'I,:t  -:
'11
'00   "I
jj,
In
CD C t-h- - -




I-UiR


OF THE




F,A '!;
















ALTGELD OF ILLINOIS








I: *;I'.4       I  I..la." "
I 0




tttk


lt'r~



ALTGELD OF ILLINOIS


A RECORD OF HIS
LIFE AND WORK
BY t3ow
WALDO R4IBROWNE


NEW YORK B. W. HUEBSCH, INC. MCMXXIV




COPYRIGHT, 1924, BY
B. W. HUEBSCH, INC.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.




TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER
FRANCIS FISHER BROWNE
AND OF MY FRIEND
JOSEPH S. MARTIN
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED








CONTENTS


PREFACE, vii
I. BOYHOOD AND YOUTH, I
II. EARLY MANHOOD, I869-I875, II
III. LIFE IN CHICAGO, I875-I892, 19
IV. BUSINESS OPERATIONS-THE UNITY BUILDING, 32
-   V. CAMPAIGN FOR GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS, 42
' VI. ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND IN 1893, 53
VII. INAUGURATION AND FIRST MONTHS AS GOVERNOR,
62
VIII. THE CHICAGO ANARCHISTS, I881-I887, 74
IX. GOVERNOR ALTGELD PARDONS THE ANARCHISTS, 86
X. THE PARDON MESSAGE, 94
XI. BREAKING OF THE STORM, IO6
XII. THE CHICAGO RAILWAY STRIKE OF I894, 116
XIII. GOVERNOR ALTGELD AND THE STATE MILITIA IN 't
THE RAILWAY STRIKE, 128
XIV. SOME "INNER HISTORY" OF THE RAILWAY STRIKE, A-"
I4I
XV. THE ALTGELD-CLEVELAND CONTROVERSY, 153
XVI. ISSUES AND REACTIONS OF THE CONTROVERSY, 163
XVII. PRISON AND JUDICIAL REFORMS, 175
XVIII. INDUSTRIAL REFORMS, I88
XIX. MISCELLANEOUS REFORMS, 199
XX. THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, 210
XXI. OTHER STATE INSTITUTIONS, 222
XXII. THE "ETERNAL MONOPOLY BILLS," 231
ix




x                    Contents
XXIII. PAR~DONS AND VETOES, 245
XXIV. ALTOELD AND THE SILVER QUESTION, 256
-7XXV. THE NATIONAL CONVENTIONS OF i896, 268
XXVI. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896, 283
XXVII. EVENTS OF 1897-1899, 298
XXVIII. THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1900, 310
XXIX. LAST DAYS, 324
INDEX, 339




ALTGELD OF ILLINOIS
CHAPTER I
BOYHOOD AND YOUTH
"MY early history," Abraham Lincoln once said, "is
perfectly characterized by a single line of Gray's Elegy:
'The short and simple annals of the poor.'" John
Peter Altgeld might have said the same thing with equal
truth. Indeed, in his case the annals are even shorter
and simpler than in Lincoln's. They are also much more
obscure, despite the fact that Altgeld was born nearly
forty years later and was the contemporary of many who
are still living. In broadest outlines, however, such
records as we have of the lives of Lincoln and Altgeld
reveal much not only of common circumstance but also
of common experience. Each was born of humble
parents and reared in country poverty; each bore a heavy
yoke of hardship and deprivation in his youth; each was
chiefly self-educated by grace of a passion for reading.
Later, each had experience as a soldier and as a common
laborer. Each turned to the study and practice of law,
settled permanently in Illinois, went into politics, and
eventually wrote his name large in the annals of his
adopted State. But certain inspiriting influences that
shone from both within and without upon the young Lin.
coln never lightened Altgeld's early years. No innate
harmony with environment, no confidence bred of high
I




2


Altgeld of Illinois


animal spirits and unusual physical strength, no previsions
of a great destiny, no whole-hearted devotion of a noble
mother or encouragement of a sympathetic father, no
congenial comradeships, ever gladdened or fortified his
youth. He was a stepchild of fortune, a lonely alien
far more in spirit than by birth amid conditions that were
not merely hard and unpropitious but for the most part
aggressively hostile.
John PeteAtgeld was born in Germany, of German
parents, on Deceho       847.  A biographical sketch
that must have had his own revision gives the place of his
birth as Nieder Selters, in Nassau-then an independent
duchy, now a part of Prussia. His parents, John Peter
and Mary (Lanehart) Altgeld, were evidently of the
ordinary lower-class type-poor, uneducated, industrious,
honest, frugal, strict, and narrowly orthodox. The
father was a wgao —lrhytJade.    Somethree monhs
after the birth of John Peter, their first child a.he
Altelds were cauhSt 'u in that great early -wav.   of
emig ra.n which, due to the conditions of distress in
their own country, carried so many Germans to the
lJteS      es during the perio  rom about i8_4.to
I8_    A  brot erf     rs. Altgeld'shad come to
America the year before and settled in Washington township, Richland county, in the north central part of Ohio.
Hither the Altgeld family followed him. The township,
a fertile farming region, was inhabited largely by
Germans; most of the original stock had come from
western Pennsylvania, and the presence of this element
was influential in bringing in large numbers of European
Germans. Here, on a piece of rented land near the
village of Newville, the elder Altgeld attempted farming




Boyhood and Youth


3


on a small scale, at the same time carrying on his old trade
of wagon-making. Later, assuming a heavy burden of
debt, he took possession of a much larger farm just outside the neighboring village of Little Washington. This
venture failed to prosper, and the whole of John Peter's
boyhood and youth seems to have been overshadowed
by clouds of family ill-fortune. As soon as he was barely
able to run about the farm, the boy was impressed for
service in the domestic struggle. At thirteen he was
guiding a plow in the fields, and carrying farm produce
to peddle from house to house in Mansfield, then a town
of about six thousand inhabitants, some five or six miles
distant. At fourteen he was a full-fledged farm hand,
"hiring out" to neighboring farmers whenever he could
be spared from home and always turning the whole of his
earnings from this source into the family purse. Of the
care-free, adventurous, animal existence led by most
young country boys, he knew virtually nothing. "I was
taught to work," he once said, "from daylight until dark,
and to do the chores afterward." Probably "required"
would be a more accurate word than "taught" in this
connection, for there is evidence that the father was a
rigorous taskmaster.
But during these early years of almost incessant phys.
ical labor, the boy did not fail to snatch eagerly at every
opportunity of an educational sort that came within his
reach. At that time, and particularly in the sparsely
settled farming community in which he lived, such
opportunities were meagre enough, even for those who
had the leisure to take advantage of them. And on the
part of his parents, or at least on the father's part, there
was active antagonism to John   eter's desire for an
eN evertheless, he managed to attend an


i(t




4


Altgeld of Illinois


English district school, some distance from home, for two
or three winter terms; and later he studied at a German
parish school for the greater part of a year. He also
went as regularly as possible to an English Sunday Schol
of the Methodist Episcopal ChurcTin Newville.            This
appears to have made up the sum of his early schooling, in
the ordinary sense of that word. But it was sufficient to
give him   a fairly good working knowledgeof Enlish,
and to engender an intense ove of reading which was one
of the great and constant influences of his life. From the
German Bible, in which he had learned his first lessons,
and the half-dozen other books (chiefly German) in his
own home, he now      turned to the somewhat le
bookshelves of his neihbors reading every EnlisLb
upon         h      ld     la  hands.   History, biography,
poetry, philosophy, theology, mythology-all were welcome grist to the mill of his devouring mental appetite.
For a boy in his early teens, such an indiscriminate passion
for reading is a remarkable thing in itself; but more
remarkable still is such a capacity as was undoubtedly
his for assimilating and retaining the essence of all that
he read. Everyone who knew him well has testified to
the all-important effect of this early reading in shaping
and directing his character and tastes and ambitions.*
*"He had an omnivorous mental appetite and read broadly and, although unsystematically, always with that grasp of principles, that
power of comprehension, that retentiveness of memory, that manageableness of facts and that love of knowledge which were so noticeable
in him in his maturer years. His home resources being narrow, he
laid under contribution, as did Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln and
James A. Garfield, such supplies of books as his neighborhood acquaintance brought within his reach. He ranged from the Bible to classic
mythology, from history and biography to the great poets and the great
philosophers. This course may not have possessed the system of the
schools, but it furnished abundance of raw material, and the young
reader's exceptional mind did the rest. Throughout his life he showed




Boyhood and Youth


5


In the world of books the boy found virtually his only
escape from a world of actuality that otherwise would
have been scarcely tolerable. From the age of twelve
or thirteen, as the eldest of half a dozen children in a
family struggling against poverty and debt, he was kept
at almost continuous drudgery of a sort that put a heavy
strain upon his far from robust physique. Besides this,
most of the conditions of his home life were harsh and
unfavorable. Those still living who knew his parents
describe the mother as an illiterate woman of kindly
nature, fond of her children in the ordinary primitive
way, but devoid of any large sympathy or understanding.
The father, no less illiterate and narrow, seems to have
lacked even the common virtue of kindliness. From all
accounts, he was a hard-headed, close-fisted, stolid German farmer, antagonistic to every outside interest and
ambition on his son's part, and holding the boy always
within the most rigid bounds. If, as occasionally happened, John Peter spent the evening at a neighbor's and
remained away later than nine o'clock, he would find the
door at home locked against him upon his return and
would have to seek a shelter for the night wherever he
could. When this or any other infraction of the household laws occurred too often, a horsewhip woul
brought into    lay.  In the little world outsidehis home
the boy had few friends of his own age, and no intimates.
Then; as indeed always, he was shy, reserved, silent,
thoughtful-a type apart from the common mass, which
the results of this early experience; and while, as a lawyer and public
man, he carried on extended and careful special studies, his reading
continued wide and various, storing his mind with useful incidental
knowledge. He became one of the best-read men that I have ever
known."-From an address by Hon. Charles A. Towne, at the Altgeld
Memorial Meeting of March xo, I907.




6


Altgeld of Illinois


the latter does not understand and therefore dislikes.
/I never had a real friend in my life," Altgeld once
remarked with bitter exaggeration. "I have thought
there must be something about me that repels others. It
was so from my childhood. In school the boys all picked
on me. No one of them ever thought of protecting me
/from abuse. It was the crowd on one side and John
Peter Altgeld on the other. And it has always been the
same." *
When the Civil War broke out, Altgeld was a boy of
thirteen. At that age, the event could have had no great
meaning for him; but during the next two or three years,
as the struggle deepened and widened and its reactions
penetrated more directly into every corner of the North,
he could scarcely fail to realize something of its immense
significance. The boy's first glimpse of martial preparations was during the spring and summer of I863, when a
regiment of the Ohio National Guard (or "Home
Guard," as it was usually called in those days) was
recruited for the most part in Richland county and held
frequent drills in Mansfield. Although he was too young
to be admitted into this organization, Altgeld followed
the recruiting and drilling with keen interest; and the
patriotic enthusiasm which centred about the regiment
undoubtly aroused his first desire to enlist in the war.
Early in 1864 President Lincoln issued a call for 500,000
fresh troops, to reinforce the northern armies. Governor Brough of Ohio urged the State militia to volunteer
its services in answer to this call, and thus largely make
up Ohio's required quota of twenty regiments without
recourse to a draft. Along with all the other militia
*Quoted by Wm. H. Hinrichsen (see his article in the Chicago Inter
Ocean for March I6, 19oz).




Boyhood and Youth


7


regiments, the Forty-eighth of Richland county responded at once to the Governor's plea. Now that it
was to see immediate active service, young Altgeld made
a determined effort to enter this regiment; and at the last
moment he succeeded in enlisting as a substitute for one
of the men who preferred to remain at home. Of the
sum which he received as bounty-money, he gave ninety
dollars to his father to make up for the loss of his labor
on the farm, keeping ten dollars for himself. With
three militia battalions from adjacent counties, the Fortyeighth was mustered into Federal service at Camp
Chase, near Columbus, on May 12, 1864, as the l63d
regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Altgeld was a-/ 7
member pf rmnpo     C in this unit.
Leaving Camp Chase on May 13, the regiment proceeded by way of Pittsburg and Baltimore to Washington, where it was assigned to the First Brigade, First Division, Twenty-second Army Corps, with headquarters at
Fort Reno, near Georgetown. On June 8 it was ordered
to the front, near Richmond, where Grant was then
just entering upon his final struggle with Lee. Travelling in transports to White House, Virginia, and thence
to Bermuda Hundred, the regiment reported to General
Butler at Point of Rocks on June 12. Two days later it
took part, with General Turner's division, in a reconnaissance along the Petersburg and Richmond Railway.
Two hundred and fifty of the men were engaged in a
severe skirmish on the Isth, and according to the brigade
commander "comported themselves like veterans." On
June I6 the regiment was moved to Wilson's Landing,
on the James River. Here, within range of enemy fire,
the men were kept constantly at work.throwing up en.
trenchments and performing such other duties as fell




8


Altgeld of Illinois


to the lot of reserve forces. From Wilson's Landing
several reconnaissances were made to the west bank of
the James, which was strongly occupied by the Confederates. Later, in a position of considerable danger
further down the river, the regiment assisted in building
a large portion of the works known as Fort Pocahontas.
Of young Altgeld's individual life during this period
nothing has been ascertained beyond the fact that at
Wilson's Landing he was taken seriously ill with fever.
After a term in the field hospital, he refused a furlough
and returned to his place in the ranks. At the end of
August the regiment was relieved from duty and proceeded back to Camp Chase, where it was mustered out
of service on September io, 1864.
In after life Altgeld seldom spoke of his war experience, even to those who were most closely associated
with him. Almost his only public reference to this experience is contained in his speech accepting the nomination for Governor of Illinois. "Tell your people," he
said, "that your candidate for Governor... when
sixteen years old, went into the Union army, and for
some months carried a gun around in the swamps below
Richmond. He did not bleed and did not die, but was
there; always reported for duty, was always on deck,
never shirked and never ran away." After the anarchist pardons, when he was being characterized
throughout the country as an "imported agitator" who
had come to the United States at a mature age for the
specific purpose of "pulling down American institutions,"
Altgeld's friends urged him to emphasize the fact of his
boyhood services to the Union. But he invariably put
aside such pleas with a laugh. "My war experience is
nothing of consequence," he would usually say. "I was




Boyhood and Youth


9


a boy then, and merely did what most of the other boys
were doing. It was the enthusiasm of those days, the
drums and flags and all the rest of it, that led me to enlist. Neither then nor since did I look upon myself as a
hero for having gone into the army. And as a matter of
fact, not all that I went through in the war required half
the courage that it took to sign the anarchist pardons."
Immediately after his regiment had been mustered
out, young Altgeld returned to his father's farm near
Mansfield and took up the old routine which had been so
suddenly interrupted a few months before. During the
year and a half following his return from the army, he
managed to attend the nearest district school for about
four months in all, and to read a great many books
borrowed from a friend in Mansfield. Later, in the face
of nearly every sort of difficulty, he enrolled fohre
winter term of i866-67 in what was known attat time
as a "select school" conducted by Rev. Richard Galley in
nTreighoring village of Lexington.  is was a private non-denominational seminary which then, as later
under the supervision of Gailey's daughter, enjoyed a
considerable local reputation, and drew many pupils
from Mansfield and the surrounding country. Throughout the winter Altgeld occupied a tiny room in Lexington, "boarding himself" with provisions purchase from
his father o n,  rmi  vicg home. With this term at
Gailey's seminary to his credit, the youth had no great
difficulty in securing a teacher's certi cate trom the s 1l
examiners of Richland county; and  a  ear a e taiught
sch iool" in-Wo-viile a rural community..just outside
Mansfield, working on the home farm between terms.
During the time when school was in session he shared
with a friend a room over an old tannery in Mansfield,




10


Altgeld of Illinois


for which they paid $1.25 a month. Here the two prepared their own meals, the scantiness of which was
occasionally relieved by some dish cooked and smuggled
in to them by Altgeld's mother. Though it had its compensations of one sort or another, that year in the Woodville school was not a happy one for the young teacher.
His pupils, mostly the children of German farmers, were
inclined to be unruly; and it is recorded that on at least
one occasion the difficulties became sufficiently acute to
require intervention by the school trustees.
The home in which Altgeld's boyhood and youth were
for the most part passed is still standing, though somewhat remodelled during recent years, in the country
region a few miles southeast of Mansfield. The elder
Altgeld died in I890, and his wife in I893. John Peter's
two brothers and three sisters, none of whom seems to
have been of unusual character or to have attained distinction of any sort, are now all dead.




CHAPTER II


EARLY MANHOOD, 1869-I875
THE four years immediately following his Civil War
experience must have been by far the most difficult and
irksome of Altgeld's minority. As a soldier, he had seen
for the first time something of that larger world in which
he was so eager to play a part; and upon his return home
he found himself more acutely dissatisfied than ever with
the dull routine of farm life, while at the same time (as
a result of his serious illness during the James River campaign) less equal to its hard physical demands. Inevitably, during this period, his thoughts centred with
increasing persistency upon a definite break with the conditions that had held his boyhood and youth within such
a narrow groove. School-teaching, to which he had
turned as a possible means of escape, proved not at all
to his liking. His most decided bent was toward the law,
and in different circumstances he undoubtedly would have
attempted to fit himself for that profession in some
Mansfield law office, supporting himself meanwhile by
teaching-as he did in Missouri a few years later. But
his parents, opposed in general to every way of life other
than their own, were particularly intolerant of this ambition. They believed that all lawyers were cheats and
liars; if their son were too proud to be an honest farmer,
he should at least not become a professional rogue. And
so, for the sake of such peace as was possible in the
II




12


Altgeld of Illinois


family, the son put aside his ambition and kept bravely
on with the old tasks, reading and studying in every spare
moment and always eagerly looking forward to the day
when he should be his own master.
That day arrived on December 30, I868, when he
reached the age of twenty-one. All that could be
required of him by his parents had now been faithfully
performed. In addition to his years of labor on the
farm, virtually every dollar which he was able to earn
from outside sources had gone toward paying off the
family debt. Two younger brothers were by this time
old enough to fill his place at home. He was free at
last to strike out into the world for himself, and to shape
his own future as best he could. If his determination
to take this step had needed final reinforcement, the
latter was provided by an unsuccessful love affair with the
daughter of a neighboring farmer. Te girl was Emma
Ford, who ten years later became Alterelds wife. Whatever her own attitude may have been in the matter at
that earlier time, h  father forbade any ecouraement
Whatever to h   nniless youth  Under this added burden   frustration, young Altgeld set out from home early
i   86,   t      dollars of borrowed money as his only
capital. If he were successful n th  outside world, he
told his parents at parting, he would return to let them
know; if not, they would probably never hear of him
again.*
Of the subsequent "wander year" in Altgeld's life,
marked as it was by hardships and calamities which
proved all but fatal, not much is definitely known in detail.
*This conditional promise, it should be noted, was faithfully kept.
From about i873 until his mother's death twenty years later, Altgeld
visited his parents on the Ohio farm at fairly frequent intervals-usually twice a year.




Early Manhood, I869-1875


13


But from the recollections of a surviving friend or two
(principally Hon. Isaac R. Williams, of Savannah, Mo.)
to whom Altgeld told the story, some sort of rough consecutive narrative may be pieced out. After leaving the
Ohio farm near Mansfield, Altgeld made his way southward and westward to Cincinnati, and thence across
southern Indiana and Illinois to East St. Louis-a distance of about five hundred miles, virtually all of which
he covered on foot, stopping here and there along the
way to "work out" a meal or a night's lodging whenever
opportunity offered. Arriving at East St. Louis with
only fifteen cents in his pocket, he used ten cents of this
to purchase ferry tickets across the Mississippi for himself and a still more impecunious fellow-traveller of the
moment, and then closed his account by buying writing
paper and a stamp with the remainder. In St. Louis he
seems to have been successful in obtaining some form of
casual employment, and he remained here for a few
weeks, working by day and studying law at night. But
evidently his ultimate objective lay farther west; at any
rate, as soon as he had saved a little money he set out
across Missouri to southern Kansas. Not Iong thereafter, he was working as a common laborer with a railway grading crew in Columbus county, Kansas, south of
Fort Scott. The Federal government had recently
offered a free right of way through the Indian Territory
to the first railway that could extend its line to the northern border of that territory, and the Missouri, Kansas,
and Texas Railroad was making every effort to secure
the offered concession. No doubt Altgeld had seen the
company's advertisements for help, then posted in every
town through which he made his way from St. Louis;
and the promised wage of $3.50 a day (a very liberal




14


Altgeld of Illinois


one at that time) led him to take the employment. With
an excellent prospect of earning enough during the late
summer and the autumn to carry him through a winter
of law study, he settled down to work with ick nd
shovel. Among his fellow-laborers, mostly rishmen, the
quiet, industrious "Dutchman" (as they called him) was
soon popular. For a time he was able to keep up with
the strongest of them; then the unaccustomed climate,
the heavy labor, and the rough camp life began to tell
upon him, and he was finally seized with a recurrence of
the fever that had first attacked him during his army
experience in I864. His Irish companions carried him
to the house of a homesteader near by, where he was put
under a doctor's care and treated with great kindness,
Although desperately ill, he refused to divulge the name
and address of his parents, but asked that in case he did
not recover he should be buried in the neighborhood,
with the least possible bother to anyone. After a siege
of several weeks, he recovered sufficiently to be out of
doors again. In his weakened condition, however, a
return to the grading camp was out of the question.
The doctor had warned him that he must go north without delay; and so, with a few dollars left of his previous
months' earnings, he started for Topeka, walking eight
or ten miles a day, and sleeping for the most part in
barns or haystacks along the route. On a farm near
Topeka, where some light work was offered him in
exchange for board and lodging, he again fell ill. Hearing the farmer and his wife debating one evening about
the advisability of sending him to a public hospital in
the city, Altgeld quietly departed the next morning before
his employer was up. Then, with some point in Iowa
(probably Des Moines) in mind as a destination, he




Early Manhood, I869-I875


I5


bought a railway ticket from Topeka to the village of
Rosendale, Andrew county, in northeastern Missouri.
This was as far as the money wich he had left would
take him by rail-the rest of the journey he planned to
make on foot.
Leaving the train at Rosendale, Altgeld set out across
country toward the Iowa border. An evening or two
later, he appeared at the door of C. H. Williams's farmhouse, twelve miles northeast of Savannah, seeking food
and shelter for the night. He explained that he was ill
and penniless, but that he would gladly work out his
obligation the next day. Moved by the young man's
pitiful appearance and impressed by his obvious sincerity,
Williams not only took him in for the night but insisted
that he stay in the house as a guest until he could find
some regular employment in the neighborhood. At the
end of about two weeks, Altgeld went to work for Alex-.ander Bedford, a prosperous farmer of Andrew county.
Bedford soon discovered that his new farmha   possessed intelligence and ability of an unusual sort; and
later, as their acquaintance ripened into friendship, he
learned of the young man's ambition to become a lawyer.
As a member of the county school board, Bedford was
able to secure for Altgeld both a teacher's certificate
and a teaching position in a near-by district school. This
must have been in the late autumn or early winter of 1869.
At about the same time, also through Mr. Bedford's
good offices, Altgeld became acquainted with Judge David
Rea, a prominent lawyer of Savannah who was later sent
to. Congress from the St. Joseph district in Missouri
With books borrowed from Judge Rea, and under the,
latter's guidance and encouragement, Altgeld now began
the systematic study of law. For the next year or more




16            Altgeld of Illinois
he taught school, worked on Mr. Bedford's farm during
vacation time, and read law diligently in every spare hour
that these other occupations allowed him. On Saturdays
he went into town and reviewed with Judge Rea his
studies of the previous week. Evidently he was an apt
pupil; within a few months, as Rea later told a friend,
he was better grounded in the principles of elementary
law than his teacher.
On April 27,    87  Alfa  s  admitted to j  Andrew county ar. Either shortly before or shortly after
this evet, he took up living quarters in Savannah and en.
tered the office of Rea and Heren, then the leading attorneys of the town. His ability and energy seem to have
won almost immediate local recognition. In the summer of I87I he was appointed city attorney, and drafted
a new code of ordinances for Savannah. At the end
of a year in this work he declined another term in order
to give his entire time to building up an independent
law practice. But apparently the experiment of conducting his own office was not successful, for one reason
or another; at any rate, it lasted only a few months.
The firm of Rea and Heren had meanwhile been dissolved, as a result of Judge Rea's election to Congress;
and Altgeld now joined forces with William Heren,
who was carrying on the old business by himself. This
association, a congenial and fairly profitable one for
the young lawyer, continued until the end of I874, when
Altgeld made his first modest entrance into practical
politics.
At about this time the so-called "Granger movement,"
an organized effort of middle-western farmers to secure
relief by "independent" political action from certain economic oppressions ignored if not directly encouraged by




Early Manhood, I869-I875             17
the two "old line" parties, had reached the zenith of its r
strength and influence. Throughout Missouri as a whole
this movement had drawn chiefly from the Republican or
minority party. But in Andrew county, of which
Savannah was the seat, the Republicans happened to possess a formidable majority. In such Republican strong.
holds as this, where an independent ticket would have
no chance of success, it was a common practice of the
Grangers to unite with the Democrats (who were on the
whole more favorable to the Granger programme) in
support of a single local ticket representative of both
political factions. This was the strategy followed in
Andrew county in the "off year" elections of I874.
Altgeld had by this time become fairly well known and
liked throughout the county, particularly among the
farmers; and as a Democrat strongly in smat     h
Granger princ     he was nominated bythiscombinatjon -f 9r t he.^.cJ'O[-~-f.state's attornsey fo.r -- rew...m'n~y
eHe accepted the nomination and the ticket was elected,
Atgeld defeating his Republican rival by about 350 votes.
Soon after taking office, his law partnership with Mr.
Heren was dissolved.
Although he entered upon his new work with characteristic zeal, the duties of a prosecuting attorney could
never have been congenial to Altgeld. He was not long
in discovering that the system of which he had now
become a part had little to do with securing the ends of
abstract justice-that indeed, as often as not, it must
necessarily defeat those ends. As later characterized in
his own words, it was a system "based on a mistaken
principle;... a great mill which, in one way or another, supplies its own grist; a maelstrom which draws
from the outside and then keeps its victim moving in a




I8             Altgeld of Illinois
circle until swallowed in the vortex." This quotation is
from his book, "Our Penal Machinery and Its Victims,"
published ten years later, the conclusions of which are in
part based upon the author's own experience and observation as a public prosecutor.  At   ser   in Jbalf
for which he had been elected,
Alteldgsigned.     Along with an increasing repugnance
to his public duties, he had felt for some time a desire to
leave Savannah and seek a larger field of activity in his
profession. There is some evidence, although of a not
very convincing sort, that an unhappy love affair contributed to this desire-as had been the case when he left
Ohio, six or seven years earlier. The story goes that he
wooed the daughter of one of Savannah's wealthiest citizens, a banker; that his suit did not prosper with either
the young lady or her father; that the daughter later
married the cashier of her father's bank, a worthless
fellow who squandered his wife's fortune and died leaving her in poverty; and that for several years during the
period of his own prosperity Altgeld helped to support
the widow and her five children.* It is impossible to
determine now whether this romantic tale rests upon any
basis of fact. But for whatever reasons, toward the
close of 87   Altgeld resolved upon quitting Savannah.
On two or three visits to his parents in Ohio, which his
recently improved fortunes made possible, he had stopped
off f.   ime in Chicago. The spirit of tfeyo;;;ug city,
then just arisl      renewed vigor from the ashes of
its disastrous fire, made a strong appeal to him, and he
decided to make this his home.
A somewhat detailed version of this story is contained in a sketch
of Altgeld's early life published in the Washington Post about the
middle of March, 190x, and reprinted in the St. Louis Republic of March
24, It9o.




CHAPTER III
LIFE IN CHICAGO, I875-I892
WITH a cash capital of only one hundred dollars derived
from the sale of his law books in Savannah, but possessed of large resources in the way of energy and ambition, Altgeld arrived in Chicago during the closing days
of the year I875-a briefless country lawyer of twentyeight, embarked upon the difficult task of establishing
himself in a city of strangers. A distinguished fellowlawyer of his own age and one of his most devoted adherents in later years, Judge Edward Osgood Brown, gives
the following account of Altgeld's earliest beginnings in
this new environment:
Comparatively recent incomers to Chicago, my partner and myself had taken modest offices in the newly constructed Reaper
Block at the corner of Clark and Washington streets. An office
opposite in the hall was for a long time vacant, when one morning
a young man appeared to ask us for the loan of some trifling object
and told us that he was a lawyer, that he had taken the room
described and that he intended to partition off a small part of it
for a sleeping room and thus live as well as do business in his office.
He was not, as such things are superficially considered, an attractive or graceful personality, and yet there was something about him
that instantly arrested our attention and invited our respect and
friendship. It was only a little while thereafter that he commanded our admiration as well...  We at that time had some
litigation which required much delving into musty records in stifling vaults of public offices. We associated Altgeld with us in these
19




20


Altgeld of Illinois


law suits, and I am afraid put too much of that work on him and
gave him too little of the fees, although we were glad to avail
ourselves of his ability to conduct the forensic part of the business also. His industry and conscientiousness were phenomenal
through it all.
But, as is its wont, the litigious world in general
showed no immediate disposition to clamor for the young
lawyer's services, and his first year in Chicago was one
of extreme hardship and discouragement. To a friend
in Savannah whom he had entrusted with the collection
of some small bills owing him in that town, Altgeld wrote
upon receiving the money that he had paid his landlord
six months' office rent in advance, so that in any event
he would at least be sure of a place in which to sleep and
work during this period. Through the business given
him by Judge Brown, supplemented by an occasional small
case which came to him in the ordinary course, he managed somehow to keep going until the tide turned and he
was retained in a personal damage suit which brought
him what must then have seemed a princely fee-two
thousand dollars. On the strength of this good fortune
he took a two or three week's vacation during the summer
of 1877, visiting Newport and other fashionable eastern
resorts in order (as he told his friends) to see how the
"leisure class" lived. In November of the same year he
was married at Washington, Ohio, to Miss Emma Ford,
thus consummating the youthful romance which had begun
shortly before he left home in I869. Miss Ford was
a graduate of Oberlin College, a school teacher, and a
woman of character anirefinement. In every respect
save tat there were n ciren, the marriage proved an
almost ideally happy one. His wife's whole-hearted




Life in Chicago, I875-I892


21


devotion was the most beneficent influence in Altgeld's
life, while her intelligent counsel and assistance played
an important part in all his undertakings. Of frail
physique and sensitive nature like himself, she suffered
even more acutely than he under the savage vilification
showered upon   him  after the  anarchist pardons.,
Throughout most of their married life, the precarious
health of each was the constant concern and care of the
other. Mrs. Altgeld survived her husband by thirteen
years, dying in Chicago on March 30, 1915. She was
the author of a novel called "The Nortons" written
an publishe in middle age.
Immediately after his marriage, Altgeld rented a small
house in Lake View, then one of the northern suburbs of
Chicago but now well within the city limits, and here
the young couple established themselves. At first it was
a somewhat desperate struggle to make ends meet.
Altgeld's law practice, while it had latterly yielded him
a frugal living, was still too meagre to provide a sufficient
income on the new domestic basis. As an economy
measure, he decided to give up the downtown room which
had previously served the double purpose of law office
and living quarters, and to rent desk space from some
other lawyer. Walking to town one morning, as was
then his habit in order to save carfare, he was hailed by
a passing neighbor, the more fortunate possessor of a
horse and carriage, and invited to ride to the city. This
neighbor was Adolph Heile, at that time a prominent
attorney in Chicago. As a result of their talk during this
drive, Mr. Heile at once offered Altgeld a desk in his own
office. The offer was gratefully accepted, and within a
few days Altgeld's scanty legal paraphernalia had been
moved into the rooms occupied by Mr. Heile and his as



22            Altgeld of Illinois
sociate, Henry M. Shepard, afterward a judge of the
Cook County Superior Court. From this point the
young lawyer's fortunes began to mend rapidly. Both
Mr. Heile and Judge Shepard took an active interest in
his affairs, turning over to him what law business they
could and introducing him to a number of men in Chicago
whose friendship and influence were of great advantage
to him, then and later. Somewhat uncouth in appearance and unpolished in manner as he was at that time,
Altgeld nevertheless seldom failed to impress strongly
and favorably those with whom he came in contact.
His earnestness and sincerity were obvious almost at
first glance, while his unusual legal ability proved itself
in every test. Early in I88o he left Mr. Heile's office
and formed a law partnership with William S. Everett.
This association, however, did not last long; and within
a year he was conducting a fairly lucrative law practice
entirely on his own account.
But neither now nor later did a legal career, however
successful, satisfy Altgeld's large ambitions or absorb
more than a part of his intense energy. As early as
879 he        barked upon those real estate and building operations, descri ed in the next chapter, w ich were
destineto mate him a rich man and then in the final
outcome to leave him virtually penniless. And with the
rapid development of his professional and business interests, he began to drift more and more definitely into
still another field of activity, the field in which he eventually attained national prominence. Whether from conscious choice or because of the all-engrossing struggle to
earn a living, Altgeld gave little attention to politics for
several years after coming to Chicago. He was known
among his friends as a staunch Democrat and a keenly




Life in Chicago, 1875-1892


23


interested student of public affairs, but it was never suspected at this time that he cherished any ambition to
hold public office. Possibly, even probably, had he been
able to choose his future path with entire freedom, he
would have abstained altogether from playing any part
on the political stage. He had seen something of practical politics during his campaign for state's attorney in
Missouri, and that glimpse had created no overwhelming
desire for a larger and closer view. The popular delusions in regard to the officeholding class were certainly
not shared by him. Later at least, if not at the beginning of his public career, he knew this class for what it
was-in his own words, "a cowardly hanging-on class,
always careful to see how the wind blows before daring
either to have or to express an opinion, and therefore a
Negative class. It does not lead in public opinion or in
the formation of a public sentiment on any question."
He knew also that the really influential persons are the
successful private individuals in every walk of life"even preachers, when they have sufficient independence
to develop any individuality." "These are the men who
mold public opinion and whose favor and support are
sought by the politicians, and who, in the end, secure
legislation and shape the policy of the country, using the
officeholding class simply as an instrument by which to
carry out a purpose." And in the same newspaper interview * from which these quotations are taken, he said:
"While politics has a strong fascination for me, just as
gambling has for some men, and I have consequently at
different times taken part in politics, yet I have always
fqlt that I would be a great deal better off and could do
more for my country if I would let politics alone."
*Chicago Evening Post, July 3I, 1xSr.




24              Altgeld of Illinois
Altgeld's first political experience, during his life in
Missouri, has already been described. Of his second
venture into the same field, Judge Edward Osgood
Brown writes as follows:
Although my partner and I had both become intimate with him,
the first intimation we had that he was nourishing any political
ambition was when, to our astonishment, we saw in the newspapers that one or two votes (perhaps three or four) had been cast
for him in an Illinois legislative caucus for the Senatorial nomination. Upon inquiring of him we learned, although he was rather
reserved about it, that the votes had been cast by certain legislative
friends of his, as the result of his own suggestion. He evidently
had no hope of a caucus choice or election, but very wisely, since he
had political ambitions, he had "thrown his hat into the ring,"
to bring to the public the knowledge of those ambitions and to
bring his name into more public notice.
This must have been in I88I or I883. About the
same time, or perhaps shortly before, Altgeld made the
acquaintance of William C. Goudy, then counsel for one
of the great railway systems terminating in Chicago and
also something of a leader in the city and State Democratic organizations. Under Goudy's tutelage, Altgeld
now began to take an active part in local political campaigns.  More especially in the German sections of
Chicago, and among the laorin    classes, he soon became
known as a political speaker who always made a favorable mpression and always had something to say that
was worth hearing. Largely on the strength of this reputation, backed by Goudy's influence, he received in
I884 the Democratic nomination for Congressman from
the Fourth Illinois District. This district, comprising
the aristocratic "north side" and the northern suburbs of




Life in Chicago, I875-I892


25


Chicago, was overwhelmingly Republican; but Altgeld
conducted his campaign so skilfully and forcefully that,
although defeated at the election (as he had fully expected to be), he succeeded in cutting down the normal
Republican majority of the district by more than two
thousand votes. Two years later, at the earnest solicitation of his political associates but much against his
personal inclination, he accepted the nomination for a
ud eshi in he Cook County Superior Curr on the
Democraticticket. Here again he faced formidable opposition, the normal Republican majority in the county
being about twelve thousand. During the same year
(1886) Henry George polled his remarkable vote as
Labor candidate for mayor of New York City. A
Labor Party had recently sprung up in Chicago also. At
its convention it decided by unanimous vote not to endorse any candidate of either of the "old line" parties;
but upon a motion to reconsider, Mr. George A. Schilling
convinced the delegates that this ruling should be
waived in the case of judicial nominations, inasmuch as
the Labor Party had no judicial candidates on its own
ticket. So, on Mr. Schilling's motion, four such candidates on each of the "old line" party tickets were selected
for endorsement —Altgeld among them. The Labor ORSv
Party did not succeed with its own ticket at the ensuing
election; but it polled a large vote, and all of the eight
judicial candidates whom it had endorsed were elected.
Upon assuming office in December, I886, Altgeld
placed the routine management of his private business
affairs in charge of his cousin, John W. Lanehart; and
for nearly five years thereafter he gave to his judicial
duties the best that was in him. During this period he
achieved a high reputation among lawyers, litigants, and




26             Altgeld of Illinois
general public alike for his fearless, independent, impartial, and courteous conduct as a judge. Although
sometimes criticized by his associates for a seeming or
actual disregard of legal technicalities and an occasional
lack of respect for precedents, his integrity and ability
were seldom if ever brought into question. His decisions were always clear, concise, and rational, bringing to
bear upon the cases with which they dealt not only
patient study and wide knowledge but also a rare
commonsense. In the matter of general procedure, according to Judge Edward Osgood Brown, "he made a
change in the method of instructing juries in his Court,
which tended strongly to aid justice and secure the intelligent consideration of the facts by the juries. This
practice which he habitually used was then and is now
needed in the interests of a proper administration of the
law in Illinois."  In  890 his associate judges of the
Superior Court diihe
ief ustice of their court. In July of the following
year hesurprised all who knew him byia:ding.jhis
resignation from the bench to Governor Fifer. The
pressure of private business afairs, he said, made it impossible for him to give to his judicial duties that undivided thought and attention which they demanded and
should receive. But this reason, although valid enough,,
was undoubtedly not the only reason which impelled his
action. The position had become irksome to him; his
energetic nature required a far less circunscribed field
of activity. After nearly five years of experience as a
judge, he was acutely aware of the truth which he afterward stated as follows in his little book called "The Cost
of Something for Nothing":




Life in Chicago, I875-I892


27


As a rule, men elected to the bench have established a reputation of being men of strong character and growing intelligence, and
if they had remained off the bench they would have continued
developing. But as soon as a man is elected to the office of judge,
all growth seems to cease; and after years of experience on the
bench, he not only has not grown but he has deteriorated.
There are several reasons for this. In the first place, his active
life ceases. He literally and figuratively sits.down. Growth,
strength and greatness come from contest. The judge being relieved of contest, of life's fierce struggle, naturally becomes phlegmatic, and development is impossible. And then he ceases to
create, to shape and to originate. It is his business to discover and
apply what others have said.
A large portion of his thought is taken up with the consideration of little things-drawing learned distinctions between tweedledee and tweedle-dum. The effect of this is belittling.
Instead of the independence which comes from fighting life's
battles, which develops greatness, the judge too often, unintentionally and unconsciously, becomes merely the expression of what is
for the time the dominant influence of the land. This dominant
influence is like the pressure of the atmosphere; it envelops him,
and is almost irresistible. It requires tremendous strength of character to rise above it and be guided solely by the pole-star of
justice.
It was not in Altgeld's nature to stagnate, to cease
growing, to become "merely the expression of what is for
the time the dominant influence of the land." And this,
no less than the pressure of personal affairs, must have
played its part in determining his resignation from the
bench. That resignation was accepted; and on August I,
189I, he became a private citizen once more. From this
time until the beginning of the following summer, he was
chiefly occupied with his own business undertakings



28             Altgeld of Illinois
particularly with the Unity Building, the most ambitious
of those undertakings.
In the early eighties, with the establishment of his law
practice upon a fairly secure basis, Altgeld had begun to
devote a good deal of systematic thought and study to
important questions of the day. The first tangible fruit
of this study was a volume entitled "Our Penal
Machinery and Its Victims," published by a Chicago firm
in 1884. The barbarous and futile methods of society
in dealing with its "criminal" by-products have found
more eloquent and perhaps more scientific critics since;
but Altgeld's little book was almost a pioneer of its sort
in this country, and it aroused much discussion. Two
years later he contributed an extended article on "Protection of Non-Combatants, or Arbitration of Strikes"
to a Chicago newspaper; and this was followed, from
888 to 1892, by magazine or newspaper contributions
)n such subjects as "Pensions for Soldiers," "The Administration of Justice in Chicago," "Slave-Girls of
Chicago Factories," "Anonymous Journalism   and Its
Effects,"  "The  Immigrant's Answer,"   and  "Good
Roads." He also made occasional appearances as a
public speaker on non-political subjects, the more important of his addresses during this period being those
on "Unnecessary Imprisonment," "The Eight-Hour
Movement," "What Shall We Do With Our Criminals?" and "The Government of Cities." All of these
writings and speeches, together with letters, newspaper
interviews, etc., were collected and published in I890,
under the title of "Live Questions." * Through the cirA second and much enlarged edition of thin book appeared nine
years later. It is to this enlarged edition that the occasional citations
in the present pages refer.




Life in    Chicago, 1875-I892             22957
culation of this volume, Altgeld became widely known as
a vigorous exponent of radical views, an original critic of
the social maladjustments of his day, and a formidable
champion of the "under dog."     To that reputation, per.
haps not less than to his political astuteness shown in the
Congressional campaign of I884 and to his record as a
judge on the Cook County bench, did he owe his success
in securing the nomination for Governor of Ilinois
1802.
Of those who knew Altgeld with some degree of intimacy during those early years in Chicago, only Judge
Edward Osgood Brown seems to have set down any detailed record of the man and his life at this period. In
addition to the extracts already given from Judge
Brown's reminiscences, the following     is well worth
quotation here:
His life was laborious always; it was hard and narrow as well,
until the kindness and encouragement shown him by the late Mr.
Goudy and Judge Shepard, and others-to all of whom he never
failed to express and to show his deep gratitude-placed his fortunes at a higher point than unaided he could as soon have struggled to. Even then, and after his marriage, the ill health of his
wife and of himself might well have daunted a less determined and
unconquerable will. Once with his wife ill in an adjoining room,
he, stretched helpless on his bed in another, with difficulty securing
even the attendance necessary for the most ordinary household
duties, alternating between a burning fever and wretched chills,
sent for me and insisted that I should bring for our joint consideration the brief of our antagonists in a pending law suit in which
our reply was shortly due. Nothing appalled him, nothing turned
him back, and yet he was nearly always a reserved, quiet, selfcontained and self-controlled man. Injustice to himself as to
others did stir him sometimes to impassioned speech. I remember




30


Altgeld of Illinois


well a rebuke and indeed a punishment inflicted upon him for
quick resentment in a court room to a personal attack on him made
by counsel opposing him in a law suit in which he was personally
interested. He was at the time himself upon the bench. More
loyal than the Prince, more papal than the Pope, some of his
friends called on him-and I among them-to express their displeasure at the discipline inflicted on him by his brother Judge.
"Nonsense," he answered, "it was exactly right. I was angry,
acted foolishly and was treated according to the Judge's duty and
my own deserts."
I mentin,_ il.s that you may see that, long mindful of injuries
and injustice as he might be, his was not the blind vindictiveness
which his foes ascribed to him.
His self-reliance was superb. Once in a time of personal discouragement a friend of mine went to him and asked his advice as
to whom he should turn for comfort and counsel. His answer
was characteristic and it was a favorite idea of his I have often
heard him express.
"Ask no man! Go out into the night and look straight up to
the stars. Take comfort and counsel of them."
Interesting and significant in connection with more
than one phase of Altgeld's activities dealt with in the
present chapter is a letter which he wrote in June, I89o,
to Henry D. Lloyd of Chicago, at that time a stranger to
him. This letter marks the beginning of an intercourse
between the two men which soon ripened into devoted
and lasting friendship.
My dear Mr. Lloyd:
I have read your pamphlet on The New Conscience and cannot
resist saying to you that I would rather be the author of one such
article than to hold any office in the gift of the American people.
It will do more for the cause of humanity and will bring a greater




Life in    Chicago, I875-I892               31
meed of fame to its author than would a lifetime of the average
high office-holding.
Accept my congratulations and go on with your work. The
future will know you and coming generations of suffering humanity will rise up and bless you.
With best regards,
Your obt. servant,
JOHN P. ALTGELD.




CHAPTER IV


BUSINESS OPERATIONS-THE UNITY BUILDING
FOR nearly four years after he settled down in Chicago,
the struggle to gain a bare livelihood from his law practice absorbed the whole of Altgeld's energies. By the
close of I879, however, he could at last lay claim to some
small margin of time and thought and cash beyond the
minimum requirements of his profession and his home.
This margin, once gained, was immediately turned to
profitable account. After a careful study of conditions
in the local real estate field, Altgeld invested five hundred
dollars in a city building lot, which he soon thereafter
sold at an excellent advance. Several ensuing trans.
actions of the same sort proved no less lucrative; and by
I882 he had acquired sufficient capital and confidence to
make a cast for larger stakes. As noted in the preceding
chapter, he was now living in Lake View, just outside the
city limits. This suburb was still for the most part undeveloped; but Altgeld realized its possibilities in connection with the inevitable expansion of Chicago, and he
resolved upon a venture which for extent and daring was
almost unique in local real estate annals. With the
financial aid of one or two wealthy friends, he acquired
title to so  evn.f       rnfVaca.
Lake View, making an initial cash payment of $30,000 on
the total purchase price of about $200,000 and carrying
the remainder on mortgages and notes. Then, largely
32




Business Operations


33


with borrowed money and the proceeds of occasional
sales while the work was under way, he improved the
property as a home-builders' shnd          ra    y
sold off the lots at a handsome-profit.
In this transaction, which established his reputation as
a shrewd and far-seeing business man, Altgeld had the
active assistance of his cousin, John W. Lanehart, who
had come to Chicago from Ohio in I88I. With the
same able help, he now turned to other and even larger
operations. As-itb.as.e Lake View entprise,
tb;eeidadcai SrWg                    ith.a..boldness
thatjemedclose to recklessness. But. while appearing
to take heavy chances, he seldom acted without keen and
unsparing analysis of all the factors in a situation.
His faith in the expansion of Chicago's residence section
had been justified; he now put to the test his faith in the
development of its business district by purchasing several
unimproved lots on Market street, between Jackson and
Van Buren, near the southwestern edge of the city's
active wholesale centre. Here he erected a seven-story
office building which, contrary to nearly all the predictions of local real estate men, was well rented from the
start. From this success he went on buying and building
in various parts of the city and its suburbs, until by the
end of I890 his property holdings were commonly reputed to be worth not less than a million dollars.
During the late eighties, Altgeld made a moderately
successful venture into still another field of business activity, a field which at that time remained largely unexploited. On one of the periodic visits to his parents, he
secured the first franchise to be granted for a street railway in Newark, Ohio, then a town of some twelve thousand inhabitants, not far distant from the region in which




34


Altgeld of Illinois


his boyhood and youth had been spent. Under this
franchise a mile or so of track was constructed in I888,
and equipped with rolling stock in the shape of four box
cars twelve feet long, the motive power being supplied
by mules. Later, the track was considerably extended,
new equipment purchased, and the mules discarded in
favor of electricity. About the time of his nomination
for Governor of Illinois, in I892, Altgeld sold the entire
property for $Ioo,ooo. A similar franchise which he
had acquired in the neighboring town of Mansfield was
never utilized, owing to operating difficulties inherent in
the hilly character of that locality.
The story of Altgeld's most ambitious and fateful
enterprise, the Unity Building in Chicago, now remains
to be told. Part of that story belongs chronologically to
a later section of this book, and involves some phases of
his career not yet dealt with in these pages; but, for continuity's sake, the full account will be given here. At the
outset it should be emphasized that after about i885,
when he had become fairly well-to-do, Altgeld's business
activities were chiefly if not wholly the expression of an
intense creative and organizing instinct. Once when he
was chided by a friend for risking his personal fortune in
continued building operations when he might have retired
in pecuniary comfort, he replied: "I am childless, and I
look upon my buildings as children which will survive me
and benefit the generations to come." In that spirit he
conceived and planned the Unity Building. It was his
ambition ("the great ambition of my life," he told some
one at the time) to erect the finest office building in the
world. In pursuance of this purpose, he selected a site in
the heart of Chicago's business section, with a frontage
of eighty feet on Dearborn street and a depth of one




Business Operations


35


hundred and twenty feet. A ninety-nine year lease, at an
annual rental of $I8,ooo, was negotiated for this site;
and plans were drawn up by Clinton B. Warren, one of
Chicago's prominent architects, for a sixteen-story fireproof building, to contain six hundred offices. These
plans embodied nearly every detail and arrangement then
known to make the building a model of its kind. Early
in I891 the old Unity Building on the same site, dating
from soon after the Chicago fire, was demolished and
work on the new structure begun. After a few months
of smooth and rapid progress, serious trouble developed.
Under a party-wall agreement, the brick wall of a sixstory structure adjoining the Unity Building on the north
had been partially cut away in places so that upright iron
pillars for the north wall of the new building might be
set on the party line. It was later discovered that the
vibration from a heavy steam engine used in hoisting construction material to the upper floors had caused loose
pieces of brick and mortar to fall in between these pillars
and the adjoining wall of the old structure, forming
wedge-like masses which gradually forced the entire
Unity framework out of plumb to the south. When this
discovery was made the steel skeleton was nearly completed, and sections of the brick side-walls were in place.
Altgeld at once ordered the brickwork torn out, while all
new construction was halted until the fault could be
remedied. Engineers employed for his latter purpose
worked out an elaborate plan which was put into effect
with apparent success; but upon completion of the structure it was found that the framework had sprung back to
its original faulty position, being about twelve inches out
of perpendicular at the top. This misfortune, from first
to last, added a heavy burden to the construction costs,




36


Altgeld of Illinois


and was in large degree responsible for the financial disaster that later overtook Altgeld. It also threatened to
interfere rather seriously with rental plans, as many
prospective tenants were led to believe through exaggerated newspaper reports that the structure was actually unsafe.
But all of this trouble was temporarily forgotten in
the acclaim which greeted the building upon its formal
opening, in the early summer of I892. Experts and
general public alike declared that Chicago's new "skyscraper" had no peer among existing commercial structures. For a time also, success on the financial side
seemed assured, as tenants were plentiful enough at the
beginning. Altgeld found little but pride and satisfaction in his enterprise at this stage. Those who knew him
well have said that the Unity Building was his only personal achievement of which he was ever heard to boast.
"I remember," writes Miss Jane Addams, "that when
Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb were visiting Hull-House
[in I893] we took lunch downtown with Governor
Altgeld. He gave them a little outline of his history,
and when he had finished the remarkable story they asked
him what achievement in his career had given him the
most satisfaction. Without a moment's hesitation he replied, 'The Unity Building.' Our guests were quite
bewildered, not understanding how the erection of
an office building could have meant so much to him, although I think his history might have given a certain
interpretation."
In attempting to describe the complications which led
to Altgeld's subsequent financial ruin in connection with
the Unity Building, it is necessary to go back to the
beginning of that project. The architect's original plans




Business Operations


37


called for an outlay of $600,000. Besides such available capital of his own as he could put into the enterprise, Altgeld reckoned at the outset upon floating a
loan of $400,000, in the form of first mortgage bonds
secured by a trust deed upon the building and the ground
leasehold. Early in I89I a loan was negotiated on this
basis through the Equitable Trust Company with the
Chicago National Bank, of which John R. Walsh was
president and virtual dictator. Walsh had come to
Chicago from Ireland some forty years before, a
youngster of eleven, and starting out as a newsboy had
fought his way up to a position of wealth and influence.
Possessed of immense animal energy and a fund of native
shrewdness, he was at the same time illiterate, self-willed,
domineering, unscrupulous-a sort of lesser Mark
Hanna, with few if any of Hanna's redeeming traits.
He knew the workings of the politico-financial "system"
down to its smallest detail. The bank which he founded
in 1882 was patronized largely by politicians, and derived a considerable share of its revenue from deposits
of public funds and the bonding of public officials. In
addition, he owned a leading Chicago newspaper, the
local Democratic party organ; and he was a ruling factor
in the bi-partisan ring which controlled the city council
and sold the favors of that body to the highest bidders.
During the nineties, Walsh's power was at its height; and
through his bank, his newspaper, and his political
machine he exercised that power with a rough hand. It
is difficult to understand how Altgeld could have voluntarily placed his financial fortunes at the mercy of such a
man, particularly as the two had already clashed during
Altgeld's early political activities in Chicago. Aside
from the circumstance that one of his trusted friends was




38


Altgeld of Illinois


an officer in Walsh's bank, the reasons which impelled
him to take a step which he must have realized was potentially dangerous, and which some of his advisers strongly
disapproved, are not now apparent. The fact remains
that in practical effect he undertook to finance the Unity
Building by grace of John R. Walsh —for which error of
judgment, the gravest of his entire career, he was destined to pay a heavy price.
Under the loan agreement, as arranged with the
Chicago National Bank, the latter was to market the
bond issue and turn over the proceeds in instalments as
work on the building progressed. No difficulty arose in
this connection until the discovery, a few months after
construction started, that the steel framework was out
of plumb. Walsh then claimed, perhaps with justice,
that this fault was sufficiently serious to impair the security of his loan, and that the amount of the bond issue
must therefore be reduced. After some controversy,
Altgeld agreed that $Ioo,ooo in unsold bonds should be
cancelled, leaving in force an original first mortgage issue
of $300,000, which was eventually sold out by the bank
in full. In conjunction with the large additional outlay
occasioned by the construction fault, this shrinkage in
his loan placed Altgeld in a difficult financial position.
To complete the Unity Building he was obliged to borrow
money in comparatively small amounts wherever and
however he could, and also to give his personal notes to
contractors and material men. Some time after the
building was opened, and during the period of its first
brief prosperity, he found it possible to negotiate a new
loan with the National Bank of Illinois for $400,000, his
plan being to use $300,000 of this to retire the existing
bond issue and thus terminate his relations with John R.




