed pursuant to his advice, and if men band together for a forcible resistance to the execution of the law, and advise murder as a means of making such resistance effectual, whether such advice be to one man to murder another, or to a numerous class to murder men of another class, all who are so banded together are guilty of any muider that is committed in pursuance of such advice. The people of this country love their institutions, they love their homes, they love their property. They will never consent that, by violence and murder, those institutions shall be broken down, their homes despoiled, and their property destroyed. And the people s,re strong enough to protect and sustain their institutions and to punish all offenders against their laws; and those who threaten danger to civil society, if the law is enforced, are leading to destruction whoever may attempt to execute such, threats. The existing order of society can be changed only by the will of the majority. Each man has the full right to entertain and advocate by speech and print such opinions as suit himself, and the great body Of the people will usually care little what he says. But if he proposes murder as a means of enforcing, he puts his own life at stake. And no clamor about free speech or the evils to be cured or tho wrongs to be redressed will shield him from the consequences of his crime. His liberty is not a license to destroy.. The toleration that he enjoys he must extend to others, and not arrogantly assume that the great majority are wrong and may rightfuUy be coerced by terror or removed by dynamite. It only remains that for the crime you have committed, and of which you have been convicted after a trial unexampled in the patience with which an outraged people have extended to you every protection and privilege of the law which you derided and defied, that the sentence of that law be now given. In form and detail that sentence will appear upon the records of the court. In substance and effect it is that the defendant Neebe be imprisont d in the State Penitentiary at Joliet at hard labor for the term of fifteen yt ars. And that each of the other defendants,-be-tween the hours of ten o’clock hi the forenoon unddwo o'clock in the afternoon of the third day of December next, in the manner provided by the statute of this State, be hung by the neck until he is dead. Remove the prisoners. Capt. Black—Your Honor knows that we intend to take an appeal to the Supreme Court in behalf of all the defendants. I ask that there be a stay of execution in the case of Mr. Neebe until Dec. 3. Mr. Griunell—lf the court please, that is a matter that usually stands between counsel for the defendants and the State. Every possible facility will be granted you, and no order can possibly be entered of record which would not be other but that will be allowed. Everything shall be granted you in that, particular that good sense and propriety dictate. Instantly upon the pronouncement of the sentence all was confusion. Every eye was turned upon the prisoners, who rose from their seats as though from force of habit and without volition. The .spectators rose also and the relatives of the condemned men pressed forward. The- court caUed sharply for order and the heavy wand of the crier descended upon the bar. The women shrank back and the prisoners hastily resumed their seats. Only for an instant, however, for the bailiffs, seeing that it was but a burst of natural affection*- let Nature have her way. Mrs. Parsons alone did not heed the crier's gavel, but rushed forward and threw her arms about her husband's neck as he stood at his chair. She hid her face in his neck and he .bent hia -head until his face was concealed from view in her arms. Husband and wife retained their attitude for nearly a minute. Then she released him and turned away, her dark face hard and tense and her eyes dry. As she turned away Gen. Parsons threw his arms about his brother’s neck, and the two men hid their faces on., each other's shoulders. Spies, with a careless smile on hia face, shook hands with his sister and other relatives, and spoke a few reassuring words to their tearful expressions of sympathy. As he turned to go Mrs. Parsons rushed up to him, threw her arms about his neck, and kissed him vehemently on the lips. The other prisoners received the expressions of sympathy quietly and filed out of court without betraying emotion of any kind, handsome Louis Lingg looking even more indifferent and scornful than usual.

Some Further Excerpts from'Parsons’Six Hours’ Harangue. Do you think, gentlemen of the prosecution, that you will have settled the case when you are currying my lifeless bones to the potter’s field? Do you think that this trial will be settled by my strangulation and that of my colleagues ? I tell you that there is a greater verdict yet to be heard from. The American people will yet have something to say about this attempt to violate their right which they hold sacred. It is proposed by the prosecution here to take me by force and strangle me upbn the gallows for these things I have said, for these expressions. Now, your Honor, force is the last resort; it is the last resort of tyrants ; it is the last resort of despots, of oppressors, and he who would strangle another because that other does not believe as he would have him, he who would destroy another because that other will not do as he says, that man is a despot and a tyrant, and unworthy to live. Now, your Honor, I speak' plainly ; I speak as an anarchist; I speak as a socialist; I speak as a wage slave, a workingman Now, does it follow because I hold these views that I committed this act at the Haymarket? My own deliberate opinion concerning this Haymarket affair is that the death-dealing missile was the work, the deliberate wnrk. nf. monopoly—the act of those who themselves charge us with the deed. lam not alone in this view of this matter. What are the real facts afih»t Haymarket tradgev? Mayer Hagrison, of Chicago, has caused To be published his opinion, in which he says: “I did not believe thsEt' there was any intention on the part of Spies and those men to hive bomba thrown at the Havmarket." He knows more about thi3 thing than the jury that sat in this room, for he knows—l suspect that the Mayor knows—of some of the methods by which some of this evidence and testimony might have been manufactured. I don’t charge it, your Honor, but possibly he has bad some intimation of it, and if he has he knows mare about this case and the merits of this case than did the jury who sat here. «.