The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-21
A RIGHTEOUS VERDICT.

Anarchists who have been on trial so long Tor
the crime of conspiracy and assassination.
Taking the expressions heard in this city when
the news was made public-and the feeling
here is about the same as elsewhere-lt ap-
peared to be the universal impression that
better or more just finding had never been
made Nor was this expression confined to
any class of people, but seemed to be shared
in by all who stopped to read the bulletin
makings the announcement. There is good
reason for this. The people of the country
are not bloodthirsty. They have no personal
feeling against the accused. They know
nothing about them except their teachings
and the bloody work they have done. They
know nothing about the men who were slain
except that they were officers Of the law killed
in the discharge Of their duty. Yet there has
not been case in months, or years. perhaps,
that has attracted SO general attention and
excited so much interest Ordinarily the peo-
pie of one part of the country care nothing or
little about what those of another part do
and they would not care in this case were it
not that they felt that they were vitality in
terested in the outcome of the trial.
The offense of men SO justly condemned to
death was much more infamous than simple
assassination, if that be possible. Had they
done their bloody work under an impulse that
Lol Ed lad had
personal grievance against the men whose
lives they took in such fearful manner, or
had they had any good excuse for believing
they had been wronged by the men they
killed, there would have been felt for them
sympathy that might have spared them the
extreme penalty that has been pronounced
upon them. But none of these mitigating
circumstances can be pleaded in their defense
The men they killed had never wronged them
in any way, and were probably strangers to
them personally. The police were shot down
without word of warning and while in the
discharge of their sworn duty. For months
the Anarchists Of that city had been preach
ing assassination, and when the time came for
them to put their doctrine into practice 1t was
done in manner that appalled, the people all
over the country. Not that there was any
feeling that the integrity of the government
was imperiled, but that men could be found
who were so bloodthirsty and so unmindful of
their duties and privileges as citizens of one of
the freest, most liberal governments Of the
world, where the law and it's enforcement is
in the hands of all the people. The scoundrels,
fresh from intrigues and murderous plottings
against the governments of the old world, had
sought and found an asylum in this Republic
only to begin anew their murderous plottings
Without stopping long enough to see what was
the nature of this government, and with no
idea Of the magnificent possibilities it held out
to all who cared to take advantage of the OPP
portunities offered, they set about conspiring
to overturn law and order and to inaugurate
| anarchy and disorder. Masking under the
cloak of liberty, they sought to make liberty
ltupOSSlUto. AAOJ NOluuldIily duo plOuOly
announced themselves the enemies Of the
government, municipal, State and federal.
They brooked no restraint and defed all law,
so that when an effort was made to compel
them to respect the laws that the people Of
this country had drafted and made to bear
equally upon all, they began what they fondly
hoped would terminate in period of anarchy
and bloodshed, such as perhaps the world
never saw This handful Of imported mis-
creants dreamed of plunging sixty millions of
people into the horrors of worse than civil war,
for it would have been a war whose founda,
tombstone would have been defiance of all law
and whose rallying cry would have been as
sassination.
The people of the United States have been
marvelously patient with these fellows not
to have flung them into prison, as they de-
served, long ago, when they began preaching
this crusade of murder and assassination.
They were suffered to live and carry on their
plots because the people hoped that they
would see the folly of their muFderous course
before they proceeded to extreme measures
and in the belief that they would either see
that they could not hope to succeed in their
bloody undertaking or that they would learn
patriotism. Their faith, so loudly and per-
sistently proclaimed, was in murder and law
lessness They brooked no restraint and
asked no quarter, until they felt the grip Of
the peoples outraged law about their dirty
threats. They are cringing now, for they see
at last that they are but squirming vermin in
the hands of the majestic law that this
mighty xenrla have sat m h1,lxrarlr aLc,,t