Business Operations


39


Walsh, and with the remaining $Ioo,ooo to pay off in
part his personal obligations in connection with the later
construction costs. It was mutually understood beforehand that Walsh would accept the $300,000, cancel the
bonds, and release the trust deed, which latter would
thereupon be deposited as security for the new loan.
But Altgeld had meanwhile been elected Governor of
Illinois, and in that capacity had refused at the outset to
accept Walsh's attempted dictation in respect to policies
and patronage. When the money for retiring the first
bond issue of $300,000 was tendered to Walsh, he declined to receive it, asserting that those who had purchased the bonds would not surrender their holdings.
Altgeld then asked that he be given the names and addresses of the bond-holders, so that he could negotiate
with them directly; but Walsh refused to divulge this information. As a result, the whole matter fell through;
although the National Bank of Illinois later relieved Altgeld to some extent by loaning him about $40,000 on the
collateral of $Ioo,ooo in new bonds secured by a second
mortgage on the Unity Building.
From this point Altgeld's financial affairs went rapidly
from bad to worse. During the hard times which set in
about the middle of I893 at least half the Unity Building
tenants vacated, unable to pay their rent; and from the
beginning of the following year until early in I897 the
building produced scarcely more revenue than was required to pay ground rent and operating costs. At the
same time, Altgeld's other property interests in Chicago,
now heavily encumbered, suffered a severe shrinkage in
value. The expenses of his campaign for Governor in
I892 had come largely from his own pocket, and after
election he could necessarily give but little attention to his




40


Altgeld of Illinois


private business affairs. As a result, one investment after
another had to be sacrificed to meet interest charges and
the payment of bonuses on personal loans. Walsh's
long-cherished animosity was at last aroused to a virulent
stage by Governor Altgeld's veto of the "eternal monopoly bills" in I895. As perhaps the leading politicofinancial boss of Chicago, Walsh had a large stake in
the Napoleonic banditries of Charles T. Yerkes, and the
veto was a severe blow to both his pecuniary interests
and his political prestige. When, in I896, the Unity
Building defaulted on the interest of its bonds, Walsh
showed no mercy. A receiver was appointed by court
order, foreclosure proceedings were instituted, and the
property sold for the bond-holders' benefit. Soon there.
after the National Bank of Illinois failed, and its assets
were disposed of at public sale-among them the second
mortgage bonds amounting to $Ioo,ooo which the bank
had acquired from Altgeld. Another foreclosure suit
was brought by the purchasers of these bonds; and in this
case, as in the previous one, the bond-holders received
principal and interest in full. Altgeld's equity of something like half a million dollars in the property was completely wiped out by these proceedings. The Unity
Building passed into other hands; and its creator, now
virtually penniless, could find consolation only in the
knowledge that no other person had suffered loss in an
enterprise which had brought about his own financial
ruin.
It is possible that the part played by John R. Walsh
in this episode has been over-emphasized, here and elsewhere. One must admit that other factors and conditions were involved which might have worked out to the
same tragic end, without his participation. Neverthe



Business Operations


41


less, those who were most familiar with Altgeld's private
affairs at the time feel convinced that he could have
weathered the storm and saved the Unity Building had it
not been for Walsh's hostile conduct-particularly his
breach of faith in connection with the proposed financial
reorganization in I893. As a perhaps not irrelevant
footnote, it may be added that the sardonic gods had
their way later on with John R. Walsh. After the
scandalous failure of his bank in I905 he served a penitentiary term of several years, being pardoned at last
only that he might die outside of prison, a broken and
ruined old man.
During the presidential campaign of I896, Republican
newspapers and platform speakers made much of the
fact that, while Altgeld was an ardent champion of silver,
his Unity Building leases contained a so-called "gold
clause" of the sort commonly found in such documents
although seldom enforced. In reply to someone who
inquired about this alleged inconsistency, the Governor's
private secretary pointed out that Altgeld had nothing to
do personally with the making of leases for space in the
Unity Building, that the leases were executed upon
printed forms regularly sold by Chicago stationers and
regularly used by nearly all Chicago property owners,
and finally that the building had been erected in part with
borrowed money for which bonds were issued and the
bank which purchased the bonds had stipulated that
rentals should be secured by a gold clause. But this
statement, conclusive as it was, had small weight with the
canard-mongers, who went on cackling to the end of the
campaign about their "proof" that Altgeld was a "gold
man" at heart.




CHAPTER V


CAMPAIGN FOR GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS
IN connection with Altgeld's resignation from the bench,
during the summer of I891, it will be recalled that he
explained this action as due to the pressure of private
business affairs, which made it impossible for him properly to fulfill his duties as a judge. With the huge
Unity Building project under way, as it then was, this
explanation seemed reasonable enough. Nevertheless,
there were many who believed that political motives and
ambitions were really at the bottom of his decision-that
he was leaving the bench in order to try for the governorship of Illinois or a seat in the United States Senate.
But, at the time, Altgeld explicitly denied that he was
seeking or even desired election to any public office. In
a newspaper interview of July 31, I891, his last day on
the bench, he replied to some direct questions on this
subject as follows:
"Will you in future take part in politics?"
"I do not expect to take any more interest in politics than any
other ordinary citizen."
"Is there any truth in the statement that you are a candidate
for the office of Governor?"
"No. I am not a candidate for any office."
"Suppose you were tendered the nomination, would you accept
it?"
"That is an idle supposition. There is going to be a scramble
42




Campaign for Governor of Illinois


43


next year for the nomination for Governor. I do not want to be
Governor, and naturally do not wish to enter a scramble for
something I do not want.... I believe in the private individual.
*.. While politics has a strong fascination for me, and I have
consequently at different times taken part in politics, yet I have
always felt that I would be a great deal better off and could do
more for my country if I would let politics alone."
"Have you, then, no future policy in regard to political life?"
-,"Absolutely none."
There is no valid reason for doubting the sincerity of
these statements. Aside from all other considerations,
it is obvious that one who was seeking immediate political preferment would never have spoken his mind so
freely as Altgeld did, elsewhere in this same interview,
regarding the cowardice and futility of office-holders as
a class.* "The successful private individual," he said,
"the man who has convictions and who dares to express
them, is the important factor in American society." Undoubtedly, at the moment, this is the role which Altgeld
preferred and intended to play. But external pressure,
together with that personal propensity which always
drew him against his own better judgment toward the
arena of politics, brought about a radical change in his
position within a few months. Soon after his resignation from the bench, many influential Democratic leaders
of the State were urging him to enter the lists as a
candidate for Governor, and to such importunities were
added those of personal friends no less interested than
himself in the advanced theories of social and economic
reform which he championed.    The chances for    gm.ogcratic success in I892 grew rosier as the campaign approacIed; here was an opportunity, seemingly well within
*See "Live Questions," pages 338-39.




44


Altgeld of Illinois


his reach, which might not come again. It is impossible
at this distance of time definitely to date Altgeld's change
of heart regarding the gubernatorial nomination, but it
must have occurred early in I892.    At any rate, the fact
-  that he was seeking the nomination seemed to be generally known several weeks before the State Democratic
convention met in April of that year.
Pertinent at this point is the following passage from
Mr. Brand Whitlock's fascinating autobiography, "Forty
Years of It," in which the writer tells of his first
meeting with the man whom he characterizes as "one of
the most daring pioneers of the neo-democratic movement in America, and the most courageous spirit of our
times":
It was on a cold raw morning [early in I892] that I met Joseph
P. Mahony, then a Democratic member of the State Senate, who
said:
"Come with me and I'll introduce you to the next governor of
Illinois."
It was the time of year when one was meeting the next governor
of Illinois in most of the hotel corridors, or men who were trying
to look like potential governors of Illinois, so that such a remark
was not to be taken too literally; but I went, and after ascending
to an upper floor of a narrow little building in Adams Street, we
entered a suite of law offices, and there in a very much crowded, a
very much littered and a rather dingy little private room, at an odd
little walnut desk, sat John P. Altgeld.
The figure was not prepossessing; he wore his hair close-clipped
in ultimate surrender to an obstinate cowlick; his beard was closely
trimmed, too, and altogether the countenance was one made for the
hands of the cartoonists, who in the brutal fury that was so soon
to blaze upon him and to continue to blaze until it had consumed
him quite, could easily contort the features to the various purposes




Campaign for Governor of Illinois 45
of an ugly partizanship; they gave it a peculiarly sinister quality,
and it is one of the countless ironies of life that a face, sad with
all the utter woe of humanity, should have become for a season,
and in some minds remained forever, the type and symbol of all
that is most abhorrent. There was a peculiar pallor in the countenance, and the face was such a blank mask of suffering and
despair that, had it not been for the high intelligence that shone
from his eyes, it must have impressed many as altogether lacking
in expression. Certainly it seldom or never expressed enthusiasm,
or joy, or humor, though he had humor of a certain mordant kind,
as many a political opponent was to know.
He had been a judge of the Circuit Court, and was known by
his occasional addresses, his interviews and articles, as a publicist
of radical and humanitarian tendencies. He was known especially
to the laboring classes and to the poor, who, by that acute sympathy they possess, divined in him a friend, and in the circles of
sociological workers and students, then so small and obscure as
to make their views esoteric, he was recognized as one who understood and sympathized with their tendencies and ideals. He
was accounted in those days a wealthy man,-he was just then
building one of those tall and ugly structures of steel called "skyscrapers,"-and now that he was spoken of for governor this fact
made him seem "available" to the politicians. Also he had a
German name, another asset in Illinois just then, when Germans
all over the state felt themselves outraged by legislation concerning the "little red school-house," which the Republicans had enacted when they were in full power in the state.
So astutely and energetically did Altgeld promote his
candidacy during the early spring of I892 that when the
Democratic State convention assembled at Springfield on
April 27 the expected scramble for the gubernatorial
nomination failed to take place, and he was chosen on the
first ballot. A week later the Republicans nominated
Governor Joseph W. Fifer, then in office, for a second




46


Altgeld of Illinois


term. State tickets were also put in the field by the
People's party and the Prohibitionists. At the national
conventions, held in June, ex-President Cleveland and
President Harrison were selected to head the national
Democratic and Republican tickets respectively.
Throughout the country, political conditions were on
the whole favorable to the Democrats. The efforts of
a Republican Congress to pass the so-called "force bill"
of I890 had aroused great resentment not only in the
South but in those adjacent States, such as Illinois, where
"negro domination" was still a compelling bogey. Enctment of the McKinley tariff act, later in the same
ear, had been followed immediately by soaring prices,
inand al-depresslon, and industnallsturbances. The
npopularty of these two measures was mainly reponsible for a sweegx tConSessional elections of Novemberj I8, the existing Repub lcan majoi-ry oFaout twenty in the national House
of Representatives being replaced by a Democratic majority of nearly one hundred and fifty. During the next
two years little was accomplished by way of restoring
general confidence in Republican policies and acts. Harrison's renomination for the presidency in I892, while
perhaps inevitable according to party traditions, evoked
no popular enthusiasm; Cleveland, on the other hand,
had gained greatly in public favor since his retirement
from the White House in 1889. Scarcely was the campaign under way before the.Homestead riots ofy,
1892, following on the heels of other esbloody but still
serious labor troubles, placed the Republicans under a
new embarrassment.
In Iinois, for nearly forty years a well-nigh impregnable stronghold of the "grand old party," conditions




Campaign for Governor of Illinois


47


were especially propitious for the Democrats. Resentment of the Republican "force bill" of I890 was almost
as acute here as in the South; while the McKinley tariff
act, which had been solidly supported by the State's Republican representatives in Congress, was proving a
heavy liability for the prevailing party. Here, also,
Republicans were much worried over the unexpected
strength revealed in the elections of Tioo bv th' new
Peop-   -orPpulist party.- 7 'etween  this ora'niTa.;on
AC, ji hA or q
( egtimate heir to the previous Greenback and Farmers'
Alliance movements) and the nPmarnrq th e   PY   d a
certain friendlines which had more than once led to open
coalition on State tickets, while local fusion was a fairly
common occurrence. In I89I Democratic members of
the State legislature succeeded, with the help of a few
independent "farmer" members, in electing General John
M. Palmer to the United States Senate. After this
victory, unlooked for as it had been by most of the party
leaders, Democratic hopes rose high, and Democratic
success in the State and national elections of I892
seemed not beyond the bounds of reasonable possibility.
The selection of an Illinois man.Adlai E. Stevenson, as
running mate to Grover Cleveland in_ the.residential
contest served to brighten the prospect still further. An
excellent summary of circumstances, issues, and events
in the State campaign is embodied in the following passage from the "Centennial History of Illinois":
Conditions within the state offered such palpable breaches for
assault that when the democrats selected John P. Altgeld to head
their ticket, republicans wondered whether after thirty [-six]
years they might lose control of the gubernatorial chair. Could
Fifer, as the logical republican candidate for reelection, success



Altgeld of Illinois


<ifly measure swords with him? Chicago politicians knew and
feared Altgeld as a bewildering paradox: at once a consummate
politician, and a real friend of the people. Elected judge by the
democratic labor party and long influential in the radical wing of
the democracy, he had always displayed uncanny finesse in the
political game a gift which was potentially at the service of the
weak. Still, it was felt that a man so frankly a friend of labor
suffered a handicap which would make it possible to wreck his
political hopes. But before the gubernatorial campaign was officially launched, Altgeld threw about his political weaknesses a
protective cloak of other issues.
He well knew that his liberal views on social and economic
questions, which made certain the support of the idealist, the humanitarian, and the laboring man, would readily lend themselves
to misrepresentation and calumny; in the parochial school question
he found an issue which would bind to him large classes not otherwise to, be won. The Catholic, and particularly the Lutheran,
population of the state had become greatly exercised over the com}ulsory school law of i889, which required the teaching of reading
and writing in English. The fear that the authority of parent
d of priest, that even the "liberty of religion" were being
trenched upon, led to a determined demand from  this body of
voters for the law's repeal. Altgeld, while declaring himself and
the democratic party thoroughly in sympathy with the principle
of compulsory education, made himself the champion of these religious groups. At a meeting of the state committee, "Judge Altgeld's plan of campaign was endorsed and it was decided to make
the school question the main issue of the state canva-'we want
a law enacted that will insure the rudiments of an education to
every child without trenching upon religious grounds and without
doing violence to the doctrines that lie at the base of republican
institutions."'
The republicans vigorously protested at being thus saddled with
the onus of a nonpartisan bit of legislation which had inadvertently aroused a tempest. They pointed out to the foreign groups




Campaign for Governor of Illinois


49


that when the measure received the enthusiastic support of members of all parties in the thirty-sixth general assembly no one suspected the existence of the objectionable features that appeared in
its practical operation; republicans were eager that these features
be removed. The offended voters, however, heeded this explanation little when it became clear that republicans were appealing
to the native Americans to support the "little red schoolhouse."..
Meanwhile Altgeld's "political handshake," as it was bitterly
dubbed by his opponents, had brought him a wide acquaintance
over the state. Early in the summer he had quietly travelled from
county to county in a pre-campaign trip, holding informal receptions for the hundreds of farmers or miners who had driven in
to meet him or "plodding about the muddy streets getting acquainted with people and giving them an opportunity to get acquainted with him."
In the state campaign Altgeld proceeded on his theory that the
"principal cause that will lead to Democratic victory is not a party
issue. It is the growth of the mighty trusts and powerful and
unscrupulous monopolies... under the wing of Republican legislation. The common people are becoming alarmed at the extent of these trusts." With that passionate earnestness which
characterized him, he reviewed state evils and he boldly revealed
national and state extravagance; in Illinois were institutions
where "it took $6oo,ooo to pay and keep employees to expend
$4oo00,ooo on the inmates of the institution." His attacks on the
evils of the convict labor system, against which organized labor
had long protested, and on the abortive efforts of recent legislation
to remedy these evils under the republican administration, and his
accusations of neglect in many other fields of law enforcement
roused the republican press to frenzy. The "deliberate and malicious falsehoods" of a "brazen demagogue," the fomenter of foreign knownothingism, the sympathizer with the "georgeites," the
millionaire labor leader, were themes which the republican press
enlarged upon.




50


Altgeld of Illinois


With Altgeld's subsequent public career in mind, these
last-quoted newspaper phrases have a certain premonitory tinge, like the first sporadic notes of a crashing
Wagnerian overture. At the moment, however, his star
was in the ascendant. Epithets and personal obloquy
could not stay the rushing Democratic tide. Disgust
with Republican policies, both State and national, of
course contributed largely to the final result in Illinois,
as did also ex-President Cleveland's popularity at this
time. But these factors were, upon the whole, less decisive than the political ability, tireless effort, and genius
for organization which Altgeld injected into the contest.
'He had opened his campaign with a personal tour of
the State, going into the towns and villages of every
county, making no speeches but meeting the voters on
their own ground and conferring with local politicians.
In September he made a second tour of Illinois, this time
speaking in most of the larger towns and cities-first
of all in Joliet, on the same platform where he was
fatally stricken ten years later. A few important
speeches in Chicago during October brought the campaign to a close. In the election of early November,
Altgeld received 425,497 votes asigainst 402,659 cast
for his Republican rival, Governor Fifer. Illinos, long
counted safe for a Republican majority f from twentyfive to fifty thousand, had at last gone Democratic. For
the first time in nearly forty years she had elected a
Democratic State administration; for the first time in
her history she had chosen as Governor a citizen of
foreign birth.
By way of bringing this chapter to a close on the personal rather than the political note, we quote again from
Mr. Brand Whitlock's "Forty Years of It," which alone




Campaign for Governor of Illinois


5I


among contemporary records conveys any vivid sense of
Altgeld's personality. The incident described here is a
trivial one, but none the less it reveals something that
is humanly characteristic and illuminating. At the time
of which he is,writing (the summer of I892) Mr. Whitlock was a newspaper reporter in Chicago; after mentioning some of the qualifications which made Altgeld
an "available" candidate for Governor, he goes on to
say:
But my paper did not share this enthusiasm about him; it happened to be owned by John R. Walsh, and between Walsh and
Altgeld there was a feud, a feud that cost Altgeld his fortune,
and lasted until the day that death found him poor and crushed
by all the tragedy which a closer observer, one with a keener
prescience of destiny than I, might have read in his face from the
first.
The feeling of the paper, if one may so personalize a corporation
as to endow it with emotion, was not corrected by his nomination,
and The Herald had little to say of him, and what it did say was
given out in the perfunctory tone of a party organ. But as the
summer wore on, and I was able to report to my editors that all
the signs pointed to Altgeld's election, I was permitted to write an
article in which I tried to describe his personality and to give some
impression of the able campaign he was making. Horace Taylor
drew some pictures to illustrate it, and I had the satisfaction of
knowing that it gave Altgeld pleasure, while at the same time to
me at least it revealed for an instant the humanness of the man.
He sent for me-he was then in offices in his new sky-scraperand asked if I could procure for him Horace Taylor's pictures; he
hesitated a moment, and then, as though it were a weakness his
Spartan nature was reluctant to reveal, he told me that he intended
to have my article republished in a newspaper in Mansfield, Ohio,
the town whence he had come, where he had taught school, and
where he had met the gracious lady who was his wife. He talked




52               Altgeld    of Illinois
for a while that afternoon about his youth, about his poverty and
his struggles, and then suddenly lapsed into a silence, with his eyes
fastened on me. I wondered what he was looking at; his gaze
was disconcerting, and it made me self-conscious and uneasy, till
he said:
"Where could one get a cravat like the one you have on?"
It was, I remember-because of the odd incident-an English
scarf of blue, quite new. I had tried to knot it as Ben Cable of
the Democratic National Committee knotted his, and it seemed
that such a little thing should not be wanting to the happiness of
a man who, by all the outward standards, had so much to gratify
him as Altgeld had, and I said-with some embarrassment, and
some doubt as to the taste I was exhibiting-"Why, you may have
this one."
In a moment his face changed, the mask fell, and he shook his
head and said: "No, it would not look like that on me."




CHAPTER VI


THE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL BA'CKGROUND
IN 1893
As in the case of any other professed reformer, Altgeld's
public career and accomplishment can only be properly
gauged with direct reference to the conditions, economic
and political, of his time. It seems desirable, therefore,
before dealing with the events of his administration as
Governor of Illinois, to sketch those conditions in briefest
possible outline-trite though such an outline must necessarily appear to many readers.
The period of Altgeld's chief political activities,
including of course his term of office as Governor, synchronized almost precisely with one of the great transition stages in American history. Indeed, more than
one of our historians have maintained that from about,
I885 to about 900o a larger number of more acute problems were pressing for solution in the United States than
during any other period of equal length, with the possible
exception of that immediately following the establishment of our government in I789. Most of these problems were essentially economic in nature, growing out of
the conviction held by large sections or groups of people
that they derived far less than their just share of the result from the national processes of production and distribution. The remedies proposed were many and various
-free silver, free trade, free labor-organization, rail53




54


Altgeld of Illinois


way regulation, curbing of the "trusts," and what not;
but the underlying disaffection sprang from a common
source. Even such matters as national foreign policy
and civil service reform, then under heated discussion,
were by no means unrelated to the central economic issue.
Throughout most of the first decade after the Civil
War, reconstruction had held the centre of the stage.
The succeeding ten years were chiefly notable as an era
of commercial, industrial, and agricultural expansion on
a scale hitherto unparalleled. American industrial society, as we know it today, had its real beginnings during
this decade of vast economic development. Never before were such rich rewards offered to the energetic, the
bold, the far-sighted, the unscrupulous, in every field of
material enterprise. Monopoly, turned loose in the fat
tariff-hedged pastures of our natural resources, and as yet
neither bitted nor bridled, grew to giant stature and proceeded to use its strength in giant-like fashion. While
this unfolding and exploitation of seemingly limitless eco'
nomic opportunity had so far been a source of immense
pride to Americans in the mass, some of its more sinister
reactions already pressed heavily upon particular groups
-as for example, the western and middle-western farmers, whose grievances found organized expression first
in the somewhat abortive Granger and Farmers' Alliance
movements, then in the more formidable People's or
Populist party. A still larger group consisted of the
country's industrial laborers. For a time an indirect
beneficiary of the new prosperity, this group had later
been able to hold its own under more adverse conditions
as long as undeveloped land was being opened up in the
West. But with the gradual effacing of the frontier in
the late seventies and early eighties, it found itself at the




Economic and Political Background 55


mercy of the huge combinations of capital which in
large part controlled national industry. The large-scale
organization of employers in "trusts" and "pools" of
various sorts began to be met by the large-scale organization of workers in trade unions; and the relative
strength of these two forces was being put to the test
in one bitter industrial struggle after another. By x885
economic discontent had transcended the limits of special
groups and permeated all classes of the people save those
who held the reins of political and economic authority.
Independent producers and small business interests were
everywhere clamoring for a curb upon monopolistic
tyranny; farmers and small shippers were crying for
relief from railway extortion and discrimination;
industrial workers were demanding legal guarantees in
regard to the eight-hour day, safety devices, factory
inspection, employers' liability, limitation of child labor,
the right to organize-guarantees of which there were
as yet only a few crude beginnings upon the statute books.
In time this nation-wide agitation became so insistent
that it could no longer be ignored by legislative bodies.
As a result, the Federal Interstate Commerce Act was
passed in i887, and the Sherman Anti-Trust Law in
I 890; although, save as weapons to be used against organized labor, both of these measures remained long ineffective. A few feebly ameliorative labor laws and feebly restrictive railway laws were also enacted by some of the
State legislatures during this period. But these small
concessions were only secured by virtue of a tremendous
effort. Then, as in only slightly lesser degree today, it
was the self-protective fashion of        he press
"Politicians, _
and other      ceneciar   rivilege to ascribe the prevalingonomic unrest not to its natural and inevitable




56


Altgeld of Illinois


causes but to the imaginary activities of imported
itators    Intent upon plantm g m e seed s ot European
communism and socialism in the fair soil of America.
The politicians of that era had need for all the selfprotective devices they could lay their hands to, because
their profession or trade or whatever one chooses to call
it stood in general at an even lower moral level than
usual. Save on the part of a few far-sighted persons
such as Altgeld, there was as yet no conception of political activities as related to the common social life of the
nation. Politics were then almost wholly personal and
predatory. The "invisible government" was in full control, and "big business" called the tunes to which the
politicians danced. The two great party organizations
were in effect but little more than the servants and pen_ sioners of privilege. - Legislative bodies, from city councils upward, docilely took their orders from the lawyers
and lobbyists and pay agents of great corporations. The
whole political atmosphere reeked of corruption. Representive government had for the most part abdicated
in favor of "the System"-defined by Mr. Lincoln Steffens as that "reorganization of the political and financial
powers of the State by which, for boodle of one sort
or another, the leading politicians of both parties conduct the government in the interest of those leading
businesses which seek special privileges and pay for them
with bribes and the 'moral' support of graft." Civil
service reform and the secret ballot were still in the
timidly experimental stage. The muckrakers had not
yet arisen to spread the new apocalypse, "an uncovering
of the iniquity of the land," across the pages of our
popular periodicals. The great life insurance companies
were still unfamiliar with the name of Charles Evans




Economic and Political Background 57


Hughes, and Armageddon remained merely an obscure
Bible reference. Such prophets of the new reformation
as Joseph Folk, Henry D. Lloyd, Brand Whitlock, and
Ben Lindsey had not emerged into general prominence.
Nevertheless, amidst the prevailing "desolation and dim
night," signs of a moral awakening had begun to be
apparent, though only a few saw them.
They were to most quite dim; but there were here and there
in the land dreamers of a sort, who had caught a new vision. The
feeling of it, the emotion, was to find expression in Mr. Bryan's
great campaign in i896; but there was then in Chicago a little
group, men who had read Henry George, or, without reading
him, had looked out on life intelligently and gained a concept of
it, or perhaps had merely felt in themselves the stirrings of a new
social instinct, and these saw, or thought they saw, the way to a
better social order.... But these men were not in politics; some
of them were too impractical ever to be, and the only man in
politics who understood them at all was Altgeld.... Altgeld
was one of the forerunners of the newer and better time of the
moral awakening in America; and, in accordance with the unii versal law of human nature, it was his fate to be misunderstood
and ridiculed and hated, even by many in his own party. He
was far in the van in most ways, so far that it was impossible for
his own party to follow him.*
But though its precursory signs were to be discerned,
the American reformation had not yet arrived; and Altgeld, like the other "dreamers" and idealists of his day,
could only make the best of conditions as he found them,
while at the same time putting forth all his strength to
change or improve them. In Illinois those conditions
were at least no better than elsewhere in the country.


@ From "Forty Years of It," by Brand Whitloclc, pages 94-96.




58            Altgeld of Illinois
The economic transformation which began during the
middle seventies had been as notable here as in any other
State of the Union, and the changes which followed in
its wake were no less prominent. From a State in which
agriculture had long been the chief activity, Illinois now
became predominantly industrial, although still retaining its relatively high place in agriculture. In i 9a it
as thent iortant     anufacturing State west of the
Alleghanies, and second only toNew York and Pennsylvania in the eastern secti. In mineral production,
particularly of coal, it held almost equally high relative
rank. Three years later it led all the other States of
th Union in respect to total railway mileage constructed
and under operation.   rin   t   two decades  fo
aS7o tao s9 _.he number of its inhabitants increaqd
t            half   li ns t  ea   four millionso nearly furmion
iving it thirida e among the States in the matter of
population. As in other sections of the country, this
remarkable development and expansion worked chiefly
to the advantage of monopoly interests, which lost no
time in imposing oppressive conditions upon their dependents-farmers, industrial laborers, small shippers, etc.
Economic questions began to obtrude insistently into
the political field, and the voice of economic discontent
gradually made itself heard above the bickerings over
"pork barrel" appropriations and senatorial elections in
the State legislature. As long as the disaffected groups
attempted to secure satisfaction through the medium of
"independent" political movements, they made little
headway. The Republican party, firmly entrenched in
power since before the Civil War and now chiefly
devoted to the defense of privilege, could well afford
to scorn such puny assaults. But when those groups made




Economic and Political Background 59
a common rally, as they largely did, to the Democratic
standard in i892, the case was different; and with the
Republican overthrow of that year, State politics
assumed a new aspect.
This is not to imply, however, that the supplanting
of a long dominant Republican majority in the State
legislature by a scanty Democratic majority (consisting
of five members in the Senate and three in the House)
was likely to usher in a local millennium, even with such
a man as John P. Altgeld in the Governor's chair. Alto
geld could accomplish little in the way of constructive
reform without the legislature's cooperation; and for
the most part the Illinois legislature of 1893 had about
the same outlook and was of about the same mental
and moral calibre as its predecessors. Then, as before,
it consisted of boss-controlled guardians of corporate
interests in Chicago; of petty politicians from the smaller
cities, intent mainly upon dispensing local patronage and
securing a fair share from the "pork barrel" for
their respective communities as well as a fair share for
themselves from the "slush funds" provided by the
railroads and other corporate seekers of favors;
of still pettier rural legislatures who were as sheep
to the party shepherds, requiring only to be fed
and watered at proper intervals; and of a few honest
if not always highly intelligent representatives from
both city and country who were really trying, after their
own lights, to serve their constituencies and the State
rather than the bosses and the "interests." Chief
power in this shabby hierarchy was exercised by the
Speaker of the House, of course a member of the majority party and one with political acumen enough to know
on which side his bread was buttered. Next to him in




60               Altgeld    of Illinois
importance must be reckoned the joint "steering committee" or "Big Five," composed of three majority and
two minority members, usually "safe" party bosses who
could be depended upon to advance "friendly" and defeat
"hostile" legislation. By way of completing, or reinforcing, this over-bare summary we extract the following
passage from Mr. Theodore Dreiser's novel of Chicago
high finance in the roaring eighties and nineties, "The
Titan":
The state legislature at this time was ruled over by a small
group of wire-pulling, pettifogging, corporation-controlled individuals who came up from the respective towns, counties, and
cities of the state, but who bore the same relation to the communities which they represented and to their superiors and equals
in and out of the legislative halls at Springfield that men do to
such allies anywhere in any given field. Why do we call them
pettifogging and dismiss them? Perhaps they were pettifogging,
but certainly no more so than any other shrewd rat or animal that
burrows its way onward-and shall we say upward? The
deepest controlling principle which animated these individuals was
the oldest and first, that of self-preservation. Picture for example, a common occurrence-that of Senator John H. Southack,
conversing with, perhaps, Senator George Mason Wade, of Gallatin County, behind a legislative door in one of the senate conference chambers toward the close of a session-Senator Southack,
blinking, buttonholing his well-dressed colleague and drawing very
near; Senator Wade, curious, confidential, expectant (a genial,
solid, experienced, slightly paunchy but well-built Senator Wadeand handsome too).
"You know, George, I told you there would be something
eventually in the Quincy water-front improvement if it ever
worked out. Well, here it is. Ed Truesdale was in town yesterday." (This with a knowing eye, as much as to say, "Mum's the
word.") "Here's five hundred; count it."




Economic and Political Background


A quick flashing out of some green and yellow bills from a vest
pocket, a light thumbing and counting on the part of Senator
Wade. A flare of comprehension, approval, gratitude, admiration,
as though to signify, "This is something like." "Thanks, John.
I had pretty near forgot all about it. Nice people, eh? If you
see Ed again give him my regards. When that Bellville contest
comes up let me know."
Mr. Wade, being a good speaker, was frequently in request to
stir up the populace to a sense of pro or con in connection with
some legislative crisis impending, and it was to some such future
opportunity that he now pleasantly referred. O life, O politics,
O necessity, O hunger, O burning human appetite and desire on
every hand!
Perhaps the Illinois legislature of that time was no
worse, if indeed no better, than the legislative bodies of
other States. Certainly it was bad enough, and the zeal
of even as stout-hearted a reformer as Altgeld might
well have been a little dampened at the prospect of
achieving any positive results by virtue of such a medium.
Nevertheless, the legislature held a Democratic majority,
and the members of his party were fully aware of the
fact that they owed this majority to Altgeld's leadership. They were also aware, however dimly, of the stirrings of a new public spirit, personified in large degree by
Altgeld himself, which was making a definite demand
upon them for certain social and economic reforms —a
demand which could not be ignored without the possibility of unwholesome consequences to themselves. Thus
it seemns not too much to say that with Altgeld's election in I892 Illinois politics entered upon a decidedly
more hopeful phase.




CHAPTER VII


INAUGURATION AND FIRST MONTHS AS. GOVERNOR
BUT for several weeks after the election of 1892,
Illinois politics were a matter of minor concern to the
successful candidate for Governor. The campaign had
been one of the most strenuous and bitterly contested in
State history, and Altgeld had not spared himself at any
point. Those two extended tours through half a hundred counties, the wearing round of railway travel, receptions, interviews, conferences, public meetings, speechmaking, hand-shaking, and other acute afflictions incident
to what is known as running for office, would have taxed
the physical resources of a far stronger man than he.
And along with the burdens of this campaign, he was at
the same time carrying a heavy load of personal responsibilities-particularly in connection with the Unity
Building, then under construction. By early autumn the
strain of all this began to tell upon him greatly; and in
the final reactionafter election da he suffered a rather
alarming break-down. During a brief rest at Hot
S   hpings, rkaisa's, he appeared to rally somewhat; but
a still more complete prostration followed almost immediately after his return to Chicago. Toward the end
of December serious doubts were entertained as to his
recovery, doubts which he himself shared. None of
those who were aware of his condition expected for a
moment that he would be able to make the journey to
62




First Months as Governor


63


Springfield for his inauguration dn January io. When
the time came, however, he insisted upon going; and although scarcely able to stand, he took the oath of office
and read his inaugural address before the General Assembly. That address was in no respect a remarkable
document, being merely a business-like statement of
guiding policies and desired reforms. "I realize," said
the new Governor, "that in this busy age comparatively
few people pay any attention to inaugural addresses, but
that both men and parties are judged by what they actually do rather than by what they profess or promise...
I am aware that, as a rule, where much is promised little
is accomplished." Certainly this particular address, although it embodied a good deal of that so-called "pernicious radicalism" which was later to have such a hair.
raising effect upon eastern editors, attracted only the most
casual and perfunctory notice.
The inauguration over, Governor Altgeld returned to
bed, and stayed there for some time. Not until about
the middle of February did he recover sufficiently to
give systematic attention to his new duties. The first
thing required of him, as a matter of course under the
prevailing traditions of party politics, was a thorough
official house-cleaning. As in other States, the chief administrative officers of Illinois are elected by popular
vote at the same time and (excepting the State treasurer,
who serves for two years only) for the same term as
the Governor. But hundreds of minor offices are here,
as elsewhere, filled by executive appointment. The evils
of our American spoils system were as familiar to Altgeld as to anyone of his day; and it should not be forgotten that the first even partially effective civil service
law in Illinois was enacted during his regime and largely




64


Altgeld of Illinois


as a result of his own efforts. At the beginning of his
term, however, he was besieged by a party lean and ravenous from nearly forty years of enforced wandering
in the wilderness. With no adequate law to back him,
he could have resisted the demands of that party only at
the cost of his political leadership and influence. As it
was, he chose to follow traditional practice with a sweeping removal of Republican office-holders and the appointment of Democrats in their place. At the same time, his
insistence upon certain standards of fitness, particularly
where the management of State charitable and penal
institutions was concerned, brought him into sharp collision with other Democratic leaders on more than one occasion. While it need not and cannot be denied that he
made a few serious errors of judgment, his appointments
were in general on a much higher level than commonly
obtained under the spoils system. Indeed, the chief
source of weakness in Altgeld's administration may be
attributed not so much to his own appointees, most of
whom acquitted themselves with credit, as to the elected
State officials. With two or three exceptions, these
latter were men of mediocre character, perhaps efficient
enough as elected officials go but incapable of sympathy
with the Governor's social vision and advanced views.
Certainly they were not the sort of adventuring spirits
that one would choose as followers in a crusade against
established wrong. Still less so were the State legislators, who gathered in biennial session on January 4, and
after five months of parturitive effort brought forth the
usual mouse or two. The compulsory education act of
I889, which had been magnified into a "vital issue" during the recent State campaign, was of course repealed
and a less drastic measure enacted in its place. A




First Months as Governor


rather defective act aimed at the more extreme sweat
shop and child labor evils in State industry was also
placed upon the statute books. For the rest, Governor
Altgeld's long list of needed reform legislation, as specified in his inaugural address, was virtually ignored. During this session the Governor submitted two special messages to the assembly, one urging the abolishment of
certain useless public offices, the other suggesting the
appointment of a commission to revise the "General Practice Act"; but no legislative action seems to have been
taken in either case. However, the assembly did show a
progressive tendency (under Altgeld's vigorous prodding) in the matter of appropriations, making a liberal
increase in the biennial grant to the University of Illinois
and providing more suitably for the needs of other State
institutions.
For all thia
the egislators balked his larger ur     th firt
months orso       w     h                     many
r   ects the happiest of Altgeld'slife-as the months
just preceding a period of adversity so commonly are,
or at least seem to be in the retrospect. After February
his health mended rapidly, and he was able to work again
with much of his old assiduity. In matters where he
could act with a free hand, particularly in connection
with the various State institutions, his constructive efforts
began almost immediately to bear fruit. The transition
from private to public life, as the chief executive of a
great commonwealth, was still novel enough to be
intensely interesting; and notwithstanding the harassments of his new office, he frankly enjoyed its honors.
He enjoyed, too, the serene atmosphere of Springfield,




66               Altgeld    of Illinois
a city which (when it was not over-run by the politicians
and lobbyists) had many attractions for one who had
lived more than fifteen years in the brutal hurly-burly
of Chicago.
There was a sense of spaciousness in the green avenues of the
quiet town, and there was pleasant society, and better perhaps
than all there were two big libraries in the Capitol, the law
library of the Supreme Court and the state library; and after the,
noisy legislature had adjourned a peace fell on the great, cool
stone pile that was almost academic.
Twice or thrice a day Governor Altgeld was to be seen passing
through its vast corridors, his head bent thoughtfully, rapt afar
from the things about him in those dreams of social amelioration
which had visited him so much earlier than they came to most of
his contemporaries. He had read much, and during his residence
there the executive mansion had the atmosphere of intellectual
culture. Whenever I went over there, which I did now and then
with his secretary for luncheon or for an evening at cards, our
talk was almost always of books.
Brand Whitlock, who wrote the above, was one of several young men then at Springfield with whom Altgeld
was chiefly intimate during his term of office. Prominent among the others were William         F. Dose, the
Governor's private secretary; George Brennan, a fellowclerk of Whitlock's in the State Department; and Lieutenant (now Colonel) David J. Baker, of the United
State army, at that time attached in an advisory capacity
to the Illinois National Guard. Altgeld preferred the
society of young men; with them, more easily than with
any others, he could put aside the mask of reserve which
concealed, for the most of those with whom he came in
contact, the essential kindliness and sociability of his




First Months as Governor                   67
nature. In his daily walks between the executive mansion and the Capitol, on the journeys to and from Chicago
which he was obliged to make at fairly frequent intervals,
and at many other times, some member of this little
group was usually his companion. To Altgeld, as well
as to the others, this intercourse was among the pleasantest and most inspiring features of the four years
spent at Springfield. One of the young men above mentioned, David J. Baker, contributes the following brief
pen sketch of the Governor as he appeared at this time:
He was of medium height, slight build, somewhat stoop
shouldered, and walked with a peculiar, rather shambling, gait.
Under a close-cropped and carefully-trimmed beard, his face was
strongly lined, apparently by physical pain as well as by care and
thought. The eyes were unusually mobile and intelligent. His
face in repose was sad, almost tragic, but very expressive and lit
readily to what interested him. It was especially responsive to
humor, of which he himself had a considerable fund of a quiet but
incisive sort. A bit awkward and jerky in his movements, he
gave the impression of quick decision and much nervous energy.
He was always carefully dressed and, on the whole, presented the
appearance of a prosperous business man rather than that of a
lawyer or politician. He was rather diffident and, as far as my
own observation went, he had few close personal friends. Yet
people who talked with him seemed always pleased and interested
in his conversation, which was on any subject temperate, informing, modest, and indicative of wide reading and careful thought.
Fond of horses, he was an unusually skilful rider and almost a
superb figure on horseback.
To Altgeld's skill as a horseman, other observers than
the one quoted above have also borne witness-notably Mr. Vachel Lindsay, who in an article on "The Alt



68               Altgeld of Illinois
geld Temperament" * narrates an incident which testifies
as well to something far more important than skill in
horsemanship, which reveals indeed that spirit of dauntless determination lying at the very root of Altgeld's
character. Mr. Lindsay writes:
It happens to be my good fortune to have been born in the
house where I live today; a house on an embankment that looks
out on the governor's yard and mansion.... Once upon a time I
was in the governor's yard when an escort of the Illinois national
guard arrived for Altgeld, the then chief executive. He was a
shaky invalid, and would have been excused for riding in a
carriage. His black horse threw him, and rolled upon him, but
the governor refused help and managed to climb back into the
saddle. He went through it all with a sort of Spartan quietness.
I can this moment recall the grim, mesmeric face, the lacklustre eye, and the unstable frame. I well remember the ease
with which he led the procession, emphatically the governor of
Illinois, the horse still snorting, his conceit still vexed that this
creature with the feeble knees should somehow ride him.
In May the great World's Columbian Exposition at
Chicago opened its gates to the public, bringing an influx
of distinguished visitors from every quarter of the globe.
As Governor of Illinois, Altgeld came in contact with
many of these visitors at various official or social functions arranged by the Exposition authorities, and in a
number of cases the friendships thus formed lasted until
his death. Perhaps the proudest occasion in his public
career was when, on "Illinois Day," he led the entire
organized military forces of the State in a parade through
the White City, later reviewing and addressing the troops
in the presence of a huge and notable throng. IncidenSee The Public (Chicago) for May 24, 1912.




First Months as Governor


69:ally, it is worth noting here that Altgeld and Grover
Cleveland, the two protagonists ina clash of autorit
ivc   eeited     iatio   int- re littl-p mnra.than a year
ater, met for the first and only time in conne tion_.jth
— iens      m ceremonies at the Exhosition.   Colonel
3aker, whose reminiscences have already been aid under:ontribution in the present chapter, writes of this meeting
is follows:
In the spring of I893 President Cleveland came to Chicago to
take part in the opening of the World's Fair. The Governor
and his staff met the presidential train some miles out and escorted the President to the city. This was the only near view
that I ever had of Mr. 'Cleveland. He struck me as ponderous,
authoritative, and well content with himself. The contrast between him and the slight, nervous, and not at all pompous Altgeld was very marked. Even then it impressed me that they did
not seem to take to one another, and that they apparently did not
have much in common. On both sides the proprieties were
strictly observed, but on neither side did there seem to be much
cordiality or real interest.
One of the first addresses delivered by the new Governor, a talk before the graduating class of the University of Illinois on June 7, calls for more than passing
notice here.  Seldom   has a man in high public office
spoken with such complete candor and veracity before
such an audience. Instead of the specious generalities,
the starched and perfumed platitudes, the empty pomposities commonly dispensed to college graduating classes,
Altgeld told his young auditors that they were about to
take up their work in a world governed by the clash
of selfish interests, a world in which there is nothing
perfect, where "the stronger force devours the weaker



/
70              Altgeld    of Illinois
in the woods, in the water, iri the church, in business
-in fact, everywhere."    Men and institutions alike were
still terribly imperfect. "The administration of justice,
or rather of the laws, is better than it ever has been; but
it is only a struggling toward the right, only a blind groping in the darkness toward light.... The wrongs done
in the courts of justice themselves are so great that they
cry to heaven." Government "has improved a little at
every step in its history," but even yet "it is simply a
struggle by one selfish interest to get an advantage over
another... and the wrongs done by government are
so great that they can be measured only by the eye of
omniscience." Yet however defective, these institutions
are "the best that man has been able to devise, and until
the level of morality and intelligence is elevated no better can be devised." In the all-important task of raising
that level, public officeholders have little part.
Being an officeholder myself, I may be pardoned for saying
that most of the men who are holding the offices and wielding
authority will soon be forgotten before the grass has had time
to grow over them; for they are not the great captains, they are
not the leaders of our progress and of our civilization. As a
rule, they do not gaze into the firmament or measure the stars;
their vision is limited to the weather vane on public buildings.
They never give the order for advance on any great question, they
wait to be commanded to move, and then hesitate until assured
that it is the voice of the majority calling to them. They wait
until the leaders of thought have captured the stronghold of a
wrong, and then they try to plant their flag over the ramparts
that were stormed by others. As a rule, they are moral cowards,
following the music wagon of their time, and holding the penny of
immediate advantage so close to their eye as to shut out the sunlight of eternal principles.




First Months as Governor


7'


Not in officeholders, not in the rich and powerful, but
in the common people, lay the chief hope of our race.
"All great reforms, great movements, come from the
bottom and not the top." "Wherever there is a wrong,
point it out to all the world, and you can trust the people
to right it."
The greatest reformer and purifier in the physical world is the
sun. Let sunlight into the dark places and the poisons collected
there disappear. So with the dark places in government and civil
affairs that are now festering with wrong: let the sunlight of
eternal truth and justice shine on them and they will disappear... a The ideal has not yet come. In the pulpit, in the courts,
in government, in business, everywhere there is a kind of blind
groping toward it; and that man will render mankind the greatest
service who, recognizing this fact, will help the race onward
to this high plane of eternal sunlight.
For a final quotation from this unique address, which
more than any other of Altgeld's public utterances embodies the gist of his social and personal philosophy, we select
the following:
Let me tell you something, confidentially, here. If you are sent
to bring something, bring it, and not an explanation. If you agree
to do something, do it; don't come back with. an explanation.
Explanations as to how you came to fail are not worth two cents a
ton. Nobody wants them or cares for them.... Let me tell
you another thing, also confidentially. Only about one-fourth
of your efforts will produce satisfactory results. The sower went
forth to sow; some seed fell by the wayside and the birds got it;
some fell in stony places and it could not get root; some fell
among thorns and got choked by its wicked neighbors; and some
fell on fertile ground and brought forth a harvest. It has always
been thus, and is everywhere so today. If all the efforts I have




72


Altgeld of Illinois


made which have produced no results were collected, and piled on
top of me, they would bury me so deep that Gabriel's horn
would never awaken me. You say I am making a pessimistic
speech. Not at all. I am simply telling you what there is
ahead. The old cardinal said to the young woman: "You are
Richelieu's ward; you are a soldier's wife; you must not shrink
from hearing the truth."
Although Governor Altgeld's sympathy with the working classes, as frequently avowed both before and after
his election, had aroused considerable apprehension
among the conservative elements in Illinois, nothing
occurred during the first five months of his administration
to justify that apprehension in any degree. The initial
test of his attitude in a serious labor disturbance came
about the middle of June, when he was called upon to
act in connection with trouble which developed in the
egion around Lemont, where several hundred unskilled
quarry workers (mostly foreigners) had struck against
a reduction of wages to the level paid by contractors on
the Chicago drainage canal, then under construction in
the same region. Following a hostile demonstration of
the strikers against the canal contractors, several of the
former were killed or wounded by rifle fire. The local
authorities, after a feeble effort to preserve order, telegraphed the Governor for troops.    Two regiments of
State militia were put upon the scene within a few hours,
while at the same time Altgeld himself hurried to Lemont
to make a personal investigation of the trouble. No
further disorder occurred, the adjutant-general succeeded
in adjusting the quarryman's grievances, and the troops
were withdrawn after a few days.   In a detailed report
submitted to the Illinois House of Representatives on




First Months as Governor             73
June I6, Governor Altgeld censured the local author-)
ities for their failure to prevent the outbreak of violence,
while at least one "wanton killing" was charged against
the canal contractors. This departure from the custom.
ary official whitewashing of the employers' side in an
industrial dispute undoubtedly increased the odium
already attaching to Altgeld in certain quarters as "a
partizan of labor," and provoked some criticism. At
the same time, not even the most biassed observer could
deny that the Governor had acted with all possible
promptness and energy in repressing the disorder.




CHAPTER VIII


THE CHICAGO ANARCHISTS, I881-1887
THE critical reaction to Governor Altgeld's report on
the labor troubles near Lemont, as mentioned at the
close of the preceding chapter, was but a ripple in comparison with the tidal wave of resentment aroused by his
pardon of the so-called "Chicago anarchists" less than
two weeks later. This latter deed was destined to bring
down upon its author's head a storm of execration almost
without parallel in American history, and to make him
for a long time the most hated man in American public
life. Nevertheless, more then any other action of his
career it revealed the intense love of justice, the uncompromising devotion to duty, the high moral heroism which
mark him out so conspicuously against the rather sordid background of his time and ally him so indisputably
with the few great figures in our national annals.
To describe in adequate detail the long sequence of
events and circumstances which culminated in the famous
"anarchist pardons" would require a separate volume of
larger proportions than the present work. Only a bare
outline can be given here, but that outline is indispensable
to any clear understanding of the most notable and widelydiscussed incident in Altgeld's career.
During the long period of industrial depression which
followed the panic of 1873, labor unrest and labor disturbances were common throughout the eastern and
74




The Chicago Anarchists


75


middle-western United States. But in Chicago, where
the panic had been preceded less than two years befe  fe.&
y a        cal amithich largely paralyzed local industry, the
working-class revolt against unemployment and starvation
wages was more conspicuous than in any other part of
the country. For fiftaencyra Frnm the r.at firf of
1871 until the "Haymarket riot" of 886 this cit was
a-ormentre of radical labor agiation. The earlier
workers' organizations here were socialistic in character,
after the familiar European model. For the mostpart,
their members were forelgn-o barntheki leaders Gelal
disciples of Lassalle. and their actifitie rplltical rather
than economic. _B-     Chicago had become the igf
sono      ofthe socialst-la
iut thereafter, with the return of industry to "normal"
conditions, the party suffered heavy reverses at the polls;
and in Chicago, as in other large cities, the mnvement
splitinto two opposing factions-the revolutionarie  nd
the moderates. In the former group were ranged most
of tiheTCGerman  B5hmi'a n,  and Scandinavian socialists;
while the latteconsisted mainly of_ nPish-speaking
workers, who now began   t urn their attention to trade
union activiti: _f h_.r mrc. n, salrt.
An   tftemnt toward a national organization of the
tevolutionar         wao-made   a   convention held
Chicago during October, 1881. The prime movers
in this effort were the N ew f6ork social revolutionaries,
who had just affiliated with the International Working
People's Association;-the so-called "Black International," organized by European anarchists in July, i88I,
with headquarters in London. Not much was accomplished, however, until two years later, when a second
convention met at Pittsburgh, perfected a national organ



76


Altgeld of Illinois


ization, and issued a manifesto calling for "destruction
of the existing class rule by all means, i. e., by energetic,
relentless, revolutionary, and  international action."
This American section of the "Black International" had
its chief impetus in New York and its principal leader
in Johann Most, although its largest membership was
in Chicago. By insisting, hoverpon the importance
f t           an essential factor in the  vement,
the Chicago section deviated sharply from the pure "force
anarchism" of Most and his followers; indeed, th i
cago idea, as it came to be called was not anarchism at
all in a nyrict sense, but an early form of what is fl
Tnown as uynclrlisn   Thus the movement here provided a new and promising rallying ground for those organized workers who felt convinced by long experience
that political action and conventional trade union methods
were alike futile; and it was from such that its supporters
were largely recruited. The conversion of these men
into radical "direct actionists" must be credited in the
main to the employers and the police of Chicago. For
years virlv every effort of the workers to better their
c  ndition had met with determined resistance
frm the employing class. backed hy h  press and the
"strong arm  methods" of _ulliC authoriL     Every
ttrike, regardless o i grin and nature, was considered
as evid e   er se that its partcpdlaced tliemf      se ies in organized oppsif wn   a    order, and was
dea t with accorfinlv.n thereat railwa strike of
m   stockyards strike of 1880, in the street-car
trike of I88,  an  ores   f lesser industrial conthcts,
it ad been the common technique o the police to 'rack
all heads in sight until no man was left upon his feet,
an-tien-announce that quiet was restored and the strike




The Chicago Anarchists


77


broken." * Time after time, peaceable meetings of
working men were summarily raided and dispersed, often
with the most provocative show of brutality. In the
light of such repeated experiences, a considerable section
of Chicago's working class had come to believe that the
police-were the exclusive allies of the employers, and
that both were the implacable enemies of the workers.
It was from this section that the so-called anarchist movement drew what little organized strength it ever had.
Scarcely one in fifty of its numbers could by any possible
elasticity of definition be rightly termed an anarchist.
They were simply ordinary human beings, loosely united j
by the bond of bitter common grievances. But the leaders of the movement were extremely vociferous; and
their heated harangues and editorials struck terror to
the hearts of Chicago's comfortable bourgeoisie. This
terror deepened when the dreaded "Lehr und Wehr
Verein," organized and incorporated in 1875 as a means
of protecting the city's German socialist voters at the
polls, was taken over as the armed contingent of the
anarchist movement. By the end of I885 the "Black
International" (like the "I. W. W." in recent times)
had been magnified by excited newspaper editors and
timorous capitalists into an horrific bugaboo, menacing
all that established society holds precious.
This inflammatory situation came to a climax with
the nation-wide Hight-hnbr movement of 1886. Accepted
commonplace though it is now, the eight-hour day was
at that time to perhaps the majority ofemployersa symbol of coming industrial dissolution, the entering wedge
XoFanvneefnt that mu    inritay 1l..i to a "dictator*Article by Charles Edward Russell in Appleton's Magazine for
October, 1907.
i




78


Altgeld of Illinois


shi of the proletariat."  In the alarmist atmosphere of
Chicago, it was felt that almost anything might now happen. Here, as elsewhere, the labor organizations (revolutionary and moderate alike) had planned to launch
their eight-hour campaign on May I, with a series of
large-scale demonstrations and strikes. Earlier in the
year, however, a number of preliminary skirmishes took
place, which did much to increase the prevailing tension
nd bitterness. In February the McCormick harvester
plant, which had been the seat of serious labor troubles
uring the preceding year, declared a general lockout of
ts fourteen hundred employees on issues growing out of
he previous dispute; and frequent disturbances resulted.
round the McCormick plant and elsewhere.in the city
during these months of unrest, "it became a pastime for
a squad of mounted police, or a detachment in close
formation, to disperse with the billy any gathering of
workingmen. The billy was an impartial instrument:
men, women, and children, and shop-keeping by-standers
alike composed its harvest. It was the police, aided by
the 'Pinkertons,' who added the great leaven of bitterness
o the contest." * With the approach of May Day, redoent in name of communistic barricades and street fighting,
the entire city was in a state of nervous excitement. Police precautions of the most elaborate sort were taken
ainst a widespread outbreak which half the population
considered inevitable. But May Day came and went, and
although from sixty to eighty thousand workers took
art in the day's demonstrations, there was no disorder.
On the afternoon of May 3, however, a bloody encounter
rred between the police and the locked-out employees
e"Centennial History of Illinois," Volume IV., pages 167-68.




