The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-07-19
Governor Altgeld Holds That
the So-called Anarchists
Were Not Guilty of
Murder or Con.
spiracy.

bnf99 'B0HkCQIBbb VIII W0AO AnPAloOACO
at Joliet under sentence Of murder.
Accompanying his pardon the governor
made the following statement. The
italics are az used by him:
"on the night of May A, 1886, public meet.
ing was held on Haymarket square In Chicago.
There were from 800 to 400 people present,
nearly all being laboring men. There had
been trouble, growing out Of an effort to intro
duce the eigbt-hour day, resulting in some
collisions with the police, in one Of which sew
eral laboring people were killed, and this meet
Ing was called as protest against alleged
police brutality
"The meeting was orderly and was attended
by the mayor, who remained until the crowd
began to disperse and then went away. AS
soon as Captain John Bonfleld, OF the police
department, learned that the mayor had gone,
he took detachment OF police and hurried to
the meeting for the purpose Of dispensing the
few that remained, and as the police ap-
preached the place Of the meeting bomb was
thrown by some unknown person, which ex-
ploded and wounded many and killed several
policemen, among the latter being one Matthias
Degan. number Of people were arrested,
and after time August Spies, Albert r. Par
sons, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel
Fielden, George Engle, Adolph Fischer and
Oscar Neebe were indicted for the murder of
Degan. The prosecution could not discover
who had thrown the bomb, and could not
bring the really guilty man to justice, and, as
some OF the men indicted we're not at the Hay
market meeting and had nothing to do with
1t, the prosecution was forced to proceed on
the theory that the men indicted were guilty
OF murder because IL was claimed they had
at various times in the past uttered and printed
incendiary and seditlOus language, practi-
cally advising the killing OF policemen, OF
Pinkerton men, and others acting in that ca
pacity and that they were therefore respOn-
sible for the murder OF Matthias Degan. The
public was greatly excited, and after pro-
longed trial oil OF the defendants were found
guilty. Oscar Neebe was sentenced to fifteen
years imprisonment, and all Of the other de-
PENDANTS were sentenced to be hanged. The
case was carried to the supreme court and was
there affirmed in the fall of 1887. Soon there
after Lingg committed suicide. The sentence
OF Fielden and Schwab was committed to Inn
prisonment for life, and Parsons, Fischer,
Engle and Spies we're hanged, and the Pc
titioners now ask to have Neebe, Flelden and
schwab set at liberty,
BASIS OF APPEAL FOR PARDON.
"The several thousand merchants, bankers,
judges, lawyers and other prominent citizens
OF Chicago who have by petition, by letter
and in other ways urged executive clemency,
mostly base their appeal on the ground that,
assuming the prisoners to be guilty, they have
been punished enough, but u number Of them
who have examined the case more carefully
and are more familiar with the record and
with the facts disclosed by the papers on file,
base their appeal on entirely different grounds.
They assert:
/. That the jury which tried the case was a
packed jury selected to convict
.. That according to the law as laid down by
the supreme court, both prior to and again
since the trial OF this case, the jurors, accord
ing to their own answers, were not competent
jurors, and the trial was therefore not legal
trial.
3. That the defendants were not proved to be
guilty OF the crime charged I'm the indictment
4. That as to the defendant Neebe the states
attorney had declared at the close OF the evil
dence, that there was no case against him, and
yet he has been kept in prison all these years.
D. That the trial judge was either so preju-
diced against the defendants or else so deter
mined to win the applause of u certain class in
the community that he could not and did not
grant fair trial.
"Upon the question Of having been punished
enough will simply say that II the defendants
had fair trial, and nothing has developed
since to show that they are not guilty of the
aol,o In, fl,s Hnl
ought to be no executive interference, for no
punishment under our laws could then be too
severe. Government must defend itself; life