Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1893-06-28
ANARCHISTS OUT.
FIELDEN, sCHwAB AND NEEBE
SET AT LIBERTY

BY Order Of Governor Altgeld, Who
Granted Them an Unconditional
Pardon, Taking Opportunity at the
Same Time to Give the Trial Judge
Roast.
SPRINGFIELD, Ills., June 27,-GoVer
nor Altgeld has pardoned Fielden
Schwab and Neebe, the anarchists
Practically ever since the bomb was ex
ploded in Des PLANES street on the
night of May 4, 1886, the three mer
just pardoned have been in prison
With the exception of Parsons, who
gave himself UP to death by returning
during the trial, all the men finally
convicted of conspiring were appre'
hended within a. short time after the
riot. The details of the trial are too
we'll remembered to demand recount
ing. Spies, Fielden, Parsons, Fischer.
Lingg, Schwab and Engel were SEN
fenced to death and Neebe, whom many
thought innocent, to 10 years in the
penitentiary. The case was carried up
and fought with great desperation in
the supreme court of the state by the
prisoners counsel, but the court finally
confirmed sentence Of the lower court
and the
Sentence Was Carried Out
with respect to Spies, Parsons, Fischer,
Engel and Neebe. Louis Lingg killed
himself with Illuminating cap in the
Jail on the day preceding to save hang
ing. A determined attempt to secure a
communication o. the sentence was made
before the execution, especially in be-
half of Parsons, who was well known
and popular, and it might have been
granted if that wild fellow had con-
sented to recant in his faith. Fielden
and Schwab made terms and their
sentence was cut down to life irnpris-
onment. Spies, Parsons, Fischer and
Engel were hanged from the same glib
bet in the north corridor of the Jail
Nov. II, 1887. The others were quickly
taken to Joliet penitentiary. Since
that time an agitation, growing in
strength and vehemence, has been di-
rected towards the release Of the prison
ers. AS it grew it was joined by many
men of prominence. Some of them
sympathized with the men in the be-
ginning and believed that they had
been convicted on narrow construc-
tion Of the law and with an inadequate
opportunity for defense. The majority
Of signers, however, were men who had
been originally bitter in their denuncia-
tion of the agitation but believing that
anarchy had suffered its death blow
from the hanging there was no good in
keeping these men in Jail.
Altgeld's Statement.
Governor Altgeld's statement accom-
panying his pardon Of the anarchists
contains 1900 words. The governor
reviews the history of the Haymarket
meeting of May 4, 1886, in detail and
says the basis OF the appeal for pardon
was the petition signed by several
thousand merchants, bankers, judges,
lawyers and other prominent citizens of
Chicago.
Speaking of the charge that the trial
judge was prejudiced the governor
says: sit is further charged with much
bitterness by those who speak for the
prisoners that the record OF the case
shows that the judge conducted the
trial with
Malicious Ferocity;
that in examing the states witnesses
he confined counsel for the defense to
the specified points touched on by the
state, while in the cross examination of
the defendants witnesses he permitted
the states attorney to go into all man
ner of subjects entirely foreign to the
matters on which the witnesses were
examined in chief, also that every rul-
ing throughout the long trial on any
contested point was in favor of the
state, and, further, that page after
page of the manuscript contains
insinuating remarks of the Judge
made in the hearing of the jury and
with the evident intention of bringing
the jury to his way of thinking"