The Chicago Anarchists


79


of the McCormick plant, in which several workers were
killed or wounded by revolver shots. No event could |
have been better calculated to set the smoldering passions of both sides ablaze. During the night of May 3
the anarchist organization printed and distributed an
excited circular headed "Revenge! Revenge I Workmen to
Arms!" and calling a meeting for the following evening
in Haymarket Square on the West Side, to "denounce
the latest atrocious act of the police." The press cried
loudly for suppression of this meeting; but Chicago's
mayor, the elder Carter Harrison, declined to interfere, announcing that he would attend the meeting
in person and order its dispersal if the laws were
overstepped in any way. On the appointed night
a crowd, variously estimated at from one to three
thousand persons, assembled near the Haymarket.
Half a block away was the Desplaines Street police
station, with a large reserve of officers under the
command of Captain John Bonfield (among workingmen the most hated of Chicago's police officials) ready
for instant action. Several speakers addressed the crowd
from a truck wagon. There was some excitement, but /
no disorder. Between te.nd levn     'cl0ck ran  t
in, and the meetinabegan to  ak.  ~In
left, an     1igat the Desplaines Street station he
informed Bonfield thatthe meetin  had been peaceable
an'-d tVat no trouble need nared.    j.l  uugiutes
ater Bonfied marched his reserves to the scene, and the
cr,     by thi me consisting ot perhaps two hundred
persons, was ordered to disperse. From   somewhere
above or behind the gathering a spark flew out; there
was a deafening roar; and about sixty policemen fell




8o


Altgeld of Illinois,wounded, seven of them    fatally. Their comrades
quickly reformed the broken ranks, drew their revolvers
and fired into the fleeing throng, killinr or woIInding
many persons. Within less than five minutes the "Hay.
market riot" was over.
As news of the tragedy spread, a wild panic seized
Chicago and held the city in its grasp for months. No
rumor of additional outrages, no report of wholesale
plotting, was too fantastic to be given implicit credence
by press and public. Infuriated by the murder of their
comrades and excited to the highest pitch by the cry for
retribution that was everywhere raised,  e polcec
their dragnet far and wide filing the iails with hud s
f "suse t     otl f reigners, who were one by one
A through the third             From       iony
of these terror-stricken witnesses it was not difficult for
the police to evolve for an equally terror-stricken public
the outlines of  iantic revolutionary plot aimin  at
nothing less than the completedesction n    hi.
Aftereverawee s of this sort of thing, eight persons
were finally singled out for trial-August Spies, Michael
Schwab, Samuel Fielden, Adolph Fischer, George Engel,
Oscar Neebe, Louis Lingg, and Albert R. Parsons. The
last-named had been sought in vain by the police, but on
the first day of the subsequent trial he made a dramatic
appearance in the court-room and took his place upon the
prisoners' bench among his comrades. Thbr a s  t a
sr4       idnce to connect any one of these men with
the actual throwing of the  aymarket bomb. Even today the identity   the bom-thrower has not been positively established, although suspicion centres strongly on
Rudolph Schnaubelt, who was twice arrested after the




The Chicago Anarchists


8i


Haymarket affair and each time released, later disappearing completely. The indicted men were members of
the "Black International," and most of them had as
editors or writers been prominent in the anarchistic
labor agitation of the preceding period; three of their
number had spoken at the Haymarket meeting. Their
indictment, and later their prosecution, was based solely
on the charge that they had publicl advised the use of
vio ent met o s in cass warfare, and that the unknown
bomb-thrtowr mst have been -impelled yh such advic
to commit his act.
The trial, conducted before Judge Joseph E. Gary in
the Cook County Criminal Court, began on June 21,
i886, and lasted for eight weeks. At its close the jury
almost immediately brought in a verdict finding the defendants "guilty of murder in the manner and form
charged in the indictment."  Neebe's penalty was fixed
at imprisonment for fifteen years; the seven others were
sentenced to death. The prevailing atmosphere of
public opinion at this time, reflected and intensified in the
court-room by every possible means throughout the trial,
made such a verdict inevitable. From the outset the
trial was not essentially an effort to determine the guilt
or inoee o innocene of certain individuals charged with a specific
legal crime. The case in court was that of "anarchism" J
versus "society." Judge, jury, and prosecution were
simply the automatic reflectors of popular feeling, inflamed by a recent frightful outrage; and to them, as to
the public, the eight defendants personified a doctrine
which inspired the most intense fear and the most passionate hatred. The popular cry was for retribution, for
a merciless example that would paralyze once and for all




82


Altgeld of Illinois


the anarchist camp; and the "machinery of the law" performed its required task. As Brand Whitlock has
pointed out,
It was all very simple. If it were not for the tragedy, and the
wrong that is so much worse than any tragedy, one might almost
laugh at the simplicity. It shows the power of words, the force
of phrases, the obdurate and terrible tyranny of a term. The
men.. were called anarchists, when, as it happens, they were
men, just men. And out of that original error in terminology
there was evolved that overmastering fear which raved and slew
in a frenzy of passion that decades hence will puzzle the psychologist who studies the mind of the crowd.*
There can be no question that the verdict arrived at in
Judge Gary's court was approved by an overwhelming
majority of public opinion, not in Chicago only but
throughout the country, where the "anarchist case" excited more interest than any other event since the Civil
War. Indeed, merely to voice the mildest doubt regarding the conduct of the trial, the validity of the verdict, or
the wisdom of carrying out the sentences was commonly
taken as proof of anarchistic affiliations or sympathies.
eertheless, a movement of protest began slowly to
gather  strength.   uch   persons  as  William    Dea
Howells, Lyman J. Gage, Robert G. Ingersol,    enr D.
/ Lloyd, General Roger A. Pryor, and Charles Francis
Train, in this country, and William Morris, Annie
Besant, Walter Crane, Stopford Brooke, and Sir Walter
Besant, in England, took a vigorous part in this movement. Meetings were held and petitions circulated in
behalf of the condemned men. In London a memorial
addressed to Governor Oglesby of Illinois and asking for
*From "Forty Years of It," page 41.




The Chicago Anarchists


83


clemency was signed by i 6,000 members of workingmen's
dubs on a single Sunday. At the same time, every available legal resource was brought into play by those who
were seeking to save the prisoners.    At the OcE    r term
of Judge Gary's court a motion for a new triawas        dscusses  an    overruled, and    te seven men who        had
received    ath sentences were ordered to bp      ban    on
December 3 of the same year.        Later, under a stay of
execution, the case was carried to the Illinios Supreme
Court, which after six months' consideration unanimously
denied a writ of error. Appeal was then made to the
United States Supreme Court, before which the defense
'was represented by Leonard Swett, Lincoln's old associate; and with the same result, although one of the
justices declared the trial had not been free from error.*
At last there was nothing left but a forlorn hope that
Governor Oglesby would commute the sentences.         In the,case of Parsons, whose conduct throughout the trial had
stron      mpressed all impartial sympathies, O glesby
intimated that clemency would be granted if the condemned man would petition for it.       This Parsons iesolutely reeused to do, chiefli    on the ground that such
action on his part would destroy the last remai
chances ofhis comrades.     LinEEngel, and Fischer also
reu~sed to oin in any     lea for clemency.   Spies begged
'"The Supreme Court simply affirmed the legality of the forms under
which the Chicago court proceeded; it did not affirm the propriety of
trying for murder men fairly indictable for conspiracy alone; and
it by no means approved the principle of punishing them because of their
frantic opinions, for a crime which they were not shown to have committed. The justice or injustice of their sentence was not before the
highest tribunal of our law, and unhappily could not be got there.
That question must remain for history, which judges the judgment of
courts, to deal with; and I, for one, cannot doubt what the decision of
history will be."-4Letter of William Dean Howells to the New York
Tribune, Nov. 4, x887.




84


Altgeld of Illinois


the Govenorj that the lives nf    h;e felws1  he..  are
hcen       - her  itted to "satisfy the fury of a semiari      b."   The day before that set for the executions, Oglesby commuted the sentences of Fielden and
Schwab to life imprisonment, leaving the five other men
to their fate.  Later in the same day Lingg committed
suicide in his cell, under ghastly circumstances; and
during the forenoon of Friday, November I, 1887,
Parsons, Spies, Fischer, and Engel were put to death on
the gallows in a courtyard of the county jail in Chicago.
With the snuffing out of those five lives, the acute
paranoia from which Chicago had been suffering passed
its crisis. But the city had still to go through a long
convalescent stage before it fully recovered. During the
next year or two, sinister and far-reaching "revenge
plots" continued to be unearthed by the police and exploited by the press at fairly regular intervals; until the
limits of public credulity were reached at last, and the
subject ceased to be of interest.
All the facts that have since come to light regarding
the so-called "anarchist conspiracy" in Chicago tend to
confirm the following conclusions of Mr. Charles Edward
Russell, who in 1887 spent several months investigating
the matter for a New York newspaper:
The truth is that Chicago was at no time in more danger of
an anarchist uprising, in more danger of an outbreak of violence,
in more danger of destruction by dynamite, than any other
American city was then or is now.... The idea of an anarchist
conspiracy was purely a dream. There had been in Chicago a
very small group, comprising perhaps fourteen in all, of physical
force anarchists, men of the type of the depraved and desperate
creatures that assassinate European rulers. Of these Lingg was
the leader, Schnaubelt was a member, and probably these two




The Chicago Anarchists                     85
alone possessed the courage for an overt act. Next were a large
number of workingmen that did not believe in organized force and
had no sympathy with anarchism, but felt that the workingmen
had been badly treated by the police. These were often on conviction opponents of the wage system, but they were no champions
of armed revolution. They might be willing to throw brickbats at strike breakers, to make speeches denouncing capital, and
to jeer the police, but they were no anarchists. Beyond these
were other men that theoretically favored the eight-hour movement and the cause of labor, and felt that the condemned men had
been cruelly sacrificed, but had no convictions nor impulses of
greater danger to society. And this was the sum total of the
disaffection, unless we choose to characterize every person as an
anarchist that entertains doubts whether present conditions represent the ultimate state of mankind.*
* Article in Appleton's Magaxine for October, 1907.




CHAPTER IX


GOVERNOR ALTGELD PARDONS THE ANARCHISTS
COINCIDENT with the gradual subsidence of the
"anarchist scare" in Chicago and throughout the country, an energetic movement was set on foot to secure
the freedom of Fielden, Schwab, and Neebe, the three
survivors among the eight men who had been placed on
trial after the Haymarket outrage. Neebe, it will be
recalled, had received a sentence of fifteen years' imprisonment; while Fielden and Schwab had been saved from
the gallows at the last moment by Governor Oglesby's
commutation of their sentences to imprisonment for
life. The amnesty movement in behalf of these men
comprised several fairly distinct groups, in accord as..to
purpose but actuated by widely diverse motives. "First,
though in point of numbers fewest, were those persons
who felt convinced that all the so-called anarchists had
been wrongfully convicted, and who were endeavoring to
obtain the only reparation now possible for what in
their view was a grave judicial crime. Another group
held to the opinion that, while the men had been justly
convicted, a policy of leniency rather than of severity
would have been and still was better calculated to
protect the interests of society. Still another and perhaps the largest group consisted of those who had thoroughly approved of the sentences and the executions, but
who now believed that the ends of justice had been suffi86




Altgeld Pardons the Anarchists


87


ciently served and that it would be both politic and humane to free the imprisoned survivors, purely as an act of
mercy. How many of this latter group were impelled
by a secret change of heart or the prickings of conscience, it is of course impossible to say; but the number
must have been considerable. Certainly a shift in
popular sentiment regarding the anarchist executions
was beginning to make itself felt in Chicago within a
year or two after the event, as Edwin D. Mead of
Boston and other observers have noted.*
Through an Amnesty Association organized in I890,
and by concerted or individual action in other channels,
strong pressure on behalf of Fielden, Schwab, and
Neebe was brought to bear upon Governor Fifer, who
in I889 had succeeded Oglesby as chief magistrate of
Illinois. But Fifer proved obdurate, and the amnesty
workers had no other choice than to await the advent
of another adminstration. Their hopes rose high and
their efforts were renewed with fresh vigor when at last
Fifer was displaced by a man of such liberal and human.itarian views as John P. Altgeld.  Farly ij  83 _a -
don petition carrving thesignatures of about s o
sand persons, among them man.yof hia      most prom
inent business andjprofessiontwas        e
new    oernor; and during the months immediately
following, ne was besieged by individual pleaders of the
amnesty cause.t But the obvious strength and respectability of this movement did not betray Altgeld into
* See Caro Lloyd's "Life of Henry Demarest Lloyd," Volume I., page o03.
t According to Willis J. Abbot, "the first name signed to the petition
for the pardon of the anarchists was that of Lyman J. Gage, whom
McKinley made secretary of the treasury, and the petition was signed
by the president of every bank and every railroad in Chicago." (See
The Pilgrim for April, i902.)




88


Altgeld of Illinois


an immediate decision. In his view, the pardoning power
vested in the Governor was not so much a personal prerogative as a judicial responsibility, to be exercised in
correction of those wrongs which are inseparable from
the regular processes of the criminal law. For all his
sympathy with the laboring classes, he did not regard
he alleged anarchists as proper objects of clemency.
f they had been fairly convicted of the crime charged
gainst them, it was his opinion that "no punishment
nder our laws could then be too severe."  If they had
een unfairly convicted, simple justice required that they
hould be released. At the outset, therefore, he had determined not to act before making a searching legal analysis of the trial and reviewing every aspect of the case. As
time went on during those first crowded months of I893,
some of the more impatient petitioners, too hastily
assuming that he would grant the pardons as a mere
matter of routine, began to reproach him for the delay
in coming to a decision; his reply was simply that he had
been too much occupied with other duties to give this the
attention it required.
Had he chosen to issue the pardons at once merely
as an act of executive clemency, in the usual perun tory
wray, it is conceivable thfa (overnnr Alteei dldauidhave
been more generally applauded than criticized. Aside
from the labor element and those who beieve1 from the
first that the so-called anarchists were the victims of
popular hysteria, a large and influential section of the
community would have openly welcomed such a salving of
its conscience; and many even of the unrepentant were
now secretly disposed toward a gesture of magnanimity.
Simple clemency would have satisfied all the forces that
were urging intercession, while at the same time it would




Altgeld Pardons the Anarchists           89
be least likely to infuriate those who were still implacable
in the anarchist affair. The Governor needed to say
no more than this: "These three men have suffered
seven years of imprisonment for their crime. They have
been heavily punished; they have had their lesson. Some
sixty thousand persons, in every walk and station of life,
now petition me for their release. I have decided to
accede to that petition, in the interests of mercy." A
timid an r-rudential man or a self-seeking politician, had
he actedWt all in the matter, would inevitably have taken
this course. But Altgeld never chose the safer and easier:
path when duty pointed in another'direction.  Reviewing
the case in minute detail as an experienced lawyer and
judge, the conviction was forced upon him that a monstrous legal wrong had been committed-a wrong which
had sent five men to death and had kept three others in
prison for seven years. In the   t of that convii
it was no less his duty to expose the wrong than.t free
it sunriving victims; indeed, with -the plea for clemency'
dismissed at the outset, as it was in his own mind, the two
things were inseparable. No man then living foresaw
more clearly than he how fatally such a course would react
upon his own future career. "Make no mistake about 3
its being a popular move," he said to a friend who had
urged that granting the pardons would be expedient as
well as just; "if I do it I will be a dead man politically." *To another friend who had expressed the opposite view
that this action might end his political career, Altgeld
replied with evident resentment of the implication that
such a consideration could have weight with him: "By
*Record of interview with Clarence S. Darrow, in the Illinois Historical Survey. (See "Centennial History of Illinois," Volume IV.,
page 187.)




90


Altgeld of Illinois


God, if I decide that those men are innocent I will pardon
them if I never hold office another dayl" * It should be
remembered that at this time he was the acknowledged
leader of his party in Illinois. He had just attained
one distinguished goal of his political ambitions. As a
foreign-born citizen, the highest place to which he could
aspire was a seat in the United States Senate. He did
aspire to that place, and in the existing circumstances it
seemed certain that his aspiration would be4atlized if
he were only discreet in his present posfion. To
renounce such an ambition simply that belated justice
might be done to three obscure workingmen was little
less than madness in the view of Altgeld's closest political advisers, to whom he at length confided his intention
of granting the pardons. They begged him to reconsider; they warned him that the course which he proposed
to take would assuredly wreck his own political fortunes
and probably have disastrous effects for his party. But
the Governor was not to be moved from his purpose.
"As for our party," he said, "that must stand or fall by
its principles and its policy. As for myself, no man
has the right to allow his ambition to stand in the way of
the performance of a simple act of justice." t
On the morning of June 26, I893, Secretary of State
William H. Hinrichsen was summoned to Altgeld's private office. "I am going to pardon Fielden, Schwab,
and Neebe this morning," said the Governor, "and I
thought you might like to sign the papers in person rather
than have your signature affixed by your chief clerk."
"Do you think it good policy to pardon them?" asked
Hinrichsen, who then added, "I do not." "It is right,",
* Unpublished reminiscences of Hon. S. P. McConnell.
t Unpublished article by Louis F. Post.




Altgeld    Pardons the Anarchists              9I
Altgeld said emphatically, striking the desk with his —
fist. * Later in the morning the pardons were on their
way to the three men in Joliet prison.
It is a fortunate circumstance that there should have
been at this time in the State Department at Springfield
a young man with a seeing eye and an understanding
heart who witnessed the signing of the pardons and
who has given us such an impressive pen picture of the
whole affcir as is embodied in the following passage,
from Brand Whitlock's "Forty Years of It":
Injustice was never for long out of the mind of John P. Altgeld, and during all those first months of his administration he
had been brooding over this notable instance of injustice, and he
had come to his decision. He knew the cost to him; he had just
come to the governorship of his state, and to the leadership of
his party, after its thirty years of defeat, and he realized what
powerful interests would be frightened and offended if he were
to turn three forgotten men out of prison; he understood how
partisanship would turn the action to its advantage.
It mattered not that most of the thoughtful men in Illinois
would tell you that the "anarchists" had been improperly convicted, that they were not only entirely innocent of the murder of
which they had been accused, but were not even anarchists; it was
simply that the mob had convicted them in one of the strangest
frenzies of fear that ever distracted a whole community, a case
which all the psychologists of all the universities in the world
might have tried, without getting at the truth of it-much less a
jury in a criminal court.
And so, one morning in June, very early, I was called to the
Governor's office, and told to make out pardons for Fielden,
Neebe, and Schwab. "And do it yourself," said the Governor's
secretary, "and don't say anything about it to anybody."
* Article by Wm. H. Hinrichsen in the Chicago Inter Ocean, March
x6, I902.




92


Altgeld of Illinois


I cannot tell in what surprise, in what a haze, or with what
emotions I went about that task. I got the blanks and the
records, and, before the executive clerk, whose work it was, had
come down, I made out those three pardons, in the largest, roundest hand I could command, impressed them with the Great Seal
of State, had the secretary of state sign them, and took them over
to the Governor's office. I was admitted to his private room, and
there he sat, at his great flat desk. The only other person in the
room was Dreier, a Chicago banker, who had never wearied, it
seems, in his efforts to have those men pardoned.! He was
standing, and was very nervous; the moment evidently meant
much to him. The Governor took the big sheets of imitation
parchment, glanced over them, signed his name to each, laid down
the pen, and handed the papers across the table to Dreier. The
banker took them, and began to say something. But he only got
as far as —
"Governor, I hardly"-when he broke down and wept.
Altgeld made an impatient gesture; he was gazing out of the
window in silence, on the elm-trees in the yard. He took out
his watch, told Dreier he would miss his train-Dreier was to
take the Alton to Joliet, deliver the pardons to the men in person,
and go on in to Chicago with them that night-and Dreier nervously rolled up the pardons, took up a little valise, shook hands,
and was gone.
On the table was a high pile of proofs of the document in
which Governor Altgeld gave the reasons for his action. It
was an able paper; one might well rank it among state papers,
and I suppose no one now, in these days, when so many of Altgeld's democratic theories are popular, would deny that his
grounds were just and reasonable, or that he had done what he
could to right a great wrong; though he would regret that so
great a soul should have permitted itself to mar the document by
expressions of hatred of the judge who tried the case. But perhaps it is not so easy to be calm and impersonal in the midst of
the moving event, as it is given to others to be long afterward.
But whatever feelings he may have had, he was calm and




Altgeld Pardons the Anarchists


93


serene ever after. I saw him as I was walking down to the
Capitol the next morning. It was another of those June days
which now and then are so perfect on the prairies. The Governor was riding his horse-he was a gallant horseman-and he
bowed and smiled that faint, wan smile of his, and drew up to
the curb a moment. There was, of course, but one subject then,
and I said:
"Well, the storm will break now."
"Oh, yes," he replied, with a not wholly convincing air of
throwing Off a care, "I was prepared for that. It was merely
doing right."
I said something to him then to express my satisfaction in the
great deed that was to be so wilfully, recklessly, and cruelly misunderstood. I did not say all I might have said, for I felt
that my opinions could mean so little to him. I have wished
since that I had said more, —said something, if that might have
been my good fortune, that could perhaps have made a great
burden a little easier for that brave and tortured soul. But he
rode away with that wan, persistent smile. And the storm did
break, and the abuse it rained upon him broke his heart; but I
never again heard him mention the anarchist case.




CHAPTER X


THE PARDON MESSAGE
IN connection with the pardons of Fielden, Schwab, and
Neebe, Governor Altgeld made public a lengthy statement or message reviewing in detail the most essential
matters of law and fact involved in the anarchist trial
and setting forth the reasons that led him to release the
three men. This statement, as printed in pamphlet form,
occupies some sixty pages. * It suffers the disadvantage of being written in a cramped and clumsy lawyers'
English which lessens its effectiveness throughout and
too often obscures the plain meaning of particular paragraphs or sentences. Nevertheless, it is probably the
chief source of illumination on one of the darkest episodes in American social and legal history; while of
course it provides the only valid basis for a reasonable
judgment, on the legal side, as to the merits or demerits
of Altgeld's action. A summary of this document, as
far as it can be summarized in a single brief chapter,
must now be given here.
After a preliminary "statement of the case," Governor
Altgeld writes as follows:
The several thousand merchants, bankers, judges, lawyers and
other prominent citizens of Chicago, who have by petition, by
*The pardon message is reprinted in full in "Live Questions," pages
365-400.
94




The Pardon Message                       95
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 a 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:
First-That the jury which tried the case was a packed jury v
selected to convict.
Second-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, according to their own answers, were not competent
jurors, and the trial was, therefore, not a legal trial.
Third-That the defendants were not proven to be guilty
of the crime charged in the indictment.
Fourth-That as to the defendant Neebe, the State's Attorney
had declared at the close of the evidence that there was no case
against him, and yet he has been kept in prison all these years.
Fifth-That the trial judge was either so prejudiced against
the defendants, or else so determined to win the applause of a J(
certain class in the community, that he could not and did not
grant a fair trial.
Upon the question of having been punished enough, I will simply say that if the defendants had a fair trial, and [if] nothing has
developed since to show that they were not guilty of the crime
charged in the indictment, then there ought to be no executive interference, for no punishment under our laws could then be too
severe. Government must defend itself; life and property must be
protected, and law and order must be maintained; murder must be
punished, and if the defendants are guilty of murder, either committed by their own hands or by someone else acting on their advice,
then, if they have had a fair trial, there should be in this case no executive interference. The soil of America is not adapted to the
growth of anarchy. While our institutions are not free from
injustice, they are still the best that have yet been devised, and
therefore must be maintained.




96


Altgeld of Illinois


Nearly half the message is taken up by an examination
of the first two assertions-that the case was tried by
a "packed" jury, and that the jurors according to their
own answers were not competent and the trial was therefore not a legal trial.  It is pointed out that in this
casethe  e  ur candidates.weie'nt-s- elected in the usual
way, by drawing names from a box; but that a special
bailiff, nominated by the state s attorney, was appointed
by the court to select candidates. While this proceedlng"rat been anctined by the defense, it soon became
apparent that the special bailiff was exercising his powers
in a grossly unfair manner. A few days before the execution of Spies, Parsons, Fischer, and Engel, a prominent
Chicago business man (Otis S. Favor) who had been
examined for jury duty in the trial made affidavit to the
effect that the bailiff had said to him in the presence of
witnesses: "I am managing this case, and know what
I am about. Those fellows are going to be hanged as
certain as death. I am calling such men as the defendants will have to challenge peremptorily and waste their
time and challenges. Then they will have to take such
men as the prosecution wants." After reproducing
this affidavit (which the deponent had previously withheld under pressure from the state's attorney) the message goes on to cite instance after instance from the court
records to show that these were the tactics actually
followed.
Nearly every juror called stated that he had read and talked
about the matter, and believed what he had heard and read, and
had formed and expressed an opinion, and still held it, as to the
guilt or innocence of the defendants; that he was prejudiced
against them; that that prejudice was deep-rooted, and that it
would require evidence to remove that prejudice.




The Pardon Message


97


A great many said they had been pointed out to the bailiff by
their employers, to be summoned as jurors. Many stated franly
that they believed the defendants to be uilt  -.1  — '-ict
unss    eir o  onwere overcome by strong roof;  and almost
everyone, after having made these statements, was examined by
the court in a manner to force him to say that he would try the
case fairly upon the evidence produced in court, and whenever
he was brought to this point he was held to be a competent juror,
and the defendants were obliged to exhaust their challenges on
men who declared in open court that they were prejudiced and
believed the defendants to be guilty.
The twelve jurors whom the defendants were finally forced
to accept, after the challenges were exhausted, were of the same
general character as the others, and a number of them stated candidly that they were so prejudiced that they could not try the
case fairly, but each, when examined by the court, was finally induced to say that he believed he could try the case fairly upon
the evidence that was produced in court alone.
After citing at length the decision of the Illinois
Supreme Court in the famous Cronin case, rendered after
the same court had sustained the conviction of the anarchists, Governor Altgeld points out the perfectly obvious
fact that in the Cronin case the court had declared the
Illinois rule as to the impartiality of jurors to be the
exact reverse of what this court had accepted as correct
procedure in the anarchist trial. "The very things
which the supreme court held to be fatal errors in the
Cronin case constituted the entire fabric of this [the anarchist] case, so far as relates to the competency of the
jury."
Turning now to the assertion that the defendants were
not proved guilty of the crime charged in the indictment, -
Governor Altgeld calls attention to the unique principle




98               Altgeld    of Illinois
of law laid down by the trial judge and thus stated by
him in overruling the motion for a new trial:
The conviction has not gone on the ground that they [the eight
defendants] did actually have any personal participation in the
particular act which caused the death of Degan [the first policeman to die from the effects of the bomb], but the conviction proceeds upon the ground that they had generally, by speech and
print, advised large classes of the people, not particular individuals
but large classes, to commit murder, and had left the commission,
the time and place and when, to the individual will and whim, or
caprice, or whatever it may be, of each individual man who listened to their advice; and that in consequence of that advice, in
pursuance of that advice, and influenced by that advice, somebody
not known did throw the bomb that caused Degan's death....
This case is without precedent; there is no example in the law
oks of a case of this sort.
Beyond remarking that "in all the centuries during
which government has been maintained among men, and
crime has been punished, no judge in a civilized country
has ever laid down such a rule before," the Governor
does not discuss this legal doctrine.
But taking the law as above laid down, it was necessary under
it to prove, and that beyond a reasonable doubt, that the person
committing the violent deed had at least heard or read the advice
given to the masses; for until he either heard or read it he did
not receive it, and if he did not receive it he did not commit the
violent act in pursuance of that advice; and it is here that the
case for the State fails.... In fact, until the State proves from
whose hands the bomb came, it is impossible to show any connecion between the man who threw it and these defendants.
With reference to the mass of evidence introduced
during the trial to show the use of seditious or incendiary




The Pardon Message


99


language by the defendants, it is pointed out that this
"amounts to but little when its source is considered," and
that such sentiments are always heard in times of great
public excitement and "when men imagine that they have
been wronged or are excited or partially intoxicated."
The conception of a "gigantic anarchistic conspiracy"
based on inflammatory articles published at intervals
during a period of years in "obscure little sheets with
scarcely any circulation" and on the inflammatory utterances of speakers before occasional audiences of insignificant size, in a city of nearly a million inhabitants,
"is not entitled to serious notice." In Governor Altgeld's opinion, the so-called Haymarket riot was not the
result of a conspiracy at all.
It is shown here that the bomb wgsin all probability, thrown.y
someone seeking personal revenge; that a course had been pursued by the authorities which would naturally cause this; that f
a number of years prior to the Haymarket affair there had been
labor troubles, and in several cases a number of laboring people,
guilty of no offense, had been shot down in cold  ood by Pinkerton men, and none of the mtrdrr   were hrnght to justice.
e evidence taen at coroners' inquests and presented here, shows
that in at least two cases men were fired on and killed when they
were running away, and there was consequently no occasion to
shoot, yet nobody was punished; that in Chicago there had been
a number of strikes in which some of the police not only took sides
against the men, but without any authority of law invaded and
broke up peaceable meetings, and in scores of cases brutally
clubbed people who were guilty of no offense whatever.
An extended quotation is then given from the opinion
of the presiding judge in a case arising out of the famous
"Turner Hall incident" in Chicago several years before,;
*,,iS




I00


Altgeld of Illinois


when a conference of cabinet makers and their employers,
meeting to consider a new wage agreement, had been
suddenly raided by the police, who clubbed many of the
persons present and shot one young man dead. In this
opinion, after citing the indisputable evidence of lawlessness and brutality on the part of the police, the constitutional right of the people "to assemble in a peaceable manner to consult for the common good" was reaffirmed as a right to be exercised and enjoyed "independently of every other power of the State Government."
It is shown that no attention was paid to the Judge's decision;
that peaceable meetings were invaded and broken up, and inoffensive people were clubbed; that in i885 there was a strike at
the McCormick Reaper Factory, on account of a reduction of
wages, and some Pinkerton men, while on their way there, were
hooted at by some people on the street, when they fired into the
crowd and fatally wounded several people who had taken no part
jin any disturbance; that four of the Pinkerton men were indicted for this murder by the grand jury, but that the prosecuting
officers apparently took no interest in the case, and allowed it to
e continued a number of times, until the witnesses were sworn
out, and in the end the murderers went free, that after this
there was a strike on the West Division Street railway, and that
some of the police, under the leadership of Capt. John Bonfield,
indulged in a brutality never equalled before; that even small
merchants, standing on their own doorsteps and having no interest
in the strike, were clubbed, then hustled into patrol wagons,
and thrown into prison, on no charge and not even booked; that
a petition signed by about iooo of the leading citizens living
on and near West Madison street, was sent to the Mayor and
City Council, praying for the dismissal of Bonfield from the force,
but that, on account of his political influence, he was retained.
'Let me say here, that the charge of brutality does not apply to
11 the policemen of Chicago. There are many able, honest and




The Pardon Message


IOI


conscientious officers who do their duty quietly, thoroughly and
humanely.
The statements contained in this paragraph of the
pardon message are followed by several pages of supporting affidavits, including one from the largest public service corporation in Chicago and another from Captain
Schaack of the Chicago police department, all testifying
to Bonfield's brutal methods.
Again, it is shown that various attempts were made to bring to
justice the men who wore the uniform of the law while violating
it, but all to no avail; that the laboring people found the prisons
always open to receive them, but the courts of justice were
practically closed to them; and the prosecuting officers vied
with each other in hunting them down, but were deaf to their
appeals; that in the spring of I886 there were more labor disturbances in the city, and particularly at the McCormick factory;
that under the leadership of Capt. Bonfield the brutalities of the
previous year were even exceeded. Some affidavits and other
evidence is offered on this point, which I cannot give for want of
space. It appears that this was the year of the eight-hour agitation, and efforts were made to secure an eight-hour day about
May i, and that a number of laboring men standing, not on the
street, but on a vacant lot, were quietly discussing the situation
in regard to the movement, when suddenly a large body of police,
under orders from Bonfield, charged on them and began to club
them; that some of the men, angered at the unprovoked assault,
at first resisted, but were soon dispersed; that some of the police
fired on the men while they were running and wounded a large
number who were already Ioo feet or more away and were running as fast as they could; that at least four of the number so
shot down died; that this was wanton and unprovoked murder,
but there was not even so much as an investigation.
While some men may tamely submit to being clubbed and see



102


Altgeld of Illinois


ing their brothers shot down, there are some who will resent it,
and will nurture a spirit of hatred and seek revenge for themselves, and the occurrences that preceded the Haymarket tragedy
indicate that the bomb was thrown by someone who, instead of
acting on the advice of anybody, was simply seeking personal
revenge for having been clubbed, and that Capt. Bonfield is the
man who is really responsible for the death of the police officers.
It is also shown that the character of the Haymarket meeting
sustains this view. The evidence shows there were only 800 to
Ixoo people present, and that it was peaceable and orderly
meeting; that the mayor of the city was present and saw nothing
out of the way, and that he remained until the crowd began to
disperse, the meeting being practically over and the crowd engaged in dispersing when he left; that had the police remained
away for twenty minutes more there would have been nobody
left there, but as soon as Bonfield had learned that the mayor
had left he could not resist the temptation to have some more
people clubbed, and went up with a detachment of police to disperse the meeting; and that on the appearance of the police the
bomb was thrown by some unknown person, and several innocent
and faithful officers, who were simply obeying an uncalled-for
order of their superior, were killed. All of these facts tend to
show the improbability of the theory of the prosecution that the
bomb was thrown as a result of a conspiracy on the part of the
defendants to commit murder; if the theory of the prosecution
were correct, there would have been many more bombs thrown;
and the fact that only one was thrown shows that it was an act
of personal revenge.
It is further shown here that much of the evidence given at
the trial was a pure fabrication; that some of the prominent police
officials, in their zeal, not only terrorized ignorant men by throwing them into prison and threatening them with torture if they
refused to swear to anything desired, but that they offered money
and employment to those who would consent to do this. Further, that they deliberately planned to have fictitious conspiracies
formed in order that they might get the glory of discovering




The Pardon Message


103


them. In addition to the evidence in the record of some witnesses
who swore that they had been paid small sums of money, etc.,
several documents are here referred to.
Of chief importance among the documents above
mentioned is a newspaper interview, published in the
Chicago Daily News of May Io, I889, with Captain
Ebersold, chief of police in Chicago at the time of the
Haymarket trouble. In this interview Ebersold is
quoted as saying, among other things: "It was my policy
to quiet matters down as soon as possible after the 4th of
May [i886]. The general unsettled state of things
was an injury to Chicago. On the other hand, Capt.
Schaack wanted to keep things stirring. He wanted
bombs to be found here, there, all around, everywhere... After we got the anarchist societies broken up,
Schaack wanted to send out men to again organize new
societies right away.... After I heard all that, I began
to think there was perhaps not so much to all this anarchist business as they claimed, and I believe I was right."
It was Governor Altgeld's view that such a statement,
coming from such a source, "throws a flood of light on the
whole situation, and destroys the force of much of the
testimony introduced at the trial."
This section of the pardon message is brought to a
close by the submission of affidavits in support of the
charge that the police had fabricated evidence by bribery
and terrorizing methods. A few pages follow in which
the particularly flimsy character of the evidence against
Fielden and Neebe is discussed; and it is shown that
the case against Neebe would probably have been dismissed at the beginning of the trial, had the state's attorney not feared that such action might influence the jury




I04


Altgeld of Illinois


in favor of the other defendants. The message then
concludes with these comments on the "prejudice or subserviency" of the trial judge:
It is further charged, with much bitterness, by those who speak
for the prisoners, that the record of this case shows that the judge
conducted the trial with malicious ferocity, and forced eight men
to be tried together; that in cross-examining the State's witnesses,
he confined counsel to the specific points touched on by the State,
while in the cross-examination of the defendants' witnesses he permitted the State's Attorney to go into all manner of subjects entirely foreign to the matters on which the witnesses were examined in chief; also, that every ruling throughout the long trial
on any contested point, was in favor of the State; and further,
that page after page of the record contains insinuating remarks of
the judge, made in the hearing of the jury, and with the evident
intent of bringing the jury to his way of thinking; that these
speeches, coming from the court, were much more damaging
than any speeches from the State's Attorney could possibly have
been; that the State's Attorney often took his cue from the judge's
remarks; that the judge's magazine article recently published, although written nearly six years after the trial, is yet full of venom;
that, pretending toQsiy.-r review the case, he had to drag into
his article a letter written by an excited woman to a newspaper
after the trial was over, and which therefore had nothing to do
with the case, and was put into the article simply to create a
prejudice against the woman, as well as against the dead and the
living; and that, not content with this, he, in the same article,
makes an insinuating attack on one of the lawyers for the defense,
not for anything done at the trial, but because more than a year
after the trial, when some of the defendants had been hung, he
ventured to express a few kind, if erroneous, sentiments over the
graves of his dead clients, whom he at least believed to be innocent. It is urged that such ferocity of subserviency is without
a parallel in all history; that even Jeffries in England contented




The Pardon Message                      105
himself with hanging his victims, and did not stoop to berate
them after death.
These charges are of a personal character, and while they
seem to be sustained by the record of the trial and the papers before me, and tend to show the trial was not fair, I do not care to
discuss this feature of the case any farther, because it is not
necessary. I am convinced that it is clearly my duty to act in
this case for the reasons already given, and I, therefore, grant an
absolute pardon to Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe and Michael
Schwab, this 26th day of June, I893.




CHAPTER XI


BREAKING OF THE STORM
IT is not difficult to understand the effect produced by
Governor Altgeld's pardon message upon the great mass
of public opinion. In its purely legal aspects, the case
he had made out was invincible. It never has been, and,never can be, demolished or even shaken. It proves
'beyond reasonable doubt its two main contentions, that
the defendants were not given a fair trial and that the
State had failed to establish any connection whatever
between the defendants and the unknown person who
threw  the Haymarket bomb. Fielden, cb         and
Neebe were pardoned not as      bTteh       a   e
9 tf   been unjustly convicted. The verdict against
them had been secure because court, jury, and prosecution had yielded to popular clamor, intensified to an hysterical pitch by the press and police of Chicago. The
same "legal process" which had deprived them of their
liberty for seven years had sent four other men to the
gallows and indirectly caused the death of another. In
effect, therefore, the community was placed under indictment for judicial murder. That such a charge should
have aroused against its author all the latent ferocity
of those elements which it so effectively arraigned was
of course inevitable. Had he made out a weak case, had
it been possible to put him down at once and for all
on the merits of his own argument, the resulting storm
would have been much less violent and of briefer duraIo6




Breaking of the Storm


I07


tion. But realizing at the outset that the Governor's legal position was impregnable, the outraged guardians of
society rushed to their favorite weapon and turned upon
Altgeld himself such an intensive and protracted fire of
personal vituperation as few other men in public life have
ever faced. If his arguments could not be answered, at
least his motives might be impugned, his reputation blackened, his political and business fortunes ruined; and to
such ends the press, actively or passively abetted by ninetenths of the most highly respectable persons in American
life, bent its efforts with an almost fanatical fervor and
persistency.
The legend. wassoon- established, and survives to the
/       re t   y  Governor Atgel    pardoned the soca ed anarchists primarily because l e wa_ s himself an
anarchist an  sipathlze witheir doctrines and purposes. Although based solely on that form of logic
which could with equal accuracy prove one of our recent
Presidents an embezzler because he had pardoned Charles
W. Morse, or another a German spy because he had
pardoned Von Rintelen, this legend was the dominant
motif of innumerable editorials, cartoons, sermons, articles, etc. Some of the myth-makers, soaring above the
confines of prose, played lyrical variations on the theme
-as for example, the New York Sun, which concluded
an apostrophe "To Anarchy" with the following impassioned stanza:
O wild Chicago, when the time
Is ripe for ruin's deeds,
When constitutions, courts, and laws
Go down midst crashing creeds,
Lift up your weak and guilty hands




io8


Altgeld of Illinois


From out the wreck of States,
And as the crumbling towers fall down
Write ALTGELD on your gates!
One may well smile at such whirling idiocy as this; but
the smile fades as one recalls the fact that such idiocy
passed for sober commonsense in the minds of the "intelligent" majority for nearly a decade after Altgeld's pardon message appeared, and still continues to pass for
such in many quarters.
Appropriately enough, the fact of Altgeld's foreign
birth was incessantly harped upon in conjunction with
"-.,'tthe charge of anarchism. The three men whom he had
pardoned were "foreigners"; four of the five men who
had been condemned with them     were "foreigners."
What more natural than that one who was himself a
"foreigner" should elect to stand by his fellows and
espouse their cause, in opposition to "American" laws
and institutions? "An alien himself and having little or
no stake in the problem of American social evolution"such was the common note, as struck in this instance by
the Washington Post. "In all probability he came here
to escape either the tyranny or the hard conditions that
cramped his energies. And he has requited the protection and the civilization that made his manhood possible
by befriending its insatiable enemies." The facts of
the matter-that Altgeld had been brought to this country a babe in arms; that had he been born only three
months later he would have been as "American" as perhaps ten millions of his contemporary fellow-citizens;
that as a mere boy he had volunteered for service in the
cause of his adopted country, and fought to maintain its
integrity; that the whole of his manhood, throughout a




Breaking of the Storm


o09


period of nearly twenty-five years, had been spent in
upholding American laws and administering American
institutions; —such facts as these were of small account
to the molders of public opinion. The fortuitous circumstance of Altgeld's foreign birth gave them their opportunity to appeal to one of the basest, as it is also one
of the most prevalent, of American prejudices; and they
utilized that opportunity to the utmost.
In the cloudburst of epithets that fell upon the Governor's head at this time, "demagoguoe' figured only a
little less prominently than "anarcfilst".and 'foreigner."
Over and over again the pardon message was characterized as a mere gallery play to the masses, designed to
raise up a tidal wave of popularity for its author that
would float him irresistibly into the Senate chamber at
Washington. But in view of what was actually happening, this argument could not be very convincingly maintained; and even those who put it forward most volubly
betrayed signs of inward doubt. "It is the strangest
thing of all, if it be true," remarked Murat Halstead,
a conspicuous editor of that day, "that the Governor
means his extraordinarily improper message to be a bid
for popular favor as a candidate for the United States
Senate." Strange indeed that a man should choose to
burn his own house for the purpose of roasting a bit of
meatl As we have already seen, no one realized more
clearly than Altgeld himself that his action meant political suicide. He prophesied that result in so many words
— "Make no mistake about its being a popular move;
if I do it I will be a dead man politically." He knew, as
Henry D. Lloyd has said, "that for every vote he might
gain by pardoning the anarchists, he would lose two. But
his training as a lawyer, and his respect for the forms of




iiO


Altgeld of Illinois


law, revolted against the sentences imposed on these men,
and he felt that he must undo, so far as he could, the
wrong committed against them." * He issued the par.
dons against the urgent advice and warnings, in some
cases even the threats, of his party associates; and he
saw their disastrous prediction, and his own, fulfilled to
the letter. If this be demagogism, one can only suggest
that the common dictionary definitions of that term call. for radical revision.
But not all the criticism directed against Governor
Altgeld was of that primitive type which consists in the
flinging of opprobrious epithets, though this type very
largely prevailed. His mortal offense, it was often
said, lay not so much in granting the pardons as in attack— 'ing the "machinery of justice"-the courts and the police.
Those who took this ground of course ignored the central
fact in the whole situation, the fact that the pardons
were granted only because a laborious and expert legal
review made it perfectly apparent that in the anarchist
case the "machinery of justice" had been manipulated to
grossly unjust ends. Altgeld "deemed the life of the
citizen to be as sacred against perverted legal procedure
and the brutality of the guardians of the public peace as
against the misdeeds of perverted men." This theory
has always been unintelligible to the average person, to
whom such an abstraction as "the sanctity of courts"
does full duty for any reasoned concept of justice. The
man in the street could not understand the Governor's
masterly review of the anarchist case and of the legal
grounds for granting the pardons. Only an equally able
lawyer was capable of that. But everyone could see at
once that "the sanctity of courts" had been assailed

~Interview in the Boston Herald, January 1a, gS95.




Breaking of the Storm


III


whether justly or unjustly did not matter; and the phraseworshippers rushed to arms against the assailant.
This brings us to a related though a minor point, the
one detail in which it seemed even to some of the Governor's most ardent supporters that his pardon message
was really vulnerable. Brand Whitlock refers to this
when, in his account of the signing of the pardons which
has been quoted in a previous chapter of this book, he
speaks with regret "that so great a soul should have
permitted itself to mar the document by expressions of'
hatred of the judge who tried the case." Jane Addams,
in "Twenty Years at Hull-House," touches on the same
detail in her remark that "a magnanimous action was
marred by personal rancor, betraying for the moment
the infirmity of a noble mind." These criticisms
undoubtedly refer chiefly, if not wholly, to the final
section of the pardon message, dealing with the "prejudice or subserviency" of the presiding judge at the anarchist trial-Joseph E. Gary. In fairness to Altgeld,
it should be noted that the reflections upon Judge
Gary contained in this section are attributed to "those
who speak for the prisoners." He states that the
charges which he mentions are "of a personal character" and have been put forward "with much bitter-V/
ness." Nevertheless, in his opinion, "they seem to be
sustained by the record of the trial and the papers before
me." One may fully concur in this conclusion, and yet
feel that by repeating these charges the Governor weakened rather than strengthened his case, while at the same
time he put a most effective weapon into the hands of his
opponents. Within less than a week after the pardon
message appeared, a prominent Chicago newspaper
spread over its first page the reproduction in facsimile




112


Altgeld of Illinois


of a somewhat bitter letter which Altgeld had addressed
several years before to the three judges of the Appellate
Court in Chicago, Gary being one of the three, in connection with a decision of that court reversing a judgment
secured by Altgeld against the city for damages to certain
property owned by him.* In an adjoining column of
the same newspaper, over a long account of the incident,
appeared these headlines: "Altgeld's Grudge; When
He First Began to Hate Judge Gary; A Four-Year Grievance; Indecent Letter Written to Appellate Judges; Just
Decision Angers Him; His Efforts to Stick the City for
$26,000 Defeated; Can't Forgive One Who Beat Him."
V/ Far-fetched and essentially irrelevant as it was, this newspaper "stunt" yet served its purpose in convincing many
persons that Altgeld's action in pardoning the anarchists
had been influenced wholly or largely by personal spite.
An interesting sidelight on this general phase of the
pardon message is contained in the unpublished reminiscences of Hon. S. P. McConnell, an intimate friend of
Altgeld's, who tells of visiting the latter at Springfield
a few weeks before the pardons were issued.
I called on the Governor at his office, and he invited me to
luncheon at the Governor's mansion. After luncheon he asked
me into the library, and there I saw stacks of records of the Anarchist case. He told me that he had been through all the records
carefully, and that he had made up his mind to pardon Fielden,
Schwab, and Neebe. He said that I was the first to know that
he was going to do this, and that he wanted to read me his message and to get my advice about it. He then read the message and
*As his letter shows, Altgeld's anger in this affair had been stirred
not so much by the courts adverse decision as by its gratuitous remark
in that decision that "the course pursued by the appellee was fair, open,
and free from any just grounds for censure." This "attempt to give
me a certificate of character" was what Altgeld chiefly resented.




Breaking of the Storm


"13


waited for my opinion. I said that I was deeply happy that he
was going to pardon the men, that I thought he had handled the
evidence in a masterly way and completely demonstrated the innocence of the men, but that I did not like the tone of the message. He did not seem at all sensitive to my criticism, and asked
me to be more particular. I told him that it was too personal
-that it had too much of Altgeld and not enough of the Governor in it, and that it contained too much criticism of the judge
who had presided in the case. I argued that in a pardon message
the Governor's attitude should be entirely impersonal. He admitted the justice of my criticism, and said that he would rewrite
the message. Much to my surprise, he gave out the message a
few weeks later in the precise terms in which he had read it to me.
He had not changed a word.* Later I asked him why he had
not rewritten the message as he said he would. He replied that
he had intended to do so, but that his time had been so entirely
employed that it had not been possible, and that he had given it
out unaltered when he read Judge Gary's article in the Century
Magazine regarding the trial of the Anarchists.
Of course, as Brand Whitlock has suggested in this
connection, "it is not so easy to be calm and impersonal
in the midst of the moving event, as it is given to others
to be long afterward." At any rate, Altgeld seems to
have overruled his own better judgment in allowing the
personal reflections on Judge Gary to stand, and an otherwise unimpeachable document was marred to that extent.
But this, as we have already said, is a minor detail; while
it may be regretted, it cannot possibly affect the judgment
of any fair-minded person on the merits of the pardon
message as a whole.
* In view of the fact that when the message was first read to Judge
McConnell the magazine article by Gary had not yet appeared, and
as the message in its published form refers to that article at some
length, this statement is obviously in error.




I 4               Altgeld     of Illinois
"You are younger than I and will live to see my pardon
of the anarchists justified," Altgeld once remarked to a
political associate at Springfield. It has long since been
justified, in the eyes of everyone whose opinions are
derived from an impartial survey of facts. But at the
moment, and for years afterward, his act was everywhere
denounced as a defiance of public order and an outrage
upon public decency. The press of the country, from
coast to coast, united in heaping vilification upon the executive who had "opened the gates from within" to the
"rattlesnakes of anarchy." For the few remaining years
of his life, Altgeld was the _mQt,.ZfSC     ia   hated figure. —ln America. -— The attack upon him came in every conceivaibe form, and from all sides at once-like the converging
fire upon the charging column at Balaclava. It was
powerful enough to wreck his fortunes, to crush all his
hopes, to break his heart. "He used to say that he was
not sensitive to the furious denunciation of his action
and of himself which swept over the country," writes a
friend; "but I know that he did feel it and its injustice
keenly. And he told me that sometimes the exhibition
of fanatical hatred to him seemed almost 'sublime' like a
fearful storm." * Through it all, however, his courage
* From a letter written by Judge Edward Osgood Brown. In an
address before the Chicago Historical Society (Dec. 5, 1905), Judge Brown
touches on this same point, as follows: "Those who knew and loved him
best, who were close to his inner life and heart, know that composed,
silent, seemingly indifferent to criticism and clamor as in public life he
was, no man ever lived kinder, gentler, more humane in his feelings for
the unfortunate and the weak, no man more affectionate as a friend, or
in his family relations. It was said over his grave with truth that when
bitter reproaches were heaped on him they did not fall on deaf ears
or an unanswering soul, but that they bore no terrors with them like
those of the condemnation of his own conscience, that he loved his
friends, but could bid them one by one good-bye when they failed to
follow where that conscience led."




Breaking of the Storm


II5


never faltered. To the last day of his life he went on
fighting with unbroken will, sustained by his own conscience and by the consciences of those others, a little scattered company of justice-loving men and women, who
dared to applaud his act as "a deed which struck deeper~'
than the matter of freeing a few individuals to the fundamental rights of human beings." William Dean Howells
was of that company, and Henry D. Lloyd and Jane Addams and others whose approval and allegiance might
well have supported a far less resolute spirit than his,
in the face of almost universal disapprobation. Seldom
in after life Odi he refer to the anarchist case at all, and
certainly in no single instance did he ever stoop to answer
by even so much as a word the charge of being himself an
anarchist. To a friend who once asked him why he
endured in silence the vile slanders heaped upon him
by the press, he replied: "Remember this about any
slander. Denial only emphasizes, and gives added
importance to falsehood. Let it alone and it will die
for want of nourishment."




CHAPTER XII


THE CHICAGO RAILWAY STRIKE OF 1894
OF the two nationally important incidents with which
Altgeld's name is chiefly associated and in which his
public reputation is most heavily involved, one has just
been dealt with in several preceding chapters. The
other must now be described and discussed in no less
detail. In one important respect, a definite thread of
causality binds the later incident to the earlier. But for
his pardon of the "Chicago anarchists" and the hurricane
of resentment evoked by his pardon message, the part
which Altgeld played in connection with the great railway
strike of I894 would never have been so commonly
misunderstood and could never have been so successfully
misrepresented as it was. During the year that intervened between these two events, however, an infuriated
press had established the myth that the Illinois Governor
was "a friend of disorder" and "a champion of anarchy";
and in the excited state of public feeling at the time of
the railway strike it was enough to distort his position
into a verification of that myth. One had only to ignore
all but the most superficial facts of the matter, as most
newspaper readers were quite willing to do, and the
indictment of Altgeld as "an enemy of society" appeared
as complete as one cared to imagine it. Obviously taking
their cue and their data solely from contemporary jourII6




Chicago RailwayAtrike of I894             117
nalistic sources, American historians have gone on repeating this indictment to the present day.
Before discussing the part actually played by Governor
Altgeld in the Chicago railway strike, and the ensuing
controversy (if such it may be called) with President
Cleveland, it is necessary first of all to place before the
reader a brief account of the strike itself and of its principal attendant circumstances. The fullest, most authoritative, and most impartial source of information on this
subject is the "Report on the Chicago Strike of JuneJuly, 1894, by the United States Strike Commission
Appointed by the President July 26, 1894"; and it is from
this report, and from President Cleveland's own account
of "The Government in the Chicago Strike of 1894," *
that the following narrative has been chiefly compiled.
During the first fifteen months of Governor Altgeld's
administration there were at least two serious labor
disturbances in Illinois-one, in the spring of I 83,
among the quarrymen around Lemont, and the other
about a year lter among thesoftl-coai miners in a strike / tf
that extended throughout virtuall   of the bitumii
coalmning States. Close upon the heels of this latter
came the strike at Pullman; and out of that grew the
historic contest which, though it affected in varying degree
at least half the States of the Union, is commonly called
the Chicago railway strike because it originated and
was chiefly fought out in that city. Pullman, on the
southern edge of Chicago's sprawling area, had been
built some fifteen years before to house the plant and
FFirst delivered, as a lecture at Princeton University, then published
ia McClure's Magazine (July, 1904), and later reprinted in Cleveland's
"Ptesidential Problems" (9go4) and as a separate volume (1913).




