The Labor enquirer., 1886-10-30
His History From the Cradle
to the Grave Has Been
Traced and it
Defes Grinnell-Fielden's First
Speech Made in
Advocacy
OF the Abolition of Human Slavery.
Arrested For Murder and
- Tried for Anarchy.

The limited space of TAE> ENQUIRIES
will not allow of the production of Sam
uel Fielden's great speech in one issue
30 a portion is printed this week and the
remainder will appear in succeeding is
sues.
Your honor, l was brought into thi.
court by the police officers and the civil
authorities of the city of Chicago to an
swer to the charge of murder. l was ar
rested on May 5, held by the coroner's
Jury on the same evening as accessory to
the crime of murder. l was furnished
after some time with an indictment
which the grand jury had passed or ap-
proved charging me with that crime. l
answered that charge in this court Ny
attorneys in my behalf met that charge
we brought evidence which we thought
charge of murder After all our evil
dence was put in, after all the speeches
had been made on both sides with the
exception of one, we were suddenly con-
fronted with the fact, and there is in
that statement of the states att orneY in
his closing argument an acknow edge
menty that the charge of murder has not
been proven, and when all the wit
nesses had been in am suddenly told
that am being tried for Anarchy.
If l had known that l was being tried
for Anarchy could have answered that
charge l could have justified 1t under
the constitutional right of every citizen
of this country, and more than the right
which any constitution can give, the ma
tural right of the human mind to draw
its own conclusion from whatever infOr
nation it can gain, but | had no oppor
tunItie8 to show whv | was an AnarCh
ist | WAS told that | was to be hung for
being an Anarchist, after | had got
through defending myself on the charge
of murder. Now, your honor, nv repu-
lar as the lynx-eyed detectives OF Cni-
rago could get it, has been rakel W., as
Mr.. Foster has said, from the cradle to
the grave | have been charged here
with being disturber Of the peace, an
enemy of public order, and generally a
dangerous man. | choose now, it being
the last time that | shall have an oppor-
tunitv to speak, to 60 back few years
into nv past history, and perhaps in do
ing so shall show YOUR honor the rea-
sons that led me to be what have been
and for which to-day | am not ashamed
and have no apology to make.
| was born, as ! have told you in
lancashire and if there is place
know that the sO-Called patriots OF this
country have from mercenary motives
of their own tried to create quarrel be-
tween England and America from time
to time in order to yet a certain vote,
and | know that there is some Ju8tiiCa-
ton behind it-but if there is a place on
this footstool that Americans ought to
look to with gratitude 1t is Lancashire.
was born there. learned there to
hate slavery. learned to nate
kings and queens, and unlike the state 8
attorney in this case | was5a republican
though | was born in monarchy.
There are some men who never grow
ont of their environments They never
progress, They never adva zee me step
lfthey are born in Russia, Russia Is the
yrandest country in the world aud has
the grandest Institutions. If theY are
born in Ch IA it is the same. II theY
were born in Patagonia 1t would have
been the same. But |, as child, in
Quired, and I began there to hate kings,
and | tell you that when your cotton
ports on the southern sea-board we're
boCkaded, and this fact has gone into
the literature of both countries 1t was
remarkable the patience of the starving
operatives of Lancashire, and the noble
Lincoln acknowledging that sent two
Ship-loads of provisions to keep them
from starvation. The propertied class
OF England, in sympathy with the slave
holders of tn south, | know, would
have interfered In order to prevent the
cementing together of the union and the
success of the north. But the opera
tives, the intelligent operatives OF Lanca-
shire, among whom l was one as child
were the friends, and they Cheertully
and patiently bore with all the starVa-
ton which they suffered through that
terrible struggle.
say there are some people who never
get out of their environments. was
republican when l was child. L recog'
nized the fact that l might be wrong,
and recognizing that fact l grew from
one point to another. The hrstspeech
| ever delivered IN nv life was IN the
streets ofmy native town, and l Wes Dut
a mere child 1t was in support as
against the view of those who denounced
the north in their struggle for suprem-
acy in the late war. That was the hrst
speech l delivered. and it shows that
then had some sympathy in my heart
for those who could do me no good, that
could feel for others.
Mr. Ingham has said that while other