Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-06-26
The Molly Maguires Executed.


messed on the 21st inst, at Pottsville, |
Pa, of the execution of eleven of the
murderers known as Molly Maguires at |
Maunch chunk of four others, and at |
Wilkesbarre one of the same band, |
whose atrocities, as stated by North |
ern journal, have for fourteen years
made "human life as uncertain in that
nominally Christian State as ever it was
in the jungles of India before advanc-
ing civilization had cleared them of til
gers and of Thugs" There are few
States in the Union, certainly none in
the South, against which such an allie
cation could be pretended. The fact
that such men as these are of foreign
birth or foreign descent is startling
illustration of the proposition ANNOUNCE
ed by an English historian that in the
centres of civilization of the old world
there is barbarism among certain class
es of the community as wild and fero-
cious as any among the savage tribes of
the wilderness. The counties in which
these men were hung were adjoining,
and the chief places of execution about
twenty miles apart. The "Molly Ma
guires" is the name given to secret
society in Pennsylvania, which was or
ganized to use terrorism and revenge for
the purpose of keeping down all oppo-
sition to the rule of their adherents in
the anthracite coal regions in the mat
ter of mining regulations by operators
and bosses, ''strikes" and the wages of
labor. 1t was during the periods of dis
pute between the miners and their en-
ployers, and during or Immediately be-
fore or after STRIKES" that the most OF
their murderous work was done. Some
Of them used the name of the "Ancient
Order of Hibernians," with their signs,
passwords and machinery for purposes
of assassination. The localities in
which they operated were chiefly the
counties of Schuylkill, Carbon and Luz
zerne. Those against whom they ope
rated were "mine bosses" who were
] faithful to their employers, or mine own
ers or operators who wanted to control
their mines in their own way, or work
ing miners or laborers who refused to do
their biddings. Their brutal beatings
and incendiary fires were innumerable,
but murder was the commonest of their
crimes. The stoning to death by mob
of one Langdon, breaker boss" in
Carbon county, in 1862, was the first of
their crimes. They fired at obnoxious
persons through windows of bedrooms
while sleeping, and while walking
home, and shot one policeman upon his
beat. Their cunning, equal to their fe-
rocity, was shown in the fact that the
victims were never beaten or killed by
the men who held grudes against them,
but by strangers detailed from 'divis-
ions" in asdiferent locality. They did
their work openly, and sometimes in
different locality. They did their
work openly, and sometimes in the
presence of the families of their vic
Tins. They even had tariff of prices
for murder, and it is said to be in evil
dence that on one occasion "division"
meeting was held in order to decide be-
tween rival claimants for ''blood
money!" two men actually claiming the
sole merit of one murder and putting
| in their demands for pay. These scenes,
scarcely equaled by the braves of the
E middle ages, occurred within four hours
of Philadelphia, the headquarters OF
"brotherly love-" and whose journals
are more exercised than those of any
. Atlantic city upon barbarism and out
. RACES in the South. 1t is evident, how
ever, that those executed were mostly
very ignorant men, and were thus, per
!. haps, in one sense the victims of others,
, who by reason of their unfortunate con-
: dition were able to use them for the
wicked purposes of the organization.
Although there was some quarrel
about the wages of labor, the grudges
and revenges of the molly Maguires"
seem to have been almost purely person.
al. The political power which they
attained is one of the most curious and
significant features of their malign ca
reer. In various counties important
local officers, commissioners and chief
: of police were "Molly Maguires," and
one Of them came within few votes of
being elected a judge of the very court
which condemned his confederates to
/ be hanged! The day of reckoning has
come to them at last, and the survivors,
who are said to be plotting revenge,
will probably find that the law can no
longer be defied. The persons executed
at Pottsville were James Carroll, Hugh
Mcclellan, James Boyles, James Roar
ity and Thomas Duffy, murderers of po-
liceman Benjamin F. Yost, and Thomas
Sanger; at Wilkesbarre Anthony Lam
ahan, murderer of John Reilly, poll
tician; at Mauch Chunk, Alexander
Campbell, Michael J. Doyle and Ed
ward Kelly. murderers of John P. Jones,
and John Donahue, murderer of Morgan
Powell.
f Gov. Hartranft had Chester N. Farr,
his private secretary, stationed at Potts
vile during the execution, with re-
prieve for Duffy, to be used upon the
happening of the contingency that one
or more Of Duffy's gollows companies
should, in the shape of statement or
confession, exculpate Duffy, or at least
throw sufficient doubt on his absolute
guilt as to make further Investigation
in the light of the statement of dying
man advisable.
Duffy, he said, was the only one of
the murderers of Yost concerning whose
guilt there was the slightest doubt in
the board. Duffy was the original
cause of Yost's death, because it was
Duffy whom Yost had arrested and
beaten, and it was Duffy's threat for
vengeance and motive for murder that
made him fit subject for Kerrigan's
tale of States evidence to hinge upon.
| But the board considered that the ev-