II8


Altgeld of Illinois


employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company, whose
principal business was (and still is) the manufacture of
sleeping and "parlor" cars and their operation on the
larger railways of the country. In addition, it manufactured cars for the general market, and maintained a
large repair plant. Externally, the "model town" of
Pullman appeared model enough; but it was pervaded,
as company-owned towns generally are, by a somewhat
oppressive atmosphere of semi-feudalism. From this
red-brick paradise, th  serpent of trade uninism had
always  en riorously excluded; an visitors were wont
to   te among the dwellers therein a certain sense.of
restraint and un a ss, not unnatural to persons living.y favor of a zealous and vigilant over-lord. The paidup aitof the Pullman company had increased from
an original $I,000o000 to  6,000o,0, and the company
had accumulated undivided surplus proits f $2,000,o0. Divie            ount of $2, 20,000 were paid
to i  stockholders for the year endingn une, I893.
DI)ring the  epresslon       te World's
off in            usiss and the company
immediately reduced its force, adopted "short-time" measures, and cut wages. In the six months preceding May,,X894, the tntl wage reductions amounted to about.
twenty-five per cent. No salaries were reduced during
this period and the company refused to lower the rent
of the tenements occupied by its workers, although these
rents were from twenty to twenty-five per cent higher
than the workers would have had to pay  or smilar
ccommodations elsewhere in Chicago and its neighboring towns. As a result of all this, there was much suffering and discontent in Pullman throughout the winter of
893-94. In the early sringlarge numbers of the




Chicago Railway Strike of I894 119
workers 'irmd the American Railway Unionwhich had
been organized at Chicago during the previous year "for
the purpose of including railway employees born of white
parents in one great brotherhood," and which now
comprised about   50,000o members. On May 9 an
emplo ees' committee representing all departments of the
ullman plant waited upon the management and urged
the restoration of wages to thebasis of June, 893. The
officials refused to consider this, on the ground that
business conditions at that time made wage concessions
of any sort impossible. Next day, contrary tn aexplicit
promise on this point, three members of the employees'
committee were dismissed by their foreman for alleged
lack of work. Incensed by this action, the local unions
met that evening and voted for an immediate strike.
As soon as the strike was declared the company laid off
all its remaining employees, and close itshops.
Between June 9-aandune 26 a regular convention of
the American Railway Union met at Chicago, and the
Pullman situation received careful consideration. Officials of the union proposed to the ullman company
the points at issue in theP.tr;p b- arbitrated by ajointx
committee. The company, however, declined to consider
or even to receive any communication from the American
Railway Union; and as a result it was decided by unanimous vote that members of the union should ceasq
handling Pullman cars on all railroads after Tun  26.
7ccording to the reportio:fte 'United States Strike Commission, "the officers and directors of the American Railway Union did not want a strike at Pullman, and they
advised against it; but the exaggerated idea of the power
of the union, which induced the workmen at Pullman to
join the order, led to their striking against this advice.




120            Altgeld of Illinois
Having struck, the union could do nothint'"ess, upon
the theory at its base, than support them." Fundamentally, the action of the American Railway Union was not
vestrike at all, butt a sympathetic boycott, directed solely
against the handling of 'Pullman cars. The members of
the unio  id ot quit their places; they announcedtheir
readiness to man and run all trains of which Pullman
cars werenot a part: and their officers particularly asked
that such cars be separated from mail trains, in order
that the latter should not be delayed.
From the outset, this larger contest growing out of
the Pullman stikresolved itself into a trial of strength
bet     - ithe Americ. -     Uon Amenand the Gen
Mana ers' Association, a voluntary unincorporated body? representing the twenty-four railways centring or terminating rn iCcago.    hese roads, wit  a combine";capital of more than two billion dollars. operated about
41,000 miles of track. and controled more tihan 221,ooo
remploees. As stated in its constitution, the object of
the association was "the consideration of problems of
management arising from the operation of railroads
terminating or centring in Chicago."  Erom  i886, the
year of its formation, until 1893 the association was
chiefly concerned with matters other than wages; but
the latt  ear itfied a so-called "Chicao scale" for
switmen      all its roads, and distributed to its memjbers a      oropoeduniform wage schedule for all classes
of railway workers.  It was alsow     understood that
the association           to "assist"   r     i c
of trouble over wage matters, "one form of assistance
being for the association to secur me enough through
its agencies to take the  lace of alltrDharged em     e    W   lac  te  in that they could




Chicago Railway Strike of 1894


121


not obtain future employnt rh any ther road in
the association. According to the report of the United
States Strike Commission, this combination of managers
"had no more standing in law than t.he old Trunk Line
Pool," and was "an illustration of the persistent and
shrewdly devised plans of corporations to overreach
their limitations and to usurp indirectly powers and
rights not contemplated in their charters and not obtainable from the people or their legislators."  The report
also points out that until the railroads set the example
by combining "to fix wages and for their joint protection"
"a general union of railroad employees was never
attempted." But whatever its status before the law,
this was the organization which, from beginning to end,
directed and controlled the railroads' contest with the
American Railway Union. Through a central agency,
the association hired men to take the place of those who
quit work, a assine these men toduty: it maintained
a publicity bureau; throuh it  enrtl headquartrs
cofnstant FCommunictio. kept uP with the civil
military authorities, and here the general managers of
the railroads met daily to consi  reports a
proceedings, whjie their attorneys conferred together
ond worked jointly in lcg1l at nji.
Early in the strike Eugene V. Debs, president of the
American_.Ralway-Uniop issued a manifesto in which
he said: "The contest is now on between the railway)
corporations united solidly on the one hand, and the labor
forces on the other.... I appeal to the strikers everywhere to refrain from any act of violence. A man who
will destroy property or violate law is an enemy and not
a friend of the cause of labor."  This appeal seems to
have been very generally observed during the first week




122


Altgeld of Illinois


of the strike. Trains not carrying Pullman cars were
moved as usual. When a switchman was ordered to
rs to any train he refused, and upon
his discharge the rest oft  ain crew  uit wor in a
ody-. The men were quiet but determined; there was
little disorder at any point and no particular interference
with the mails. On the aftnoon of June 30 the superintendent of the railwa  mail servie t  Chicag o sent
the following dispatch to the authorities at Washington:,tNo mails have accumulated at Chicago so far. All
regular trains are moving nearly on time with a few
light exceptions."  On the same_ ay, howeer. the
ederal district atrney in-  hica.raphed to
W amhlntfl  that mail trains in the suburbs had been,Ztp. eby strikers during the previous night, that an
engine had been cut off and disabled, and that conditions
were growing more and more likely to culminate in the
' stoppage of all trains; and he recommended that the
United States marshal in Chicago be authprized to
-i     a fo- ref spcial detputies w*hn shold  4 pp-aced
Qn trains to protect mails and arrestthose person  ilty
L.finterference. In reply to this dispatch, AttorneyGeneral Olney telegraphed the marshal to employ additional deputies as suggested; he also appointed Edwin
Walker as special counsel for the Government in Chicago, "to assist the district attorney in any legal proceedings that might be instituted." In a letter of June
30 addressed to this special counsel, the AttorneyGeneral wrote: "It has seemed to me that if the rights
of the United States were vigorously asserted in Chicago,
the origin and centre of the demonstration, the result
would be to make it a failure everywhere else, and to
prevent its spread over the entire country"; and in this




Chicago Railway Strike       if 1894    123
connection he indicated that it might be advisable, instead
of relying entirely upon warrants issued under criminal
statutes against persons actually guilty of obstructing the
United States mails, to apply to the Federal courts for
injunctions which would restrain and prevent any attempt
to commit such offense. As a partial 'basi_.arsuch
injunctions, Olney cited the Sherman  i-Trust Ac
I890, by whic  conspiracies in  trn-r
commerce among He severa l States were declared illegal. The authorities at Chicago lost no time in putting
This ovel suggestion into effect. On July 2 the Unit.d
States District Court of Illinois, upon request of the
district attorney, issued a so-called "blanket injunction"
restraining the officials and members of the Americakn.
Railway Union and    all other persons whomsoever"
from interfering in any way with the transportation of
mails and the carrvinn      interstate commerce, as
well as with the business of twenty-three railroads
peciically named.   ttempts even at persuading  il
wayemployees to qut work were fTorb idde    n this
remaable document. 'Thus were sown the first tender
seeds of that dubious process commonly known as "government by injunction," which has since grown to such
sturdy proportions.
During the firstuldetermined efforts
were also being made to have United States troops
brought upon   he scene.Although all the avaiable
testimony shows that there had been little if any disorder
at Chicago in connection with the strike up to July 3,  <
the immediate need for Federal troops was strongly urged
upon the authorities at Washington by the Government's
special counsel, the United Sta2esm ashal, and the distrijcattorney3 Their pleas in this respect were at last




I24            Altgeld of Illinois
successful, and on July.President Cleveland ordered
e       ltroops at Fort Sheridan (just
north of Chicago\  ro             city  where it was
placed under the command of General Miles. Serious
disoorer her.n to brek out at prciltis  o;i-t  During the next few days there were riots in various parts
of the city; a dozen persons were killed amLn..ny
wounded, and a large number of freight cars were burned
r looted. On    uly  Mayor Hopkins issed a proclamation forbidding riotous assemblies and the next day
he made a request (the first that was sent to Springfield
by anyone in Chicago) for Stte troops.  overnor Altgeld at once  lac  three re iments of Illinoi militia
a his disposal; other regiments quickly followed until
within a day or two practially the entire State forces
were on duty in and around Chicago. On July 8, President Cleveland issued a proclamation warning all persons
"in any way connected with unlawful obstructions, combinations, and assemblages to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes on or before twelve o'clock
noon of the 9th day of July instant. Those who disregard this warning.. cannot be regarded otherwise
than as public enemies." Some disturbances occurred
during the next few days;  t by the T3th e situation
had   uieedn           Aweekh                 left.
"hica o:    d t ast of th-e State troops were withdraw
on Auust 6.
he Unite States Strike Comi    n ssodiscovered nothing to justify the beli t at  he officers o te American
Railway union at any time participated in or advised
intimidaton. violence, or  estrucion of property."
While "strikers were concerned in the outrages against




Chicago Railway Strike of I894


I25


law and order, the number was undoubtedly small as
compared with the whole number out"; and "the mobs
that took possession of railroad yards, tracks, and crossings after July 3, and that stoned, tipped over, burned,
and destroyed cars and stole their contents, were, by
general concurrence in the testimony, composed generally
of hoodlums, women, a low class of foreigners, and
recruits from the criminal classes. Few strikers were
recognized or arrested in these mobs, which were without leadership, and seemed simply bent upon plunder
and destruction."  "In the view that this railroad strike
was wrong; that such mobs are well known to be incidental to strikes, and are thereby given an excuse and
incentive to gather and to commit crime, the responsibility rests largely with the American Railway Union;
otherwise that association, its leaders, and a very large
majority of the railroad men on strike are not shown
to have had any connection therewith."
Early in the course of the strike, a prominent citizens'
organization of Chicago known as the Civic Feeration
twice sent a committee to urge upon the Pullman company the..ncli.Onn or arbitration of differences with
its employees. U on both occasions the company took
the position that there wasnothing to arbitrate. Efforts
toward the same end made by the common council of
Chicago were equally unsuccessful; and the company
repeated its stereotyped answer when appealed to by
Mayor Pingree of Detroit who claimed to have teleramian  from the mayorsof.more than fifty.lrgPo AmerA
can citieeurging recourse to arbitration. Upon this
point, the report of the United States Strike Commission
makes the following significant comments:




I26


Altgeld of Illinois


The policy of both the Pullman company and the General
Managers' Association in reference to applications to arbitrate
closed the door to all attempts at conciliation and settlement of
differences. The commission is impressed with the belief, by the
evidence and by the attendant circumstances as disclosed, that a.* different policy would have prevented the loss of life and great
loss of property and wages occasioned by the strike.
"On July io, Eugene Debs and three other principal
officers of the American Railway Union were indicted
by a special Federal grand jury for conspiracy under the
Sherman Anti-Trust Act. They were at once arrested,,but gave bail in the amount of $Io,ooo each. A week
later they were rearrested and adjudged in contempt of
court for violation of the Federal injunction.  They now
refused bail, and were placed in prison. This event
virtually ended the strike; and the last hope of the railway men vanished when the executive committee of the
American Federation of Labor, in session at Chicago,
refused to advise a sympathetic general strike and urged
the men to return to work. The next day the American
Railwa  Uion thro     h the mayor of Chicao    sent a
communication to the General MaSition,
fferdn tn   eclare the strike off, provided the m__ sre
restored to th      rmer   ositions without  re udice,
xcept in th e cases of those who had been convictedof
rime. This communication was returned unanswr.
With its leaders injail, itsforces dsorganized, and the
whole power of Federal, State, and city authority ranged
against it, the American Railway Union was hopelessly
beaten-and with it the cause of the striking Pullman employees. Eugene Debs was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, and his three colleagues to three months
each, for contempt of court under the Federal injunction.




Chicago Railway Strike of 1894 127
These sentences were later sustained by unanimous decis~ion of th   ~iae     urre     TA.Floing the
contempt proceedings, the fou mn  ereplce oMtial
under the indictments for vilain   hejj ShermanAnti~TiiustAcit. This tra  as interrupted at an early stage
by the alleged illnes~fQ o oe af- thIe jrs;and althougrh
the dele-rise imade every effort to have it continued, the
case was finally after many postponementsjjuetlv struck
off the docket.




CHAPTER XIII


GOVERNOR ALTGELD AND THE STATE MILITIA IN
THE RAILWAY STRIKE
To those persons who derive their knowledge of current
events solely from newspaper headlines, the Chicago railway strike at once assumed the simple personalized form
of melodrama, in which guise it still continues to be presented by our popular historians. "Debs' Rebellion" is
the title of the piece; and Eugene Debs, of course, plays
the part of heavy villain. President Cleveland is the intrepid hero who at the appropriate dramatic moment,
when everything looks hopeless, rescues the saintly heroine (a symbolic role, intended to represent the audience
itself-or, as it is commonly phrased, "the public") from
the machinations which have all but effected her ruin. In
a final tableau, the discomfited villain is being handed
over to a policeman, while the heroine reposes upon the
broad bosom of her deliverer in an attitude expressive of
unbounded gratitude and affection.
But the piece contains yet another leading charactera pseudo-respectable desperado who, acting ostensibly as
the heroine's guardian, cooperates sub rosa in the evil
designs of the villain. This role is assigned to Governor
Altgeld. Throughout the whole of "Debs's Rebellion,"
according to the melodramatic interpretation, he secretly
sympathized with the rebels and "played their game"; he
refused to use his official powers in any way to suppress
the rebellion and its attendant disorders; he even at128




State Militia in Railway Strike


129


tempted to "keep the riots going" after President Cleveland had intervened in behalf of law and order; and,
finally, he was "insolently angry" with the President for
assuming the public duty to which he had been recreant.
Such is the "fable agreed upon" with respect to Altgeld's
course in the railway strike of 1894. It has been too
long and firmly established to be easily demolished, but
the task must nevertheless be undertaken. We shall
first examine the facts as to Governor Altgeld's alleged
sympathy with the railway strikers and his alleged
failure to suppress their riots; leaving the matter of his
protest to President Cleveland for separate treatment
later on.
It is a tie-honored princle in Am r  _n gvrnmenf
that te responsibility for reserving peace and enforcing
law devolves, in the first instance. uon the local authori-..
tiesLn anycomm it.    While in Illinois, as in nearly
all other States, the Governor is empowered to call out
the State militia virtually at his own discretion "to execute
the laws, suppress insurrection, and repel invasion," in.
actual practice he rarely exercises this power except upon \^'
the specific request of some local officer, usually the sheriff  p
of a county or the mayor of a city, whose own resources
in a public emergency have been exhausted. During the,
strike of the Lemont quarrymen in June,, 193, and of the
soft-coal miners a year later, Governor Altgeld found it
necessary to employ the State militia i-suppressing sporadic disorders. In the course of the coal strike he despatched troops to nine different points within the
State, acting in every case with the utmost promptness
and decision upon the representations of local authorities. No previous Governor of Illinois ever made such
general and liberal use of the militia as did Altgeld at




130


Altgeld of Illinois


this time. While other States (including Ohio, of which
McKinley was then Governor) were partially paralyzed
by the same strike, the normal industrial life of Illinois
suffered but little disarrangement. As typical of Altgeld's attitude during the coal strike, at least one incident
must be recounted here. Early in June some four hundred strikers, mostly from mining towns in Peoria county,
made an attack upon men working in a mine near the
village of Wesley, in Tazewell county. One of the men
was killed, three were severely wounded, and the mine
buildings and machinery were destroyed. Upon being
notified of this occurrence, Governor Altgeld at once
dispatched three companies of State militia to assist the
sheriffs of the two counties in making arrests and maintaining order. A few hours after the troops arrived,
the sheriff of Tazewell county telegraphed to Springfield
regarding the use that had been made of the military and
asking the Governor's sanction for further proposed
steps of the same sort. Altgeld replied as follows:
You are doing exactly what we want done.' Arrest every man
who has violated the law. Keep the troops as long as you need
them for this purpose.
Within less than three weeks after a settlement of
the coal strike had been effected, the American Railway
Union declared its sympathetic boycott of Pullman cars,
in support of the striking employees at Pullman. This
action was taken on June 26, I894. Two days later the
' Illinois Central Railroad applied to Springfield or ilitary.prtection at CairCo:.a ut in response to a telegram
from Governor Altgeld,     erff of the county repoed
that there were no disturbances at this nilt. Later,




State Militia in     Railway Strike        13I
however, reports reached the Governor of trouble at
Mounds, a few miles north of Cairo, and he ordered the
assistant adjutant-general to make a personal investigation on the ground. This was done, and at a conference
between the official just mentioned, the United States
marshal for the district, the local authorities, and the
railway employees, a mutual agreement was made to
facilitate the movement of all trains for which the railroad officials could provide crews. Not long after, a second disturbance occurred at Mounds.    The Sheriff still
refused to ask for troops; but acting upon the recommendation of the county judge, the assistant adjutant-general,
and the United States marshal, the Govern     rdr
six companies of State troops to     ounTds and Cair
to support the civil authorities in maintaining order.
Trains in that part of the State were then moved as fast
as the railroads could find crews. Similar action was
promptly taken in connection with disturbances in other
parts of the State. On July I a dispatch was received
at Springfield signed by passengers on a Wabash train
at Decatur, stating that no effort was being made by the
railroad company to move their train and requesting
assistance from the State authorities. Governor Altgeld at once sent the following telegram to the sheriff at
Decatur:
I have a dispatch purporting to come from five hundred passengers now detained at the depot in Decatur because trains are
obstructed by strikers, and they ask for assistance. Wire me the
situation fully. Are railroad officials making proper efforts to
move trains, and are you able to furnish the travelling public
the necessary protection and to enforce the law?


To this the sheriff replied that while he had thus far




I32


Altgeld of Illinois


been able to maintain order he could do so no longer,
and he urged the need of troops. Altgeld then sent him
this telegram:
Have ordered troops to your assistance. They should reach you
before sunrise. See that all trains unlawfully held are released
at once.
On the same day (July I), the general counsel of the
Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad telegraphed for
State assistance at Danville, stating that mail trains were
tied up there and the sheriff would do nothing. Altgeld
replied as follows:
We can furnish assistance promptly if the civil authorities show
that they need it. Thus far there has been no call for assistance
from any of the officials of Vermilion county, either sheriff,
coroner, mayor of town, or the county judge.
At the same time the following dispatch was sent to
the sheriff of Vermilion county:
Officials of the Eastern Illinois Railroad complain that their
trains have been tied up at Danville for forty-eight hours by
strikers, and that they cannot get sufficient protection to move
them. Please wire me the situation fully. Can you enforce the
law and protect the travelling public with such force as you can
command?
A similar telegram was also sent to the county judge
and other local officers. The sheriff telegraphed back
to Springfield as follows:
Your message received. Send me one hundred rifles and ammunition by first train, and I will try to protect the railroad's
men and property. As to the situation, there are from three hun



State Militia in Railway Strike


133


dred to seven hundred strikers on the ground and oppose the
movement of any and all trains or cars except mail cars. They
are usually quiet and duly sober, but are very determined. I will
advise if I am not able to afford protection.
To this message the Governor replied:
We have not got one hundred stand of arms left here. From
information we get we consider situation serious at Danville, and
therefore send you troops. They will be there early in the morning. All those trains unlawfully held should be moved before
noon.
Thu,       sigl      yand within a few hours of      is
beinapprjsed of disturbances at tese points. Governor
Altgeld had ordered troops to both Decatur and Danville,
and they were on the scene of trouble early the following
morning. Similar prompt and energetic action was taken
in four or five other cases of disorder at places outside
Chicago during the period from June 28 to July 8 inclusive. It is impossible, within the space of a single chapter, to describe all these incidents. Those who care for
the complete story will find it, together with a large mass
of supplementary evidence, in the biennial report of the
adjutant-general of Illinois for 1893-94, which reads almost like a record of war operations, so constantly and
extensively was the State militia employed during those
troubled days.* In his "Forty Years of It," Brand
Vhitlock writes that at this time "down in the adjutantgeneral's office at the State House there was the stir alnost of war itself, with troops being ordered here and
here about the sta7te,r        e Governor harried and
*The more important facts are also given in Altgeld's Cooper Union
speech of Oct. 17, 1896, which is devoted in largest part to the Chicago
railway strike.




I34


Altgeld of Illinois


worried by a situation that presented to him the abhorrent
necessity of using armed force."
But what, meanwhile, of conditions in Chicago, the
birthplace and chief battleground of the strike? As far
as any direct intimation from the authorities or railway
managers there was concerned, Governor Altgeld could
scarcely have known that a strike existed in Chicago at
all, much less that it was accompanied by disorder or
obstruction of the laws. In his own words, "no application of any sort for troops was made to hGovernor
Sarshal org    n      the United
States authorities at Chicago, nor was any suc appication made by any theal       ity or county oicials at
Chicago until the 6th of July, and then such application
was made o myn      suggesion.    An  yetas eary as
June 30 the Federal district attorney in Chicago had
requested and secured Attorney-General Olney's authorization for employing a large body of special deputy
marshals to guard trains and other railroad property;
on July 2 the Federal garrison at Fort Sheridan was ordered to prepare for immediate service in Chicago; and
alarmist telegrams continued to fly thickly to Washington,
until the arrival of Federal troops early on July 4. All
this time Governor Altgeld was responding promptly to
calls for military assistance from other sections of the
State, and every preparation had been made for such
assistance in Chicago the moment it should be requested
To the truth of this latter statement, Henry D. Lloyu
has testified as follows:
I happened to be in Springfield at the time of the strike, and
spent an evening [that of July 3] with Governor Altgeld. He
entertained me in the executive office, and showed me a huge map




State Militia in Railway Strike


I35


of the state of Illinois, on which was marked, with tacks and
pins, the position of every company of militia; while a great sheet
lay on the desk, showing exactly what companies were under arms,
what railroads would be most efficient in taking them to Chicago,
and what provisions were made for sustenance. The governor
had the troops of the whole state practically under arms, and
ready to throw into Chicago, when request should be made for
them.*
At last, notwithstanding the reassuring telegrams
which reached him from the mayor and sheriff at Chicago
in response to his repeated requests for information,
Governor Altgeld became so uneasy that he sent the assistant adjutant-general to investigate actual conditions
in the metropolian strike area. This official reported
that while the city and county authorities had so far
been able to handle the situation, he doubted their ability
to do so much longer, as matters were assuming a
more threatening aspect. The events which immediately
followed have been thus narrated by the Governor
himself:
On the 5th of July the conditions were about the same as on
the 4th, but there were rumors of an extension of the strike, and
it is evident that the Federal troops were doing no good there.
On the morning of July 6 the President of the Illinois Central
Railroad telegraphed me that the property of his road was being
destroyed by a mob and that he could not get protection. I
wired him at once to get someone of the local authorities who
are authorized to ask for troops to do so, and that if all should
refuse, to wire me that fact, and we would furnish protection
From article by Willis J. Abbot in The Pilgrim for April, 1902.
Quoted in Caro Lloyd's "Life of Henry Demarest Lloyd," Volume I.,
page 147.




136


Altgeld of Illinois


promptly. I took the position as a matter of law that if the local
authorities failed to protect property and enforce the law and refused to apply for State aid while property is actually being
destroyed and the peace is being disturbed, then the Governor of
the State not only has the right, but it is his duty, to see that order is restored and the law enforced, and therefore I sent that
telegram. At the same time I sent a telegram to a friend in Chicago requesting him to see Mayor Hopkins at once and tell him
that it seemed to me the situation was serious and that he had
better apply to the State for aid. This message was at once communicated to Mayor Hopkins, and about noon on that day, the
6th of July, the day on which the property was destroyed, the
mayor telegraphed for troops and by sundown on that day we had
put over 5000 State troops on duty in Chicago, although some of
them had to be transported 150 miles to reach the city. Never
were troops moved with greater celerity.... Within twentyfour hours after the State troops arrived on the ground the rioting was suppressed. There were still a few cases, during the following days, of stealthy incendiarism, but no more forcible resistance. On the morning of July 7 one of the companies of State
troops was attacked by a large mob and opened fire on it, and
several men were killed.*
Such, in briefest outline, are the facts regarding the
part played by Governor Altgeld and the State militia
in the railway strike of I894. They call for little by
way of general commentary. So far from failing in his
duty at any point, the plain truth is that no American executive was ever more zealous and scrupulous than Alt--      geld in honoring requests for military assistance in a; time of public disturbance.t Indeed, as has been shown
* Cooper Union Speech of October I7, 1896. Reprinted in "Live
Questions," pages 664-65.
t The extent to which State troops were used during the railway strike




State Militia in      Railway    Strike      I37
above, in one instance he did not wait until troops had
been asked for, but sent tem onh     own initiatiye; while
their presence in Chicago, belated by what       med
most a general conspiracy to keep them      out, was due
essentially to his personal insistence that they were required. And if credit for suppressing the Chicago disturbances must be individually assigned, it belongs far
more properly to Governor Altgeld than to President
Cleveland. While the presence of Federal troops no
doubt did much to overawe the hoodlums who had taken
advantage of the strike to burn and loot freight cars, it
was the incident of July 7, when a company of State
militia fired point blank into the mob at Loomis street,
that marked the end of serious disorder. Probably, as
Brand Whitlock has suggested, "Governor Altgeld was
willing to forego any 'credit' for an act which, however
necessary to the preservation of order, demanded so
many lives"; but the fact remains that this act cut the
spinal cord of the Chicago riots.*
During the presidential campaign of I896, when the
Democratic plank denouncing "arbitrary interference hy
Federal authorities in local affairs" was being chract
ized up and down.the country asa pla for '"fre riots,"
enry D. Lloyd published a newspaper article about
Governor Altgeld's attitude in the Chicago railway strike
which constitutes an excellent summary of the whole
ratter.   Mr. Lloyd wrote in part as follows:
is reflected in the adjutant-general's statement of expenses incurred by
the State for the Illinois National Guard while on active service from
July 2 to August 7. These expenses (exclusive of rifles and ammunition purchased, unaudited claims, and interest on pay-rolls) amounted to
something over $3oo,ooo. See Biennial Report of the Adjutant-General
of Illinois for 1893-94, page xxxi.
* See "Forty Years of It," page 92.




138


Altgeld of Illinois


I was an eye-witness of Governor Altgeld's conduct during the
great Pullman strike of I894..... I spent a number of hours
with him at the most critical point of those eventful July days.... The real Governor Altgeld, as I saw him, was in constant
and anxious conference with the Adjutant-General of the State
and other military officers. He was receiving and sending dispatches connected with the movement of State troops. He was
fertile in suggestions which lay outside the sphere of his technical
obligations.... So resolute was the Governor that there should
not be the slightest occasion for any chance of a failure on the
part of the State to do its full duty in the protection of life and
property that he sent troops when called for, even though he did
not believe the alleged need for their services was genuine. As
one demand for troops came by telegraph and was answered by an
order for their dispatch, the Governor said to me in substance:
"I have reason to fear that these troops are wanted at that
place only to help the railroad defeat the demand of their men
for higher wages"-this was the case of a strike not connected
in any way with the general strike-"but I cannot refuse to send
them in the face of allegations of public danger."
In the intervals of all this business the Governor discussed the
various aspects of the trouble with the frankness of one talking
with a personal friend. He deplored the strike, and said that, in
his judgment, it could not possibly succeed, or even last many
d4as longer. The farmers and business men of the State were,,< wild, he said, on account of the stoppage of traffic on the
roads....
"If it becomes necessary," he said, I particularly remember, "I
could and would put IOo,ooo men into the city of Chicago inside
of five days. The whole State would answer to the call as one
man." The records of the time show that every application
from Chicago for State troops was promptly answered, as from
every other place in the State..... Governor Altgeld acted in
this crisis with the most scrupulous faithfulness to his official obligation. He did this, as the remark quot  above indicates, al



State Militia in      Railway     Strike      139
though he believed, as other cool and conscientious observers believed and believe, that the troops were being called for by the
railroads for other reasons than to put down disorder; that the
"riots" were largely "fakes," and that what was real of them was
mostly the work of the railroads.... The railroads had everything to gain by a little well-advertised rioting which could be
attributed to the strikers. The strikers had everything to lose by
violence, and they knew it. Whatever Governor Altgeld, who is
a shrewd and successful lawyer, judge, man of affairs, and politician, may have divined of all this, he did not allow it to lead
him into any failure to comply to the fullest with the strict letter
and the spirit of his public duty to preserve order. Even as a
mere politician, he would have been led by his estimate, described
above, of the intense and almost unanimous disapproval of the
strike to show not the slightest sign of paltering with it. There
were other personal reasons as strong.
In the centre of the city of Chicago, Governor Altgeld had '
property to the value of many hundreds of thousands of dollars.,
"Free rioting" would have destroyed this and the whole fortune
he had built up by a life of prudent and sagacious enterprise.
Those who can believe that a man of distinguished intellectual
ability, whose life-training has been that of the law, the most conservative of sciences, who has sat for years as a judge upon the
bench, without whisper of reproach, who has never given favor
by so much as one word, private or official, to a single one of the
radical social theories of the day, not even going so far as to accept the mildest "municipal socialism" of European monarchical
cities, who, as Governor, has kept well within the most convenional lines of public enterprise, and who has indulged that
Satanic Radicalism" of his which keeps so many good people in
New York and Massachusetts awake these nights, in nothing more
revolutionary than prison and insane asylum reform and factory
inspection, who has accumulated a large fortune in real estate
and some of the best office property in the business heart of Chicago-those who can believe that such a man is an "Anarchist,"




140               Altgeld     of Illinois
and believes in free rioting in general, ought at least to have
common-sense and sense of humor enough to know that he could
not have believed in the particular "free rioting" which took
place in Chicago in July, I894.*
From the New York Morning Journal for October I8, 1896. Reprinted in Caro Lloyd's "Life of Henry Demarest Lloyd," Volume I,
pages 147-151.




CHAPTER XIV


SOME "INNER HISTORY}" OF THE RAILWAY
STRIKE
IN attempting to explain some of the more occult circumstances connected with the railway strike, particularly the
strange unanimity of purpose evidenced by the public
authorities and the railway officials at Chicago in ignoring Governor Altgeld and refraining from any application for State troops during the first ten days of the strike,
we must stray a little from what might be regarded as
the strict scope of this book and deal with matters in
which Altgeld was not directly concerned. But those
matters are nevertheless essential to the present narrative. It is impossible to form any competent judgment
of an episode in which Altgeld's reputation has been so
deeply involved without taking into account certain less
obvious facts and circumstances hitherto for the most
part ignored or overlooked.
If events at Chicago in late June and early July had
seemed to warrant such action, a request for State assist- i
ance might properly have been made by either the mayor f
of Chicago, the sheriff qf Cook county, the United States \
marghal for the northern district of Illinois, or the rail- I
way officials whose property was attacked or threatenedJ
But neither the mayor nor the sherilffcould legitimately
make such an application until their own resources for
preserving the peace had been exhausted; and only in
141




142


Altgeld of Illinois


this emergency also, or unless the local authorities refused to exert their best efforts, were the United States
marshal or the railway officials justified in making a direct
appeal to Springfield or to Washington. There can be
no doubt that the mayor and the sheriff, with their repular frr  augmented b   large number of special
police oIcersa  deputy sheriffs, had the situation well
in hand up to andincluding Tulv  the day on which
ral troops were ordered to Chicago. Regarding
their failure to apply for State aid iuing the disturbances of July 4 and 5, various explanations have been
offered. One theory has it that political motives were
responsible: the mayor was a Democrat, the sheriff a Republican, and each wished to throw upon the other the
onus of an act that was bound to be unpopular with
working-class voters. According to another and more
fantastic theory, their hands were tied by a prominent
local politician who, to satisfy an ancient grudge against
the Pullman company, was working toward the latter's
discomfiture in the strike. Doubtless the most reasonable explanation is that, with Federal troops already on
\/the ground, further assistance seemed unnecessary. But,
at any rate, neither the mayor nor the sheriff appealed
to Springfield until July 6, when the mayor acted in accordance with Governor Altgeld's urgent suggestion.
The failure of the United States marshal for northern
Illinois to request State aid is less explicable because he,
unlike the mayor and the sheriff, seems to have become
alarmed early in the strike. On June 30 we find him
engaged in organizing an army of special deputy marshals, and on July 3 he is telegraphing to Washington
that "no force less than the regular troops of the United
States can procure the passage of the mail-trains or en



"Inner History" of Railway Strike            I43
force the orders of the courts." All this time some three
thousand Sta                  hay          ob
hico o                      For the benefit of those
who asser         r   alis must look solely to the
Federal government for protection and assistance, it
need only be said that this was not the view of AttorneyGeneral Olney-or at least it was not his view just ten
days before the "Debs Rebellion." At that time a number of striking coal-miners had interfered with a railway
which was in the hands of a receiver appointed by the
United States District Court at Springfield. Writs for v
the arrest of the offenders had been placed for execution
with the United States marshal for the southern district
of Illinois but he and his deputies found it impossible to
make the arrests or protect the railway involved. An
appeal for assistance was thereupon telegraphed to
Attorney-General Olney at Washington, who replied as
follows on June i6, 1894:
ALLEN, United States Judge, Springfield, Ill.
I understand the State of Illinois is willing to protect property
against lawless violence with military force if necessary. Please
advise receiver to take proper steps to procure protection by civil
authorities of the State. If such protection proves inadequate,
the government should be applied to for military assistance.
OLNEY, Attorney-General.
Upon receipt of this dispatch, the local Federal
authorities made application to Governor Altgeld for
State troops, and a regiment was immediately sent to
assist the marshal in making arrests and preserving the
peace. In at least two other situations during the coal
and railway strikes, Federal officers for the southern district of Illinois asked and received State military aid in




I44


Altgeld of Illinois


similar or largely similar circumstances. Obviously,
there must have been some rather extraordinary reason
why the United States marshal and other Federal authorities for the northern Illinois district should have consistently ignored the procedure which the corresponding
officials for southern Illinois had adopted on several
occasions under the explicit instructions of AttorneyGeneral Olney himself.
Obviously, also, there must have been some extraordinary reason why the railway managers in Chica were
j    ret.out asking for Stat          than
were the Federal authorities for that district. Thl
knew or shoud have known, that Gvernor Altgeld was
responding promtl      energetically to every call for
troops from other sections of Illinois- and theyknew
so that there were at this time in Chicago  tlT hree
regiments of State militia ready for immediate ece
Yet from the beginning of the strike until July 6, two
days after the Federal troops arrived, no single application for protection or assistance was made to Governor
Altgeld by any railroad official in the city where the strike
originated and was chiefly fought out. In Altgeld's own
words, the State troops were not put on duty in Chicago
"because nobody in Cook County, whether official or
private citizen, asked to have their assistance, or even
intimated in any way that their assistance was desired
or necessary." * Only one explanation of this surprising
fact seems possible. The General Managers' Association had planned from the outset to kee
awaya fro  Chia                ederal troo       t
4fr —N'o doubt the common distrust of GovernorAlteld
played some part in determining this course; and probDispatch to President Cleveland, July 5, 1894.




"Inner History" of Railway Strike 145


ably it was also felt that Federal soldiers would be more
efficient and less inclined to sympathize with the strikers.
But these considerations were of small account in comparison with the aimp     moral effect whih th
_nce of U~J L Sttee s tr..o o.-c-v w ldexercise, nt mery
upon the srik     ni thr eir frents hut    n publ
opinion throughout the country. The railway manaers
werpejnitedly resolved upon two things: to win the strike,.
and to destroy the American Railway Union. They 7"-i
understood as clearly as do their successors today that
nothing is of surer efficacy in breaking a strike and discrediting a labor organization than Federal intervention. t
What was before merely a conflict between workers and,
employers becomes at once, in the public view, a conflict
between workers and the G     mn; and from that  7..,oiat the r^s;lt _ _s never in dUbt. To make certain of
Federal intervention in the railway strike at Chicago, it
was necessary to pre.gf.t State intervention; and the railway managers worked consistently in pursuance of this
double purpose.
Under our prevailing economic code of "dog eat dog,"
such a purpose may well be considered both natural and
legitimate. But what must impress any impartial person as wholly unnatural, wholly illegitimate, is the amazin  unanimity _anl zeI with whicbh the Federpral' "hrities, at both  hiclagoand WP h/Wgt, fe1 n w;th thet
railways intri ues.  If at the beginning of the strike,
tatesgovernment had placed itself und.r
orders of the General ManaerAssociation, the
co  uoEe                      n could scace   more perfect. As
already stated, the first interventin from WaTngton
occurred on June 30, four days after the strike went into
effect. Up to this date, and indeed for three days after



146


Altgeld of Illinois


ward, there was no unusual disorder in Chicago, no exceptional threat to Federal property, no organized
resistance to Federal court writs, no serious obstruction
of the mails. Public opinion was still largely on the
side of the Pullman employees, and the railroad strikers
were winning by peaceable means all along the line. At
this point "it must have been plain to the managers that
if the strike remained a peaceful one, the railways would
be defeated. If, however, violence and crime were
< associated with it, public sympathy would no longer sustain the strikers, and the power of the law would be
invoked against them." * With Federal sanction and
cooperation, the old device of the agent provocateur was
now brought into play. On June 30, upon representations from the district attorney at Chicago, AttorneyGeneral Olney authorized the United States marshal
in that ctyto employ a large force oL sp.ial deputies.
T    is the marshal lost no time in doing, to the number of
~ between three and four thousand men...Tese special
deputies, according to the United States Strike Commission, were selected by an  appolnted at the request of
e       Genera Maaers' Asso      ad i   cnstiuent
members; they were armed and- aid-by the railroads,
> and acted in the double capacit of railway emploees
and United States officers, although wile exercising
authority they were under th e  direct control of therail<roads and not ofany public official. Thus, as.a first
step, themFederal government gave over its local police
power directly into the hands of -the-raikoads-ai1lowing
them to recruit (chiefly through detective aencies' a
considerable body of reckless and irresponsible men, to
arm them, and to send them out in the guise of United
eHarry Thurston Peck's "Twenty Years of the Republic," page 381.




"Inner History" of Railway Strike 147


States officers to do whatever was required of them by
the railroads. The Chicago superintendent of police,
in an official report, refers to these special deputies as
"thugs, thieves, and ex-convicts"; and that characterization is amply verified in the testimony of many witnesses 4
before the United States Strike Commission. As later
events proved, no step could have been more disastrous
to the public peace (however fortunate for the railroads) than the injection of these quasi-official gunmen
into the situation at Chicago. Their presence and
behavior incensed the striking railway employees in such
degree that outbreaks of violence became inevitable; and
to- their account must be laid the responsibility for
directly or indirectly inciting the largest part of whatever disorder occurred during the succeeding two weeks.*
In the same dispatch       of June     o  which authorized
the employment of special deputy marshals on a huge
scale, Attorney-General Olney        (actin   always     t   us
be assumed, under orders of, or at least in consultationwith, President Cleveland) also placed the local Federal... -,...
* Henry D. Lloyd's notebook for this period contains the following
memorandum: "E. W. Bemis was told that Mayor Hopkins [of Chicago]
before leaving office procured 4o affidavits showing that the burning of
freight cars was done by railroad men [i. e. agents of the railroad
corporations]; that the railroad men moved cars outside of fire limits,
then burned them, inciting bystanders to participate. Hopkins, fearing
these affidavits might be destroyed by some subsequent railroad mayor,
took certified copies before leaving 6ffice." (See Caro Lloyd's "Life of
Henry Demarest Lloyd," Volume I., page 152.) It is a significant fact
that although, under a legislative act of 1887, the city of Chicago is
liable for destruction of property by mob violence even when unable
to prevent the violence, no claim for damages in connection with loss of
property during the strike of 1894 —a loss which, as estimated by the
Chicago Fire Department, amounted to about $355,ooo-was ever pressed
in the courts by any Chicago railway corporation. For reference to
this and other illuminating details in the "unwritten history" of the
railway strike, see "Editor's Table" in the New England Magazine for
October, x896.




148


Altgeld of Illinois


psud.iciall Pf  the-,F:frcluJ^  redisnpcn of the rajrC ds.
The principal means employed to this end was the
ap  [pTiflt"S    j    Walker "as special coUnSeLfOr
the Government, to assist the district attorney in any
legal proceedings that might be instituted"; together
with the-suggestion that Federal injunctions be drawn
up and issued against the strike leaders. President
Cleveland, in his account of the strike, speaks of Mr.
Walker as "an able and prominent attorney in Chicago"
-a description accurate enough as far as it goes, but
somewhat incomplete.    LWalker    as at that time
nd had been since I870, the able and prominent attorney
of the   ica o Milwau ee, and St. aul Rail      one
of te principal roa sinvolved in the strike. He hi d
Tiso acted.     mi               _    r of the roads
involved.   Thus the cloak of Federal authority was
row              ed official of the railroads;and te
le     wers o the Federa government were placed at
his disposal forfiting    he railroads'battle. Mr.
Walker proved entirely worthy of his unique opportunity.
He immediately drew up the injunction bills, as suggested
by the Attorney-General; three days after his appointment he had accomplished the railroads' prime purpose
of getting Federal troops into Chicago; and a week later
he obtained the indictment of Debs and his fellow officers
of the American Railway Union.
The injunction proceedings, it should be noted, were
b.ased in largest part upon the Interstate Commerce Act
of i887; whil   e inram- t qere obtained under the
Sherman Anti-Trust Law of i890.  Both of these meas-I-,~ im-...  7~- --  — J
*It may not be altogether irrelevant to note here that Mr. Qlney
himself was chiefly known as a "railroad lawyer," and that his principal clients at the Bar had been railroads, before his appointment as
Attorney-General in President Cleveland's second Cabinet.




"Inner History" of Railway Strike I49
ures aimed ostensibly at ce                       of large
orpoQrations; the first was directed against the railroads,
while the second applied to railroads no less than to other
corporations. Neither one contained even a regrte
eference to labor fora      r- z orig`EiatioiBs. zBut the
ing nuy     f l...rail-oad and other corporation officials,
-backed almost uniformly by the Federal courts, in evadngthe to        aws had known no- botpi        atr the
e              Chio     railway esrike  bth    ere virtually
inQperatie. Attorney-General Olney had initiated not a
single prosecution under the Sherman Anti-Trust Law
during his term of office up to this time, and had publicly
expressed his doubt that the measure could be enforced.t
To "save the railroads" by the very laws which they
themselves had so successfully defied, to turn those laws
into instruments of succor for the law-breakers against
whom they were designed, must be accounted an unique
achievement; but it was precisely this that Mr. Olney
accomplished, through the assisting medium of his official railway attorney at Chicago. In the face of such an
achievement, we must surely grant to the AttorneyGeneral a liberal share of that glory which President
Cleveland so modestly refers to in his remark that "those
who were most nearly related by executive responsibility
to the troublous days whose story is told may well espe*When the Sherman Anti-Trust Law was under debate in Congress,
an amendment was introduced specifying that the law was not to apply
to labor unions. This amendment was rejected in view of Senator Sherman's explicit statement that the law was in no way directed against
labor combinations. See Henry D. Lloyd's "Men the Workers," page
138.
tPerhaps a perfect example of the sort of monopolistic power which
both the Interstate Commerce Act and the Sherman Anti-Trust Law were
ostensibly designed to curb and control was the Pullman company, in
behalf of whose notoriously oppressed employees the railway workers
were waging their disinterested fight.




150


Altgeld of Illinois


cially congratulate themselves on the part which fell to
them in marking out the way and clearing the path, now
unchangeably established, which shall hereafter guide our
nation safely and surely in the exercise of the important
functions which represent the people's trust." *
The dubious grounds upon which Federal troops were
sent into Chicago are discussed at some length in a succeeding chapter, so that this phase of the general subject
need not detain us here. It should only be said that at
the time they were sent no emergency existed which required or justified their presence; and even the disorders
which followed their appearance on the scene could have
been handled without difficulty by State troops, if the
railway managers and Federal authorities had followed
the prescribed    forms and     asked   for State   aid-if, in
other words, they had been less interested in breaking
the strike than in preserving the peace and protecting
public interests.t In his Cooper Union speech of
October 17, I896, Governor Altgeld said:
* Grover Cleveland's "The Government in the Chicago Strike of 1894."
t "We must remember that we have the explicit statement of Mayor
Pingree, the Republican candidate for the governorship of Michigan,a statement made with the claim of inside knowledge-that the commanding officers of the Federal forces sent to Chicago agreed that there was
no need whatever of their being sent there, but that the state authorities
were anxious and entirely able to do everything that needed to be done,
and that, though silently and faithfully obeying orders like good soldiers,
they resented the situation as tending to bring under just suspicion and
dislike the military arm of the national government." From "Editor's
Table" in the New England Magazine for October, x896.
That General Miles himself was opposed to sending Federal troops
into Chicago is vouched for by no less an authority than the then
ranking officer of the United States Army, Lieut.-Gen. John M. Schofield,
who on page 494 of his "Forty-Six Years in the Army" writes as follows:
"The next day (July 3,) in the President's room at the Executive Mansion, in reply to my suggestion that his presence was needed with his
command, General Miles said he was subject to orders, but that in his
opinion the United States troops ought not to be employed in the city of




"Inner History" of Railway Strike


I5I


The trouble at Chicago was, by systematic effort and deliberate misrepresentation, so magnified as to make it seem that we
were bordering on anarchy, and that consequently federal interference was necessary. The impression was sought to be made
upon the country that we were bordering on civil war and the
destruction of society, and that neither the local authorities nor
the State authorities were willing to maintain law and order;
while the real fact was that the federal government took steps
to interfere in Chicago before there was any rioting or any serious
trouble of any kind, and that the State authorities, who stood
ready to act promptly, were intentionally ignored.
The disturbance at its worst did not equal in point of destructiveness the disturbances that occurred at Buffalo, N. Y., the yeai
previous; was not nearly so bloody or destructive as a number of
disturbances that have occurred in Pennsylvania, and was not
as bloody and destructive as had occurred in Ohio while McKinley
was Governor.
If it were necessary, much might be added by way
of detail to the unsavory story with which this chapter is
concerned. But the facts and circumstances already cited
seem sufficient for our purpose, which has been to show,!irst, that the railway managers in Chicago deliberately
onspred o prevent state intervention and to secure      ederal intervention, as the most effective means of breaking the stie and destroying the American Railway Union; andT    conc that the Federal government. intad
of acting in its proper capacity as a neutral aencv
request of and in cooperatipo with the State government,
deliberatelyand contemptuously ignored the Stat       e   -
iies, threw  all 'ts resources on the side of one of the
comiatants, and worked hand-in-glove with the illegal
General Managers' Association to effect the latter's
Chicago at that time." Secretary of War Lamont also advised against
this use of the Federal troops.




152


Altgeld of Illinois


purposes. One need not go beyond the pages of President Cleveland's own account of the affair'for convincing proof that his administration assumed throughout
the role of remorseless strike-breaker, without making
a single effort at impartial investigation of the existing
trouble or a single attempt toward securing peaceful
settlement of the points at issue. To President Cleveland this role seemed not only legitimate but in the highest degree praiseworthy, and a spirit of almost lefiant
pride breathes through his narrative of these events,
written ten years later. To some others, including Governor Altgeld, it appeared in a wholly different light, as
a role more befitting the government of a class autocracy
than of a democratic republic.*
*With specific reference to one phase of that r6le, the sending of
Federal troops to Chicago, Henry D. Lloyd wrote: "The Democratic
party for a hundred years has been the pull-back against the centralization in American politics.... But in one hour here last July, it sacrificed
the honorable devotion of a century to its great principle and surrendered both the rights of States and the rights of man to the centralized corporate despotism to which the presidency of the United
States was then abdicated." See Caro Lloyd's "Life of Henry Demarest
Lloyd," Volume I., pages 146-47.




/
CHAPTER XV
THE ALTGELD-CLEVELAND CONTROVERSY
Ie       mai1   to deal with the matter of Governor
Ae            toesient __evadfi-the sending of Federal          dtoCh     go      n        Le raway
strike, and his demand for their withdrawal.       Among
thoise to whom    the "anarchist Governor's" name was
anathema, this action was naturally regarded as a piece
of peculiarly brazen impudence, of almost monumental
effrontery.  In tieir view, nothing else could have so
perfectly rounded out the tale of his official turpitude
or so clearly revealed his anti-social sympathies and tendencies. Writing in 1904, two years after Governor
Altgeld's death, President Cleveland formulates the popular indictment with somewhat plaintive moderation in
the following paragraph:
I must not fail to mention here as part of the history of this
perplexing affair, a contribution made by the governor of Illinois
to its annoyances. This official not only refused to regard the
riotous disturbances within the borders of his State as a sufficient
cause for the application to the Federal Government for its protection "against domestic violence" under the mandate of the Constitution, but he actually protested against the presence of Federal
troops sent into the State upon the general Government's own
initiative and for the purpose of defending itself in the exercise of
its well-defined legitimate functions.*
*This and the other quotations from President Cleveland contained in
the present chapter are taken from his account of "The Government
in the Chicago Strike of 1894."
153




I54


Altgeld of Illinois


Without pausing to     elaborate upon the skill with
which this statement evades most of the essential points
at issue and ignores most of the really basic facts, the
reader must be permitted to examine for himself the
annoying contribution made by the Governor of Illinois.
That contribution is in the form of two long telegrams
addressed to President Cleveland. The first dispatch,
sent the day after Federal troops arrived in Chicago,
reads as follows:
Executive Office, State of Illinois,
July 5, i894.
Hon. GROVER CLEVELAND, President of the United States,
Washington, D. C.
Sir:-I am advised that you have ordered Federal troops to
go into service in the State of Illinois. Surely the facts have not
been correctly presented to you in this case, or you would not
have taken this step, for it is entirely unnecessary, and, as it
seems to me, unjustifiable. Waiving all questions of courtesy,
I will say that the State of Illinois is not only able to take care
of itself, but it stands ready to furnish the Federal government
any assistance it may need elsewhere. Our military force is
ample, and consists of as good soldiers as can be found in the
country. They have been ordered promptly whenever and wherever they were needed. We have stationed in Chicago alone
three Regiments of Infantry, one Battery and one troop of Cavalry, and no better soldiers can be found. They have been ready
every moment to go on duty, and have been and are now eager
to go into service, but they have not been ordered out because
nobody in Cook county, whether official or private citizen, asked
to have their assistance, or even intimated in any way that their
assistance was desired or necessary.
So far as I have been advised, the local officials have been able
to handle the situation. But if any assistance were needed, the




The Altgeld-Cleveiand Controversy 155


State stood ready to furnish a hundred men for every one man
required, and stood ready to do so at a moment's notice. Notwithstanding these facts the Federal Government has been applied to by men who had political and selfish motives for '/
wanting to ignore the State Government. We have just gone
through a coal strike, more extensive here than in any
other State, because our soft-coal field is larger than that of any
other State. We have now had ten days of the railroad strike,
and we have'promptly furnished military aid wherever the local
officials needed it.
In two instances the United States marshal for the Southern
District of Illinois applied for assistance to enable him to enforce
the processes of the United States court, and troops were promptly
furnished him, and he was assisted in every way he desired. The
law has been thoroughly executed, and every man guilty of violating it during the strike has been brought to justice. If the
marshal of the Northern District of Illinois or the authorities of
Cook county needed military assistance they had but to ask for
it in order to get it from the State.
At present some of our railroads are paralyzed, not by reason
of obstruction, but because they cannot get men to operate their
trains. For some reason they are anxious to keep this fact from
the public, and for this purpose they are making an outcry about
obstructions in order to divert attention. Now, I will cite to you
two examples which illustrate the situation:
Some days ago I was advised that the business of one of our
railroads was obstructed at two railroad centres, and that there
was a condition bordering on anarchy there, and I was asked to
furnish protection so as to enable the employees of the road to
operate the trains. Troops were promptly ordered to both
points. Then it transpired that the company had not sufficient
men on its line to operate one train. All the old hands were
orderly but refused to go to work. The company had large
shops which worked a number of men who did not belong to the
Railway Union and who could run an engine. They were ap



156


Altgeld of Illinois


pealed to to run the train but flatly refused. We were obliged
to hunt up soldiers who could run an engine and operate a train.
Again, two days ago, appeals which were almost frantic came
from the officials of another road stating that at an important
point on their line trains were forcibly obstructed, a J1 that there
was a reign of anarchy at that place, and they asked f)r protection
so that they could move their trains. Troops were put on the
ground in a few hours' time, when the officer in command telegraphed me that there was no trouble, and had been none at that
point, but that the road seemed to have no men to run trains,
and the sheriff telegraphed that he did not need troops, but would
himself move every train if the company would only furnish an
engineer. The result was that the troops were there twelve
hours before a single train was moved, although there was no
attempt at interference by anybody.
It is true that in several instances a road made efforts to
work a few green men and a crowd standing around insulted
them and tried to drive them away, and in a few other cases
they cut off Pullman sleepers from trains. But all these troubles
were local in character and could easily be handled by the State
authorities. Illinois has more railroad men than any other State
in the Union, but as a rule they are orderly and well-behaved.
This is shown by the fact that so very little actual violence has
been committed. Only a very small percentage of these men
have been guilty of infractions of the law. The newspaper accounts have in many cases been pure fabrications, and in others
wild exaggerations.
I have gone thus into details to show that it is not soldiers that
the railroads need so much as it is men to operate trains, and that
[    the conditions do not exist here which bring the cause within the
Federal statute, a statute that was passed in I88I [I86I] and was
in reality a war measure. The statute authorized the use of
Federal troops in a State whenever it shall be impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States within such States by the ordinary Judicial proceedings. Such a condition does not exist in




The Altgeld-Cleveland Controversy I57
Illinois. There have been a few local disturbances, but nothing
that seriously interfered with the administration of justice, or
that could not be easily controlled by the local or State authorities,
for the Federal troops can do nothing that the State troops can-J
not do.
I repeat that you have been imposed upon in this matter; but
even if by a forced construction it were held that the conditions
here came within the letter of the statute, then I submit that
local self-government is a fundamental principle of our Constitution. Each community shall govern itself so long as it can and
is ready and able to enforce the law, and it is in harmony with
this fundamental principle that the statute authorizing the President to send troops into States must be construed; especially is
this so in matters relating to the exercise of the police power and
the preservation of law and order.
To                  Ai
when the local government is ready to furnish assistance needed,
and is amply able to enforce the law, not only insults the people
of this State by imputing to them an inability to govern them-  /
selves, or an unwillingness to enforce the law, but is in violation 1/
of a basic principle of our institutions. The question of Fede-l.
sgpr                            No one disputes it for a moment; but, under our Constitution, Federal supremacy and local
self-government must go hand in hand, and to ignore the latter is
to do violence to the Constitution.
As Governor of the State of Illinois, I protest against this,
and ask the immediate withdrawal of the Federal troops from
active duty in this State. Should the situation at any time
get so serious that we cannot control it with the State forces,
we will promptly ask for Federal assistance; but until such time,
I protest, with all due deference, against this uncalled for reflection upon our people, and again ask the immediate withdrawal of these troops. I have the honor to be, yours respectfully,  f
JOHN P. ALTGELD, Governor of Illinois.


II




158             Altgeld of Illinois
President Cleveland's comment on the statement of
facts in this dispatch is that it "so far missed actual
conditions as to appear irrelevant, and, in some parts,
absolutely frivolous." He immediately telegraphed the
following laconic reply:
Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C.,
July 5, I894.
Hon. JOHN P. ALTGELD, Governor of Illinois, Springfield, Ill.
Sir:-Federal troops were sent to Chicago in strict accordance
with the Constitution and laws of the United States, upon the
demand of the postoffice department that obstruction of the mails
should be removed, and upon the representations of the judicial
officers of the United States that the process of the Federal courts
could not be executed through the ordinary means, and upon competent proof that conspiracies existed against commerce between
the States. To meet these conditions, which are clearly within the
province of Federal authority, the presence of Federal troops in
the city of Chicago was deemed not only proper, but necessary,
and there has been no intention of thereby interfering with the
plain duty of the local authorities to preserve the peace of the
city.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
Oddly enough, this sacerdotal pronouncement failed
in its effect of reducing the State executive to a becoming
silence. Instead, he perversely continued his annoyances.
"The governor," writes President Cleveland, "evidently
unwilling to allow the matter at issue between us to rest
without a renewal of argument and protest, at once addressed to me another long telegraphic communication,
evidently intended to be more severely accusatory and
insistent than its predecessor." This second dispatch
is as follows:




The Altgeld-Cleveland Controversy 159
Executive Office, State of Illinois,
July 6, I894.
Hon. GROVER CLEVELAND, President of the United States,
Washington, D. C.
Sir: —Your answer to my protest involves some startling conclusions and ignores and evades the question at issue-that is, that
the principle of local self-government is just as fundamental in our
institutions as is that of Federal supremacy.
First-You calmly assume that the executive has the legal[
right to order Federal troops into any community of the United t
States, in the first instance, whenever there is the slightest dis- e
turbance, and that he can do this without any regard to the question as to whether that community is able and ready to enforce the
law itself. Inasmuch as the executive is the sole judge of the
question as to whether any disturbance exists in any part of the
country, this assumption means that the executive can send Federal
troops into any community in the United States at his pleasure,
and keep them there as long as he chooses. If this is the law, then
the principle of self-government either never did exist in this country or else has been destroyed, for no community can be said to
possess local self-government if the executive can, at his pleasure,
send military forces to patrol its streets under pretense of enforc
ing some law. The kind of local self-government that could exist
under these circumstances can be found in any of the monarchies
of Europe, and it is not in harmony with the spirit of our
institutions.
Second-It is also a fundamental principle in our government
that except in times of war the military shall be subordinate to
the civil authority. In harmony with this provision, the State
troops are ordered out to act under and with the civil authorities.
The troops you have ordered to Chicago are not under the civil
authorities, and are in no way responsible to them for their conduct. They are not even acting under the United States Marshal
or any Federal officer of the State, but are acting directly under




i6o


Altgeld of Illinois


military orders issued from military headquarters at Washington;
and in so far as these troops act at all, it is military government.
Third-The statute authorizing Federal troops to be sent into
States in certain cases contemplates that the State troops shall be
taken first. This provision has been ignored and it is assumed that
the executive is not bound by it. Federal interference with industrial disturbances in the various States is certainly a new departure, and it opens up so large a field that it will require a very
little stretch of authority to absorb to itself all the details of local
government.
Fourth-You say that troops were ordered into Illinois upon the
demand of the postoffice department, and upon representations of
the judicial officers of the United States that process of the courts
could not be served, and upon proof that conspiracies existed. We
will not discuss the facts, but look'for a moment at the principle
involved in your statement. All of these officers are appointed by
the executive. Most of them can be removed by him at will.
They are not only obliged to do his bidding, but they are in fact
a part of the executive. If several of them can apply for troops,
one alone can; so that under the law, as you assume it to be, an
executive, through any one of his appointees, can apply to himself
to have the military sent into any city or number of cities, and
base his application on such representations as he sees fit to make.
In fact, it will be immaterial whether he makes any showing or
not, for the executive is the sole judge, and nobody else has any
right to interfere or even inquire about it. Then the executive
can pass on his own application, his will being the sole guide
he can hold the application to be sufficient, and order troops to
as many places as he wishes and put them in command of anyone
he chooses, and have them act, not under the civil officers, either
Federal or State, but directly under military orders from Washington, and there is not in the Constitution or laws, whether written
or unwritten, any limitation or restraint upon his power. His
judgment-that is, his will-is the sole guide; and it being purely
a matter of discretion, his decision can never be examined or
questioned.




The Altgeld-Cleveland Controversy 161


This assumption as to the power of the executive is certainly
new, and I respectfully submit that it is not the law of the land.
The jurists have told us that this is a government of law, and not
a government by the caprice of an individual, and, further, instead
of being autocratic, it is a government of limited power. Yet the
autocrat of Russia could certainly not possess, or claim to possess,
greater power than is possessed by the executive of the United
States, if your assumption is correct.
Fifth-The executive has the command not only of the regular
forces of all the United States, but of the military forces of all the
States, and can order them to any place he sees fit; and as there
are always more or less local disturbances over the country, it will
be an easy matter under your construction of the law for an ambitious executive to order out the military forces of all of the
States, and establish at once a military government. The only
chance of failure in such a movement could come from rebellion,
and with such a vast military power at command this could readily
be crushed, for, as a rule, soldiers will obey orders.
As for the situation in Illinois, that is of no consequence now
compared with the far-reaching principle involved. True, according to my advices, Federal troops have now been on duty for
over two days, and although the men were brave and the officers
valiant and able, yet their very presence proved to be an irritant
because it aroused the indignation of a large class of people who,
while upholding law and order, had been taught to believe in local
self-government, and therefore resented what they regarded as unwarranted interference.
Inasmuch as the Federal troops can do nothing but what the
State troops can do there, and believing that the State is amply
able to take care of the situation and to enforce the law, and believing that the ordering out of the Federal troops was unwarranted,' I again ask their withdrawal.
JOHN P. ALTGELD.
What he calls the "rather dreary discussion" of general principles contained in the above communication




I62


Altgeld of Illinois


seems to have been particularly objectionable to the President.  "I confess," he remarks, "that my patience was
somewhat strained when I quickly sent the following dispatch in reply to this communication":
Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C.,
July 6, i894.
While I am still persuaded that I have neither transcended my
authority nor duty in the emergency that confronts us, it seems
to me that in this hour of danger and public distress, discussion
may well give way to active efforts on the part of all in authority
to restore obedience to law and to protect life and property.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
Hon. JOHN P. ALTGELD,
Governor of Illinois.
No further communications passed between the Governor and the President. Altgeld had registered his protest, and had endeavored to state the grounds upon which
it was based. Cleveland had in effect confined himself to
a dogmatic assertion of authority. For the moment,
at least, there was nothing more to be said. Thus, according to the President's typical final comment, "closed
a discussion which in its net results demonstrated how
far one's disposition and inclination will lead him astray
in the field of argument."




CHAPTER XVI


ISSUES AND REACTIONS OF THE CONTROVERSY
LITTLE can be gained, at this late day, by entering into
a detailed discussion of the abstract issues involved in
the controversy between Governor Altgeld and President
Cleveland. But at least the main bearings of that controversy should be dearly understood. And in particular it is important to note that whatever shadow of
justification exists for President Cleveland's action in
sending Federal troops to Chicago is derived from a
statutory source, and not at all from the Constitution.
Unless the vague general clause which declares that the
President "shall take care that the laws be faithfully
executed" is capable of an interpretation which directly
nullifies several of the most vital specific clauses in this
document, the Constitution itself contains nothing to warrant his action. The only concrete reference to Federal
intervention in State disorders is embodied in Section 4
of Article IV., which reads: "The United States shall
guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form
of government, and shall protect each of them against
invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of
the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened),
against domestic violence." There is no equivocation
here; the latter clause is evidently intended to mean precisely what it says, and it gives the Federal government
no authority to act in suppressing domestic violence except
I63




I64


Altgeld of Illinois


"on application of the legislature, or of the executive
(when the legislature cannot be convened)." If support for this perfectly obvious view is needed, it may be
found in the following statement of no less a Constitutional authority than Hon. Thomas M. Cooley: "It was
only at unlawful violence that the provision in the Constitution was directed,... Moreover, by the terms of
the Federal Constitution, there must be a demand for
assistance from the State legislature or executive, before
it could be rendered." *
In his paper on "The Government in the Chicago
Strike of I894," President Cleveland cites the abovementioned section of the Constitution as though it had
a definite bearing upon his action, and then adds:
"There was plenty of domestic violence in the city of
Chicago and in the State of Illinois during the early days
of July, I894; but no application was made to the Federal Government for assistance. It was probably a very
fortunate circumstance that the presence of the United
States soldiers in Chicago at that time did not depend
upon the request or desire of Governor Altgeld." A
fortunate circumstance indeed-for the illicit cabal of
railway officials in Chicago! But what needs to be emhasized is, that in the abs  of a    a    o    m
the legislature or Governor of Illinois, the Presient
had no warrant under the Constitution for sending Federal troops to Chicago. However, after making the
statement above quoted, he proceeds to somewhat less
slippery ground by citing Sections 5298 and 5299 of the
Revised Statutes of the United States, which read as
follows:
* From article on "The Guarantee of Order and Republican Government in the States," in the International Review for January, 1875.




Issues and Reactions


i65


Whenever, by reason of unlawful obstructions, combinations,
or asse blages of prsns, or rebellion against the authority of
the Government of the United States it shall become impracticable, in the judgment f6 he Preside nt, to  fr            y
course of judicial roceedings, the  w ofth Uild S     wiLhn
any State or Territory, it shall be lawful for the President to call
forth the militia of ayorall of the States and to employ such
parts of the land or naval forces o the United States as he may
deem necessary to enforce the faithful execution of the laws of the
United States, or to suppress such rebellion, in whatever State or
Territory thereof the laws of the United States may be forcibly
opposed, or the execution thereof forcibly obstructed.
Whenever insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combinations, or conspiracies in any State so obstructs or hinders the execution of the laws thereof, and of the United States, as to deprive
any portion or class of the people of such State of any of the rights,
privileges, or immunities, or protection, named in the constitution
and secured by the laws for the protection of such rights, privileges,
or immunities, and the constituted authorities of such State are
unable to protect, or, from any cause, fail in or refuse protection
of the people in such rights, such facts shall be deemed a denial
by such State of the equal protection of the laws to which they are
entitled under the constitution of the United States; and in all
such cases, or whenever any such insurrection, violence, unlawful
combination, or conspiracy, opposes or obstructs the laws of the
United States, or the due execution thereof, or impedes or obstructs the due course of justice under the same, it shall be lawful
for the President, and it shall be his duty, to take such measures,
by the employment of the militia or the land and naval forces of
the United States, or of either, or by other means, as he may deem
necessary, for the suppression of such insurrection, domestic violence, or combinations.
The frst of these statutes, relating to "insurrection
against 4We government of the United States," was en



i66


Altgeld of Illinois


acted July 2a, I86xi purely as a war measur.          The
second7relating to "power to suppress insurrection in
violation of civil rights," was enacted April 20, 1871,
as part of "An act to enforce the provisions of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, and for other purposes"; this act was directed
at the Ku Klux Klan, and was nationally known as "the
Ku Klux Klan act." As to the propriety of acting in
I894 under statutes passed in I86I and I871 to meet
certain extraordinary emergencies existing during those
years, the most fitting commentary is provided by the
following extract from Hon. Thomas M. Cooley's article
referred to:
Whatever discontented parties may do or say when the workings
of State government displease them, there is a manifest and imperative duty before every statesman and every lawyer, to resist and if
possible to defeat whatever shall have a tendency to make the
shifts and devices of a revolutionary period the precedents for
similar action after that period has passed away. If action, which
at the time was deemed wholly exceptional, and was only defended on the exceptional circumstances, can be received as evidence of settled law in the government, and if the people shall be
found prepared to accept it as such, then indeed has a revolution of
public opinion taken place which sooner or later must work an
entire and radical revolution in the government itself.
But however dubious their validity in this connection,
it remains true that whatever direct legal warrant may
be found for President Cleveland's action in sending Federal troops to Chicago resides in these two statutes, and
in nothing else. Governor Altgeld recognized this fact,
as his first dispatch to the President shows, although he
said little about the validity of invoking these statutes
for such a purpose. His protest was not based upon




Issues and Reactions


I67


Constitutional grounds, or (as so many of his critics
believed or professed to believe) upon any strict interpretation of the old doctrine of State rights.   He contended, in the first instance, that conditions in Chicago,
were not such as to justify Federal action under the statutes aiove cited; and, in the second instance, against an
arbitrary interference on the part of the Federal executive with the traditional right of local self-government.
"The old doctrine of State rights is in no way involved,"
said Altgeld; and in his Cooper Union speech of October 17, I896, he summarized his position as follows:
Nobody for a moment questions the supremacy of the Union.
But it does involve the question whether, in connection with
Federal supremacy, there does not go hand in hand the principle of
local self-government. These two principles, i. e., Federal union
and local self-government, have for a century been regarded as
the foundation upon which the glory of our whole governmental
fabric rests. One is just as sacred, just as inviolable, just as important as the other. Without Federal union there must follow
anarchy, and without local self-government there must follow
despotism.... The question is, whether the local and State authorities should not first be called upon to enforce the law andmaintain order, using for that purpose such local agencies and
forces as the law has created, or whether the President can ignore
all these and bring a foreign force and station it in any community
at pleasure.
This was by no means the first time that such a question had been raised in the United States. One of Governor Altgeld's predecessors in office, John M.Jalmer,
4,.a.dr   n   871   when President Grant sent Federal
troops to police Chicago after the great fire of that year, 4
that "if the powers'"..ed upon by the es-*.
ident exist in him, the State of Illinois is but a depend



i68


Altgeld of Illinois


ency of the Government at Washington, and the lives
and liberties of die people are subject to the will of the
President." Governor Palmer even went so far as to
demand the criminal indictment of the Federal commander in Chicago, General Phil Sheridan, for the killing of a citizen by one of the soldiers under Sheridan's
command. But perhaps the most forthright and uncompromising champion of the position later assumed by
Altgeld with respect to State immunity from Federal
invasion was no other than Preinlev
Attne  y._Gern   Rkh.           In the Louisiana gubernatorial contest of 1872 there were two rival fusion
tickets in the field-one, headed by McEnery and supported mainly by Democrats; the other, headed by Kellogg and supported mainly by "radical" or Grant Republicans. McEnery received a considerable majority of
the votes cast, but with President Grant's cooperation
and approval Kellogg was able to install himself in office
by force. Tbereuon McEneryset up a rival de jure
goxIernment. In Septem er, I874, after street fighting
in which twenty-seven men were killed and one hundred
and five wounded, the McEnery government succeeded in
ousting the Kellogg or de facto government from office.
Upon learning of this coup d'etat, President Grant immediatel rus   E    ra            ar vessels to New
Orleans              ad the "carpet-a   governent
oj      s l oower. -t the next
session of the State legislature, early in 1875, all openly
anti-Kellogg members were ejected from the State House
by Federal soldiers.* This disgraceful episode created
* These statements are summarized from 'Louisiana: A Record of
Expansion," by Albert Phelps ("American Commonwealths" series),
pages 372-384.




Issues and Reactions


i69


great indignation among northern (to say nothing of
southern) Democrats, and meetings of protest were held
in several large cities. At such a meeting, assembled
in Faneuil Hall, Boston, on January I5, i875, one of
the speakers was Richard Olney, at that time a member
of the Massachusetts legislature. In the course of his
remarks, as reported in the Boston Post of January i6,
I8752            J
The Administration seemed totally bent on making a claim of
power perfectly unprecedented and, if allowed, utterly subversive
of our present system of government. Under the Constitution and
laws of the United States, the right of the General Government
to suppress domestic violence in a State is, and always has been,
most carefully guarded and restricted. The prerequisites to any
such action have been all defined with entire precision. There
must be an insurrection in a State against its Government; and,
what is most important, not only must there be an insurrection to
be suppressed, but the State itself, through its Legislature, or
through the Governor if the Legislature cannot be convened, must
ask the President to come and do it. Without that invitation the
President and General Government are powerless to act. [Applause.] Be the confusion, anarchy, disorder in a State what they
may, the Constitution does not permit the General Government
to interfere and restore order, and put down insurrection, except
upon the invitation of the State itself. So jealous, and rightfully
jealous, were the fathers of the power of the General Government;
so tenacious, and rightfully tenacious, were they of the rights of
the States, and of the principle of local self-government!..
Apparently, it [the Administration] meant to assert that the
President might enter a State with troops, to suppress disorder
and violence at his own 'discretion, upon his own view of the
exigency, and without waiting for the consent or request of the
State itself. No more glaring attempt at usurpation can be
imagined. If successful it would revolutionize our whole govern



170             Altgeld of Illinois
mental system; if successful it would clearly annihilate the right
of local self-government by a State, which could be exercised
thereafter only by the sufferance and kind permission of the Federal Government. This view of the exigency it was which roused
the country from one end to the other, and which led to the call
for a meeting of Massachusetts men in Faneuil Hall.... The
very life of our free institutions was in peril, and it therefore
seemed not merely our right, but our imperative duty, to come here
and enter our protests-else the future historian of the Republic
might have to make the shameful record, that, when in the year of
grace i875 a deadly blow was aimed at American Constitutional
liberty, the once liberty-loving Massachusetts gave no sound of
alarm and raised no arm to save. [Applause.]
If President Grant's action in i874 was a "glaring
attempt at usurpation," President Cleveland's action in
i894 was far more so. There was virtual civil war in
Louisiana, and many persons had been killed or wounded.
Qrant sent Federal troops there at the request of, and
-in cooperation with, the de facto Governor, so at least
some semblance of State sanction could be claimed for
their presence. In Chicago, on the other hand, there
was no armed conflict, no citizen had been killed or injured, no serious disorder existed before Federal intervention, and the State had made no sort of application
for Federal aid.
Th~is time, hecountry was by no means
roused "from one end to the other," and one T     a7f
no   ublic mass meetings at which    rominent ctizen
convine     at "te     e         u    e iwfituion
in peril," declared it not merely their right but their
imperative duty to protest against the President's action.
The "future historian of the Republic" has indeed "to
make the shameful record, that, when in the year of




Issues and Reactions


17I


grace" I894 "a deadly blow was aimed at American
Constitutional liberty," not only the "once liberty-loving
Massachusetts" but every other Americancommonweath
"gave no snund of alarm and rised no armp to sagve.
Instead, prominent citizens and prominent newspapers
the country over were vociferous in their praise of President Cleveland's "rugged courage." Congress passed
resolutions endorsing his course, and by unanimous vote
the Supreme Court affirmed its legality. Judge Cooley,
now a Federal place-holder under appointment by Cleveland, swallowed at one gulp the carefully-formulated doctrine set forth in his treatise on "The Guarantee of Order
and Republican Government in the States," * and pronounced President Cleveland's course a "great and valuable lesson in Constitutional construction." When in
due time that course had received President Taft's benediction, the process of consecration was complete and
irrevocable.
The explanation of this general Te Deum is not very
far to seek. In Louisiana, the Federal administration,/
had intervened in behalf of a political faction with which
it was in sympathy; in Chicago it intervened in behalf of /
an economic faction with which it was in sympathy.
Grant's action, while it pleased the mass of his own party,
naturally enraged the Democrats, and these latter(supported, it is true, by a few distinguished Republicans
who placed principle above party) knew how to voice
their wrath in high places. Cleveland's action aroused
no party animosities, and was precisely in line with the
economic interests and sympathies of almost everyone
who had any means of making his opinion widely audible.
* See article, quoted from above, in the International Review for
January, 187s,




172            Altgeld of Illinois
The President, whether that was his direct intention or
not, had ruthlessly broken a great strike which had seriously inconvenienced the pubic and se   y tre,    d
e                     While trade    Ionistspopits,
beaj  _ther qI^^le          ts might gniash i  eir teeth,
there was no disposition on the part of the majority to
temper its gratitude by a carping attitude toward the
means employed. Moreover, in placing Governor Altgeld befor  the co                             esilt
in                      he       and h   "bes     le"
only a little less thoroughly than he had by "saving the
ing the anarchi         s   led American decencies,
this demagogue who was "more intent on gaining the
is tls
consistent and persistent enemy of society, could now be
assailed with fresh vigor; and the welcome opportunity
was not wasted. If Cleveland was the new Saint George
who must be exalted to the heavens, Altgeld was the old
dragon who must be debased to the slime whence he
arose. A typical (or perhaps, on the score of restraint,
somewhat less than typical) journalistic comment on the
Altgeld-Cleveland correspondence is the following urbane utterance of the New York Nation:
President Cleveland's method of dealing with Governor Altgeld
is a model one. He wastes no time in arguing with him, or in defending himself against his attacks, but in a few terse sentences sets
him before the country in his true light as the friend and champion
of disorder. Altgeld is probably as unconscious of his own bad
manners as he is of the bad odor of his principles; but boorish, impudent, and ignorant as he is, he can scarcely fail to wince under
the treatment which he receives from the President.... Altgeld's
*Editorial in Harper's Weekly for July 21, 1894.




Issues and Reactions


173


tirades are serving the useful purpose of showing to the people, not
only of Illinois, but of all other States, the folly of putting the administration of public affairs into the hands of professional blatherskites, who are either too ignorant or too unprincipled to conduct
themselves in accordance with the spirit of American institutions.*
It is neither necessary nor just to hold President Cleveland responsible for the scurrilities of his supporters;
though it might well be asserted that he gave them their
cue, if any were needed, in the studied contempt of his
attitude, toward Governor Altgeld from first to lastax,contempt which he would probably never have dreamt
of sh6wing toward any other high official in the United
States. Not less to be regretted, however, is the bitterness with which Altgeld, during his remaining life, retaliated upon Cleveland whenever occasion offered. The
issue between them was in no sense a personal one, although personal characteristics on both sides had much
to do with it. Altgeld's temperament and political principles led him to play the part of exponent and champion
of one of the fundamental traditions of American government-a tradition which innumerable democratic spokesmen before him, including Cleveland's own AttorneyGeneral, had stoutly espoused. Cleveland's temperament and economic sympathies led him to ignore that
tradition, to throw overboard all the official amenities
commonly observed in the relations between a central
government and its federated units, and to take bold
and arbitrary action in a situation regarding the essential
facts of which (to adopt the most charitable explanation)
he had been completely misled. That this action has
been generally applauded and legally approved is by no
*From an editorial, issue of July I2, 1894.  E




174            Altgeld of Illinois
means its final justification. Nothing could be truer or
more pertinent in this connection than Edward Livingston's words: "The gloss of zeal for the public is always
spread over acts of oppression, and the people are sometimes made to consider that as a brilliant exertion of
energy in their favor, which, when viewed in its true
light, would be found a fatal blow to their rights. In no
government is this effect so easily produced as in a free
republic;... and a popular leader is allowed in many
instances impunity, and sometimes rewarded with applause, for acts which would make a tyrant tremble on
his throne." *
* See "Life of Edward Livingston," by Charles Havens Hunt, page 146.




CHAPTER XVII


PRISON AND JUDICIAL REFORMS
IN his fabulous character as a "champion of anarchy" and
a "defender of lawlessness," Governor Altgeld achieved
a national reputation. In his actual and essential
character as a mild evolutionary reformer, he is known
to only a few. While his pardon of the "anarchists"
and his position in the Chicago railway strike are matters
of no little inherent significance, they require such extended treatment as has been given them in the preceding chapters only because of the intense and widespread
reaction which they aroused, and because of the effects of
that reaction upon Altgeld's name and career. It is the
lazy habit of popular opinion to judge public men not by
their continuous efforts and cumulative accomplishment
but by their association with certain isolated incidents
which for one reason or another happen to be sensationally exploited. In the record as a whole of Altgeld's administration as Governor of Illinois, his devoted efforts to
keep the State from being a laggard in the march of social progress, must chiefly impress any careful and fairminded observer. No Governor before or since his time
has done more, if as much, to improve and extend
the public facilities of Illinois in its penal, charitable, and
educational institutions; none has been more tireless in
initiating legislative measures of social reform and
amelioration; none has'served the humbler masses of the
people more zealously and incorruptibly.
i75




176


Altgeld of Illinois


For many years before his election in 1892, Altgeld
had been studying social, economic, and political conditions in America. In his writings and speeches on public
questions he had shown a freedom from conventional
bias, a synpathy with the victims of injustice; a fervor
for reform, which had already marked him out as a potentially dangerous antagonist of the status quo and had
won for him the honorary though not wholly merited
appellation of "radical"-one who deals with the roots of
things. There were very few in public life at that time
who made the smallest pretense of dealing with the roots
of things; it was so much easier and pleasanter to perch
among the upper branches of the social tree, and enjoy
the sunshine and the scenery and the other good things
which are available in that position. Altgeld was of
those who preferred to explore the darker regions below;
and perhaps with reference to his own time and place
his views were radical enough, though they have since become the merest bread-and-butter stuff of moderate liberalism. Certainly scarcely one of the legislative measures
which he sponsored would today be considered radical by
even the most thorough-going conservative. But the
point to be emphasized is that Altgeld, unlike almost any
other prominent politician of his time, came into high
public office with certain definitely formulated and deeply
felt convictions regarding many of society's maladjustments. He had been elected Governor not merely as a
Democrat but as the spokesman for an acute, though in
the main inarticulate, discontent with the existing order
of things. Thus the dictates of his own conscience as
well as the expectations of his followers made it necessary that the chief effort of his administration should
be in the direction of social and economic amelioration.




Prison and Judicial Reforms


I77


The results which he was able to achieve are specifically set forth in this and several succeeding chapters.
From an absolute rather than a relative point of view,
those results are perhaps not very imposing, either in
character or in extent. But it should not be forgotten
that Altgeld was in many respects a pioneer. So many
axes have been at work in the forest during the past
three decades that we too readily take the clearing for
granted, with little or no thought for those who marked
it out. We forget the fierce resistance of the wilderness
inhabitants whose domain has been encroached upon, the
dangers and difficulties and deprivations encountered at
every forward step. Considering the general conditions
of his time as we have sketched them in an earlier chapter, the forces arrayed against him, and the limitations
which hemmed him in, the wonder is not that Altgeld
accomplished so little of all that he considered essential or
desirable, but rather that he was able to accomplish anything at all.  Then, too, as in his later and larger reform efforts, he was interested not so much in achieving
immediate results as in opening a path for those who
should come after him. A letter which he wrote to
Judge Lambert Tree toward the close of his second year
as Governor contains the following:
Don Quixote you remember attacked windmills. I have attacked a good many things and will probably fare as he did.
Shooting all over the woods does not bring down any game, but
it stirs it up and gives others a chance to bring it down. The conditions in our country are such that there is no possibility of bringing down any game very soon, so I. have deliberately concluded to
stir some of it up and trust to other and better marksmen to bag
it in the future.




I78


Altgeld of Illinois


Ian    acount of the legislative and administrative
reforms initiated or striven b  tgeid    ng his regi    -       nor of Illinois, first place belongs _i the
subject of prison reform. No other of the many humanitarian causes which enlisted his support lay closer to Altgeld's heart than this; no other had more largely occupied his thought and pen up to the time when he became
Governor. His little book on "Our Penal Machinery
and Its Victims," published in I884, may well be termed
a pioneer work in its field. When that book appeared
the punitive far more than the reformatory purpose of
imprisonment was still emphasized even in the more enlightened sections of this country. At that time scarcely
a beginning had been made toward putting into effect certain improved methods, now long familiar, of dealing
with social delinquents. Little or nothing was then
heard of probation, the parole system, the indeterminate
sentence, juvenile courts, etc.; and there was no general
recognition, or at least no general application, of the
principle that an ounce of reformation is incomparably
more effective than a pound of punishment. The whole
subject of modern penology yet remained for the most
part uninvestigated and unformulated.
A few extracts from Altgeld's book will illustrate the
enlightened humanitarianism of its author. Familiar
as he was with poverty in his own early life, he recognized the immense disadvantage under which the poor
must labor in their efforts to avoid conflict with a legal
code that too often seems to them, as it did to the ancients, a great spider's web elaborately designed to imprison little insects, but which is readily torn through by
big ones. He studied the psychology of those who infringe this code, and endeavored to put himself in their




Prison and Judicial Reforms


179


place. Hence the intelligent sympathy that speaks in
such passages as the following from his thoughtful and
well-informed pages:


The truth is, that the greatmultitudes annually arrested for th
first time are of the poor               oung and neglected;
of those that are wel4 _nq tn a great extent. are the victims of Infa~vorable environments. In short,.ir pnp! muinary sems to
recruit its victims from among those that are fighting an unequal
fight in the struggle for existence.
The subject of crime-producing conditions has received but
little attention in the past, and is only now beginning to be discussed. It has always been assumed, in our treatment of offenders,
that all had the strength, regardless of prior training and surroundings, to go out into the world and do absolutely right if they
wished, and that if anyone did wrong it was because he chose to
deart from good and do evi_ Only recently have we begun to
recognize the fact that every man is to a great extent what his
heredity and his early environment have made him, and that the
law of cause and effect applies here as well as in nature.
Nor have we thus far sufficiently considered the fact that a large
proportion of the human family cannot say "no" at all times when
they should. How common it is for people of education and
character to do things which they know at the time to be injurious!
Yet an influence which somehow they cannot resist impels them,
and they act, as it were, under protest-often doing things which
at the very time fill them with dread.
This is true of many that have had excellent training, while
among the less fortunate there are multitudes, with fair intelligence and industry, who want to do right, but who suddenly find
themselves within the power of an evil influence, exerted by pretended friends, which they dread-which drags them down, often
leads them, against their will, into crime, and from which, unaided,
they cannot free themselves. They are morally weak, not naturally bad. They are tools, not masters-mere instruments, not


zcc




i8o


Altgeld of Illinois


principals, and, so far as it concerns moral responsibility, might as
well be inanimate and unconscious. Yet we treat them as if they
were masters.
The writer points out the harmfulness of a police system that prides itself on the number of arrests made and
rates the efficiency of its officials by this standard.  Reference is made to the report of the Chicago chief of police for the year 1882, showing that of 32,800 arrested
persons 10,743 were discharged as innocent upon brief
examination, to say nothing of those bound over to the
grand jury and later discharged.
So that during the one year there were in that one city upward
of io,ooo young persons, who, without having committed any
crime, were yet condemned to undergo a regular criminal experience. Think of this a moment. And if so many in one city, what
a multitude must there be throughout the land! Mind, these were
not even offenders. But what was the treatment which they received? Why, precisely the same as if they had been criminals.
They were arrested, some of them clubbed, some of them handcuffed, marched through the streets in charge of officers, treated
gruffly, jostled around. At the police station the name and a
complete description of the person of each were written on the
prison records, there to remain. Some of the unhappy creatures
were bailed out, while the remainder were shoved into cells and
forced to spend a night, and sometimes a week there, forced to
stand around with criminals, before they were discharged. Now,
what effect will this treatment have on them? Will not everyone of them feel the indignity to which he or she was subjected
while life lasts? Will they all not abhor the men who perpetrated
what is felt to be an outrage? Will they not look on this whole
machinery as their enemy and take a secret delight in seeing it
thwarted? Will they not almost unconsciously sympathize with
those that defy this whole system, and are they not thus suddenly




Prison and Judicial Reforms


)rought a whole length nearer crime than they were before? And
vill not those that were already weak, and were having a hard
truggle for existence, be further weakened, and therefore more
iable soon to become actual offenders than they otherwise would
lave been? Remember, brutal treatment brutalizes, and thus prepares for crime.
Other abuses are in like manner exposed and censured,
mnd then four definite reform measures are urged: abolshlant  ofth^e  fee aystPr in  painin g police mgistrates
o$nstabhles e.c.; greater care to avoid the arrest ande-:ention of innocent persons or those whose offenses are
Af the mildest sort; discrimination in the treatment and:rial of arrested   rsonsandmmedate trial of         rave
-dffens —  ithout any grand jury preliminaries, and with
mposition   in most cases) of he indeterminate sentence
n case-of cnvurt.      The parole system goes hand in
hand with the indeterminate sentence, and both were included by Governor Altgeld among the subjects for legis.
lative enactment urged by him during his term of office.
In his inaugural address he censured the system of fixed
sentences and the rigid uniformity observed in treating:onvicts. He said:
In this connection I wish to call attention to the fact that, in
the matter of penal legislation, our State is not abreast of the
times. We still adhere to the old system of fixed sentences, under
which the greatest inequality results; the vicious and hardened are
frequently given short terms by a jury, while the comparatively
innocent are given long terms by another jury. At best, first offenders and old criminals go in and out of prison together, while as
a rule all classes come out without such training as will enable
the individual to make a living, and utterly unable to find employment. Naturally these drift into a career of crime, and either




I82


Altgeld of Illinois


prey upon the community or are returned to prison. Instead of
this method, some of the States have adopted a system of indeterminate sentences, under which a prisoner is sentenced generally to
the penitentiary, the law fixing the minimum and maximum time
of imprisonment, and the actual length of confinement between
these two points depends upon the general characteristics and personal conduct of the prisoner. Under this system the vicious and
hardened can be restrained, while those who are comparatively innocent are released on parole, that is to say, on good behavior, but
only after having been secured employment by the prison officials
that will enable them to make an honest living. Under such a
system, the number of convicts in our penitentiaries would be
greatly reduced, and all problems involved in the treatment of
criminals and the conduct of our penitentiaries more easily solved.
As a result of Altgeld's determined efforts in this
direction, the State legislature of I895 passed a law
adopting the parole system and indeterminate sentence
plan in Illinois. Under this statute no prisoner can be
released until occupation has been found for him in some
place where he will not come into association with other
convicts. An employer must make a written contract
for a man's services with the prison authorities, and must
agree, among other things, to see that a monthly report
of the man's conduct is sent to the warden of the penitentiary. The responsibility of the employer himself must
also be certified by some officer of the court or other
person of good standing. If a man violates his parole
he will be sent back to prison, and will then serve the
maximum term provided by law for the crime which he
has committed. The term of probation is six months,
after which he may be discharged for good. This law
went into effect in August, I 896.
The knotty problem of prison labor had been studied




Prison and Judicial Reforms


I83


and discussed by Altgeld in his book already referred to,
and in various public addresses of later date he had
touched upon this and other penological matters, always
with understanding and well-considered suggestion in
the way of amendment of bad laws and the making of
new and better ones. The system of leasing the laIbo
of convicts, within ri        to manufacturers bid
ing for such labor prevailed in Illins uto.-t86, when
it was abolished y constitutional amendment; 3t exist.
in      acts remntedand sme of them ran
for eight years or more after the new order of things
went fite] ct.     - And even after the expiration of Ite
old leases and the substitution of the "piece-price system," serious abuse was possible through the connivance
of prison authorities. By tricky devices in the drawing of
contracts the  a  er iece was fixed so low that t
contractor enjoyed the same advant_ og ver ieCm.
poyerof "free" labor as befoc and the prison worker
was ~as farTrom earning any little surplus for himself
or his dependents as he had bee uder the old system.
The prison commissioners and officers appointed by Altgeld during the first months of his administration were
instructed that they must comply with the State constitution and abolish the contract system entirely, that the
prisoners must be worked on State account, and that
enough new industries must be introduced into the prisons so that the number of convicts engaged in any one
industry might be brought down as nearly as possible to
not more than one hundred, thus reducing competition
with outside "free" labor to a minimum. It was also
stipulated that the prisoners should pursue such occupations as would    pomte theirhath disciplineand
reformation. iT     policy seems to have been carried
I —




184


Altgeld of Illinois


out with marked success during Altgeld's term of office.
For all his friendliness toward organized labor, and
his efforts to free it from the unjust competition of prisonmade goods, Altgeld incurred the rancorous hatred of
many trade-unionists by his veto, in 1895, of a bill forbidding the manufacture of cigars in the prisons of the State.
The veto message was an unanswerable argument for the
' continuance of cigar manufacture in Illinois prisons, under the law requiring the State to provide employment
for convicts. The cessation of this industry would
j  j    simply mean, as the message pointed out, the imposing
of an additional burden upon other trades that had an
l      equal right to protest against the competition of prison
labor.  As a matter of fact, the cigar makers' union already had less to complain.of than any other, as far as
prison labor was concerned; for the hands employed at
cigar-making within prison walls were considerably fewer
than those engaged in any other industry.    But the bill
was passed over the veto.
Besides other and perhaps more important measures
for securing intelligent and humane treatment for convicts, mention must be made of Governor Altgeld's forward step in abolishin  he time-honoredstriped costume
^     for prison      n commenting on this reform in his biennial message of January 6, 1897, he wrote:
The law never provided that prisoners should wear stripes; the
punishment which the law provided for its infraction being imprisonment and hard labor. Putting stripes upon prisoners originated in those conditions and in those times when convicts were
turned over to the care of men who for all practical purposes were
brutes, and who succeeded in reducing everything to the level of
the brute.
The effect of putting stripes on convicts has been found to be




Prison and Judicial Reforms


I85


this: that it does not affect those already hardened except to make
them a little more desperate, nor does it affect those who are by
nature dull and brutish, except to lower them a little, but it tends
to crush whatever spark of self-respect and manhood there may be
left in a higher grade of prisoners, and in that way tends to still
further unfit them for an honorable struggle in life, and an irreparable injury is thus done to society as well as to the convict,
which was not contemplated by law.
Acting upon these principles, the commissioners of the prison at
Joliet, on the first of July last, clothed the prisoners in plain gray
suits, and since that time have been using the striped suits only as
a means of punishment for an infraction of the prison discipline.
The effect of this change upon the spirit, the moral tone and character of the convicts has been so gratifying that I have recommended its adoption in the prison at Chester also.
Against brutality on the part of prison officials Altgeld
protested eloquently, calling attention to the invariable
ill effects of such conduct and its unwisdom even from a
disciplinary point of view, to say nothing of its inhumanity; and he did all that was possible, while he was Governor, to raise the standard of prison management in this
respect, as in many others.
' Closely allied to prison reform was the equally needed
improvement in criminal court procedure that Governor
Altgeld advocated. Indeed, reform of a more comprehensive nature and embracing law courts in general was
striven for by him. Reference has already been made
to his disapproval of the tedious grand jury method of
dealing with suspected persons under arrest. Other
abuses in grand jury procedure were not lacking to arouse
his indignation. For instance, in one of his official proclamations he had this to say;




i86


Altgeld of Illinois


At present a few individuals can select and thus practically pack
a grand jury in Chicago, so that a few men have it in their power
to shield some offenders, and also to use a grand jury to carry out
partisan schemes. Consequently the grand juries of Cook County
have been used repeatedly in recent years to influence public sentiment with reference to a prospective election by indicting upwards
of one hundred men on sensational charges, and when the elections
were over and the public had lost interest in the matter the cases
were all thrown out of court because nothing could be proven.
This method of prostituting the machinery of the court should be
stopped, and the law should be so changed that it will not be in the
power of a few men to name or control a grand jury.
In other related particulars also he urged more or less
radical changes. The joint legislative resolution of
I893, calling for a constitutional convention, refers to
some of the defects of the State judicial system that cried
aloud for remedial action. Altgeld was the moving
spirit in this resolution. It says, among other things:
"Our present judicial system is complicated, cumbersome,
and subject to gross abuse in unnecessary delay in our
courts, thus unduly shielding the guilty from deserved
punishment and working injustice to the innocent, especially discriminating against the poor man." This reso.
lution was passed by the Senate, 37 to i, but failed to
Secure the necessary two-thirds vote of all elected members in the House.
Of kindred nature is the following from Altgeld's
proclamation of June 17, I895, convening the State legislature in extraordinary session:
A class of abuses has grown up in the justice and police courts of
larger cities which have for years been called infamous....
Chicago has over one and a half million of inhabitants, is one of




Prison and Judicial Reforms


I87


the great commercial centres of the world, and has one of the most
expensive judicial systems to be found; and yet its citizens have
practically to submit to a denial of justice because it takes almost
half a generation to get through with a lawsuit, because of a bad
system.
To remedy these conditions the Governor urged the
enactment of such legislation as might be deemed necessary (i) "to correct and put an end to the abuses and
scandalous conditions prevailing in and about many of
the police and justice courts of the State, particularly in
large cities"; (2) "to establish such a system of practice
and procedure in our courts of record as will prevent the
unnecessary accumulation of business and as will ensure
a speedy and final determination of all proceedings at law
or in equity, and proceedings based on statute as well as
criminal and quasi-criminal proceedings"; and '(3) "to
ensure fair and unbiased grand juries." This programme of judicial reform, it should be noted, was
wholly ignored by the legislature when it met in special
session.
Besides several new buildings added to the State's
existing penal and corrective institutions during Governor
Altgeld's administration, a State reformatory for girls
was constructed on a beautiful site on the banks of Fox
River, near Geneva, in Kane County, and opened in 896,




CHAPTER XVIII


INDUSTRIAL REFORMS
AT the time of Altgeld's election to the governorship of
Illinois, in 1892, that State was perhaps even more deplorably backward than most of its fellow-commonwealths in the enactment and enforcement of laws regulating conditions of labor and protecting laborers from
the host of flagrant abuses imposed or tolerated by employers. Illinois labor legislation had its beginnings in
certain tentative efforts to ameliorate conditions of employment in the two great soft-coal fields of the State.
These efforts, dating from 1872, resulted in various laws
relating to the ventilation and inspection of mines as a
means of preventing or minimizing accidents, the screening and weighing of coal as a basis of wage payments,
and other similar matters. In despite of hostile mineowners, indifferent legislatorsi and courts obsessed by
the "freedom of contract" logomania, the mine-workers
of Illinois (aided and abetted by a few humane "intellectuals") were yet able to force through a number of
statutes which by 1892 constituted a fairly civilized code
for their particular industry.
Another modest forward step was taken in the creation of a State bureau of labor statistics, in 1879. This
bureau was confined in its activities to the rather innocu.
ous task of preparing and publishing biennial reports of
a statistical nature "relating to all departments of labor
I88




Industrial Reforms


I89


in the State." Some of the reports, however, notably
those issued in 1894 and 1896 by Mr. George A. Schilling (a prominent Chicago labor leader whom Governor
Altgeld had appointed secretary of the bureau),
achieved wide circulation and accomplished no little
good.
Of what is commonly known as factory Igrislation
ther.rwa' vtully    tri nn the statute books of Illinois until 189I, in which year the legislature enacted a
law fo   i    theemplo    en   f chilren under thirten years of age in "stores, shops, factories, and manufacturing establishments."  In default of any particular
e'partment or official ciarged with the duty of enforcing
it, this law  neratie.
With Altgeld's election in 1892, the prospect of securing labor legislation that would bring Illinois more
nearly in line with the status of other civilized communities in this respect assumed a more favorable aspect than
ever before. The new Governor was everywhere known
as a devoted friend of the working classes, one who understood and sympathized with their hard lot as did few
other public men of that day. Though he had worked
his own way upward from the humblest beginnings to a
position of affluence, he had never affronted his less fortunate fellow-toilers by any traces of that overweening
"do-as-I-did" attitude common to so many "self-made"
men. In his view, the great mass of workers are "in a
condition where they are absolutely helpless, where they /
are absolutely in the power of a stronger class, where
they are the slaves of adverse circumstances, and where (
individual action can accomplish absolutely nothing."


"From address on "The Eight-Hour Movement," February 22, 189o.




I90


Altgeld of Illinois


Yet these same workers were civilization's most indispensable asset.
It is lab r that lays the foundations of empires, that clears up
continent, that builds cities, that operates railroads, gathers news,
prints it ers, cultivates the earth, feeds the nations, and elevates
man,,nd it is the men who toil with their hands that are entitled
to special consideration, although they get little credit for their
work. The men who gather at banquets dressed in fine linen and
soft raiment may imagine that they are the State, but it is not so.
Many of them are simply parasites, eating bread that others toil
for; all could be wiped out and the nation would go right on; they
would scarcely be missed.*
While he believed that efficient organization on its
own part was labor's chief instrument for protection and
advancement,t society was not thereby relieved from the
necessity of legislating in behalf of the weak and the
down-trodden.
While legislation not backed by public sentiment may be a dead
letter, public sentiment produces definite and lasting results only
through legislation. Moral suasion and the benign influence of
religion are beautiful, but unfortunately in all ages there have been
men who went straight from the sanctuary into the world and
plundered and trampled on the weak, and, what is more, they lost
*From address to the graduating class of the University of Illinois,
June 7, 1893.
t "Selfishness rules the earth, and the only difference in its workings
in the different conditions of society is simply one of refinement of
method. Its nature is in all cases the same, and it generally produces
the same result, and that is, the swallowing of the substance of the
weak by the strong. Consequently we find that in all ages only those
people have had a measure of justice who were in a position to compel
it. In this age everything is tending toward centralization and organization. All classes are organizing on the theory that in unity there is
strength, and in order to be better equipped to hold their own and to
secure justice in the fierce struggle that is going on in the world.
The only hope of the laboring man in this country lies in organization."
From Labor Day speech of September 6, 1892.




Industrial Reforms


191I


neither their seats nor their influence in the temple. So that after
all it is legislation which protects the lowly. And legislation itself is a matter of growth; it is scarcely ever efficient at first, and
only after experience has suggested the necessary alterations and
amendments does it become potent.*
Even those who most feared and despised Altgeld's
humanitarian principles knew well enough that his concern for the working classes had nothing in common with
that vote-catching variety which vaunteth itself and is
puffed up to enormous size just before election time but
evaporates like a pricked bubble immediately after. In
his inaugural address the new Governor made pointed
reference to the need for more thorough legislation to
ameliorate conditions created by "the increasing density
of population in our large cities, and the establishment of
what has been called 'the sweating system,' whereby
many people are made to work amid unsanitary conditions which constantly imperil the health of the community; and the employment of children in factories and
shops, where they become stunted in both body and mind,
and unfit for citizenship." In line with this suggestion
the State legislature passed, and Governor Altgeld aproved on June 17, i 3, an act which Henry oD.loyd
characterized at the time as "thf- ha't  -w    p law         v
on the statute books of any civilized community."-'-,/
Credit fa thlis measure belongs chiefly to Mrs. Florence /
Kellev, the.-cnnected with Hull-House i     i    bt
without Governor Altgeld's energetic cooperation with
Mrs. Kelley and others who were pushing the bill, it is
doubtful if the measure would have found its way into
law. Another contributing factor of some importance
*From a newspaper article of I888 on the "Slave-Girli of Chicago."




192


Altgeld of Illinois


was a recent epidemic of contains -P        n  go,
the origiofwhich had been traced to the swetshos.
Without attempting to summarize in full this "act to
regulate the manufacture of clothing, wearing apparel,
and other articles in this state," it should be said that the
minimum age limit below which children were prohibited
from working in factories, etc., was raised from thirteen
years (the minimum set in I891) to fourteen years. For
children between fourteen and sixteen years of   r —
avits byaren-ts                certi  n  to their ae,
and affidavits from physicians certifying to their physical
fitness fo  ork  were   re rib.       e emoyment of
women   as limited to eight hors a     y
act jro      r         rd of factor  nector, charged
with enforcement of the act, and consisting of a chief
inspector, an assistant, and ten  utiesat leas five of.
whom must be women.      Governor Altgeld at once ap
iinted Mr.       ey chief inspector a seection which
couT   ot possibly have been improved upon.
Pertinent to this account of a measure which has
been characterized as "marking the introduction of a
new era in labor legislation" * is the following passage
from Miss Jane Addams's "Twenty Years at HullHouse":
Fifteen years ago [about I894-95] the State of Illinois, as well
as Chicago, exhibited many characteristics of the pioneer country
in which untrammeled energy and an "early start" were still the
most highly prized generators of success. Although this first labor
legislation was but bringing Illinois into line with the nations in
the modern industrial world, which "have long been obliged for
their own sakes to come to the aid of the workers by which they
live,-that the child, the young person, and the woman may be
*"Centennial History of Illinois," Volume V., page 178.




Industrial Reforms                    193
pro ected from their own weakness and necessity,"-nevertheless
fro  the first it ran counter to the instinct and tradition, almost
to 1e very religion, of the manufacturers of the state, who were
for he most part self-made men.
This first attempt in Illinois for adequate factory legislation
also was associated in the minds of business men with radicalism,
because the law was secured during the term of Governor Altgeld
and was first enforced during his administration. While nothing
in its genesis or spirit could be further from "anarchy" than factory legislation, and while the first law in Illinois was still far
behind Massachusetts and New York, the fact that Governor Altgeld pardoned from the state's prison t.' anarchists who had been
sentenced there after the Haymarket riot, gave the opponents of
this most reasonable legislation a quickly utilized opportunity to
couple it with that detested word; the State document which accompanied Governor Altgeld's pardon gave these ungenerous critics
a further opportunity because a magnanimous action was marred
by personal rancor, betraying for the moment the infirmity'of a
noble mind. For all of these reasons this first modification of the
undisturbed control of the aggressive captains of industry could
not be enforced without resistance marked by dramatic episodes
and revolts. The inception of the law had already become associated with Hull-House, and when its ministration was also centred there we inevitably received all the odium which these first
efforts entailed.
In a personal letter, Miss Addams also tells of a
prominent Illinois business man who informed Governor
Altgeld that he and his associates were closing a large
factory and putting over the door this legend: "Closed
because of the pernicious legislation in Illinois." The
Governor replied that he would be quite willing to have
them close the factory if he might be permitted to change
the legend to read: "Closed in the interests of the children of Illinois."




194            Altgeld of Illinois
Although certain excellent results were obtained under the State factory act during the first two years of its
existence, in I895 the measure shared the fate of nearly
all such pioneer legislation which ran counter to the freebooting instincts and traditions of that time. On. a.est
ie     nd   by manufacturers to the Illjnois PSrLeme
Cou.h     -ae              c tiit-our provision
for women unconstitutional on the familiar ground that
it frelgd "freeon~a       ct      an ica     by that
myopic vision with which an inscrutable providence
seems to have endowed supreme courts, then and since,
the Illinois archons could see no "fair, just, and reasonable connection" between the limitation of working hours
for women "and the public health, safety, or welfare proposed to be secured by it." This decision seriously
vitiated the effectiveness of the measure as a whole; and
the process of emasculation was largely completed when
i     n        r Alt eld'sdistingished successor, John
R. Tannerem                    rom office as c    -
tory inspector and appointed in her place a factory superinten'ednt who ha.ust previously been arrested 'and
fi'ned   o`pen violation of the act.  But at least the
measure aroused public interest InMie whole matter of
factory legislation, and paved the way for a more effective law, which was finally secured in I904.
Next to the protection of woman and child workers,
the chief industrial reform advocated by Altgeld before
and during his term as Governor was the creation of
some public machinery for arbitrating disputes between
employers and employed. As early as i886 he published an extended argument in favor of State boards of




Industrial Reforms


195


arbitration. Six years later, in his Labor Day speech
at Elgin, he said:
The great question must soon be determined as to what the
State can do to prevent industrial strife and, in fact, a civil war.
The question of protecting the noncombatants, that great portion of the community that has no personal interests in thest strifes,
that, consequently, wants them either entirely avoided or speedily
adjusted, is being discussed. It is a question whether or not it is
practical to enforce arbitration in these cases and make them subject to law, as we do every other dispute between individuals.
The time has come when we can no longer permit a civil war to
be carried on between employer and employee. The law must step
in promptly and protect all, and see that justice is done. Teach
the employer that he is not above the law and the employee that
he is not beneath its notice.
Again, in his inaugural address of January, I893, Altgeld recurred to this subject, in part as follows:
The reign of law has so broadened in this century as to cover
almost every other controversy between man and man, and in the
development of society some way must be found to subject the socalled "labor controversies" to law. This suggests the practicability of arbitration, and raises the question of the powers of the State
in that regard. There seems to be no doubt about the right of the
State to make a thorough investigation and render a decision, but
the difficulty arises in enforcing the decision... but the moral
influence alone of a State decision would, in many cases, be sufficient to end a strike, and some of the States have adopted laws
creating Boards of Arbitration with this end in view, while others
have gone further and attempted, in certain cases, to enforce the
decisions of Boards of Arbitration.


Finally, in his proclamation of June I7, I895, con



I96


Altgeld of Illinois


vening the State legislature in special session, Governor
Altgeld called for
The enactment of such legislation as may be deemed necessary to
create the proper machinery, agencies, or boards of conciliation, inquiry, and arbitration in all cases where there is a dispute or disagreement between employer and employees, making special provisions in such legislation for thorough examination and investigation by such board as to the causes giving rise to such disagreement
or trouble, the actual facts and conditions connected therewith, and
for reporting the same.
Backed as it was by public sentiment still strongly
agitated over the great railway strike of the preceding
summer, this demand could not well be ignored; and in
the closing hours of the special session the legislature enacted a measure authorizing the appointment of a State
board which, in any industrial dispute involving not less
than twenty-five persons, is required to "endeavor by
mediation to effect an amicable settlement," or it may
act as a board of arbitration upon application by the employer or the employees. But Governor Altgeld had
recommended "such legislation as will enable the parties
to the dispute, alone or with the aid of a county judge,
to select their own board in each case so that there may
be no question about its impartiality, on the one hand,
and no unnecessary salary paid, on the other." Ignoring this recommendation, the legislators voted for a
standing board of three members, of whom one should
be an employer of labor, one a working-man, and the
third a person not belonging to either of these classes;
and each was to receive an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars. It should in fairness be added, however,
that the legislature was undoubtedly influenced in this




Industrial Reforms


197


matter by the example of the Massachusetts board of
arbitration and conciliation, which was similarly constituted and had proved effective. But it was not taken into
account that, unlike the situation in Illinois, industrial
organization in Massachusetts had made but little progress up to this time: the laborers, largely because of their
collective weakness, were generally willing and even glad
to submit their case to public arbitration; while the
equally unorganized employers, realizing that the State
board often saved them the trouble and expense of a
strike or a lockout, were as a rule content to place themselves under its jurisdiction. But in Illinois different
conditions prevailed. Here there was no rough balance
of industrial power. In some sections of the State (as
in Chicago, for example) labor was so strongly organized
as to hold the whip hand; in other sections (as in the
soft-coal regions) organized capital could call the tune
to which labor was bound to dance. Thus one camp or
the other, according to the region in which the dispute
occurred, would generally elect to fight matters out
rather than risk an adverse decision from the State arbitration board. As a result, the board's services were
seldom invoked, and it gradually fell into the sort of
desuetude which seems to be the eventual fate of all such
tribunals in this country.
Two matters of minor importance in the field of
Illinois labor legislation during Governor Altgeld's
regime call for brief mention in this chapter. Toward
the close of its 1893 session the State legislature approved a measure submitting to popular vote a proposed
amendment to the State Constitution providing that "the
General Assembly shall have power and it shall, be its




198


Altgeld of Illinois


duty to enact and provide for the enforcement of all laws
that it shall deem necessary to regulate and control contract conditions and relations existing or arising from
time to time between corporations and their employees."
This proposed amendment was duly submitted to the people and failed of passage-partly because of public indifference and partly because the legislative disposition
to intermeddle with corporate affairs had hitherto redounded to the advantage of certain unscrupulous legislators more than to anyone else concerned.
At the same session of the State legislature a law was
passed, and went into effect shortly after, which declred
it a misdemeanor fr an empoer to forbid his emoyees thepivilee ogf belonging to any lawful labor organi-,a2niax  A fine of not to exceed one hundred dollars, or
a jail term of not to exceed six months, or both, was
stipulated as the legal punishment for each offense.
This measure seems never to have been enforced.




CHAPTER XIX


MISCELLANEOUS REFORMS
NOT the least arduous of Governor Altgeld's labors for
the good of the State whose affairs he had been called
upon to administer was his constant and determined
effort to secure some reform in the existing system of
taxation. Conceived in economic ignorance, brought
forth in political ineptitude, and administered in corruption and inefficiency, that system was in Altgeld's day and
to some extent still remains "a blot upon the fair page of
Illinois history." * It is based upon the revenue law of
1872, which carried out the provisions of the constitution
of I870; but in reality the general property tax, by far
the most important source of State revenue, dates from a
much earlier period. Since i872 the only noteworthy
legislative innovation in this field has been the adoption
in I895 of an inheritance tax, which was increased and
made progressive in 9go9.
In his preelection speeches Altgeld had frequently
urged the necessity of tax reform, declaring that "our
present revenue law is everywhere felt to be a patchwork
and a botch. A well-digested, comprehensive, and just
revenue system for this great city [Chicago] and this
great State is the need of the hour, and attempts\will be
made to create one." Likewise, in many addresses and
*Thus characterized in the "Centennial History of Illinois," Volume
V, page 433.
I99




200


Altgeld of Illinois


messages after he became Governor, he repeatedly
emphasized the need for new and better laws in this
important field. A typical indictment of the existing
evils is embodied in this passage from his general message
to the State legislature of I895:
Whatever may be said of the theory of our revenue system in
this State, it is, in its practical workings, a giant of injustice.
Under it the great concentrations of wealth contribute comparatively little, while the owners of small and moderate sized properties are forced to bear nearly all the burdens of the government.
The personal property of the very rich is scarcely taxed at all.
There are thousands of men in this State who have great fortunes
invested in stocks, bonds, and other forms of personal property,
upon which they do not pay a dollar, yet they enjoy all of the educational facilities, all of the protection and other advantages of
the government just as much as their neighbors do, and, curiously
enough, these are very often the men who have most to say about
patriotism and the duties of citizenship. The failure to assess
personal property is due in part to the fact that there is no method
of compelling every man to honestly state what he has. Again, in
the assessment of real estate the greatest inequality is found between the assessments of small and the assessments on valuable
pieces of property.... Most of the injustice in the assessment of
tangible property, such as real estate, is directly due to corruption.
It is found that large holders of real estate first employ agents to
manage it and to keep the taxes down. These agents have a gobetween who arranges with some assistant assessor, whereby, for a
consideration, the assessment on certain pieces of property is lowered so that the property owner saves from five to ten times the
amount he advances to the assessor. The result of all this is that
the men of moderate means, the men of small holdings, pay from
two to four times as much in proportion to their ability as do the
very wealthy, who do more in every way to increase the expense
of the government. The moderate property holder rarely ever




Miscellaneous Reforms


201


calls for extra police protection, and never for military protection.
The large property holders use both....
Another source of great injustice is the fact that almost every
great interest has managed to get special legislation changing the
method of listing its property. This makes uniformity of assessment between different kinds of property impossible. If the present system could be entirely wiped out, and a simple statute enacted
providing that everything that has a market value shall be assessed,
either at that market value, or at a certain fixed per cent of its
market value, it would, at least, make fair assessment a possibility.
It is the wilderness of legislation as to detail that has produced the
present monstrosity.
A   trominPt t rget for Governor Altgeds crticim,
and for the criticism of most impartial students of jaxation methods in Illnois, was the State board of quallzation. This body, made up of one member from each
songressional district of the State, "is supposed to labor
simply for a fair and equal assessment throughout the
State and then to   evy an assessment upon the corporations which will be in keeping with the assessment levied
upon other property." In practice, however, as Altgeld
pointed out, the board "has demonstrated conclusively
that a fair equalization between the different counties of
the State by a board thus composed cannot be had, and
second, that a fair assessment of corporate property by
such a board seems to be an impossibility." In support
of this second contention, he cited the case of the Pullman
compan, which "has in the neighborhood of $40000oo000
of"rnper-t   nnnn  whic it as no ta es whP.nPV       -" *
uring his second year in office, Governor Altgeld had
appealed to the board at some length regarding the
Pullman assessment. "But my appeal was in vain. The
* General message to the State legislature, January 9, 1895.




202


Altgeld of Illinois


board left the assessment practically as it was. I was
subsequently told that the only effect of my address was
to cause some of the members of the board to raise their
price and force the Pullman Company to come and see
them." Another class of confirmed tax shirkers upon
whom the Governor shed a good deal of uncomfortable
illumination consisted of the great Chicago newspapers.
One such paper, he pointed out, paid taxes on an assessment of only $18o00o duri   thesa    yr      whic it
~a"ireuse a cash offer of $ ooo,ooo for its property.
or his crusade igalnst existing taxation evils, Governor Altgeld was provided with much effective ammunition by the special report on taxation in Illinois prepared and issued in I894 by the State bureau of labor
statistics, under the able direction of George A. Schilling.
Contrary to the usual fate of such official documents,
this report achieved a circulation rivalling that of many
"best-selling" novels.
But for all his vigorous denunciation of inequalities
and injustices in the State taxation system, and his repeated demands for legislative redress, Altgeld could not
break down the impassive resistance of those who benefitted directly or indirectly from conditions as they were.
The Democratic legislature of 1893 would do nothing,
and the Republican legislature of two years later was
even less inclined to heed the Governor's demands. In a
speech before the Democratic State convention at Peoria,
on June 23, I896, Altgeld said:
We have in this State a revenue system that has for many years
been regarded as a monster of injustice under which the very
wealthy escape taxation and the farmers and people of moderate
means have their burdens doubled. Two years ago the Republican




Miscellaneous Reforms


203


party elected an overwhelming majority of the legislature of this
State, but that legislature, instead of carrying out the will of the
people, embarked upon a career of corruption such as had never
been seen before. Corporations doing a legitimate business were
threatened with adverse legislation and were blackmailed with
organized ferocity, while the rights of the people were attempted
to be bartered away in the most shameless and open manner, for
boodle. So ferocious did it become in the pursuit of ill-gotten
gains that it seemed to be almost incompetent to attend to the legitimate business of the State. It was urged at the general session
and then again at the special session to relieve our people of this
unjust system of taxation by passing a just revenue law, but acting
under the influence of men who grow rich by tax dodging, it not
only refused to do anything, but finally, in the most supine manner,
adjourned and hurried away at the dictation of the political boss
who was then chairman of the Republican machine and is now its
candidate for governor.
The enactment of one constructive taxation measure
must, however, be credited to the legislature of I895-if,
indeed, that body is entitled to credit for giving legal
form to a proposal which, while it disturbed no vested
interests, was yet backed by a considerable majority of the
State's voters, and had been vigorously pressed by the
Governor from the day of his inauguration.     Thj    as
the law adopting an inheritance tax for Illinois.  Such a
law had long been in successful operation in other States.
It was particularly urged in Governor Altgeld's general
message of January 9, I895, and met with no especial
resistance when introduced in both branches of the
legislature about the middle of the session. As eventually enacted, it received the Governor's signature June
I5, and became operative on the first day of the following
month. There is no rieed to describe this Illinois law in




204


Altgeld of Illinois


detail here. In main outline it follows the provisions and
methods adopted in other States.
A word should be said here concerning the assertion,
once commonly made and still occasionally heard, that
Altgeld was an advocate of the so-called single tax. Unquestionably, he deplored the system whereby a passive
land-owner may become rich through community effort,*
and he looked forward to some sort of legislation that
should do away with this manifest injustice.  Unquestionably also, he was an ardent admirer of Henry George;
and in an eloquent memorial address on the latter, he
expressed the opinion that George had made "almost
as great an impression on the economic thought of the
age as Darwin did on the world of science." But his
published utterances contain little or nothing to warrant
the assertion that he ever directly committed himself
to the single tax doctrine.
Closely associated with Governor Altgeld's interest
in taxation reform are his efforts to secure certain
long-needed alterations in and additions to the State
constitution. These efforts had chief reference to improvements in the existing revenue system, although
other matters of considerable importance were involved
also. In his inaugural address of January, I893,
Altgeld suggested the need of constitutional revision in
the following sentences:
There is a widespread conviction that the present revenue system of our State results in the greatest inequalities and injustice
in the matter of taxation. The subject is too great to be considered at present. Various measures in relation to it will no doubt
See "Live Questions," pages 26o-z26.




Miscellaneous Reforms


205


be presented to your consideration, the most important of which
is, perhaps, the question, whether any comprehensive change can
be made without a revision of our constitution. In the past our
State has revised its constitution at intervals of thirty and twentytwo years.
A number of questions have arisen in the development of recent
years, relating to various subjects on which legislation is needed,
but where there seem to be constitutional difficulties in the way.
This is especially true of the revenue system and of the question
of enlarging the elective franchise, on which latter subject the law
is left in a condition of uncertainty that is not creditable to the
intelligence of our people.
These suggestions bore fruit in a joint resolution
introduced in the legislative session of I893, and thus
reciting the conditions calling for remedy by constitutional revision or amendment:
We are prevented in a great measure from redeeming the pledges
we made to the people of the State... by constitutional obstacles
and restrictions; and
Whereas, the inadequacy of that constitution to meet the demands of present and future conditions has caused bitter complaint
among the people and much just discontentment, and
Whereas, there are weighty social and economic issues persistently pressing upon us and demanding solution, and yet cannot
be squarely met and intelligently solved with the present constitution in the way; and
Whereas, the present revenue system is flagrantly unfair, unequal and, consequently, unjust in its operation; and
Whereas, our present judicial system is complicated, cumbersome and subject to gross abuse in unnecessary delay in our courts,
thus unduly shielding the guilty from deserved punishment and
working injustice to the innocent, especially discriminating against
the poor man.




206


Altgeld of Illinois


The resolution to which these preliminary clauses led
up was passed by the Senate with only one dissenting
vote, but failed of passage in the House. Thereupon a
joint resolution of somewhat similar tenor was introduced in the lower branch and received a vote of sixtyseven in its favor and sixty-four opposing; but as a
resolution of this nature requires for its passage the
concurrence of two-thirds of all members elected, it was
lost.
Altgeld's keen interest in civil service improvement
will be made more apparent in a succeeding chapter
dealing with his conduct of the State charitable
institutions. In the present connection, however, something must be said of the  ivil service law for citi
enacted (larelv as a resltof h  own efforts  b the
State legisla.tn iin i89C. Up to that year the spoils
system had flourished with little or no hindrance in the
appointments to public office in Illinois; but soon after
Altgeld's assumption of the governorship agitation in
favor of reform began to assume formidable proportions. In Chicago the state of things under the old
order had become especially odious, and in order to
effect a remedy a movement was started by the Civic
Federation and the Civil Service Reform League to
secure legislation establishing the merit system in that
city. A bill drawn by a committee representing these
organizations was introduced in the legislature in
January, I895, and was passed in March, receiving the
signature of Governor Altgeld and going into effect
immediately. But it was an optional law, applying
only to such cities as might adopt it by popular vote.




Miscellaneous Reforms


207


However, in less than two weeks after it became operative it was adopted by the voters of Chicago, the
majority in its favor being nearly fifty thousand; and
similar action was afterward taken by Evanston, Springfield, and Waukegan. Like other early laws of the sort,
this measure failed of its purpose in many respects; but
it was still so moderately successful that in I905, three
years after Altgeld's death, its provisions were made
applicable to the appointment of employees in the State
charitable institutions.
When Altgeld became Governor of Illinois, landconveyancing in the State had long been subject to a
clumsy and expensive system, and it was rendered
especially cumbersome in Chicago by the destruction of
the official records of land-titles in the great fire of 187I.
In the absence of these records, certain abstracts made by
private hands and in the possession of various wealthy
corporations were resorted to whenever a piece of real
estate was transferred or mortgaged; and the expense
and delay involved were serious. As a large holder
of real estate, Governor Altgeld was particularly alive
to the need of reform in this matter, and when the
report prepared by a commission to study the subject
was presented to him he exerted his influence for the
speedy passage of a law embodying the commission's
recommendations. This statute, adopting the provisions
of the now well known Torrens system of landconveyancing, was passed by the State legislature in
June, I895; but in I897 it was declared unconstitutional by the Illinois supreme court, on the ground
that it placed judicial power in the hands of the recorder




ao8


Altgeld of Illinois


of deeds, who under the new law became also registrar
of titles. To meet this objection, the power of defining
titles was assigned to the courts of equity in the several
counties of the State, rather than to the registrars of
titles; and in this amended form the law was promptly
passed again.
Limitations of space make it necessary to omit detailed mention of several minor reform measures enacted during Governor Altgeld's administration * and
of various other plans and endeavors for the public good,
to which he gave the best that was in him. But this
chapter must not be closed without finding place for the
following tribute, by Judge Edward Osgood Brown, to
Altgeld's services in behalf of the great Chicago park
system:
He loved Chicago and he loved Illinois even more. I was
brought into frequent official contact with him while I was the
legal adviser of the Lincoln Park Commissioners, during his administration. Whatever ignorant or prejudiced criticism  may
have said, I can bear witness from the most intimate personal knowledge that the great pleasure grounds of the people were
the subject of his constant and watchful care with an eye single
to the greatest benefit to be obtained from them for the greatest
number of people. That the Lake Shore, which had been largely
lost to the public south of the Chicago River, should be preserved
north of the River to the northern limit of Lake View as the basis
of suitable recreation grounds to be built on the submerged shaIlows of Lake Michigan, for the use of the countless multitudes
As for example, in the field of educational affairs, the substitution of
a less drastic measure in place of the obnoxious Edwards Law of I889,
described in a previous chapter of this book; the establishment of a
teachers' pension fund; and the incorporation of kindergartens in the
State public school system.




Miscellaneous Reforms                     209
who are to follow us, was one of the projects closest to his heart.
Those pleasure grounds have been assured for the future, and they
will be an enduring monument of Governor Altgeld's administration which he would most appreciate.*
*From an address before the Chicago Historical Society, December
5, 1905.




CHAPTER XX


THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
NOTHING stands outmre conspicuous    and creditably
inhre re rd of A  eld's administrative achievements as
Governro       lls   than-Ofh eices t tl      State
university.  "He raised this institution," according to
its distinguished ex-president, Dr. Edmund J. James,
"from a complaratively insignificant country college to
the rank of a great chool of learning, the foundations
of whch are broad and deep.....ie marked an epoch
in the educational life and interest in this commonwealth."
Unlike so many successful men whose education has
been for the most part self-acquired, Altgeld was never
inclined to disparage the advantages of a college training. At the same time, he did not exaggerate its importance or think of it as an end in itself. "While a
college education is invaluable, it is not the end and
aim of life. It is only a training to begin work....
Education means training, not memorizing or stuffing.
The mind must be a workshop, not a storehouse." *.He felt that public education, particularly in the
c    ges should be mainly directed towrd fttie    e
J  you....g_to       I reat practical problems which conront them"-not so m            read-and-butter problems of the individual as the large social problems of
the community. Closely allied with this feeling was his
*Address to the graduating class at the University of Illinois, June
7, I893.
210




The University of Illinois


211


inveterate belief that the purposes and methods of
education should before all elsebe demorar he young
shoul Inever be "educated out of or away from the
spirit that prevails among the people."
Upon taking up his duties as Governor at the beginning
of I893, Altgeld found in the University of Illinois an
educational institution which, whatever its shortcomings
in other respects, was at least thoroughly practical and
thoroughly democratic. Established some twenty-five
years before, under the terms of the Morrill Land Grant
Act, as the "Illinois Industrial University" (this name
was changed in 1885 to the present form), it had so far
been a useful though relatively unimportant school of
agricultural and mechanical arts. I i 89 the university
activities wrp carried onfin fownr  n;qiated,, buildinngs,
by a faculty of twenty-six  rofessors and twelve subovnate teachers, all over-worked and under-paid; and
the student enrollmen w   e   han six hundred. To
meet expenses, the income from endowment had from the
beginning been eked out by a biennial legislative grant,
always niggardly in amount and always grudgingly conferred. Still, according to its official historian, the
institution had "somehow found its feet and maintained
its place against financial difficulties, legislative neglect,
the hostility of some interests and the contempt of others,
but without achieving real character as a university." *
With the advent of Governor Altgeld's administration, an unwonted attitude of friendliness toward the
university began almost immediately to make itself
felt from the direction of Springfield. Encouraged by
this phenomenon, Dr. Thomas Burrill (then acting head
of the institution) determined to alter the customary


* Allan Nevins, "The University of Illinois," page I.




212


Altgeld of Illinois


practice of asking the State legislature for no more than
the bare necessities of existence, and early in 1893 he n-.et-st          to make application for the wholly unprecedenteds    f $55  0. Of this amount the largest part was desired for new buildings-a library, an
ineen       ail and a museum. The legislature, committed as all newly-electe pu ic bodies are to a policy of
strict economy, was at first inclined to deal with this request after the manner of the almshouse beadle with Oliver Twist. Tl      teommittee     voted at once to
eliminat thedesied sum for new buildings, and to reduce the requested appropriation for general funds to the
amount of the previous biennial grant-$.Q.o.   But
in this thrifty plan they were reckoning without a new
and important element. Through the efforts of Henry
M. Dunlap, an alumnus of the university who had just
been elected to the State senate, a delay was secured in
reporting the bill out of committee. Meanwhile, Governor Altgeld, ably seconded by Dr. Burrill and Senator
Dunlap, brought such effectual pressure to bear that at a
second meeting the committee evinced a thorough
change of heart, recommending the sum of $I20,000
asked for general expenses and $I6o,ooo for a new
engineering hall. The appropriation billas finally
gassed provided for a total of $295,700, or more than
twice the amount of any ormeF   g     rant.
This victory marked a definite turning point in the
university's history. The next two years witnessed a
notable reinforcement of all the existing facilities, and
the creation of several much-needed departments or
courses. But Altgeld considered that only a very modest
beginning had been made toward meeting the institution's
needs and developing its possibilities. In comparison




The University of Illinois


213


with several other State universities of the middle west
at this time, it was still of minor rank; and it had not yet
succeeded in gaining popular recognition and support
within the borders of its own State. Among Chicagoans, in particular, it was held in scant esteem; even in
i894 a Chicago newspaper could still speak of it as "a
bucolic school in the interior, awarding diplomas of
husbandry to graduates thereof at stated intervals."
In his general message of January, i895, to the newly
assembled State legislature, Altgeld said:
For many years there has been maintained at Champaign, in this
State, partly at State expense, a university, now known as the University of Illinois. For some reason our people do not seem to
know much about it. By many it is regarded as an agricultural
school.... I submit that Illinois should have one of the greatest educational institutions on earth. We have the wealth, the
people, and the enterprise to make it.... I most earnestly urge a
liberal policy toward this institution of learning.
With the installation of Dr. Andrew Sloan Draper as
president of the university in the fall of 1894, Altgeld's relations with and services to that institution
entered upon a much more intimate and greatly enlarged
phase. In training, experience, temperament, and ideals,
the two men had much in common. Both had risen from
the humblest beginnings as farm boys; both had had a
legal training, but lacked the advantages of a general
education; both had served in several public offices, and
knew the devious ways of politics. As it was said of
Draper, so it might with equal truth be said of Altgeld,
that he was "a man of simplicity, directness, of firmness
of will and unswerving insistence on his aims, and of
broad vision remarkably free from     prejudices.  The




214


Altgeld of Illinois


downright quality about him was unmistakable; when he
had once taken a position his friends and enemies knew
where he stood. He believed in plainness but substantiality." * In its then stage of development, Draper
was an almost ideal head for the State university; and
in Governor Altgeld he had an almost ideal ally and
coadjutor. The two men worked in sympathetic cooperation from the first, and as a result of their aggressive efforts the university "passed from a shrinking pretender to State favor to an institution whose power was
recognized from Chicago to Cairo." Of their early
association and its results, the following account is taken
from Mr. Allan Nevins's history of the University of
Illinois:
It was a large factor in the success of Dr. Draper's first years
that John P. Altgeld was in the Governor's chair when he took
his seat. Altgeld was the first State executive to realize that the
interests of the people were bound up with making the University
powerful and comprehensive-as he expressed it in one executive
message, "a complete university in the highest meaning of the
term." On the first day of the President's service, Altgeld came
to Urbana to see him. "He talked of the things he wanted done,"
said Dr. Draper; "they were good things to do and showed that
his sympathies were genuine and that he had given not a little
thought to an involved and rather depressed situation. He wanted
more buildings, more teachers, more students, more carrying of
liberal learning to all the people and all the interests of the State,
and much more money to do things with. It was a little surprising to hear a live Governor talk like that." He reassured Draper,
who was a conservative Republican, that there was nothing in his
radical political views to alarm the University. Altgeld, indeed,
was not the anarchist he was reputed to be-he was never more
Allan Nevins, "The University of Illinois," page 154.




The University of Illinois


215


than a progressive with an intense belief in democracy and the
rjghtsp f the poor.  It is true that he felt for the unfortunate
too blindly, that he hated his opponents unreasonably, and that he
read too much German Socialism,* but this never affected the work
he did for the University. He was the first Governor to attend
as many Trustees' meetings as possible, and to visit the University
frequently; and he and Draper were soon fast friends.
Upon one fact he and the President were emphatically agreedthe deplorable one-sidedness of the 'niversity's development. The
agricultural colihe was improving, the engineering college one of
the first in the West and of the three largest in the country, the
college of science favorably known for its research; but the University was so ill-equipped for the teaching of literature, history,
the languages, business, economics, and law that no far-sighted
student would attend it to pursue these branches. Altgeld sympathized with those of limited means as much as he disliked the
rich, and he reasoned that endowed universities were likely to be
open exclusively to the well-to-do. He wished all the poor youth
of the State to have the same educational opportunities as children
of the wealthy, and believed that only a well-supported, wellrounded State institution could guarantee this. Nor did he wish
to strengthen the liberal studies alone, but he thought that no
matter what advanced or professional training an Illinoisan might
desire, he ought not to feel it necessary to leave the State-supported
schools; and he lent his whole support to the policy of expansion
which was to found the law school, the medical school, the schools
of pharmacy and dentistry, and to strengthen the graduate school.
He was undoubtedly helped in this by two factors: the feeling in
Springfield that it would be well if the Democrats could claim to
This is a very common misconception. There is no direct evidence
that Altgeld was ever particularly interested in, or even particularly
conversant with, German socialism. He was simply a whole-hearted believer in the theory that private monopolies should be converted into
public monopolies-that monopolies should exist, if they exist at all, for
the benefit of all the people rather than of a few individuals. This, as
he said, "is not State socialism; it is simply protecting the people, and
therefore is democracy in its broadest sense."




2I6              Altgeld    of Illinois
have been the first to put the State University upon its feet, and
the slight nettling of legislative pride by the huge growth of the
University of Chicago under the Rockefeller and other millions.
Altgeld soon had an opportunity to redeem his promises to
Draper. In the spring of 1895 the University asked the Legislature for a total of $502,300, the principal items being for a library,
a President's house, a heating plant, an observatory, and $I80,ooo
for operating expenses for the biennium. Senator Dunlap guided
the bill through the upper chamber without trouble, but the House
leaders demanded the striking out of the appropriation for the
library. While Dunlap, through friends in the House, had action
deferred, President Draper, Prof. Burrill, and Mr. Pillsbury
[secretary of the university] reached Springfield after an all-night
journey in a hack and local train, and at seven o'clock telephoned
Gov. Altgeld of the danger to the most important feature of the
bill. Altgeld promised to bring the Democrats on the appropriations committee into line if the three would split the Republican
opposition, and this was done. Committee action had already been
taken to place in the House bill certain small items, as for the observatory, which had been omitted in the Senate bill; and when
the library was again provided for, the measure the House received for passage actually carried more than had the measure
which Dunlap pushed through the upper body. House leaders
were as angry as Altgeld and the University were pleased, and
the chairman of the appropriations committee telegraphed Draper
for permission to substitute for the library an appropriation for
the President's House, which had been omitted. It was of course
refused (the House was built from the proceeds of some outlying
land), and the appropriation as finally made reached $422,000.
From the first day of his association with the university,
Governor Altgeld laid particular stress upon the desirability of ad din  ourses    ia-wanme       cine to the existlng curriculum.   In conjunction with the State Bar
Association and Dr. Burrill, he had made plans early in




The University of Illinois


217


his administration for the addition of a law school; and
negotiations for establishing the medical department
began in i894, which the Chicago College of Physicians
and Surgeons offered its property and good will to the
university for a sum not exceeding $i6o,ooo, the price
to be fixed by a joint committee of appraisal. But delays
and difficulties lay in the path of both these projects.
Meanwhile, Altgeld was eager to make some sort of
beginning, however humble-as is evident from the
following letter, written to President Draper in March,
I896:
Dear Doctor:
You will remember that some time ago I talked with you about
starting some law lectures and also some lectures in medicine this
winter at the University, making them, of course, free, and allowing the students to attend at will, the purpose being to take the
preliminary steps or lay the foundation for opening a regular law
department and medical department of the University, next fall.
I hope you will be able to do this without much further delay,
as I regard it as very important to take these preliminary steps now
and, as it were, make a beginning for the law and medical course,
as I am exceedingly anxious that your institution shall be a complete university in the highest meaning of the term before the expiration of my term of office.
I think there will be no trouble whatever in getting volunteer
lectures in both law and medicine delivered this spring, and I will
assist in securing lecturers if you will make the other preliminary
arrangements.
With assurances of high regard, I am
Very truly yours,
JOHN P. ALTGELD.
After the legislature had refused an appropriation for
establishing a school of law, Altgeld urged the uni



2i8


Altgeld of Illinois


versity trustees to use for this purpose some general
funds not received from the State. His plan was
adopted in i897, when $7,000 became available; and
from this humble beginning has grown what is now an
important department of the institution. In the same
year a tentative agreement was consummated under which
the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons became
affiliated with the university as the latter's school of
medicine. Closely allied with this department is the
school of pharmacy, established in I896, when the university absorbed the Chicago College of Pharmacy.
The location of the schools  medicne an   rmain
C        as done much, as Altgeld wisely foresaw, to
create and maintain an interest in the university on the
part of Chicagoans, and to enlist the support of Chicago
business interests.
At the time of his retirement from the governorship
of Illinois, in January, i897, nothing else in Altgeld's
public career had given him such unalloyed pride and
satisfaction as the work which he had accomplished in developing the State university. Here, he rightly felt, was
at least one achievement of his which was beyond the
reach of misinterpretation or detraction, which could not
be clouded by even the most virulent of his enemies. But
the fates did not know how to be kind to John P. Altgeld; and in this, as in all the main endeavors of his life,
he was destined to feel the force of their disfavor.
The blow fell now with a peculiarly unjust and embittering cruelty. Its nature is disclosed in the following
extract from a long letter written by Altgeld to his
friend Judge Lambert Tree, in May, I897:




The University of Illinois


219


Personally I have had what the parrot described to its mistress
as "a hell of a time."... Worst of all, Mr. Spalding, the President of the Globe Savings Bank and the treasurer of the State
University at Champaign, has failed and it looks as if the institution would lose several hundred thousand dollars. Of course all
these things are charged to me, and while I am in no way responsible and do not mind the abuse, I am nearly heartbroken
over the loss to the University. I had done more for that institution than all the other Governors put together. Through my
aid it erected six greagt bhildngs during my administration and
added several 'riprtant  pa   ts and literally leaped forward
and bid fair towards becoming one of the greatest institutions of
learning on the American continent. I would as soon have been
paralyzed as to have had anything happen to this institution.
In view of the great Democratic victory in the election
of November, 1892, and the coming to power of the first
Democratic State administration in Illinois for many
years, it seems that the trustees of the university had
decided that it would be both courteous and expedient to
place the selection of at least one of the university
officers in the hands of the new Governor. The latter
had no power to make the appointment in his own right;
it was merely proposed that he should name a candidate
whom the board of trustees might appoint. There were
but two university offices that came within the scope of
this arrangement-that of secretary and that of treasurer. The trustees decided that it would be to the best
interests of the institution to retain the secretary (W. L.
Pillsbury) then in office, and to suggest that the Governor
name a successor to John W. Bunn, who had served as
treasurer of the university since its founding in I867.
Altgeld proposed the name of Charles W. Spalding,




220


Altgeld of Illinois


president of the Globe Savings Bank in Chicago; and the
trustees accordingly appointed Spalding as treasurer.
As a result of the long-prevailing financial depression,
Spaldin's bank failed in April, I897; and shortly after,
grave irregularities were discovered in his accounts as
asurerof the university. An investigation disclosed
that of some $555,000 in bonds and cash with which the
treasurer was entrusted, all but about $I25,000 had been
misapplied. Spalding had made use of these funds in
an endeavor to tide over his own financial crisis, and
when it became necessary to replace them he was unable
to do so. Part of the defalcation was later recovered,
and the remainder was promptly made good by a State
appropriation; so that in the outcome the university
suffered no direct loss. Spalding was sentenced to a
penitentiary term.
As the above account indicates, Governor Altgeld had
nothing to do with the removal of Bunn, whose long
service as university treasurer had been both efficient and
honorable; and he had not directly appointed Bunn's
successor, Spalding. Inj effect, however, he was responsible for Spalding's appointment.  ven so, the
most that could be justly charged against him in the unhappy result was that he had made a serious error of
judgment. For his confidence in Spalding's integrity,
Altgeld paid heavily on his own account, through the
loss of personal funds in the failure of Spalding's bank.
But the pewspapers of Chicago, with one or two exceptions, seized hungrily up t incident as a heavensent opportunity to harry their favorite quarry; and if
Altgeld had raided the university treasury in person he
could scarcely have been treated with more extreme contumely in the press. This attack had the desired effect




The University of Illinois


221


of not only besmirching Altgeld's personal and political
reputation but discrediting in large degree the entire
State administration of which he had been the head.
Coming as it did on the top of several other serious reversals of fortune, the whole affair was all but fatal to
his mind and health; indeed, for months afterward it
was expected that he could live but a short time.
Although necessarily dealt with here at some length,
this untoward incident has little if any importance in
the larger view that has long been taken of Altgeld's
association with the University of Illinois. The essential fact is that by his aggressive and devoted exertions in behalf of the university at perhaps the most
critical period of its career he laid the foundations for
all the splendid development that has attended its later
history. In permanently changing the attitude of the
State legislature from indifferent picayunishness to enlightened liberality toward the higher educational interests of Illinois, he performed a service to the commonwealth which it would be difficult to over-value. When,
some ten years after Altgeld's death, a measure was
being pushed to provide a public statue of him in Chicago,
ex-president Edmund J. James urged that a second
statue be erected on the campus of the University of
Illinois. But the university itself is in large part a monument to Altgeld's endeavors.




CHAPTER XXI


OTHER STATE INSTITUTIONS
UNTIL well into the present century, there was little
unified control over the public charitable institutions of
Illinois save that exercised by the Governor of the State
through his power of appointing and removing the
officials of such institutions. Each of the latter had its
own independent board or commission charged with the
duties of management, the members of which, as well
as the working officials under their supervision, were
appointed directly by the Governor. Some slight degree of centralized regulation was provided in 1869
through the creation of a State board of charities, consisting of five members appointed by the Governor;
but its powers were limited rather strictly to making
inspections and investigations, giving advice, offering recommendations, and submitting reports to the
Governor and legislature, so that it possessed no real
executive or controlling authority. Under this system,
or lack of system, the management of each institution
(consisting too often of politicians who had been
appointed to their places for no other reason than that
they were loyal party workers in need of jobs) was
virtually a law unto itself, and could conduct matters as
it pleased with little fear of exposure or removal.
In his preelection speeches of I892, Altgeld had
thrown much light on the deplorable condition of affairs
222




Other State Institutions


223


in many of the State institutions, citing definite facts and
figures as to official inefficiency and (in some cases)
corruption which were startling even for that period of
lax public morality. When he came to the Governor's
chair he at once set about doing everything within his
power to remedy these conditions. His first step was
the customary procedure commonly known in party
politics as "turning the rascals out." But he did not
follow this up with the no less customary procedure of
installing a new set of rascals in their places. On the
theory that those whom he placed in charge of the State
institutions should be in thorough sympathy with his administration, most (though by no means all) of his appointees were Democrats; * but at the same time he insisted upon certain standards of fitness and capability in
his appointments which spread consternation in the ranks
of the place-hunters and brought the party bosses scurrying to Springfield in indignant protest. As was remarked
by The Outlook shortly after his death, one of the principal things upon which rests his reputation as Governor of
Illinois is "the moral force he showed in keeping the
spoilsmen out of the State's charitable institutions." Nor
was he content merely to appoint good men (and women)
to office, and then leave these persons to their own devices.
Instead, he was constantly vigilant and insistent that they
*That Altgeld was willing to disregard the claims of party allegiance
upon occasion is evidenced by the following note, written to Colonel
James A. Sexton of Chicago, on May 3I, i894: "It seems to me that you
ought to stay on that Soldiers' Home Board. I want a representative
soldier there to represent the Republicans, and even if you can't have
your way about the patronage of the institution (to which I have paid no
attention), you can at least keep an eye on everything that is going on
and see that the old soldiers there get the best treatment that is possible
under the law to give them. I am very anxious that the Soldiers' Home
be made, if it is not already, the very best institution of that kind in
the world. Kindly think about this and write me again."




224


Altgeld of Illinois


should perform their full duty both to the public and to
the inmates of the institutions which they had been appointed to administer. Twice during his term of office,
once in 1893 and again in 1894, he called the trustees and
superintendents of the State charitable institutions together at Springfield and told them plainly just what he
required of them. Not often has an American executive
in the palmiest days of the spoils system sounded such a
note as is struck in the following extract from Altgeld's
address at the first of these conferences:
My instructions have been not to employ anybody, no matter
by whom recommended or urged, unless it was reasonably apparent that he, or she, was honest and competent and would do
efficient work; and further, that nobody must be retained for one
hour after it became apparent that he, or she, was not the right
person for the place, and that political pressure must be absolutely
disregarded in passing upon a case of this kind; that only the
best interests of the institution must be considered. But, notwithstanding these instructions, we have had trouble in certain
localities. That was one reason why I wished to have you meet
here today, and I wish now to repeat and emphasize these instructions; that the whole energy of the superintendents and of
the trustees, and of everybody connected with the management,
shall be bent to place these institutions upon the very highest
plane of excellence and superiority possible, and that no personal
considerations, no considerations of friendship or political patronage, must be permitted to stand in the way one minute.
To those trustees who were inclined to take their responsibilities lightly, because of the fact that they were
serving without direct remuneration, the Governor had a
particularly forceful word to say:
Now, gentlemen, this will not pay you. You are not only
frittering away your opportunity, but you are wasting your time.




Other State Institutions


225


If you do not intend to make yourselves thoroughly masters of
all the details of your institutions and to look after everything,
even the minutest matter, with scrupulous care, then you are
making a mistake in holding on to your office, for you will never
get any satisfaction out of it.... I am aware that you get no
pay for the service you render, that is, you get no per diem; but
there are things that cannot be settled for across the counter.
There are sentiments too lofty for greed to understand. There
are pleasures that are above anything that money can give, and
these sentiments and these pleasures grow out of a disinterested
and patriotic service of your country. Perform a service of that
character and your descendants will glory in pointing to it.
Again, in somewhat the same vein, he impressed upon
superintendents as well as trustees that sinecurism would
not be tolerated in Illinois under his administration.
It is not intended that any position in any of the asylums or
institutions of this State shall be a position of ease. On the contrary, it is intended that they shall be positions of labor, and hard
labor at that. You are serving the public, gentlemen. You
are rendering a service to your country which can be made even
of a higher order and more valuable to mankind than service on
the battlefield or in the halls of legislation, and we expect not
only constant work of you, but diligent work, and you must go
at it with the understanding that the only reward that is worth
talking about is the consciousness of having done right and the
consciousness of having served your country.
In December, I893, the superintendent of every State
institution was directed by Governor Altgeld to make a
thorough study of theories and methods adopted by the
most advanced similar institutions in this country and
abroad, "to see wherein such institutions differed from
ours, and if anything was found elsewhere that was




226            Altgeld of Illinois
thought to be an improvement upon the methods pursued here, to at once adopt it; also to submit a full report of such investigation on or before April i, I894."
The resulting reports were published in collected form by
the State and widely distributed, so that not Illinois
merely but the country at large benefitted greatly by what
was for its time and place an unique experiment.
In addition to banishing the spoilsmen from the State
institutions and infusing a quite unwonted spirit of energy
and efficiency into the management of these institutions,
Governor Altgeld forced through at the outset of his
regime two specific reforms of much importance. The
first of these consisted in doing away with private purchasing agents, and buying all State supplies by the
method of competitive bids. Under the second, the
trustees and superintendent of every State institution
were required to include in their annual published report
the complete pay-roll of their establishment, giving the
name of every person to whom money had been paid,
the amount paid, and a statement of the service for which
payment was made. Thus, two of the most fruitful
sources of evil under the old system were effectually
abolished.
Still another noteworthy innovation put into effect by
Governor Altgeld in his efforts to improve the public
service of Illinois is thus referred to in his biennial message to the State legislature of January, I895:
This administration has taken a new departure by apointing a
nuim'ier f women on import h     s and to other positions.
While this was not good politics, from either a persn  or
party standpoint, it was believed to be eternally right, and was
done solely on the ground of justice. The army of women who
areobliged to earn their own bread is constantly increasag. At




Other State Institutions


227


best the have a hard stugle to maintain thems1e. Tjuic~
recuird t~t h~ z~~e pw!i-J ~nl onors tha  nturg  w
incite men shoh  B?~w~Y iirch of women in       vey-field
of activity. And I am glad to report that they have met every
reasonable expectation. As a rule, they have done their work
well.
At least two of the women appointed by Governor
Altgeld to public office, Miss Julia Lathrop and Mrs.
Florence Kelley, have since attained national prominence.
In an address delivered before the League of Cook
County Clubs more than twenty years ago, Miss Lathrop
said:
I know of no man in the public life of Illinois who did so
much to give women an opportunity as John P. Altgeld....
He did it because he believed it to be right, and he modestly
never counted it an achievement. One of Governor Altgeld's
first official acts was to appoint two women on state boards. He
was the first governor to name a woman as one of the trustees
of the University of Illinois. He was the first to name a woman
factory inspector. He insisted that there be a woman physician
in every state institution where women and children were confined. All of these appointments have been swept away by the
spoils system.
A mere list of the State institutions founded or enlarged during Governor Altgeld's administration is impressive. Of course such a list is by no means the highest possible testimony to his character and ideals; but
at least it presents some of the results, in a material sense,
of his untiring efforts to leave the State of Illinois, on retiring from his high office, better than he found it on assuming that office. Aside from numerous new buildings
added to the existing institutions, there were founded by




228


Altgeld of Illinois


the State during the four years of 1893-96 two new norn    es      one at Charleston, in the eastern part of
the State, and one at DeKalb, in the northwestern part;
two new insane ay          at Peoria and Rock Island; a
TiTs' reformatory at GeIeva, near Chicago; and aome
for sodiat Wilmington.                 A bill appropriating $120,000 to enlarge the Southern Hospital for the Insane, and the same amount for enlarging the Northern
Hospital for the Insane, was vetoed by Altgeld on the
ground that the measure was prompted largely by local
greed and not by a desire for the best interests of the
insane of Illinois.  More and smaller institutions for the
treatment of insanity were wisely favored by the Governor rather than the enlargement of existing asylums
that already sheltered as many patients as could be advantageously cared for in their respective establishments.
In the matter of architecture, as in most other matters,
Altgeld had certain definite ideas of his own, and he endeavored with some success to have these ideas embodied
in the new construction work carried forward by the
State during his administration. Here is his own plea
in this respect, as contained in his second biennial message
to the State legislature:
Owing to the rapid growth of our population and the great
demand for room in public institutions, but little consideration
was given to the subject of architectural design in public buildings, in the past, the principal effort being in each case to get
as much floor space as possible. Consequently, while the State
has a large number of buildings, there are but few whose exterior
architecture is commanding or impressive. The appropriations
made during the present administration were so small as not to
admit of ornamentation; but it was felt that the time had come




Other State Institutions


229


when we should not only build fireproof buildings, but give a
little more attention to their external appearance. After an examination of the subject I became satisfied that the most inexpensive, as well as the most impressive architectural style for
buildings that are to stand alone in a grove, or in a field, is what
has been called the Tudor-Gothic style, as the effect is produced
by simply carrying the mason work, that is the wall, above the
cornice line, and there breaking the lines in such a way as to
produce small towers, battlements, etc. This style has consequently been adopted in most of the buildings that have been
erected during the last two years, and is found to be very effective.
Had we possessed large appropriations so that Grecian columns,
Roman arches, and other forms of ornamentation could have
been indulged in, it is probable that some other style of architecture would have been selected; but for the money which the
State has expended it would have been impossible to get the same
desirable effects in any other style.
A more poetic and idealistic reference to the same
subject is contained in his speech at the laying of the cornerstone of the Rock Island hospital for the insane, during the autumn of I896.
You have observed that the style of architecture adopted is
what has been called Tudor-Gothic and has something in common
with some of the famous castles found in Europe. I am told that
as a traveller ascends the Rhine and views some noted castle
situated on a hill-top he is regaled with an account of the marauding baron who lived there centuries ago and with a small band
of retainers emerged from time to time to rob and plunder his
weaker neighbors. In the centuries which are to come, as the intelligent traveller shall ascend the great Father of Waters and
see this magnificent structure commanding a view of the surrounding country, he will exclaim: "There stands a monument to
the intelligence, the civilization and the humanity of the people
of northwestern Illinois."




230


Altgeld of Illinois


To an observer of predominantly aesthetic interests,
the first glimpse of such a transplanted "castle on the
Rhine" is likely to arouse somewhat other reflections than
those above predicted. But even from an esthetic point
of view, this type of architecture was at least no worse
than most of the other types embodied in the public
buildings of that period; while from a practical aspect it
possessed several important advantages. A few survivals of what came to be known in Illinois as the "Altgeld style of architecture" are still to be found in that
State.
Not only in the charitable institutions but in virtually
all other departments of State service, new and greatly
improved business methods were put in force during
Governor Altgeld's administration. All custodians of
State funds were for the first time required to turn the
interest on such funds into the public treasury. The State
insurance department, which had heretofore (in Altgeld's
words) "contributed scarcely anything to the State treasury from the large amount of fees which it collected,"
publicly accounted for something like $17o,ooo during
the single year of I896. -.beIllinois and Michigan
canal, a joint State and Federal enter2prnifhe
Missisippi river system with Lake Michigan, made paymefor Ltbe frirst tmnt    the State treasury. Many
other like instances might be cited here.




CHAPTER XXII


THE "ETERNAL MONOPOLY BILLS"
DURING the middle period of Governor Altgeld's administration, the power and the glory of the internationally
famous art connoisseur, romantic adventurer, and Titan
of finance, Charles T. Yerkes, stood at their zenith. Certain unfortunate occurrences in the early eighties had
made it necessary for Mr. Yerkes to abandon Philadelphia, the scene of his previous activities, and to seek a
less exacting moral environment. Coming to Chicago,
he had operated for a time as a broker, modestly avoiding
any premature prominence, but with a calculating eye
always upon what was for him the main chance-streetrailway manipulation. In 1886 and 1887, largely on the
financial backing of his former Philadelphia confreres,
Messrs. Widener and Elkins, Mr. Yerkes secured control of the north and west side street-car lines, the most
important in Chicago. With this control, and with a
newspaper of his own to keep the Chicago public suitably
informed of his efforts in their behalf, he launched a campaign of financial and political exploitation which astonished even the most seasoned practitioners of "big business." In the traction field, under his magic touch, holding companies, construction companies, operating companies sprang up in bewildering confusion; and their securities, with loans upon the securities, multiplied in every
conceivable form. His personal wealth grew to a figure
231




232


Altgeld of Illinois


that was almost fabulous for those times. In the conjunct field of politics, Mr. Yerkes was soon bestriding the
narrow world of Chicago like a Colossus. Always judiciously plying his lightnings from a cloud, he controlled
conventions, made and unmade mayors and aldermen,
and had his henchmen everywhere in high places with the
necessary eloquence and legal tender to effect his purposes.
But although seeming to hold the traction interests of
Chicago in the hollow of his hand, it was not long before
certain rather serious obstacles began to loom in the pathway of this Jovian magnate. In the Illinois constitution
of I870 a clause had been inserted making it impossible
for the State legislature thereafter to grant street railway
franchises without local consent. Later, a State law
was passed limiting all such franchises to a term of twenty
years. In I895 some of the franchises acquired by
Yerkes were about to expire, and others would lapse during the next few years. Investors were by this time becoming a little wary of securities based on short-term
franchises. In addition, a somewhat formidable opposition to the Yerkes dictatorship was developing in Chicago,
which boded difficulty when the franchises should come
up for renewal. Yerkes had learned his politico-financial
creed in Pennsylvania, where legislatures obligingly
granted franchises "in perpetuity" or for nine hundred
and ninety-nine years. He would ask nothing so extreme
as this in Illinois, but would compromise on a modest
basis of ninety-nine years. That he must have, and he
set about getting it. If only the city council of Chicago
were concerned, it would have been a simple matter to
purchase his desires. The corrupt municipal system was
running smoothly, and the bi-partisan ring headed by




The "Eternal Monopoly            Bills"     233
John R. Walsh (Democrat) and John M. Smyth (Republican) awaited only the cheery accents of its master's
voice. But in the existing circumstances it was necessary
to deal with a somewhat less compact, less manageable,
set of statesmen. Yerkes, however, was nothing daunted.
From his long'experience in Pennsylvania he was aware
that corruption is no less a State than a municipal institution. He turned to Springfield in full confidence that he
would find "the system" functioning as perfectly there
as he had found it functioning at Harrisburg. And, save
in one vitally important respect, he was not disappointed.
"The system" was indeed there.
It had been there for at least twenty years.... The railroads
and other great corporations of the State had built it up, and it
was theirs.... The head of it is, not the railroad lobby, as in
Missouri, but the bi-partisan group of Senators, called the "Senate combine," which is an old institution now reduced to refined
blackmail and the orderly protection, for lump fees, of special
interests. The House, more unwieldy and changeable, has to be
moved by individual bribes of various amounts, and there is often
scandal and quarrelling over the division of the spoils; but the
"regular business" in the House is done by committees which the
Speaker appoints. To complete the legislative system, the Governor should be either a figurehead or the boss.*
What Mr. Yerkes wanted in the way of traction
legislation was embodied in two bills, one relating to
street railways and the other to elevated railways. At
about the same time the Chicago gas trust, in which
Yerkes was financially interested, framed a little bill of
its own. In cunningly devised forms which largely concealed their real purpose, all three bills aimed at one main
* Lincoln Steffens, "The Struggle for Self-Government" (1906).




234             Altgeld of Illinois
object —the strengthening and perpetuation of monopoly
privileges in Chicago, for the principal benefit of Yerkes
and the financial clique behind him. With no great difficulty these bills were safely piloted through the State
legislature. "The system" was so far in good working
order. But its full and perfect functioning required, as
we have seen, a Governor who should be either the boss
of the entire machinery or a figurehead "who takes his
ease, honors, and orders, lets the boss reign, and makes
no trouble for the System." Unfortunately for the
grandiose dreams of Yerkes, the Governor of Illinois at
this time was neither the boss nor a figurehead. He stood
apart from and in opposition to "the system"; he cared
nothing for ease or honors, and he took orders from no
other source than his own conscience. In the political
world of his day, he was what biologists term a "sport"
-a strange or striking deviation from type.   Rumors
were soon abroad that he intended to veto the monopoly
bills. This was a contingency which had scarcely been
dreamt of in Yerkes's pragmatic philosophy; he could
make nothing of it save that "the system" had failed in
coming to satisfactory financial terms with the Governor,
and therefore direct negotiations were imperative.
There are several versions of the incident in Governor
Altgeld's career commonly (and erroneously) known as
"the million dollar bribe." * But the account which is
essentially the most accurate, as it is also the most
graphic, appeared a year or two after Altgeld's death in
the Chicago Tribune-the newspaper which had fought
* Perhaps the best known version is that contained in Theodore
Dreiser's novel, "The Titan," which, with its companion volume, "The
Financier," gives a vivid and brilliant picture of Charles T. Yerkes's
politico-financial and amatory adventures.




The "Eternal Monopoly Bills"


235


him more relentlessly and vindictively than any other.
This account was one of a series of anonymous political
reminiscences which, according to the Tribune's announcement, were "based on real events."   With due allowance
for the writer's dramatic and colloquial coloring of those
events, as also for one major and several minor errors
of fact, the narrative which is reprinted here may be accepted as a truthful record. The time was the summer
of i895; the State was Illinois; the capital was Springfield; the city was Chicago; the "Empire building" was
the Unity Building; the vetoed bills were known at the
time as the "eternal monopoly bills"; the briber was a
Chicago lawyer of high standing; and "Uncle Cal
Peavey" was Governor Altgeld himself. With this explanation, the Tribune writer will now be permitted to
tell his own story.
In all my recollection I can recall just one man who could afford to admit, without cheapening his own character, that he was
subjected to a downright temptation-but he didn't admit itl
And when the story leaked out after his death, there wasn't a man
in the State who didn't take off his hat to the moral stamina that
the Governor had shown. That little incident made the eulogies
of the pulpits and the newpapers look cheap.
It happened while you were kicking a pigskin at Princeton.
There never was a better campaign than the one in which Uncle
Cal Peavey knocked out the machine and landed in the Governor's
chair. It made a bigger rumpus than a fox in a henhouse, and
there was a mighty shaking of dry bones in the fat places on
the pay roll.
Almost the whole press of the State was against him, and
he was hounded as an anarchist, a calamity howler, and a general
enemy to society, capital, vested rights, and a whole lot of other
sacred and civilized things. But Cal kept his nerve and con



236              Altgeld    of Illinois
tinued to talk right out in meeting. The harder they pounded
the more he showed his teeth and stuck out his bristles.
That was the winter before the United Traction's franchises
expired, and a new charter was simply a ground-hog case.
Times were tighter than a February freeze. Every cent that
the Governor had made in a series of nervy speculations in city
real estate had been put into the big Empire building before the
hard times set in. Tenants were scarcer than rats, rents fell
like snowflakes, and the old man was in the hole for twice what
he was worth, with big payments coming due in the course of the
winter. He didn't know which way to turn, as the money
market froze tighter and tighter, and it was a certainty that he
stood to lose the fortune he had made in years of hard hustling,
unless some unexpected stroke of Providence should come to his
relief.
But he was made of stern stuff and never gave out a whimper,
although he couldn't keep his condition from the wise ones on the
street.
Just as he was driving ahead to the last ditch in his private
affairs, the United Traction was making hay at the session. The
Governor wasn't the only man in politics that winter who had
been caught in the financial squeeze. Plenty of legislators were
worrying over mortgages and investments-a fact that didn't
escape the attention of the traction company's agents.
Although the Governor and his forces put up a strong and
crafty fight against the bill, the franchise measure passed both
houses by a big majority-and the men who held mortgages on the
assets of the members concerned stopped worrying about payments.
Then the calcium light was suddenly shifted to the executive
mansion, and the question in every mouth was "What will the
Governor do?" The situation was strained up to concert pitch,
and there were all sorts of speculation as to the course which
Uncle Cal would pursue. Generally, however, it was agreed that
there were enough votes to pass the bill over his veto and that
probably, as a sensible man who knew enough to know when he




The "Eternal Monopoly Bills" 237
was licked, he would let the measure become a law without his
signature. This was considered the proper manner for a Governor to surrender under protest when there were not enough
votes at his command to sustain his veto.
A day or two after the bill had gone up to the Governor, one
of the smoothest mechanics in the fine art of "fixing" ever on the
confidential pay roll of the traction company dropped in at the
office of the Empire building for a little chat with Mike Boylan,
the Governor's business partner and general handy man.
Now Mike had knocked about town a good deal, been up as
late as midnight several times, and was fairly well acquainted
with the landscape in the neighborhood of the city hall; but for
all that, he didn't really know that his caller was a scout of the
traction company. In other words, the fellow was the man for
the hour; he had just enough reputation to arouse in Mike's mind
a suspicion of his connection with the company and save awkward
explanations. On the other hand, he had not made himself
common, so that his name was known to the members of the gang
generally. In short, he was an artist, and accepted about one
commission in four or five years, but made that one something
handsome.
"Mike," he finally said, after they had chatted awhile, "if
you're not too busy, I'd like you to do me a little favor."
"Certainly," responded Mike.
"I'd like you to introduce me to the man in charge of the
safety deposit vaults of your building here. I want to get the
right sort of accommodations, and if you take me in tow it will
insure me proper attention from the general in command down
there in the basement."
"Sure, I'll fix that," said Mike, taking his hat and wondering
if it really were true that his caller was mixed up with the traction
people, as he had heard.
They were starting away from the largest wall safe, or "box,"
when the new patron of the institution called Mike into one
of the private stalls. On the table were two good fat telescope




238              Altgeld    of Illinois
valises. Up to that time Mike had been merely an interested
spectator; but this move gave him a jolt. Could it be that the
fellow had trapped him into a position that might be made to reflect on the Governor if it should ever get out?
Mike's conscience had been trained in the kindergarten of the
street-paving contract business, and never swung a danger signal
short of the question "Will it get out?" Nothing but that possibility presented a moral problem to him. The next semaphore
which was swung by his acute spiritual sensibilities operated on
the question of whether or not a certain course would bring him
under the heel of the law.
"If this chap makes a straight proposition," reasoned Mike,
as his companion was unstrapping the telescopes, "and it should
ever get to the Governor's ears, it'll be all day with me. He'll
raise my scalp."
"I hope you'll not think I'm suspicious of the boys down here,"
said the caller, "but I'm taking care of a whole lot of cash for a
pool I'm interested in; the fellows who are with me are afraid
of banks in these times and insist on planting our funds in a safe
deposit vault. That puts the whole thing on my shoulders, and
it occurred to me that it would be a safe precaution to ask you
to come down here and check up with me the amount I'm planting
-it won't take but a minute."
"You chaps going to make books on the races?" laughed Mike.
His answer was a knowing wink, and Mike heaved a sigh of
relief at the thought that he was out of a disagreeable scrape in
which a quarrel with the Governor was almost a moral certainty
-and Mike was more afraid of old Cal than of any other being in
the whole universe. In fact, the Governor had become a sort of
God to Mike, although Cal didn't know it himself.
Half the packages were in thousand dollar bills, and the rest
in five hundreds, so it was an easy job to check them up, according
to the figures on the paper bands pinned about the packages.
Mike's eyes fairly stood out of his head as he looked from the
figures on his tab to the currency on the table. One million




The "Eternal Monopoly Bills"


239


dollars! He had never seen that much money in one heap before in his life, and his nimble, acquisitive mind began right away
to figure out the things that could be done with that money. It
almost stupefied him, and he made no objection when asked to
help stack it away in the big wall safe.
Then they went upstairs, and the caller suddenly remembered
that he had left his umbrella in Mike's private office. He got it,
and started for the door, then stopped and began to draw on
his gloves. Mike had not yet come out of his trance. He was
still saying to himself: "A million dollars."
"You're satisfied as to the amount in the vault?" casually inquired the caller.
"Yes," absently responded Mike, wAfting the figures on the
desk blotter.
Suddenly the keys to the big deposit drawer fell on the desk
in front of him, and he heard the words:
"Well-you know what to do with these!"
For a second he stared hard at them. Then he grabbed them
up and made a plunge for the door and out into the hall. But
his smooth caller had gone down the stairs to the floor below,
taken the elevator which served the side entrance to the building,
and was gone!
From that time until Friday afternoon, when the Governor
came to the city to give two or three days to his private affairs,
Mike scoured the town for a trace of the man who had dumped
a million dollars of bribe money into his hands. And in that
time he felt more stings of conscience than he had ever known in
all his life before. He was the worst scared man in the city,
and it seemed to him he'd rather jump into the crater of a volcano
than face the wrath of the Governor. Or could it be that under
the certainty of complete financial ruin the old man was facing
he might possibly weaken? And why shouldn't he take the
money? He would be doing nothing for it-not so much as
signing his name! Hadn't the Governor fought the bill tooth
and nail? And wouldn't his failure to sign it be a protest against




240


Altgeld of Illinois


it? This was just what the party and the State expected him to
do; then why shouldn't he keep the money that had been thrown
at him-and without a possible tracer attached?
But even Mike's moral obtuseness was not so great that he
didn't recoil from the possibility that the Governor might look
at the matter in this way. If it should be so, he would know that
there wasn't a man on earth who couldn't be reached if all the
circumstances were right.
When the Governor came in, Mike was looking uncommonly
pale, but the old man was too preoccupied to notice it. His
grizzled face was as haggard as if he had just got up from a run of
fever, and his eyes shone with a grim, unnatural brightness.
He slumped into a big leather chair and, in a shaky voice,
said:
"Mike, it's all up! I stopped in at the trust company's office
on my way from the station, and they say we can't have any more
time. Then I went over to the other place and threshed it out
with fellows we hoped might come into the thing as a last resort.
But they're scared, and nothing can move 'em to furnish the
fund."
He choked for a iminute, but finally continued:
"But there's one consolation. The property's worth the money,
and no one'll lose a dollar. And there'll be no scandal attached.
Thank God, I never wronged a man out of a cent that I know of,
but it's kind of tough to see the work of years swept away in a
second! And then there's the little woman at home-that's the
hardest part of it!"
Then Mike knew that it was up to him to make a clean breast
of the safe deposit business-and he did it, too.
The eyes of the old man seemed to bore Mike right through as
the story came out in a shaky voice. For a minute or two the
old Governor sat with his chin resting in his hands, the muscles
of his face twitching like a spider's legs.
But it was all over in a minute. Slowly rising to his feet, the
old man pointed his long bony finger at Mike and, in a voice that
had the grit of iron in it, he said:




The "Eternal Monopoly Bills"


241


"Young man! I'd advise you to take better care of that
damned scoundrel's money than you ever did of any money in
your life."
That night the Governor wrote a veto message on the traction
bill that fairly scorched the rails of the line. Then he called in
the real scrappers in his political camp and began a fight against
foregone defeat that ripped up the whole State and made history.
He didn't stop at anything that came under the head of things
"fair:- love or war." Before the fight was finished he was
forced practically to kidnap two or three weak-kneed members
of the opposition and take them out of the State. And there
were a few others that had to be given a close-range view of the
penitentiary before they experienced a change of heart. But when
the vote on the veto was taken the old Governor won out by three
votes-and he celebrated the triumph by surrendering to his
creditors and backers all the property that he had accumulated in
fifty years of harder work than a stone-breaker ever put in.
In less than three years from then I acted as pall-bearer at
Calvin Peavey's funeral, and joined in a subscription to buy the
widow a home.
That's the sort of moral backbone that is entitled to flowers,
according to my notion. And there isn't much of anything short
of that brand that is. When I go in for hero worship, I'm going
to cap my shrine with a bust of honest old Cal.
The major error of fact in this picturesque narrative
is that the bribe offered was not one million dollars, but
half a million only.  Altgeld's intimate friend, Hon. S. P.
McConnell, tells in his unpublished reminiscences of visiting Springfield as an emissary of Yerkes soon after the
passage of the bids, for the purpose, f          t     ac
on the                                formed by
e               ff erel t td        t ousan
le   ~would sign the bills.    Confirmatory evidence
on this point is also supplie  y a later Governor of Ill



242


Altgeld of Illinois


inois, Hon. Edward F. Dunne, who writes: "After Altgeld had retired from the Governor's office, I remember
one day taking lunch with him, when he was in almost
abject poverty, and I took occasion to voice my admiration for his courage in turning down a bribe of a million
dollars offered to him while he was Governor, to which he
responded: 'You do me honor overmuch-the consideration offered was not a million, but half a million.'" The
exact amount of the initial bribe, however, is of small significance. So valuable were the special privileges involved in the monopoly bills that the traction and gas
interests at Chicago could well afford to pay millions, if
necessary, to secure what they wanted. Governor Altgeld had but to say the word, and undoubtedly the stakes
would have been raised to several times five hundred
thousand dollars. From beginning to end, money was
spent like water in connection with the bills, first in getting them through the legislature and then in attempting
to over-ride the Governor's veto. This latter was managed with ease by the senate "combine," and in the house
only a few votes of the necessary two-thirds were lacking. Brand Whitlock, in his "Forty Years of It," has
drawn an unforgettable picture of that supreme effort on
the last night of the legislative session of I895, when the
vetoed bills were before the house and "evil hung almost
palpably in the hot, close air of that chamber" with its
din and riot and shamelessness, its haggard leaders of
both parties fighting for the bills to the last ditch, its clock
turned back to give the lobbyists further time for bargaining with recalcitrant members before the final rollcall —and the Governor over in the executive mansion
sitting up long into the night to await the assembly's action. The market price of votes on that occasion is not




The "Eternal Monopoly Bills"


243


definitely known; but when the speaker of the house died,
shortly after the session had closed, a large sum in new
thousand dollar bills was found in his safe deposit box.*
In its base and sordid aspects, this episode is perhaps
no more than typical of many similar episodes in American public life during the heyday of "invisible government." But it differs from most of the others in that it
was redeemed, and more than redeemed, by the moral
integrity of one man-a man who was despised and rejected of the powerful because of that very moral integrity, which compelled him to follow the ways of justice
and mercy and honesty in a time when those virtues were
rankly heretical to the reigning priests of politico-financial
authority. Once, in commenting upon the career of
Chauncey M. Depew, Altgeld had framed an eleventh
commandment: "Go thou and do evil that thou may
live on the fat of the land, and that thy sleekness may be
the wonder of men." Had Altgeld chosen to follow this
commandment, had he made terms with the Chicago
monopolists after the approved political fashion of his
day, he could have retrieved his shattered personal fortune and himself become one of the over-lords of finance.
He might have made his way, in the usual succession, from
the Governor's chair to a seat in the United States Senate,
with its immensely larger opportunities for the practice
of his commandment.   He might have retired at last, after a long term of "public service," to an affluent and a
benign old age, and been interviewed by obsequious reporters on many rosy birthdays. "And the devil said
*The story called "What Will Become of Annie?" in Brand Whitlock's volume, "The Gold Brick," is obviously based on this last-named
circumstance; while the scenes in the house when the Governor's veto
was up for action are described in "Henderson of Greene," another story
in the same volume.




244


Altgeld of Illinois


unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory
of them: for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me,
all shall be thine."
The public never knew from Altgeld's lips, or indeed
from any source until after his death, that he had been
taken up into a high mountain and shown the kingdoms
which might have been his for a certain consideration,
But it was known well enough in the camp of privilege,
and to the dwellers therein his veto of the "eternal monopolies bills" was an offense less forgivable even than his
freeing of the "anarchists." Privilege has good reason
to hate and fear honesty even more than it does justice
and mercy. And so, when its opportunity came, it drove
Governor Altgeld from office with hoots and jeers and
hisses. He had entered that office a rich man; he left it
poor, ruined in everything save his own moral integrity.




CHAPTER XXIII


PARDONS AND VETOES
IN the nation-wide outburst of rage and resentment occasioned by Governor Altgeld's pardon of the Chicago
"anarchists," one who knew nothing of the facts might
easily have imagined that the Illinois executive had released upon society the entire population of Joliet penitentiary, instead of merely restoring their freedom to
three obscure and harmless workingmen who had suffered
the frightful injustice of seven years' imprisonment for a
crime with which it had never been proved that they were
even remotely connected. This notion of a general jail
delivery, not of course as an accomplished fact but as an
always imminent possibility, is just what the press sought
most indefatigably to instill into the public mind. Notably in the anarchist case, and to lesser degree in almost
every subsequent pardon granted by Governor Altgeld,
they held him up before the country as a confirmed friend
of lawlessness, an official ally of the criminal classes, one
who would condone any offense however heinous, and go
to any lengths to shield the offender from just retribution.
And incredible as it seems in the retrospect, the press
was largely successful in getting this picture accepted as an
accurate likeness. The superstition still survives that
no other Governor of Illinois, indeed no other American
executive invested with the pardoning power, ever made
such free and reprehensible use of that power as did John
245




246


Altgeld of Illinois


P. Altgeld. Out of this superstition originated the nickname, "John Pardon Altgeld," once a much-used expression of derision and reproach among the pagan hordes
who despise mercy. In 1895 a double lynching at Danville, Illinois, was said to have been inspired by the fear
that Governor Altgeld would pardon the prisoners if the
law were allowed to take its course. Possibly the austere
devotees of justice who took part in this little affair were
not quite so certain of their motive as were those newspapers which almost gleefully condoned their action because of the opportunity it afforded of scourging a favorite scapegoat. But the motive ascribed, whether it really
actuated the mob-murderers or was an invention of their
journalistic apologists, seemed reasonable enough to a
great many people.
Save for that violent reaction of public opinion in the
anarchist case, Governor Altgeld would undoubtedly have
exercised the pardoning power much more freely than he
did. He might even have approached, in this respect,
the records of some of his predecessors in office-Governor Cullom, for instance, or even Governor Beveridge,
whose yearly average of pardons granted, in relation to
the yearly number of prisoners in the two State penitentiaries, was nearly three times greater than Governor
Altgeld's. That ruthless system by which, in the name of
justice, society endeavors so blindly and futilely to protect
itself from the evil consequences of its own collective indifference to justice, had been Altgeld's particular study
for many years. And even had he lacked a thorough
understanding of our vicious penal system, his broad human sympathies and love of justice would naturally have
led him much further than most executives care or dare
to go in repairing the grosser injuries which society inflicts




Pardons and Vetoes


247


upon its weak and unfortunate. But in a mood of bitter
revulsion, while the storm evoked by his anarchist pardons
was at its height, he had said to Brand Whitlock: "I
will not pardon any more. The people are opposed to it;
they do not believe in mercy; they love revenge; they
want the prisoners punished to the bitterest extremity."
Something of that mood seems to have persisted as long
as he was Governor; and though it never deterred him
fromn granting a pardon on the grounds of simple justice,
its chilling shadow must have interposed on many occasions when only the exercise of mercy was involved.
At any rate, whether for this reason or for others, Governor Altgeld's record in the matter of pardons and commutations granted is much more conservative than that of
several of his predecessors and successors. According to
the figures contained in his biennial message to the State
legislature in 1897, during the two decades preceding his
administration the average yearly number of pardons and
commutations issued by Illinois Governors was a fraction
under eighty-four. The average yearly number of convicts in the two State penitentiaries during this period was
I868; so that, on an average, four and one-half per cent
of the prisoners were pardoned or had their sentences
commuted each year from I872 to I892. During the
four years of Governor Altgeld's administration, the
average yearly number of pardons and commutations
granted was seventy-nine. But by this time the average
yearly number of convicts in the State penitentiaries had
increased to 220I-So accurately, in spite of "the incessant grinding of society's machinery of vengeance," do
the populations of prisons keep pace with the growth of
populations outside. Therefore the average annual per.
centage of pardons and commutations granted by Gover



248


Altgeld of Illinois


nor Altgeld, in relation to the average annual prison
population, was only three and three-fifths per cent. In
other words, the yearly average of pardons and commutations granted by Altgeld during his four-year term, considered in relation to the average yearly prison population, fell twenty per cent below a similar average for the
preceding twenty-year period.
Such are the essential facts concerning the wholesale
jail delivery effected by "John Pardon Altgeld," friend
and benefactor of the criminal class. The facts in themselves, as he said when presenting them, call for neither
praise nor blame. In the matter of pardons and commutations, a conscientious executive is not free to act
merely from personal predilection; if he were, Governor
Altgeld's record in this respect would undoubtedly have
been a more liberal one. But it is something to have
gained the reputation of being unduly merciful, even if
one does not altogether merit it. Lincoln, also, was bitterly berated in his lifetime on the score of giving immoderate aid and comfort to the outcast, Mercy; and
Altgeld might well have thanked his detractors for
placing him, in one respect at least, with such noble
company.
Two incidents connected with Governor Altgeld's exercise of the pardoning power, rescued from the scanty personal reminiscences of his contemporaries, are of sufficient interest to warrant reproduction in this chapter.
The first is a pitiful little tale from Brand Whitlock's
"Forty Years of It."
A few weeks after the pardons had been issued to the anarchists,
George Brennan of Braidwood, then a clerk in the State House,
told me a moving story of a young man of his acquaintance, who
was then confined in the penitentiary at Joliet. The young man




Pardons and Vetoes


249


was dying of tuberculosis, and his mother, having no other hope
than that he might be released to die at home, had made her appeal to Brennan, and he had seen to the filing of an application in
due form, and now he asked me if I would not call the Governor's
attention to it. I got out the great blue envelope containing the
thin papers in the case-they were as few as the young man's
friends-and took them over to the Governor, but no sooner had
I laid them on his desk and made the first hesitating and tentative approach to the subject, than I divined the moment to be
wholly inauspicious. The Governor did not even look at the
papers, he did not even touch the big blue linen envelope, but
shook his head and said:
"No, no, I will not pardon any more. The people are opposed to it; they do not believe in mercy; they love revenge; they
want the prisoners punished to the bitterest extremity."
I did not then know how right he was in his cynical generalization though I did know that his decision was so far from his
own heart that it was no decision at all, but merely the natural
human reaction against all the venom that had been voided upon
him, and I went away then, and told Brennan that we must wait
until the Governor was in another mood.
Three or four days afterward I met'the Governor one morning as he was passing through the rotunda of the State House,
his head bent in habitual abstraction, and seeing me in what
seemed always some subconscious way, he stopped and said:
"Oh, by the way: that pardon case you spoke of the other morning-I was somewhat hasty I fear, and out of humor. If you'll
get the papers I'll see what can be done."
I knew of course what could be done, and knew then that it
would be done, and I made haste to get the papers, which had
been kept on my desk awaiting that propitious season which I had
the faith to feel would come sooner or later, though I had not expected it to come quite so soon as that. I already anticipated the
gladness that would light up Brennan's good Irish face when I
handed him the pardon for his friend, and I could dramatize the
scene in that miner's cottage in Braidwood when the pardoned




250


Altgeld of Illinois


boy flew to his mother's arms. I intended to say nothing then
to Brennan, however, but to wait until the pardon, signed and
sealed, could be delivered into his hands, but as I was going across
the hall to the Governor's chambers I encountered Brennan, and
then of course could not hold back the good news. And so I
told him, looking into his blue eyes to behold the first ripple of
the smile I expected to see spread over his face; but there was
no smile. He regarded me quite soberly, shook his head, and said:
"It's too late now."
And he drew from his pocket a telegram, and, without any
need to read it, said:
"He died last night."
I took the papers back and had them filed away among those
cases that had been finally disposed of, though that formality
could not dispose of the case for me. The Governor was waiting for the papers, and at last when the morning had almost worn
away I went over to his chambers to add another fardel to that
heavy load which I had thought it was to be my lot that day to
see lightened in the doing of an act of grace and pity. I told him
as he sat alone at his desk, and the shade of sorrow deepened a
moment on his pale face; but he said nothing, and I was glad to
go.*
The second incident is described in an article about
Altgeld contributed soon after his death to a Chicago
newspaper by his Secretary of State, William H.
Hinrichsen.
Many of the pardons he granted were the result of sympathy
for a mother, wife, sister, or daughter of the condemned; and in
such cases he used to laugh at the criticisms of the press. I remember one day an old woman came to the state house to plead
for a pardon for her son, a worthless, vicious youth who had been
Some phases of this episode are utilized in Brand Whitlock's story,
"The Pardon of Thomas Whalen," contained in his volume entitled
"The Gold Brick."




Pardons and Vetoes


25I


sentenced to prison for larceny. She was a Pole, I think, and
spoke very imperfect English. The Governor was absent, but I
met her in the corridor and she told me her pitiful story. When
the Governor returned I sent her to him. Half an hour later,
having some business with him, I entered his office without knocking and found him and the old lady weeping together. He was
trying to comfort her, and had ordered a pardon issued for her
scamp of a son. He seemed somewhat ashamed of his emotions,
and said half in apology:
"It is a bad law that punishes a parent for the sins of a child."
The same week he absolutely refused to interfere in the case
of a man condemned to hang for choking his mistress to death.
The man had powerful and influential friends, and they attempted
to show that the condemned had no murderous intention, that he
had frequently choked the woman without serious injury to her,
and that there was no motive for the murder. After an all-day
argument the Governor declined to interfere, and closed his decision with these words:
"He choked her once too often."
In several of his pardon messages Governor Altgeld
took occasion to discuss some public evil or abuse more
or less closely connected with the particular case in which
executive clemency was being granted. This use of the
pardoning power for propagandist ends, as his opponents
termed it, evoked some of the angriest criticism directed
against the Governor. It was all very well, perhaps, to
let a poor devil out of the penitentiary now and then,
provided he was sufficiently repentant; but to imply that
the pillars of society were in any faintest degree responsible for crime-producing conditions was an insult not to
be borne. Aside from the anarchist case, perhaps the
most hotly resented pardon message issued by Governor
Altgeld concerned the case of a young man who, while
employed as assistant cashier by the Chicago Tribune,




252


Altgeld of Illinois


had embezzled some $I3,000 of the newspaper's funds.
After serving nearly half of a four-year penitentiary sentence, he was released by the Governor for reasons which
would no doubt seem sufficient to any just and humane
person.   These reasons were fully cited in the Governor's
pardon message, which then concluded with the following
paragraph:
There is another point suggested by this case, and that is how
far the integrity and sense of right of young men employed in
some large money-making establishments is undermined and weakened by a knowledge of the fact that their employers are gaining
large sums of money which, while not always obtained by criminal
means, nevertheless in equity and good conscience do not belong
to them. This young man had charge of the financial department
of the Tribune Company. He knew that the Tribune Company
rented ground of the Chicago school fund and, instead of paying
a fair cash annual rental on it, had managed to get things so
fixed that it pocketed in the neighborhood of $25,ooo a year of
money which ought to have gone to the school fund. He also
knew that, while the Tribune had a cash market value of upwards
of three millions of dollars and should have been assessed for
purposes of general taxation at not less than $6oo,ooo, the company had managed things so that it was actually assessed at only
$I8,000o; and he saw that it annually pocketed in the neighborhood of $40,000 which should have gone into the public treasury
as taxes if the Tribune Company had paid the same proportion
of taxes on its property that other people paid on theirs. In
other words, he saw that the Tribune Company annually pocketed
upwards of $60o,ooo which, in equity and good conscience, should
have belonged to the public treasury; and he saw that, notwithstanding this fact, the owners of the Tribune were eminent and
highly respected citizens. The natural effect of all this was to
weaken the moral force of the young man, as well as his sense of
integrity. There is no question but that similar conditions exist




Pardons and Vetoes


253


in other large offices, and while this cannot be any excuse for the
commission of crime by employees, it is a fact that is to be deplored, and some remedy should be found.
The reaction to this stinging indictment of the most
powerful newspaper in the middle west may readily be
imagined. Not the Tribune only, but three other Chicago newspapers were at this time holding leases to school
lands on terms of the same nature, and these three lost
no time in swelling the outcry raised by their insulted
and injured colleague. For weeks the journalistic welkin
rang with vituperation of Altgeld and all his works. But
the Governor had accomplished his purpose of focusing
public attention upon a scandalous condition.
As an obvious rebuke to the "friend of criminals" and
"champion of lawlessness," the peerless Republican statesman who succeeded Governor Altgeld in I897 recommended in his first general message to the State legislature the creation of a board of pardons, "to assist the
Governor in the exercise of the power and to remedy some
of the abuses that have grown up in connection with it."
A board of three members, appointed by the Governor
and senate, was accordingly created by legislative act.
Although the pardoning power is left precisely where it
was before, as stipulated in the State constitution, the
board has proved decidedly useful in relieving the Governor of preliminary investigations and hearings on applications for pardons or commutations.
It is very commonly held that the gentler and more
pliant (or as some would express it, the weaker) qualities of an executive are revealed in his use of the pardoning power, while the sterner and tougher stuff that is in




254


Altgeld of Illinois


him appears in his exercise of the veto. This assumption is of course only roughly and partially true. The
highest form of courage may sometimes be required in
granting a pardon, where a united or nearly united public opinion must be braved; and legislative measures are
often vetoed for no other reason than a cowardly fear of
the electorate. But one need not put too fine a point
upon a generalization that is perhaps accurate enough in a
broad and relative sense. In his standard work on "The
American Commonwealth" (which, by the way, does not
mention the executive function of granting pardons),
James Bryce remarks that "the use of his veto is, in ordinary times, a Governor's most serious duty, and chiefly
by his discharge of it is he judged." "The merit of a
Governor is usually tested by the number and the boldness of his vetoes." An executive's "bold use of his veto
power conveys the impression of firmness; it shows that
he has a view and does not fear to give effect to it." That
a Governor may often successfully appeal "to the people
for reelection on the ground that he had defeated in
many and important instances the will of their representatives solemnly expressed in the votes of both Houses
is due not only to the distrust which the people entertain
of their legislatures, but also, to their honor be it said,
to the respect of the people for courage. They like
above all things a strong man."
In the light of Governor Altgeld's experience, some
of these statements are rather open to question. Few
executives of any State have made a freer and bolder
use of the veto power than he. No Governor of Illinois,
before or since his time, has been more resolute in protecting public interests against the scheming of corrupt
legislatures. During the first session of the Illinois gen



Pardons and Vetoes


255


eral assembly after the adoption of the new constitution in
I870, Governor Palmer disapproved eleven bills. Between this time and Governor Altgeld's administration
the veto power was used very little; in only three legislative sessions (those of 1873, 1877, and I889) did the
number of vetoes reach five. Governor Altgeld disapproved twenty-three bills in all-twelve during the legislative session of i893 and eleven during the session of
x895. During the three sessions immediately following
his retirement from office, the number of bills vetoed fell
below ten for each session.*
Of course, in matters of this kind, mere statistics tell
but an incomplete and imperfect story. Yet taking them
for what they are worth, they show that Governor Altgeld made what was (comparatively, at least) an unusually free use of the veto power. If, as James Bryce
believed, "the merit of a Governor is usually tested by
the number and the boldness of his vetoes," one can only
say that no such test was ever applied to Governor Altgeld by the general public. If the American people
really respect the firmness, courage, and strength required to defeat the will of legislatures, one can only admire the skill with which they were able to conceal their
sentiment in Altgeld's case. When he spurned a bribe
of half a million dollars and vetoed the "eternal monopoly bills," in defiance of a bought and paid for legisla.
ture, that public which "likes above all things a strong
man" was for the most part silent. Throughout his administration, and afterward, his veto record was virtually
ignored; while his pardon record, as conservative in fact
as the other was liberal, constituted the theme for endless anathemas and personal vilification.
*See Niels H. Debel's "The Veto Power of the Governor of Illinois."




CHAPTER XXIV


ALTGELD AND THE SILVER QUESTION
THE first two years of President Cleveland's second
administration constituted a period of little but misfortune for the American people, and brought little but
discredit to the Democratic party. Scarcely had the
administration got under way before the terrible financial storm of I893 broke upon the country. Fatuously
ascribing this panic principally to "the purchase and
coinage of silver," President Cleveland forced a reluctant
Congress in special session to repeal the Sherman SilverPurchase Act of I890, using methods which aroused the
wrath of civil service reformers and divided his party.
The President's courageous though impolitic efforts to
defeat the Hawaiian annexation plot incensed the jingo
elements in both political parties. Then, early in 1894,
came the fiasco of the first bond issue and the beginnings
of that dubious governmental alliance with Wall Street
which wrecked the President's reputation throughout
the West. The far more serious fiasco of the Wilson
tariff bill followed, with its odious background of
senatorial sugar scandals, predatory lobbying, and base
partisan squabbling, and its general betrayal of Democratic pledges-a betrayal in which, to his honor be it
said, President Cleveland had no part. Finally came the
disastrous railway strike of I894, in which the administration's autocratic action, delightful as it was to the
256




Altgeld and the Silver Question 257
press and the employing class, bitterly affronted organized
labor.
At the first opportunity, which came in the "off year"
elections of November, 1894, public opinion gave expression to its accumulated grievances in a Republican
landslide which swept nearly every section of the country. In Illinois the Congressional contests resulted in a
choice of twenty Republicans and two Democrats; the
Republican candidate for State treasurer received a majority of nearly I5o,ooo votes; and a scant Democratic
control in both houses of the State legislature was converted into a formidable Republican majority. By this
latter circumstance, Governor Altgeld's difficulties were
enormously increased during the last two years of his
term. The State legislature which convened early in
January, 1895, was not merely hostile to every measure
which he favored, but it was corrupt to a degree altogether unusual even in that era of corruption. This is
the legislature which, under orders of the Chicago
traction and gas rings, enacted the "eternal monopoly
bills" and all but re-enacted them over the Governor's
veto. No important creative legislation was passed at
this session. In an effort to embarrass the Democratic
administration, however, heavy appropriations were
voted which exceeded by a very large sum the estimated
revenues of the State for the biennial period of 1895-96.
Governor Altgeld's answer to this manoeuvre was a
proclamation calling the legislature into special session
on June 25 to authorize a tax levy sufficient for the
appropriations voted, and to enact other much-needed
legislation. After a long delay an additional tax levy
was authorized which, however, still left a deficit of
something more than a million dollars for the adminis



258


'Altgeld of Illinois


tration to cope with; and of the other measures recommended by the Governor, only one (the industrial
arbitration act) was passed.
So strongly was the tide of popular sentiment running
against the Cleveland administration in I895 that the
common Republican boast of being able to elect even a
"yellow dog" or a "rag baby" in the next year's Presidential contest seemed not unwarranted. It was obvious
enough, at any rate, that the only possible hope of the
Democrats lay in adopting some new battle-cry of
sufficient urgency to unite the now disrupted party and
also if possible to draw from the strength of their
opponents. In view of what had happened to the Wilson
bill at the hands of Democratic Senators, the specious
issue of tariff reform would no longer serve; and the two
parties were as yet at variance on no other question of
importance. But events outside the factitious realm
of politics had long been shaping an issue which neither
party could now longer ignore, much as it might wish
to do so. That issue was the silver question.
Untilj87,both gold and silver _hadihva  -- been
thy11                         h   vl~ aysbe
traditional American coins, and eitherjra1a might be
tay ane oa                tat               to
standard dollars at a ratio of sixteen parts silver to one
part  o  oeua finen is. By 1873, however, the
immense pro uction of silver had cheapened the market
value of that metal; the price of silver was continually
falling and fluctuating, and the old ratio of coinage was
no longer an accurate expression of relative value.
Under a Congressional act of 1873, silver was demonetized and the single gold standard adopted by the United
States. Meanwhile, the production of gold remained at
the best stationary, so that the value of the gold dollar




Altgeld and the Silver Question 259
appreciated as the supply of that metal shrank inropition tthe rapid froth of pnpulation. Under this
"contraction of the circulating medium," prices, bein
measuredin terms of old, continualy fel, whie   ts
incurred under the double standard system were now
payable in dollars of a                anbefore.
Widespread discontent with this condition, particularly in
the West and South, and the agitation of silver-mine
owners who desired a restored market for their product,
resulted in the Blanud-Aim Actnn   f r78 (passed over
President Hayes's veto by a Democratic House and a
Republican Senate), providing for? P-Qmption of silvedollar cinaige in n amnlnt of not less than two and not
more than four million dollars a month.  uring the
next six years silver maintained its value as measured
in terms of go   ld in the old ratio of i6 to i;but L
depreciation again set in, and the ratio had become 22
to i by. i889. Throughout his first term President
Cleveland repeatedly urgied ths.pension of further
c             Nevertheless, national industry continued to expand as the silver coinage increased in volume
year after year, and the gold balance was not unfavorably
affected. But while industry was prospering, the prices
of western and southern agricultural products steadily
declined. The western silver-mine owners, also, were
still unsatisfied, and demands for "free coinage" filled
the political atmosphere. After long wrangling and
many compromises, the efforts of a Republican Congress
to "do something for silver" resulted in the so-called
Sherman Act of I890, repealing the Bland-Allison
measure and requiring the government to purchase each
month 4,500,000 ounces of silver and to issue against it
legal tender notes redeemable on demand in "coin"



260


Altgeld of Illinois


impliedly, either gold or silver, at the discretion of the
Secretary of the Treasury. This Act, while it alarmed
the financiers, did little toward propitiating the "free
silver" elements, who now controlled the new and
vigorous People's party or "Populists" and were strongly
represented in both the major political parties. Silver,
moreover, continued to decline in relation to gold, the
ratio standing at 26.49 to I in I893.
Although the silver question overshadowed all others
during the early nineties, opinion was so evenly divided
within the Republican and Democratic parties that neither
dared to bring the issue sharply to the front. In the
Presidential campaign of 1892 both platforms were
evasive on the subject. Only the despised Populists
faced the question boldly by declaring for "the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at the present legal ratio of
I6 to I."   By denouncing the Sherman Act as "a
cowardly makeshift," the Democrats endeavored to
placate gold and silver elements alike. But the financial
panic of 1893, the Sherman Act repeal in that year, and
the bond sales scandals of 1894 made further dodging
and straddling very difficult for either party. "Free
silver" sentiment was sweeping across the West like a
prairie fire, obliterating the old party lines and arousing
an almost fanatical enthusiasm. Even in the conservative East the fire smoldered vigorously. Silver conventions and bimetallic conferences were held throughout
the country; organizations representing every shade of
opinion on the currency question sprang into being. The
politicians, eager as always to avoid any issue upon which
public opinion is widely and strongly aroused, were in a
quandary. While neither main party was prepared to
take the risk involved in an open espousal of "free silver,"




Altgeld and the Silver Question 26I
neither was yet willing to concede to the other a "plank"
of such manifest popularity. Gradually, however, and
almost in spite of themselves, the two parties became
aligned on opposite sides of the question, although the
issue was not definitely and decisively joined until the
national Presidential conventions of 1896 had adjourned.
Judging from the available records, Governor Altgeld
seems to have taken no conspicuous interest in the currency question until early in 1895. His collected speeches
and writings contain only two or three direct references
to the subject before that year. In a brief statement
solicited by a New York journal during the summer of
1893, he attributed the financial panic then prevailing
to an insufficient volume of currency, placing blame for
this condition upon the silver demonetization act of
I873. Touching upon this same matter in a speech of
October, 1894, he said: "I have nothing to say for
silver or for any other kind of money. I am only speaking of the effect upon the industries and commerce of the
world of reducing the volume of money in the world."
But as the question began to emerge as an inescapable
political issue, his attitude became more definite. During
the spring of 1895 he warmly supported a proposed
"silver convention" of Illinois Democrats to be held in
June for the purpose of ascertaining party sentiment.
Writing to Governor Stone of Missouri in this connection, he said:
More than one-half of the Republicans of our State are outspoken and active free-silver men, and if our party takes a firm
position on this subject and the Republican party straddles the
question, as it will be obliged to do, we will sweep the country
and achieve a greater victory than we ever have. On the other




262


Altgeld of Illinois


hand, if this agitation dies out and our convention next year straddles the money question and leaves us in a position where we
stand for nothing, then I can see no object in the world in even
making a campaign, for there will not be enough left of us to
bury the dead when the fight is over.
At the time this was written, however, neither Altgeld
nor anyone else could say precisely what the "firm
position" must be that was to prevent an overwhelming
Democratic defeat in the elections of I896. The Republican nominating conventions preceded the Democratic; and if more than half of the Illinois Republicans
were "outspoken and active free-silver men," there was
at least a very good chance that the State Republican
party would declare for "free silver." No less than ten
Republican conventions in other States did indeed embody
such a declaration in their I896 platforms. It was even
possible that the national Republican convention might
adopt a silver plank. In that event, nothing would be
left to the Democrats but to rally their broken forces to
the gold cause. While "free silver" sentiment had perhaps a larger and firmer hold in the Democratic party
than in the Republican, the national Democratic administration was almost wholly a "gold bug" affair. Such
Democratic leaders as Altgeld might scourge President
Cleveland as fiercely as they pleased; revolting groups
within the party might repudiate his leadership; nevertheless, adherence to the single gold standard was still
definitely associated in the public mind with Democratic
policy. That association, though it brought little aid
and comfort to the majority of Democrats, yet served
to prevent Republican leaders from following what would
no doubt have been their natural preference for the gold




Altgeld and the Silver Question 263


side of the currency question. "Free silver," at any rate,
was a most alluring maiden, whatever the sour spinsters
of Wall Street might say to her discredit; and both parties
began a vigorous flirtation with her, leaving the final
declaration of intentions to come when necessity decreed.
In view of the hopelessly tangled political situation, and
the prevailing ignorance of politicians and general public
alike in regard to the currency question, this was perhaps
the only safe strategy.
During the early months of I896 the situation began
to clarify somewhat. As far as Illinois was concerned,
it seemed probable enough that the Democratic party
would stand with Governor Altgeld and declare for "free
silver," although a gold standard minority within the
party was extremely active. At a meeting held about the
middle of April, this minority endorsed Altgeld's
administration and advocated his reelection. The
Governor at once denounced this action as a political
ruse, intended to deceive his friends, and added:
As I am not a candidate for Governor or any other position,
I do not want the indorsement of anybody. Even were I a candidate and anxious to be elected, I would not for a hundred Governorships stifle my convictions on so momentous a question as
that which lies at the bottom of our miseries... The continuation of the single gold standard means the permanent degredation of the great toiling and producing masses of this country,
and I shall do what little I can to prevent this. I shall do what
I can to restore the free coinage of gold and silver exactly as it
stood when a Republican Congress corruptly struck down silver.
On May i6 Governor Altgeld delivered in Chicago
a long and carefully prepared "non-partisan" speech on
the money question, examining the entire subject in de



264            Altgeld of Illinois
tail and quoting freely from many prominent advocates
of bimetallism. Here, again, he attributed the financial
depression to "the great reduction in the volume of money
in the world, incident to destroying silver as a money
metal." By way of remedy, he advocated immediate
restoration of free gold and silver coinage according to
the old standard of i6 to i. This ratio, he argued, need
not be a permanent one, but it was necessary as a first
step toward getting out of the woods and back on to the
highway. If a fairer ratio could be devised later, every
reasonable bimetallist would accept it. But "it would be
manifestly wrong to adopt the present market ratio,
which is the result of giving gold a monopoly of the
money function in the world and of demonetizing silver
by law." While in hearty accord with those who wanted
an international agreement on the money question, he felt
that "we must relieve our people, whether the other
nations come or not. Inasmuch as our government led
the way in striking down silver, it should lead the way in
restoring it, and it can in the very act of restoration make
such trade regulations as will compel those nations which
desire to trade with us to enter into an agreement with
us on the money question."
Meanwhile, the Republican State convention had met
at Springfield, and had straddled the currency issue just
as Altgeld predicted that it would. Its platform declared
opposition "to any and every scheme that will give to
this country a currency in any way depreciated or debased
or in any respect inferior to the money of the most advanced and intelligent nations of the earth. We favor
the use of silver as currency, but to the extent only and
under such restrictions that parity with gold can be maintained." After cleansing their bosoms of this perilous




Altgeld and the Silver Question 265
stuff, and nominating John R. Tanner for Governor, the
exhausted statesmen retired from the field. Tanner's
nomination, it should be noted, was a direct sequel to
the defeat suffered by Charles T. Yerkes, when his
"eternal monopoly bills" were vetted by Governor
Altgeld in I895. Altgeld's veto had shown that the old
"system" was not in good working order. "Yerkes, a
great man in his class, set about making it go. In a
quiet 'business-like' way he 'favored' John R. Tanner
for Governor on the Republican ticket for the election
of I896. Tanner came as near being a State boss as
any man in Illinois politics, and he was 'safe.' He was
nominated." This bit of politico-financial history is
from Lincoln Steffens's "The Struggle for Self-Government." A writer in The Outlook puts the matter a little
more explicitly: "Angered at the defeat of his project,
Mr. Yerkes decided to name the next Governor of the
State himself and thus be sure of having a man who would
carry out his wishes; and in this he succeeded."
The Democratic State convention assembled at Peoria
on June 23. A few days before, the national Republican
delegates at St. Louis had cast their die for the single
gold standard, and there could now be little doubt as to
what course the Democrats would follow. In his speech
at the opening of the Peoria convention, Governor
Altgeld dismissed the tariff issue as a political "dead
horse," and urged that the Democratic party could only
hope for success by waging a clear-cut campaign for the
remonetization of silver. On this all-important question, Democrats "must speak with no uncertain sound.
Hedging renders a party impotent, reduces it to a mere
office-getting machine, and makes it contemptible....
We must state our position clearly, and live up to it." In




266


Altgeld of Illinois


the matter of ratio, he pointed out that while theoretically the bimetallic system does not depend on any
particular ratio, a specific declaration on this point was
necessary "in order that we may not lose the fruits of
victory in case we win, and no man having suggested anything better, the only thing for us to do is to declare for
that historic ratio [I6 to I] under which we prospered
and which is in harmony with our whole financial system."
At the close of his speech he made it perfectly clear that
he had no wish to be renominated for a second term.
I am not in a condition to stand for re-election. My health
has been so badly broken that it is necessary for me to get out of
the intense strain that I have been under for several years.
Again, at the time of my election I had large property interests,
but was greatly in debt. Since then property has been constantly
shrinking in value and becomes less and less productive. This,
added to the fact that I have had to neglect my affairs to some extent, has reduced me to a situation where I am not financially
able to make a campaign, and where justice to my creditors requires that I should give my time to my own affairs rather than
to the public. I have no desire to be rich, but I must try to give
every man his due. I have given the public four of the best years
of my life, and have done the best I could.
I do not desire to longer hold office. I believe in the potency
of the successful private individual, and if I could have my choice
should choose that path. I have no ambition to be a party leader
or to be prominent in politics. I am not unmindful of the honor
the Democratic party has conferred on me, and I am ready to do
what I can to serve my country; but I must ask that some one
of the many able and patriotic men in the party be placed at the
head and that I be permitted to retire.
Notwithstanding this declaration, Governor Altgeld
was renominated by a large majority, and the convention




Altgeld and the Silver Question 267
voted unanimously for a platform which demanded "the
immediate restoration of the free and unlimited coinage
of both gold and silver at the ratio of i 6 ounces of silver
to i ounce gold of equal fineness, with full legal-tender
power to each metal, without waiting for or depending
on any other nation on earth." 'Shortly after the convention closed both the ticket and the platform were endorsed by the People's party of Illinois.




CHAPTER XXV


THE NATIONAL CONVENTIONS OF 1896
LONG before the national Republican delegates assembled
at St. Louis in June, 1896, William McKinley had been
virtually selected as the party's presidential candidate.
Two main considerations dictated this choice. Republican leaders were still hoping against hope that the battle
of 1896 might be reduced to the usual Tweedledum and
Tweedledee hair-pulling over the tariff "issue," in which
event McKinley would of course be the "logical"
standard-bearer. Meanwhile, it was necessary to keep
an anchor to windward by "favoring" a candidate
whose record on the currency issue was sufficiently
muddled to alarm neither the gold men nor the silver men
within the party, but who yet might be depended upon to
follow party lead in either direction if further straddling
on this issue should prove impossible. As a member of
Congress, McKinley had in 1877 and 1878 voted for
"free silver," for the Bland-Allison bill and for its passage over President Hayes's veto. In 1890 he supported
the Sherman Silver-Purchase act, declaring it to be the
next best thing to free coinage. "I am in favor of the
use of all the silver product of the United States for
money as circulating medium," he wrote at that time;
"I would have silver and gold alike" (whatever this
means). A year later, however, while running for
Governor of Ohio, he denounced independent free coin268




The National Conventions of i896 269
age of silver. During the months just preceding the
Republican convention of I896, though many sought the
Canton oracle, its lips were locked on the currency question. Not until the cat finally jumped at St. Louis did
anyone (least of all, perhaps, McKinley himself) know
where the "logical Republican candidate" stood with
reference to that question. To the very last he
cherished a pathetic hope that he would be permitted to
centre his campaign on the tariff; * and in this hope both
he and the Republican rank-and-file were encouraged by
Mark Hanna, the tutelary god of the Canton "man of
destiny." But Mark Hanna was himself no lost babe
in the political woods. He had long realized that the
currency question was bound to be uppermost in the I896
campaign, and he had decided that the Republican convention should declare for the single gold standard. It
did. The party platform, as read to the St. Louis convention on June I8, contained this plank:
The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money...
We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase
our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are therefore opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by international
agreement with the leading commercial nations of "the world,
which we pledge ourselves to promote; and until such agreement
can be obtained, the existing gold standard must be preserved.
All our silver and paper money must be maintained at parity with
gold; and we favor all measures designed to maintain inviolably
the obligations of the United States, and all our money, whether
*"During a conference, probably before Bryan's nomination, McKinley said, 'I am a Tariff man standing on a Tariff platform. This money
matter is unduly prominent. In thirty days you won't hear anything
about it."' J. F. Rhodes's "The McKinley and Roosevelt Administrations," page I9.                                      X




270


Altgeld of Illinois


coin or paper, at the present standard, the standard of the most
enlightened nations of the earth.
The dramatic withdrawal of thirty-four silver delegates, led by Senator Teller of Colorado, followed soon
after the reading of the platform. McKinley was then
nominated for the Presidency by an overwhelming vote,
with Garret A. Hobart as running mate; and the convention adjourned. "American politics will reach a low
ebb when Mr. McKinley is nominated for President,"
wrote the editor of Harper's Weekly in his issue of
June 20, I896. "The nation's honor must be preserved"
(by the election of McKinley) was the mast-head slogan
in every issue of this same periodical throughout the
following campaign.
While the Republican convention had met at St. Louis
with a predetermined candidate but without a definite
policy on the foremost issue of the day, the national
Democratic convention assembled at Chicago on July 7
with a predetermined policy on that issue but without a
candidate. By July I, thirty-three of the fifty State and
Territorial Democratic conventions had declared for free
silver coinage at the ratio of I6 to I, and their delegates
to the national convention were pledged accordingly.
Quite aside from this fact, however, the Republican
currency plank adopted at St. Louis left the Democrats
virtually no choice save an active alliance with the Populist party in behalf of silver. But the candidate was still
to seek; although Richard P. Bland of Missouri, a
veteran worker in the silver cause, was generally favored.
The situation was accurately summed up by a correspondent of the New York World, organ of the Cleve



The National Conventions of 1896           271
lan                rats, in this sentence:  "The Silverites will be invincible if united and harmonious; but
they have neither machine nor boss. The opportunity
is here; the man is lacking."
But if the Silverites had no boss, in the finary
EOoi ses         y iaealer.            From the very
opening of the convention, itsdm;Iinating -.pnt._. as
Govenar Atg          Illinois, although that fact was
perhaps not fully apparent until after the second day.
Altgeld was the brain and will of the convention, as
Bryan was-very literally-its voice. Bryan's nomination was in the nature of an accident; Altgeld's leadership was inevitable from his abilities, his courage, and his
practical political sagacity. During the months immediately preceding the convention, he had done more than
any other man in the Democratic party to forecast its
character, to create the situation and shape the issues
which were there developed. Possibly the situation and
the issues would have been the same in any case; but if
Altgeld had not been able to control events, at least he
had foreseen their drift more clearly than other Democratic leaders and he had labored more consistently than
any other to mold party policy into an uncompromising
stand on the question which he knew would be foremost
in the campaign of I896. In the convention itself, he
was an active and powerful force at every stage.
It was his personality around which the convention proceedings revolved as far as caucus direction was concerned. He was
also the central figure in the free silver conference in which the
platform was mapped out for adoption of the I6 to I platform.
On the convention floor and in secret caucuses outside, Altgeld,
was cajoled, threatened, challenged, and browbeaten by leaders




272


Altgeld of Illinois


of the different factions; but in spite of it all he stood firm, and
to him more than to any other one man was attributed by leaders
of the free silver element the power which finally secured the
I6 to i platform.*
On the first day of the convention the silver forces won
an important strategic victory in electing Senator John
W. Daniel, an ardent bimetallist, as temporary chairman.
The national party committee, controlled by a majority
hostile to silver, had presented the name of David B.
Hill of New York for this position; and according to
traditional practice, the convention should have ratified
this selection. Upon roll call, however, the vote stood
556 for Daniel and 349 for Hill. Next day the convention voted to unseat the "bolting" gold delegation
from Nebraska in favor of a contesting silver delegation
led by William J. Bryan; and four gold delegates from
Michigan were supplanted by silver men, thus giving the
silver faction (under the unit rule) the solid vote of
Michigan. The silver majority was also augmented by
increasing the representation of each Territory from two
members to six. Senator S. M. White of California
was then elected permanent chairman of the convention.
While the delegates were awaiting the report of the platform committee, there were numerous calls for Governor
Altgeld. At first he refused to speak, urging that
Senator Hill of New York should be heard instead.
After learning that Hill was absent, the chairman formally invited Altgeld to address the convention. His
speech was extemporaneous, and occupied only about
fifteen minutes in the delivery. He recounted the evils
that had followed the demonetization act of 1873; he


* Chicago Chronicle, March x3, I90z.




The National Conventions of I896 273
denounced those forces in the convention that were
advocating the usual straddle and compromise on the
great question before them; he pleaded for a declaration
of principles "that will admit of no quibble, that will
mean the same thing on the mountain, in the valley, and at
the seashore." It was not a brilliant speech, or an impassioned one; but the keynote of "No compromise,"
which Altgeld struck again and again, was precisely
attuned to the prevailing mood of the convention. The
demonstration that followed was the most enthusiastic
evoked by any of the speakers save only Mr. Bryan, whose
now famous "crown of thorns and cross of gold" speech
came a day later. To the eastern press correspondents,
steeped in the horrific Altgeld-myths of their employers,
this demonstration was full of sinister portents. One of
these gentry, describing the speaker and his speech for a
noted New York "journal of civilization," sought to
freeze the blood of Wall Street with the following imaginary portrait:
John P. Altgeld, with his sharply chiselled French Revolution
face, his high ringing voice, his bitter vehemence of manner, and
his facility for epithet, was the most picturesque figure in the assemblage... No one could listen to the flow of natural eloquence from Altgeld's lips without feeling that here was a guiding spirit in the lower social plane of any community in which
he might dwell. He manifestly understood the weaknesses of
human nature, and knew how to play on them with Satanic
shrewdness. No personality in the convention was less obtrusively in evidence than he; no orator was more eagerly heard when
he spoke; none knew so well in what order to spring his halftruths at his audience and where to shut off the stream; none
measured with such cleverness the meaning of the plaudits in
response, or realized so promptly when he had reached a climax




274              Altgeld    of Illinois
which he could safely cap with a bit of his keen invective. One
could not help marking him, at short notice, as the most dangerous
influence in the convention-the stamp of agitator who, when the
bludgeon had failed of its full work, would be ready with his
poisoned knife, and who, in leading a victory-drunken mob,
would not hesitate to follow pillage with the torch.*
As an antidote to this bit of journalistic hysteria, it is
refreshing to turn to the pen portrait of another observer at the convention-one who viewed the actors and
the scenes in that drama not with the eyes of a mediaeval
heresy-hunter, but with the clear vision of a trained,
intelligent, and impartial student of public affairs. After
speaking of Mr. Bryan's appearance and manner in the
convention ("a strong-limbed, strong-lunged athlete, stalwart, confident, and bold, with the rude force and enthusiasm of youth-with something, too, of its crudeness and
immaturity,-but buoyant, assertive, 'magnetic,' with a
power of homely and forceful eloquence that takes popular audiences by storm, a 'man of the people,' a 'commoner,' a radical and an optimist, with unbounded faith
in Providence, in the Republic, and in himself"), this
writer gives by way of contrast the following picture of
Governor Altgeld:
A pale, intellectual, thoughtful man, with a sad and serious
face; a temperament reflective and philosophical, yet alert and
ready; calm, intrepid, and inflexible, able to stand alone against
a thousand, yet quick to see the essential or potential elements in
a situation and masterful in shaping them to desired ends; a man
impatient at obstacles and objections, yet one to whom ultimate
purposes and principles are more than present gains, and who
knows how to bide his time; of unyielding courage and endurance,
yet no voluntary martyr; able equally to bear attacks in silence
* Francis E. Leupp in Harper's Weekly for July I8, I896.




The National Conventions of I896 275
or to give back blow for blow; a friend of humanity, and a hater
of injustice to others as to himself; a keen critic of social institutions, who thinks one should not only desire improvement but
should work practically to attain it; a mature student of politics
and society, who sees clearly the costs and difficulties of reform;
a man of independent fortune, whose place is yet by choice among
the party of the poor; a public speaker lacking or disdaining the
arts of oratory, yet swaying vast audiences by his earnestness and
the force of his logical appeal; a semi-invalid who is yet capable
of the most vigorous and sustained exertions, and whose physical
powers are able to support the activities of his restless brain only
by a will-force which, "like seasoned timber, never gives"; a
nature somewhat passionate and quick, yet subdued to habitual
self-control; tried and tempered by adversity, yet kindly and
sympathetic to all who deserve his courtesy;-such, roughly
sketched, are some of the traits and characteristics of that remarkable man known as Governor Altgeld of Illinois, one of the most
interesting and heroic figures in American public life. I watched
him at the Convention, where he sat quietly in his place among
the delegates, the centre and often the directing spirit of the
exciting scenes, yet outwardly the most unmoved man upon the
floor. I have for several years watched his career and studied
his character;.. In appearance he is about medium height, of
well-developed figure, and hair and beard untouched with grey.,His manners are dignified, and his face is at once strong and refined,-in fact, he is one whose presence would attract attention
in any company of distinguished men. Something in his expression, and in his careless manner of allowing his hair to fall over
his forehead, marks him peculiarly as the caricaturist's prey,very much as Mr. Howells, the novelist, whose gentle manners
and kindly disposition endear him to all who know him, has
yet something in the shape of his face and the matting of his
hair which causes his pictures to represent him often as an uncomely ruffian.*
* Francis Fisher Browne in The National Review. (London) for
December, x896.




276


Altgeld of Illinois


On July 9 the committee on resolutions placed before
the convention a platform which declared the currency
question "paramount to all others at this time" and contained the following plank on that subject:
We are unalterably opposed to monometallism, which has
locked fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the paralysis
of hard times.... We demand the free and unlimited coinage
of both silver and gold at the present legal ratio of i6 to i without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand that the silver dollar shall be a full legal tender, equally
with gold, for all debts, public and private; and we favor such
legislation as will prevent for the future the demonetization of
any kind of legal-tender money by private contract.
For the rest, the platform condemned either directly
or by inference nearly every prominent act and policy of
President Cleveland's administration. "The issuing of
interest-bearing bonds of the United States in time of
peace and... the trafficking with banking syndicates"
were denounced; as was also "arbitrary interference by
Federal authorities in local affairs," and especially "government by injunction" which was described as "a new
and highly dangerous form of oppression, by which Federal judges become at once legislators, judges, and
executioners." The Supreme Court was criticized for
reversing precedents in order to declare unconstitutional
the income tax clause of the Wilson tariff act, and the
possibility of another reversal on this question by the
same court "as it might hereafter be constituted" was
suggested. "Life tenure in the public service" was disapproved in favor of appointments for fixed terms of
office; and an enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission was demanded, together




The National Conventions of I896 277
with such "control of railroads as will protect the people
from robbery and oppression." The usual platitudes
about such matters as the tariff, the Monroe Doctrine,
pensions, Cuban independence, etc., completed the
platform.
Following the reading of this document, a forlorn hope
in behalf of a minority report signed by sixteen members
of the committee on resolutions was led by such conservatives as Hill of New York, Vilas of Wisconsin, and exGovernor Russell of Massachusetts. But the young and
until then little-known Bryan of Nebraska, in a speech
that is now historic, swept them down like men of straw
and aroused the convention to a cyclone of enthusiasm
such as no other American political gathering before or
since has ever witnessed. The majority platform was
adopted by a vote of more than two to one. Nothing
now remained but the selection of candidates for President and Vice-President. In the voting next day, Richard
P. Bland of Missouri, "the father of free silver," led on
the first three ballots, with Mr. Bryan not very far be.
hind. On the fifth ballot the latter received the necessary
number of votes for nomination; and Arthur Sewall of
Maine was then chosen as candidate for Vice-President.
It is impossible, as a writer who has already been
quoted in this chapter clearly pointed out at the moment,
to arrive at an understanding of this remarkable convention without considering it at the outset as the expression  v
of a great social and economic revolt.
This theory enables us to comprehend its character and motives,
although we may not accept its logic and its method..... Two
things were needed at the outset: a concrete purpose, and a leader.
The old issues were felt to be outworn and inadequate, and the




278


Altgeld of Illinois


old leaders were discarded with them. The pervading feeling
was that of Lowell's line:
"New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good
uncouth."
The concrete purpose-the credo, the shibboleth, the sought-for
panacea-was found in the words "Free Silver."  It was in favor
already with a majority of the delegates, and when offered to
the convention was received with eager readiness and adopted
with boundless enthusiasm and delight. A great party had found
its creed and formula, a cause had found its watchword and
rallying-cry, a suffering people had found the key to its deliverance,
humanity had found a new hope and inspiration. The outburst
of joy and exultation was indescribable; it was splendid as a
spectacle, however saddening to those who, like myself, were
unable to share in the beliefs and expectations that inspired it.
It was this scene in the convention that was described by hostile
critics as a "political debauch," a "frenzy," and an "orgy"; some
excited observers (at a distance) compared it with the conventions in Paris before the Reign of Terror; in London, as we
are told by Mr. Stead in his Review of Reviews, the important
information was vouchsafed that "Hell was broken loose at
Chicago." I have attended many of the national conventions of
both parties, and the one thus uncharitably described appeared
to me to differ from the others chiefly in its greater enthusiasm
and spontaneity. It was essentially the most genuine and impromptu political movement that has been known for many a
decade. It was really the birth of a new party-a party devoted
in spirit, whatever its mistakes of method, to human rights and
human progress, to the welfare of the common people, to the
promulgation of a newer and truer Democracy. Such were the
feelings and convictions of a strong majority in the convention;
the old and conservative leaders, startled at the progress of events,
and seeing the direction of affairs rapidly passing from their control, looked on in dismay and protest, but were powerless to stay
the rising tide. The convention was in the hands of new men




The National Conventions of I896 279
animated by new thoughts and purposes, and guiding it toward
new issues and new destinies.*
Although Governor Altgeld, more than any other
leader of his party, had shaped and guided those policies
and issues which dominated the national Democratic convention of I896, there is slight foundation in fact for the
assertion later frequently made by friends and foes alike
that he literally wrote the adopted platform. He was
not a member of the committee on resolutions, and so
played no direct part in framing the platform-whatever
his indirect influence may have been. Its cardinal feature, the free silver plank, had been written by Mr. Bryan
some time before the convention met. Some of Altgeld's
close friends, even those who assert that he "wrote" the
Chicago platform, hold to the belief that he never really
favored the i6 to I ratio, but consented to its inclusion
in the silver plank in order to placate the more radical
free silverites and secure the adoption of other planks
in which he was more keenly interested. At this late
day it is difficult to get at the exact truth in such matters;
but in the absence of conclusive testimony to the contrary,
we must suppose that Altgeld's position regarding the I6
to I ratio was what he stated it to be in his speech before
the Democratic State convention at Peoria, on June 23,
I896:
Theoretically the bimetallic system does not depend on any
particular ratio, and if this question could be considered by Congress on its merits alone and free from outside pressure, it is
probable the subject of a ratio would not be discussed at all
by the public. But... it being necessary to make s specific
* Francis Fisher Browne in The National Reevicw (London) for
December, x896.




a80


Altgeld of Illinois


declaration in order that we may not lose the fruits of victory
in case we win, and no man having suggested anything better,
the only thing for us to do is to declare for that historic ratio
under which we prospered and which is in harmony with our
w'.ie financial system.
Still less foundation exists in fact for the assertion so
often heard in the ensuing campaign that Governor Altgeld was personally responsible for Mr. Bryan's nomination-that, to quote a typical journalistic source, "it was
he who chose Mr. Bryan in preference to Mr. Bland, and
induced the convention to nominate the fervid and plastic young Nebraska orator... who would be as clay in
the hands of the potter under the astute control of the
ambitious and unscrupulous Illinois communist." * Until
Mr. Bryan's momentous speech on the third day of the
convention, he had never been seriously considered as
a possible Presidential candidate. The Illinois delegation, of which Governor Altgeld was chairman, went to
the convention pledged to support Bland; it did support
him on the first four ballots, and only switched its support
to Mr. Bryan on the fifth ballot, after Bland's chances
had become hopeless.
But common conjecture regarding the national Democratic convention of I896 undoubtedly hit the bull's-eye
of truth with at least one of its shafts. Save for the
Constitutional clause which debars a citizen of foreign
birth from holding office as President of the United
States, Governor Altgeld would in all likelihood have received the Democratic nomination in 896. Even so hostile an observer as Mr. H. H. Kohlsaat, then owner of
one of the great Republican newspapers of Chicago, ad* Harper's Weekly, October 17, x896.




The National Conventions of I896 28I


mits this.* In connection with this point, a letter written by Governor Altgeld to Hon. James S. Hogg of
Texas, and bearing date of June 8, I896, is of no little
interest.
I feel highly flattered by your inquiry, but am glad to be able
to say that I am not eligible to the Presidency. I was born in
Germany, and came to this country when I was three months
old.
While I am an enthusiastic American and almost a crank on
the subject of republican institutions and of government by the
people, still I do not know what effect the buzzing of a Presidential bee might have upon my nervous system. I notice that
it weakens most men. They are in constant fear of spoiling
their chances, and consequently accomplish nothing.
We have had three or four great Presidents, but as a rule
the great men of this country have not been Presidents. In
fact, the men whose labors made republican institutions possible
in America, and most of the men who later on shaped our destinies, were men who could not have been elected President. It
requires positive and aggressive men to do much for their country.
Could I have my choice in the matter I should prefer belonging
to the latter; but as it is, I expect to walk in the shady valleys
and to seek contentment in the humbler walks of life.
On July 22 both the Populist party and the so-called
"silver Republicans" met at St. Louis, endorsed free silver, and nominated Mr. Bryan for the Presidency, although the Populist convention substituted the name of
Thomas E. Watson of Georgia for that of Arthur Sewall
as candidate for Vice-President. Meanwhile, a considIn his political recollections, "From McKinley to Harding," Mr.
Kohlsaat writes: "The dominant figure [at the Chicago convention]
was Governor John P. Altgeld, of Illinois. Born in Germany, he was ineligible for the Presidency or would in all probability have been the
nominee."




282


Altgeld of Illinois


erable section of the Prohibition Party, known as "broad
gaugers," had already adopted a platform favoring free
coinage at the I6 to i ratio. For several weeks the gold
standard or Cleveland Democrats, most of whom had
abstained from balloting in the Chicago convention, were
uncertain as to what course they should pursue, the majority finally deciding upon an independent campaign. The
Illinois members of this faction met at Chicago on August
25, and adopted a platform which, while it had little to
say about silver, was uncompromising in its adherence to
the gold standard. It extolled President Cleveland, declared that the national Democratic convention had been
dominated by "agitators, sectionalists, and demagogues,"
and denounced the "shameful demand for a debased dollar." The convention selected John C. Black as its candidate for Governor; Black later declined to run, and William S. Forman was named in his place. A national
convention of gold Democrats assembled at Indianapolis
early in September, with delegates present from fortyone States, and three Territories. The adopted platform
of this "National Democratic Party," as it decided to
style itself, condemned "the Populist conventions of Chicago and St. Louis," urged the maintenance of a single
gold standard, and praised the "fidelity, patriotism, and
courage" of President Cleveland in fulfilling "his great
public trust," in maintaining "civil order and the enforcement of the laws," and in upholding "the credit and
honor of the nation." Ex-Governor John M. Palmer of
Illinois and General Simon B. Buckner of Kentucky were
nominated as this party's standard-bearers.




CHAPTER XXVI


THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896
WHEN some social psychologist of the future undertakes
to prepare that much-needed work, "Studies in American
Mass-Hysteria," he will find the material for two of his
principal chapters in episodes with which Governor Altgeld's name is nationally associated-the Chicago anarchist case and the Presidential campaign of I896. And
to the extent that they deal specifically with the direct
and indirect role played by Altgeld in each episode, the
second of these chapters will form a sequel to the first,
while the first will account for much that would otherwise be inexplicable in the second.
The campaign of 1896 will always remain one of the
most memorable in te istory of American politics. The
issues raised and the principles involved at the beginning
of the contest were the most clear-cut and vital that had
been presented to the electorate since the Civil War. In
its broadest aspect, it was "the first greatprotest of the
American people against monopoly-the first reat srgle of the ma......       tthepi
iisi'     As James Parton said of the Jacksonian contests, "nearly all the ancient wealth, nearly all the business activity, nearly all the book-nourished intelligence,
nearly all the silver-forked civilization of the country"
were united in opposition to the Democratic platform and
candidate. But it was a sectional as well as a class strug283




284


Altgeld of Illinois


gle, with the West and South arrayed almost solidly
a ainst    ot th nor!e tat        e outset bot sides
proclaimed that this was to be a campaign of education,
and indeed much educational work was done: tons of
printed matter were distributed, and thousands of speakers expounded the principles of finance and government
to receptiye audiences. ourivg apeid of fourteen
weeks, Mr. Bryan made four st urs            ssthe
coutry covering eighteen thousand miles in all, and
speaking nearly six hundred times before a total of probably five million persons. Throughout this remarkable
canvass he never dodged the main issue or stooped to
personal abuse of his opponents; his energy, enthusiasm,
courtesy, and good humor were unfailing. McKinley, on
the other hand, was permitted by his manager, the astute
Mark   anna, to take no chances in the open field. His
part consisted in making impressive frocc-coated appearances on his Canton veranda, before delegations of pious
pilgrims whom he urged to stand firm for "sound money"
and the grand old system of protectionism. For the less
fugitive and cloistered activities of the campaign, Mark
Hanna had his own far-flung army of shock troops, picked
for the work and amply provided with the sinews of war.
But what began as a campaign of education soon degenerated, on the Republican side, into a campaign of vituperation and then into an orgy of emotion and panic. Before the end of Mr. Bryan's first "swing around the circle" Hanna and his lieutenants realized quite clearly that
to accept the Democratic challenge and argue the currency
question on its own merits before the country would
result in certain defeat for their party-not, of course,
because the silver arguments were invincible, but because
of   _ te amt fanatical devotion amon the common peo



The Campaign of i896


285


ie to "free silver" as a cure-for the economic ills under
which thev-suffered.  It was therefore necessar      t
the campaign into entirely new channels, to veil the main
issue under specious plans for "sound money" and an
"honest dollar" and at the same time to discredit the
Democratic leaders by calling hard names and charging
sinister motives. For the successful execution of this
purpose, Governor Altgeld's prominence on the Democratic sboo
horts. Altgeld had pardoned the surviving Chicago
'anarchists"; ergo, Altgeld was himself an "anarchist";
ergo, any cause which Altgeld championed was "anarchistic"; ergo, any champions of a cause which Altgeld
championed were either themselves "anarchists" or pup.
pets of the "arch-anarchist." In the light of such impregnable logic as this, the Democratic "plot against organized society" stood revealed and explained-for campaign purposes. With its usual insight and veracity, and
something more than its usual restraint, Harper's Weekly
put the situation in a nutshell as follows:
Governor Altgeld, as we have already said, is the brain and
inspiration of the movement for which Mr. Bryan stands. He
is the candidate's most trusted adviser. It is he who chose Mr.
Bryan in preference to Mr. Bland, and induced the convention to
nominate the fervid and plastic young Nebraska orator..
Governor Altgeld preferred the impulsive, susceptible, imaginative,
yielding Mr. Bryan, who had always shown himself ready to
make war on society, who was accepted as a Populist by Populists themselves, and who would be as clay in the hands of the
potter under the astute control of the ambitious and unscrupulous
Illinois communist, who had become the leader of all the disturbing forces in the country by reason of his defense and
pardon of the Chicago anarchists, To Governor Altgeld the


/I




286


Altgeld of Illinois


passage of a law establishing free coinage of silver would be but
a step towards the general socialism which is the fundamental
doctrine of his political belief. The money question is but one
of the issues on which he seeks to overturn the old parties, the old
traditions, and the essential policies which have controlled the
government since its foundation. He favored Mr. Bryan because
he knew that he would be the power in Mr. Bryan's administration; and he is not seeking merely to make money cheaper, but
through a war on capital to revolutionize politics and society.*
This conception of Governor Altgeld as the real power
in the silver movement, w         r. Bran as his t      soon
became the dominant idea in the entire Republican campaign. Every conceivable effort was made to place upon
the national Democratic party and its candidate the odium
attaching in the public mind to Altgeld and his alleged
"criminal sympathies and anarchistic tendencies."    The
cry of "anarchy" was incessantly trumpeted to the four
winds by every Republican agency capable of emitting a
noise. As the campaign progressed, these tactics became
more reckless and violent and discursive. Altgeld was
"an enemy of the Constitution"; he stood for "all the
essential doctrines of Jeff Davis and Herr Most"; and
his "final aim and purpose" were declared to be nothing
less than the "overthrow of law and order, the rights of
property, and conservative government in the United
States." Oddly enough, the most active and thoroughgoing practitioners of this sort of moral assassination
were the revered clergymen, the urbane "scholars in
politics," the knightly Civil War heroes, the respected
"journals of civilization" identified with eastern sweetness and light. Dr. Lyman Abbott denounced from his
pulpit "the crowned hero and worshipped deity of the
Editorial in Issue of October 17, z896.




The Campaign of 1896


287


anarchists of the Northwest" who had the "magnificent
effrontery" to go to New York to deliver an address in
answer to a scathing attack that had been made upon him
there by a prominent Republican orator. Theodore
Roosevelt, before an audience of I3,000 persons in Chicago, characterized Governor Altgeld as "one who would
connive at wholesale murder," who "condones and encourages the most infamous of murders," and who
"would substitute for the government of Washington and
Lincoln a red welter of lawlessness and dishonesty as fantastic and vicious as the Paris Commune." General
Sickles, the warrior of Gettysburg, travelled through
Illinois informing the people that their Governor-th
highest official of the third great State jn thp1 l fin;~ -was
a "wolf who needed skinning." Harer's Weekly and
TheNationat virtually ever mention of Altgeld's name,
outdid the venal atrocities of the least reputable Republica nnewspopers- A particularly loathsome feature of the
first-named journal was its series of campaign cartoons by
W. A. Rogers. In his final effort, published a week or so
before the November election, this artist depicted Governor Altgeld as a demoniac spirit projected against the
shade of Guiteau (the abhorred murderer of President
Garfield), and holding in his hands a torn Constitution
and a flaming torch marked "Anarchy," while underneath
the picture appeared this legend: "I88I-1897: Guiteau
was a Power in Washington for One Day. Shall Altgeld be a Power There for Four Years?" A fairly complete vocabulary of vituperation might have been compiled from the names applied to Altgeld by the hysterical
swashbucklers of press, pulpit, and platform. Such appellations as "anarchist,"  "socialist,"  "communist,"
"fool," "fraud," "crank," etc., were worn threadbare




288


Altgeld of Illinois


early in the campaign, and were gradually discarded in
favor of "lunatic," "ruffian," "thug," "snake," "viper,"
"serpent," "dog," "ass," "hoodlum," "traitor," "conspirator," "murderer," "arch devil," and the like.
It is not pleasant to dwell on these revolting features
of the campaign, and we are glad to pass on to another
and slightly less personal phase. In order to reap the
full benefits of the "anarchy and lawlessness" issue which
they had raised so effectually, something more was required of the "sound money" evangelists than merely to
vilify Governor Altgeld. It was not enough to iterate
and reiterate that he was the real power in the silver
movement, and that as he was an anarchist and a desperado the effect of Mr. Bryan's election would be to install
an administration of anarchists and desperadoes at
Washington. Every effort must also be made to inoculate public opinion with the notion that the Democratic
platform was in itself an anarchistic and a revolutionary
document. This task required somewhat delicate handling. The most important item in that platform was of
course the currency plank, demanding "the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present
legal ratio of 16 to I." But reckless as they were in the
use of epithets, the Republican managers were not quite
prepared to brand as anarchistic and revolutionary a currency policy that had been adhered to for several decades
by the United States government and that had been actively championed in Congress by their own Presidential
candidate. Careful strategy therefore demanded that
the campaign emphasis should be shifted as much as possible from this to certain other Democratic planks which
were commonly alleged to be the "pets" of Governor Alt



The Campaign of I896


289


geld and the children of his own particular creation. Of
such planks, the one singled out for heavies attack was
that which denounced "arbitrary interference by Fedeal
autio'' i~:n 1c      r 2a_ oa 0iolation of the Constitution of the United States and a crime aginst freeiitutns" and objected to "government by injunction as a
new and highly dangerous form of oppression by which
Federal judges, in contempt of the laws of the States and
the rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges,
executioners." As a direct sequel to events connected
with the Chicago railway strike of I894, this plank particularly outraged the employing class that was aligned
so solidly under Mark Hanna's leadership. The first
clause was generally characterized by Republican spokesmen as "a eclaration in favor  free riots"; the second
contemplated "warfare against the courts' and was a
blow aimed at the "integrity and independence of the
judiciary."  Only a little less obiectionable than this
"worstlank l   theemocra t                   arlrm  wst argraph criticizin "the adverse decision of the Supeme
Court on the income tax" of 1894 and declaring "t at.4t
s the duty of Congress to use all the Constitutional  er
wichremains a er that decision, or which may come
from-ts revesal by the court as it ma hereater-  onstituted so that the burdens of taxation may be equall,nd impartially aid1 to the end that wealth may bear its
due proportion of the expense of the Government."
From this seemingly innocent wood-pile the Republicans
dragged forth a nigger labelled "Covert Threat to Pack
the Supreme Court of the United States," and exhibited
him up and down the country as one of the blackest of
Satan's progeny. With his twin brother, the "free riots"




290


Altgeld of Illinois


and "attack on the courts" clause, he was a monster which
"to be hated needs but to be seen." In their proper natal conjunction, the pair revealed the true damnable inwardness of Democratic policy and purpose. "It is because their programme is one of spoliation," said
Harper's Weekly, "that Mr. Bryan and his mentor Governor Altgeld want free riots and a Supreme Court that
will obey the passions of the multitude."
It would be merely fatuous to discuss whether these
or any other planks in the Democratic platform were in
even the remotest degree anarchistic, incendiary, revolutionary, or whatever else the panic-stricken conservatives
of I896 believed them to be. The only purpose here has
been to indicate the masterlv strategv of Mark Hanna
and his lieutenants in ca~ a izing the popular hatred of
Governor Altgeld to discredit Mr. Bryan and everything
he stood for. The paramount issue of "tree silver" was
of course a large factor in controlling sentiment and
votes, as was also the enormous Republican campaign
fund. But more important than these in the ultimate
result were the shrewdly-calculated appeals to prejudice
and passion, openly or insidiously based on Governor Altgeld's connection with the campaign, which in their cumulative effect produced a nation-wide hysteria, a frenzied
anarchophobia, among the well-to-do during the three
or four weeks just before election. No doubt the victims
of this dementia sincerely believed with Goldwin Smith
that "all the elements of distress, class hatred, social
revolution, craziness, and anarchy have combined against
the American Republic." And there were probably
few among them who did not echo the post-election sentiments of the  ew York T ue, as expressed in the following immortal example of journalistic phrenitis:




The Campaign of i896


29I


The Bryan movement was conceived in iniquity and was
brought forth in sin. It had its origin in a malicious conspiracy
against the honor and integrity of the nation. It gained such
monstrous growth as it enjoyed from an assiduous culture of the
basest passions of the least worthy members of the community.
It has been defeated and destroyed because right is right and
God is God. Its nominal head was worthy of the cause. Nominal, because the wretched, rattle-pated boy, posing in vapid
vanity and mouthing resounding rottenness, was not the real
leader of that league of hell. He was only a puppet in the bloodimbued hands of Altgeld, the anarchist, and Debs, the revolutionist, and other desperadoes of that stripe. But he was a willing
puppet, Bryan was, —willing and eager. Not one of his masters
was more apt than he at lies and forgeries and blasphemies and
all the nameless iniquities of that campaign against the Ten Commandments. He goes down with the cause, and must abide
with it in the history of infamy. He had less provocation than
Benedict Arnold, less intellectual force than Aaron Burr, less
manliness and courage than Jefferson Davis. He was the rival
of them all in deliberate wickedness, and treason to the Republic.
His name belongs with theirs, neither the most brilliant nor the
most hateful in the list. Good riddance to it all, to conspiracy
and conspirators, and to the foul menace of repudiation and
anarchy against the honor and life of the Republic.
Although warned by his physicians that to attempt any
active part in the campaign of I896 would be to court
death, Governor Altgeld was one of the most energetic
and effective workers in the Democratic cause. Throughout the campaign he gave little thought to his own candidacy for reelection as Governor of Illinois, but everywhere emphasized the national issues and the national
ticket.  Characteristic of his attitude in this respect is
the following statement from his opening speech of the
campaign, delivered at Girard, Illinois, on August 29:




292              Altgeld    of Illinois
Speaking of my own candidacy, I have only to say that I have
served you nearly four years. I have never worked harder in
my life. I have striven to do my duty. Unquestionably I have
made mistakes, but I have aimed to follow the dictates of justice and right. I have aimed to know neither rich nor poor,
neither friend nor foe, in the discharge of my duties. I have
aimed to raise the banner of this mighty State to the highest
pinnacle. I have acted upon the principle that every man is equal
before the law and all are entitled to equal protection. If you
are satisfied with my stewardship, naturally it would gratify me
to have you say so; but, my fellow citizens, all questions of office
sink into insignificance when compared with the great issue that
is before the people. Office holders come and go, and as a rule
the world is little the wiser or little the better. But policies
shape the destinies of nations and determine the happiness or the
misery of unborn generations;, and if there are Republicans here
who feel that they must in part support their ticket, then I say
to you with all the earnestness of my soul, go into the booth,
and vote for Mr. Tanner for Governor,-then think of your
families, think of the future of your children, think of the future
of our great country, and cast a vote for Bryan and for humanity.
Early in October the Republican candidate for Governor toured Illinois with a party of national speakers,
all of whom made Altgeld the special target of their
oratory. Ill as he was, the Governor secured a special
train and followed the Tanner party through the State,
speaking several times each day in those towns which his
opponents had just visited. An incident of this heroic
journey, never before recorded, is contributed by Mr.
David R. Levy, who served as Altgeld's private secretary throughout the campaign of 1896. Mr. Levy writes:
Accusations have often been made that the zeal and earnestness with which Governor Altgeld defended the laboring classes




The Campaign of I896                    293
and endeavored to benefit them were of a demagogic nature and
assumed for political effect. I wish to recall one incident which
in my opinion clearly demonstrates that this was not the case,
and that his whole heart and soul were bound up in a concentrated
effort to help mankind. The incident referred to occurred in
the Fall of I896, on the morning after the Governor had delivered a speech at East St. Louis and we were on our way to
Mount Vernon, where he was scheduled to speak that afternoon. At this time his health was in a precarious condition, and
after any large meeting he was completely exhausted-at times
in a state of collapse. This was the case on the morning which
I speak of, and while riding in the sleeper he seemed very much
depressed. I asked him if he were feeling ill, and his answer
was: "Oh, not more than usual." Then, continuing, he said:
"I was a pretty sick man last night, was I not?" I replied:
"Yes, Governor."  He then said: "You know I may be carried
off in one of the attacks such as I suffered last night, and yet if
such a thing were to happen I feel I could die perfectly happy
if I could think and feel that anything I had ever done, said, or
written would in any way alleviate the condition of the working
people of this country." Could anything more clearly refute any
charge that could be made against him or his memory on this
subject? The statement was made to and overheard by no one
except his private secretary, in whom he had implicit confidence
and whom he knew would not repeat it without his consent. It
was not said with any expectation of its being published, but only
as one man talks to another with whom he is on an intimate
footing.
At the end of this Illinois tour Governor Altgeld went
at once to New York, where he delivered in Cooper
Union on October 17 what was perhaps the most notable
speech of his life. In this, he dealt in largest part with
the "Federal interference" and "government by injunction" plank of the Democratic platform, giving a detailed




294            Altgeld of Illinois
account of his own and the Cleveland administration's
course in connection with the Chicago railway strike of
1894. The ordeal of that speech, which must have occupied nearly three hours in the delivery, left him in a
shattered condition for several days afterward. The
same result had followed an earlier speech of the same
campaign in Chicago, as thus recorded by Judge Edward
Osgood Brown.
Taken with a fainting spell from illness, just as he was about
to make a speech with others at the Auditorium, his friends
could not persuade him to give up his intention. He went on
the stage and, fortunately, was able to conclude a masterly address
without apparent difficulty. But on his return to his room at the
hotel, where I awaited him, he was unable for an hour or more
to move from his bed. The circumstances of his death were
but a recurrence, with a different result, of the same conditions.
But physically broken as he was, by sheer power of will
Altgeld held his place in the front line of battle from beginning to end of a campaign fierce beyond parallel in
American politics, fighting valiantly to the last ditch
against such odds and such weapons as few men in public
life have ever had to face. Even his most implacable
foes were forced to bear witness to his courage, his ability, and his devotion to the cause. And although in the
final outcome he went down to defeat, along with the national Democratic candidate, it was a defeat more honorable than a dozen ordinary victories. Within the space of
scarcely six months, the Democratic organization had
been metamorphosed from a party of privilege to a party
of the people. It had been obliged, in Altgeld's phrase,
"to reform while under the fire of the enemy," but not



The Campaign of 1896


295


withstanding that fact "it has made the most heroic
political fight ever seen in this country."
It was confronted by all the banks, all the trusts, all the
syndicates, all the corporations, all the great papers. It was
confronted by everything that money could buy, that boodle
could debauch, or that fear of starvation could coerce. It was
confronted by the disgust which the majority of the American
people felt toward the national administration, for which they
held us responsible. It was confronted by the unfounded charge
of being partly responsible for the hard times. It was confronted
by a combination of forces such as had never been united before
and will probably never be united again; and worse still, the time
was too short to educate the public.
The Chicago Tribune's editorial on Altgeld's postelection statement from which the above paragraph is
quoted bore the heading, "Viper Altgeld Gnaws a File."
Two days before, four hundred and seventy-five thousand citizens of Illinois (fifty thousand more than voted
for him in 1892) had cast their ballots for "viper Altgeld." His vote exceeded Mr. Bryan's Illinois total by
IO,Ooo; his opponent's plurality was 30,000 less than McKinley's in Illinois.  In the national election, six and a
half million American citizens (nearly a million more
than had ever voted for a successful presidential candidate before 1896) supported the party of "anarchy"
and "repudiation" and "free riots."      i        Ki
popuar majority was ahut 6oonn,c     a shift of less than
20,000 votes distributed among six States in which the
balloting was most evenly divided would have given Mr.
Bryan a winning majority in the electoral college. By
such a hair-like margin was the great battle of 1896 decided.




296


Altgeld of Illinois


But the rejoicings of Mark Hanna's victorious hosts
were neither shadowed nor sobered by any reflections on
the narrow squeak by which they had managed to pull
through. Altgeld's defeat, even more than Bryan's, was
the prevailing theme in a thousand jubilant editorials.
"Exit Altgeld!" shouted Harper's Weekly, exit "the most
dangerous enemy to American institutions of all the ruffianly gang which has broken out of the forecastle of the
ship of state and attempted to occupy the quarter-deck
and seize the helm." Altgeld has long since left the
stage, and so has Harper's Weekly, and so have most of
the leading actors who played their heroic or their degrading parts in that tremendous drama. Each has
found his appropriate Valhalla and his appropriate associates in the spirit world of history.
Where is McKinley, Mark Hanna's McKinley,
His slave, his echo, his suit of clothes?
Gone to join the shadows, with the pomps of that time,
And the flame of that summer's prairie rose.
Where is Cleveland whom the Democratic platform
Read from the party in a glorious hour?
Gone to join the shadows with pitchfork Tillman,
And sledgehammer Altgeld who wrecked his power.
Where is Hanna, bull dog Hanna,
Low browed Hanna, who said: "Stand pat"?
Gone to his place with old Pierpont Morgan.
Gone somewhere... with lean rat Platt.
Where is Roosevelt, the young dude cowboy,
Who hated Bryan, then aped his way?
Gone to join the shadows with mighty Cromwell
And tall King Saul, till the Judgment day.




The Campaign of I896                     297
Where is Altgeld, brave as the truth,
Whose name the few still say with tears?
Gone to join the ironies with Old John Brown,
Whose fame rings loud for a thousand years.
Where is that boy, that Heaven-born Bryan,
That Homer Bryan, who sang from the West?
Gone to join the shadows with Altgeld the Eagle,
Where the kings and the slaves and the troubadours rest.*
* From "Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan," by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay,
in "The Golden Whales of California."




CHAPTER XXVII


EVENTS OF I897-I899
No doubt a feeling of immense relief was uppermost in
Altgeld's mind when he said to Brand Whitlock, as the
two were going up the long walk to the State House steps
on almost the last morning that he passed in the Governor's chair: "Well, we're rid of this, anyway."  A day
or two later his successor, the faithful wheel-horse of
Chicago monopoly interests, was inaugurated with a display of military pomp seldom seen before in Springfield.
It had been an invariable custom at the inauguration of
a.new administration in Illinois for the out ef rexe ive
to deliver a brifretim  speech: hb in Tanuaryv.  7,
with the chivalrous instilnrt. rF b;_rn, c Governnorelect
Tanner persuaded the m  a   n               emlo
refusthis courtesy to fG _rnr ^ltgeld   The grossness
of the insult was aggravated by withholding all knowledge
of it from the Governor until the last moment, when it
was too late to recall the advance press copies of his
speech. Had the pot-house bosses responsible for this
affront been capable of shame, they would assuredly have
experienced that emotion in reading Altgeld's address
next morning. Insubstance and temper it was a model
document of its kind, unmarred by the remotest tingle of
rancor or animosity or partisan asperity. Of his own
experience in office, Altgeld said:
I have given Illinois four of my best years and have brought
all my offerings to her altar. Had it been necessary to do so I
298




Events of I897-i899


299


should have considered life itself but a small sacrifice in her
interest, and I retire from her service and from the high office
to which her people elected me without any trace of bitterness or
disappointment. I have tried to further the best interests of my
country, and while I erred in many cases they were errors of
judgment and I go forth with a peaceful conscience. I have endeavored to carry out those principles that form the basis of free
government, and I have acted on the conviction that it would
be better to be Governor but for one day and follow the dictates
of justice than to hold office for fifty years by winking at wrong.
In my judgment no epitaph can be written upon the tomb of a
public man that will so surely win the contempt of the ages as
to say of him that he held office all his life and never did anything for humanity. We believe that the institutions of
the State are in excellent condition. Some of my friends feel
that we have been cleaning house; that we have been putting
things in order. Permit me to say that if any of the measures
which we have inaugurated should prove beneficial to the country
the people will be in no wise indebted to me, for when a public
man gives to his country the very best services in his power he
has done no more than he agreed to do and has done no more
than the public had a right to expect.
These sentences were not empty rhetorical flourishes.
They embodied the essence of Altgeld's views on the
duties of office-holding; just as Mark Hanna's famous dictum, "No man in public life owes the public anything,"
embodied the essence of his views on the same subject.
And they expressed the literal and precise truth regarding
Altgeld's services to Illinois. He had indeed brought all
his offerings to her altar, and they had been consumed to
ashes in the sacrificial fire. Entering office a reputed
millionaire, he left it impoverished. His health, precarious enough at the beginning of his term, was now shattered beyond repair; and not his own health only, but his




300


Altgeld of Illinois


wife's as well. The systematic persecution and calumny
to which he had been subjected for four years, culminating
at last in an almost frenzied orgy of vituperation, were
mainly responsible for that result in both cases, as they
were responsible also for the wrecking of his political
fortunes. Such was the price, or a part of the price,
which he had paid for endeavoring to "further the best
interests of my country."
To these heavy cumulative penalties of public service,
Fate added more than one peculiarly bitter personal chastisement. In the death of his cousin, John W. Lanehart,
during the early summer of I896, Altgeld lost his most
intimate friend and a trusted business associate of many
years. At about the same time, that most cherished
of his symbolic "children," the Unity Building, was taken
over and sold by a public receiver. Then, soon after his
retirement from the Governorship, two Democratic officeholders appointed during his administration were prosecuted, convicted, and sent to prison for defalcation. This
last-mentioned misfortune caused Altgeld keener suffering
than any other of his entire public career. In one of the
few available letters which refer in any way to his personal or political tribulations, he wrote to his friend
Judge Lambert Tree, on May I, I897:
Here it is the old story. We are all like hens in a barnyard
scratching for insects, with our eyes so riveted to the ground that
we do not see the sky over us or the great world around us. And
the cold truth is that times are so hard here that in the effort at
bread-getting there seem to be more hens than there are insects
to feed on.
Personally I have what the parrot described to its mistress
as "a hell of a time." During my whole public career I have
never been pursued with so much venom as during the last four




Events of I897-I899


301


or five months. I had long been used to facing the frown of the
Fates, but this time they assumed the aggressive and I have felt
the sting of their irony. You know I took pride in having my
administration honest. Well, the grain inspector whom I appointed in Chicago was $4500 short in his accounts and for political effect has been made the subject of senatorial and grand jury
investigation, and an effort has been made to besmirch an entire
administration. Then the failure of some banks has tied up
some public funds. Worst of all, Mr. Spalding, the President of
the Globe Savings Bank and the treasurer of the State University
at Champaign, has failed and it looks as if the institution would
lose several hundred thousand dollars. Of course all these things
are charged to me, and while I am in no way responsible and do
not mind the abuse I am nearly heart-broken over the loss to
the University. I had done more for that institution than all the
other Governors put together. Through my aid it erected six
great buildings during my administration and added several important departments and literally leaped forward and bid fair
towards becoming one of the greatest institutions of learning on
the American continent. I would as soon have been paralyzed
as to have had anything happen to this institution.
But I am alive and am going steadily on. I confess to not
having any philosophy that fits the case. To say that "there is
no peace for the wicked" does not seem broad enough, and I do
not feel at liberty to say that "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth" for I do not see His finger in the affair. I conclude
that it is simply a case of having been mistaken in men.
Even in the absence of the hapless incidents here re.
ferred to, with their depressing reaction for many months,
Altgeld would have found the first year or two after his
return to private life dreary and barren enough. As
much as ever, perhaps more than ever, his mental energies
craved some form of intense activity; yet the wretched
condition of his bodily health would not permit of any




302


Altgeld of Illinois


settled and continuous effort. A few speeches, delivered
in the intervals of travel enforced by the doctors upon
himself and Mrs. Altgeld, virtually made up the sum of
his tangible accomplishment during 1897. In January
he appeared before two important gatherings of Chicago
Democrats, one a large reception in his honor. 4tBrooklyn on Tuly 5 he spoke on the general theme that society
always supports established wrong; at Philadelphia on
September 1  he dealt with theproblem of rescuing
American institutions from corpoate conro; at  cago
on December 5 he delivere a memorial aress on Henry
George. His old-time powers of eloquence and mental
vigor were still intact. But these occasional public appearances could by no means satisfy the zeal of a reformer eager to force the fighting at every point on behalf
of principles which he considered crucially important in
American affairs. Although the scope of his efforts
widened somewhat during 1898, the comparative inaction and sterility of that and the preceding year weighed
heavily upon him. "I feel like an orphan boy, and want
to talk with you," he wrote to Henry D. Lloyd toward
the close of 1898; "I have been living on the dry dust of
the road so long that I need a change." And in welcoming another friend to Chicago at about this same time,
he said: "Your coming is like a ray of light into my
darkness, for here I feel as if I were under a black cloud,
which never lifts."
Those who are in a position to know have said that
Altgeld's chief political ambition was to go from the
State House in Springfield to the Senate Chamber in
Washington. The result of the 1896 elections in Illinois
of course made that ambition impossible of fulfilment.




Events of I897-I899


303


When the selection of a United States Senator came before the State legislature on January 22, I897, Altgeld
received seventy-seven votes, as against one hundred and
twenty-five cast for the Republican candidate, William
E. Mason. Soon thereafter, the machine politicians of
Chicago ousted him from all power in the St4te Democratic organization. But they could not dislodge him
from his position of influence among those Democrats, of
Illinois and of the country, who placed loyalty to principles above loyalty to machine organization. "It may be
doubted," said the Chicago Record-Herald at the time
of Altgeld's death, "whether any man in his party had
greater influence since I896 in its national councils, and
whether any man of his age, not even excepting William
Jennings Bryan, left a deeper mark upon its history and
declared principles." The force of this statement will appear more fully later on in these pages. Meanwhile,
some mention should be made at this point of a few important political speeches delivered by Altgeld during
I898. On April 13 he spoke before a large Chicago
gathering on Jefferson and Cleveland —"the first the
founder and the other the destroyer of Democracy."
At the State Democratic convention held at Springfield
in early July, Altgeld easily carried off the oratorical
honors of that gathering with a scathing arraignment of
the Republican State administration then in power. This
arraignment was extended to include the national administration as well in a speech of September 24 (during the
"off-year" Congressional campaign) at the Chicago
Auditorium. One more political address of this same
general period was that delivered before the Jackson
Club of Omaha on January 7 of the following year.




304             Altgeld    of Illinois
In another portion of the letter to Judge Lambert
Tree from which quotation has already been made in this
chapter, Altgeld wrote:
You have probably noticed that we had an election in Chicago.
It became evident early in the spring [of I897] that both the
winds and the tides were running our way. I wanted a victory
that should count a little for bimetallism. There were a number
of candidates for mayor on our side. Several gentlemen who
last fall spat on our platform and derided our learning now
suddenly became silver men. They literally offered their bodies to
be flayed and their skins for bottles to serve the cause of silver.
These gentlemen wanted the Democratic nomination for mayor;
but the conversion seemed a little sudden, so a number of usthat is, the people-lifted young Carter H. Harrison into the
saddle, and you would be amazed to see what a high horse he
now rides. But his election was recognized by the country as
a silver victory, and even if he should now betray us I feel that
we did the right thing. Then it looks as if he would make a
good mayor, and I hope all will be well.
All was not well, however, and before many months
had elapsed Altgeld and the young Democratic mayor
who was riding such a high horse were avowed enemies.
At the outset the quarrel seems to have been in some degree of a personal nature; but that phase of the episode
is now too obscure to be dealt with fairly. More essentially, it was a matter of conflicting political views and
principles, centring about two distinct issues, one national
and the other local. After Mr. Bryan's defeat in I896
a formidable movement began to develop within the
Democratic party to discard the Chicago platform and
wage the next Presidential campaign on the old "wiggle
and wobble" lines which had served the party so suc



Events of I897-I899


305


cessfully in 1884 and 1892. Prominent in this movement
were the astute sachems of Tammany Hall, led by Richard Croker, who were chiefly interested in the sort of
"free silver" that could be seen and felt in the palms of
Tammany officeholders. Although Mayor Harrison of
Chicago had been nominated and elected as a silver man,
it was not long before his devotion to the Bryan and Altgeld brand of Democracy began to assume a slightly academic tinge. After a conference between Harrison and
Croker toward the end of 1898, Altgeld and his adherents
felt certain that Harrison had secretly allied himself with
the enemies of the Chicago platform.
Such was the national issue involved in this affair. The
local issue requires somewhat fuller explanation. In a
previous chapter of this volume the story has been told
of Charles T. Yerkes's memorable effort to secure the
passage of State legislation which would have given him
the so-called "eternal monopoly" in Chicago streetrailway transportation-an effort frustrated at the last
by Governor Altgeld's veto. The sequel to that story, in
the selection by Yerkes of a successor to Altgeld who
could be relied upon to rubber-stamp the traction magnate's orders, has also been recorded. With Tanner at
the throttle of a well-oiled and smoothly-running Republican machine, the Yerkes programme was carried through
at Springfield without a hitch. Early in the State legislative session of I897 a measure known as the Allen Law,
authorizing the Chicago city council to grant fifty-year
franchises, was quietly introduced, quietly passed, and
quietly signed by Governor Tanner. But unfortunately
for Yerkes, the political atmosphere of Chicago was not
so serene as that of Springfield. The corrupt city council
happened to be just then under heavy bombardment from




306


Altgeld of Illinois


a recently-organized Municipal Voters' League, and in the
Spring mayoralty campaign of 1897 the traction question
received a very wholesome airing. For the moment at
least, Yerkes and his ring found it impossible to "cash in"
on the Allen Law. Harrison, the newly-elected mayor,
at once assumed an attitude of hostility to the streetrailway monopolists, and refused to sanction any renewal
of traction franchises until the Allen Law should be repealed and the State legislature should pass a new law
authorizing municipal ownership. He did not intend,
however, that this latter law should be utilized at once,
and he favored the granting of one more renewal franchise for the usual twenty-year period, reserving to the
city the right of purchase at some future time, the companies meanwhile to guarantee a five-cent fare and agree to
pay the city ten per cent of their gross receipts. Such a
policy of postponement on the main issue was far from
acceptable to Altgeld and other advocates of immediate
municipal ownership. They believed that the traction
ring, by this time well aware that the Allen Law was
bound to be repealed, would have been entirely satisfied
with a "compromise" of this sort; and they charged that
Mayor Harrison was in reality working for the ring
rather than against it.
For the reasons above outlined, Altgeld considered
it of the utmost importance that Mayor Harrison should
be defeated for reelection in the spring of 1899. He
asserted that Harrison, by means of a spurious victory on
the local traction issue, was planning to secure control
over the Democratic party in Illinois, and through a
combination with Croker at the next national convention
intended to wipe out the Chicago platform in the interests
of eastern monopolists. But Harrison was too strongly




Events of I897-I899


307


entrenched to be successfully opposed at the primaries,
and his re-nomination was certain. The only course open
to his Democratic opponents was to nominate a rival
ticket by petition. Altgeld was frequently mentioned as
the logical candidate to head such a ticket, but it was
supposed that his having been Governor of the State
would preclude his acceptance of the candidacy. However, in a newspaper interview of late December, I898,
Altgeld said:
These people [the men who were importuning him to run for
mayor] feel that the Democratic party dare not take any chance
on having a Croker or Harrison combination organize the next
national convention. They further declare that the Mayor on all
important points is playing into the hands of the street railways. They say the opportunity of establishing municipal ownership that comes only once in a generation comes in 1903, when the
present franchises expire; that the Mayor by pretending to be for
municipal ownership, but insisting that we shall wait twenty or
thirty years, is simply playing into the hands of the street railways and shows that he is not acting in good faith with the
people.... If there is no other way of rescuing the Democratic
party from the treachery of the city hall I will run for Mayor,
or even constable.
Soon after this declaration, petitions were put in circulation calling for the nomination of Altgeld as candidate
for mayor of Chicago, "by Democrats and as a Democrat." That national as well as local issues were involved in his candidacy is shown by the title adopted for
his ticket, in accordance with the law requiring a distinguishing ballot name-"Municipal Ownership and Chicago Platfor"      His opponent on te reguar Deocratic ticket was, of course, Mayor Harrison; while Zina




308


Altgeld of Illinois


R. Carter headed the Republican ticket. All three candidates ostensibly favored municipal ownership, but Altgeld alone stood for immediate adoption of that plan.
When criticized by his Democratic friends for "bolting" the party organization with which he had been so
long and prominently identified, Altgeld replied:
To bolt a party is to disagree with its declared principles; but
a man who is ready to sacrifice everything he has to prevent the
principles of the party from being betrayed is not a bolter. To
worship a corrupt political organization as a fetish, and blindly
follow it when it is moving toward destruction, is unworthy of a
free citizen; and this practice has done infinite harm to our republic. Political machinery is a curse when prostituted to base
purposes.
Hampered as he was by poor health and lack of funds,
Altgeld found it impossible to make a very energetic campaign. At the ouet,     r daily papr in Ch      o, with
one epr  nn   was aas h      anddacY; before the campaign was over that one excet   hadeetedhi. As
a means of getting is views before the people, his friend
George H. Shibley proposed the publication of a small
weekly paper, with a front-page cartoon, to be sold on
news-stands and by subscription. Such a paper, The
Municipal Ownership News, was started, and under Shibley's direction proved an effective instrument during the
campaign. No one connected with the movement, however, entertained any serious hope of success. To a
friend who taxed him with the folly of endeavoring to
bring about immediate municipal ownership, Altgeld replied: "Of course I know that we probably cannot get
municipal ownership in your lifetime or mine, and maybe
not in the lifetime of your children; but it is the right




Events of 1 897-1 899           309
thing, and by preaching it now we are helping the people
to come to it earlier than they otherwise might." At the
election in April, Altgeld received 47,1 69 votes, as against
148,496 for Harrison and 107,437 for Carter.




CHAPTER XXVIII


THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF I 900
ARDENTLY as he believed in municipal ownership, Altgeld's fight against Mayor Harrison in I899 was primarily waged in behalf of a much larger principle. Traction
affairs in Chicago happened to provide the immediate
local issue; far more important in Altgeld's view was the
national issue involved in defending the Chicago platform
of I896 from its enemies within the Democratic ranks.
From the moment of Mr. Bryan's first defeat his chief
political concern was that the recent regeneration of his
party should be permanent, that the position won by such
tremendous effort should not be sapped by the Crokers,
Gormans, Harrisons, and other exponents of machine
Democracy; and during the next four years he gave the
best of his failing energies to this cause. In a long letter
of August 7, I899, to Mr. Bryan, opposing the latter's
projected trip to Kentucky in support of Goebel, he
wrote:
In my judgment the wisest course for us to pursue is to serve
notice on the trimmers and traders all over the country that the
Chicago Platform Democrats of America cannot be trifled with;
that any attempt to betray them will result in death to the schemers; that the control of conventions, whether State or national,
by trickery or corruption, will simply bring death to the men who
have a hand in it. Once let this feeling get abroad in the land
and we will have no more trouble.
310




Presidential Campaign of 900o 311


But along with this uncompromising devotion to the
Chicago platform, Altgeld was by no means insensible to
the pressure of new issues. More promptly than any
other Democratic leader he recognized that the issue  f
imperialism, arising out of te purchase and conquest
of the Philippine Islands by the United States government in I808, would lay an important part in the nomin1
prPesdentiaJ campaign: and he was probably more influential than any other in shaping Democratic policy with
reference to that issue. In an article on "The War and
Expansion," written while the Spanish-American war
was at its height, and published in the Democratic Magazine for July, I898, Altgeld warmly supported the war
and asserted that credit for it belonged chiefly to the
Democratic party. "We have assumed responsibilities
and created new conditions," he said, "and we must now
be prepared promptly to face the one and deal with the
other." He argued for an expansion of national
commerce in all legitimate directions, on a reciprocal
basis, and with a strong navy to protect it. Porto Rico
should be accepted, if offered, as a part of the war indemnity; and Cuba, Haiti, and Santo Domingo should be annexed whenever the people of those countries desired
such action. But "to establish a colonial system and attempt to rule great countries in another hemisphere...
is an entirely different question." Beyond claiming
permanent access to "a number of the best harbors of the
Philippines and any other good harbors we can get,"
the Philippine Islands should be left in the possession of
their own inhabitants.
To attempt to govern this vast area and this numerous people from Washington would be a perilous undertaking, and




312


Altgeld of Illinois


be almost certain to beget injustice and outrage.... But even
if successfully governed, it is difficult to see what we would gain
by pursuing this policy, over what we would get by simply securing permanent access to all of these harbors, so as to be able
to compete on equal terms for their trade. This would involve
no responsibility of government, no scandals and no injustice.
Besides, the acquisition of vast territory on another continent
would be inconsistent with the further maintenance of the Monroe
Doctrine.... Apparently the Philippine Islanders are much
better prepared to establish and maintain a republic than are the
Cubans, and if they wish to take this step we have no right to
prevent them. Even a poor government would be a thousand
times better for the islands, and for the nations that trade with
them, than the system of plunder and assassination which Spain
has maintained there. To be sure there are men who, with an
air of superiority, declare this or that people are incapable of selfgovernment. But it must be borne in mind that every republic
that exists on earth today, including the great American republic,,was founded in spite of the protests of these men.
The same sentiments, in general substance, were repeated by Altgeld in his speech before the Springfield
convention on July I2, I898, and in his Chicago Auditorium  address of September 24, I898.       Thereafter, as
the folly, hypocrisy, and brutality of the government's
course in the Philippines became more open and pronounced, he seldom lost an opportunity of protesting
against that course and of urging an anti-imperialist
Ipolicy upon the Democratic party.
F          ri T    rhas even earlier a distinct change
Of attitude toward Altgeld beantomake itselfapparent
in the American press.    For almost the frstie          is
public career he was generally treated, by the more
reputable journals at least, with something approaching




Presidential Campaign of 900o 313


common courtesy and respect. This significant change
was especially noticeable in the case of Harper's Weekly,
for years one of the most rabidly violent and unscrupulous among Altgeld's detractors. Describing a meeting
of the Democratic national committee held at Chicago
in July, 1899, this journal said:
Next to Bryan the striking figure at the Chicago meeting was
John P. Altgeld, former Governor of Illinois, who is looked on
as the leader of that element in the party which contends that the
Chicago platform of I896 must remain the gospel for the Democratic party in 900o. He has a strong following still in Illinois,
but his greatest power lies in the devotion to him of the silver
men in all parts of the country. His political prestige seems to
increase rather than diminish. He never temporizes, and he
despises those whom he characterizes as sacrificers of principle to
opportunity.
An interesting meeting between Altgeld and the editor
of Harper's Weekly, which occurred during the autumn
of I899, is thus described by the late Francis F. Browne
in a personal letter to Mr. Louis F. Post:
A year or so before the Presidential election of 19oo, my friend
Henry Loomis Nelson, later Professor of Political Economy in
Williams College, Mass., but then editor of Harper's Weekly (a
journal which had been extremely outrageous in its treatment of
Altgeld), called on me in Chicago, and after some discussion of
political affairs said there was one man in Chicago whom he particularly desired to meet,-ex-Governor Altgeld; and asked me
if I could help him in doing so. I had then become personally acquainted with Mr. Altgeld, and offered to take my friend to
see him. We went at once to Altgeld's office in the Unity
Building, and I presented my friend as "Mr. Nelson, editor of
Warper's Weekly."  Altgeld greeted him in that cordial way he




314              Altgeld    of Illinois
had, saying, in a half-quizzical, half-sarcastic way, "Ah!-Harper's Weekly,-a Journal of Civilization!" quoting the familiar
motto of the journal's heading. Then, on my explaining that
Mr. Nelson was making a study of the political situation, and
prospects for the next campaign, Altgeld talked on for a halfhour or more, in a frank, off-hand, discerning way, which I saw
impressed Mr. Nelson strongly, as did also Altgeld's cordial,
dignified, and courteous manners. Not once in the interview
did Altgeld refer to Harper's Weekly's personal abuse. Walking
back to my office, Mr. Nelson spoke of his pleasure at meeting
Altgeld, and of his favorable impressions, saying, "How in the
world did such a man as that come to be so misrepresented before
the public?" I replied, "Ask yourself, Mr. Nelson; surely your
journal has done its full share." He was silent; then said, rather
ruefully, "Yes, I suppose we have; but of course we got it from
the Chicago newspapers."
The immediate result of this interview was an extended
article by Mr. Nelson published in Harper's Weekly for
November I8, I899, under the title, "Altgeld and the
Democratic Policy." As the most accurate available
summary of Altgeld's pre-campaign views and prophecies, the following portion of this article is well worth
reproducing here:
Before describing the Democratic movement towards union, if
not harmony [between the "silver" and "gold" wings of the
party], I shall give the substance of a conversation I had with exGovernor Altgeld in Chicago. It will not do to underrate this
leader of the Chicago-platform Democrats. He is not the strong
man physically that he once was, and it may be that he will not
be able again to take an active part in campaigns, but he is intellectually head and shoulders above all the other Bryan and
free-silver leaders. The men who nominated Bryan, and also
are to control the next Democratic convention-unless the bosses




Presidential Campaign of 900o


315


of the stripe of Croker, Goebel, and McLean control it-will
always listen respectfully to the advice of Altgeld. He will remain the man upon whom they must depend if they are ever to
attempt to meet the arguments of the strong men of the Republican party. Perhaps even if the bosses and their machines capture
the convention and defeat Bryan, in the interest of Gorman or
McLean, or some candidate of that kind, Altgeld will nevertheless
remain the brains of the new Democracy. He is not much of
a force to be reckoned with in that event, however, for his heart
will not be in the contest. Whatever else he may be, he is not
in sympathy with the Democratic machines of our great municipalities. He is strong as a leader of the kind of movement which
made Bryan the candidate, and which concocted the Chicago
platform, because he professes to stand as the ideal man of the
people. He is no more an old-time Democrat than Bryan is.
He is a socialist, and therefore a believer in paternalism. UJn
like the old Democrats, he does not want the government to
keep its hands off the individual. He wants the government to
extend its aiding hand over all industrial life. He has been
denounced as an anarchist, but he is the exact opposite. If His
political hiloso h  were adopted, the power of the  overnment
would be enormously increased and its urijsdiction vas
tended. He has, therefore, that kind of principle, or entertains
that kind of theory, which finds acceptance with a good many
hundreds of thousands of Americans, and he has a power of
presenting his views so that they are attractive to the doubting and
reassuring to the converted. Moreover, he is a skilful politician,
and is adroit in uniting issues for the purpose of getting as many
votes as possible behind his ticket, although the united body may
be composed of several discordant elements. Whether he takes
an active part in the next Democratic convention or not, his advice will be potential, and will be followed unless Bryan himself fails to agree with him-Bryan not being a subservient person, as was plainly shown by his refusal to follow Altgeld's
advice that he stay out of Kentucky and decline to take part in


041_4




316


Altgeld of Illinois


the factional contest between silver Democrats-a contest that has
been greatly stimulated by the gold Democrats.
There had been several signs that the silver issue was a burden
on the hands of its inventors, and I was desirous of discovering,
if possible, how much significance to attach to them. Bryan was
non-communicative, and, besides, he was in the hands of his eversmiling brethren, Goebel and McLean. Therefore Altgeld was
the only man to talk to. I found him not at all inclined to make
light of the silver issue. Unless I am greatly mistaken, he is
sincerely convinced that cheap and abundant money will be of
great benefit to the farmers and laborers of the country. He at
least talks the lingo of that faith much more adroitly than any
of his associates. Moreover, he believes that the great vote which
Bryan received in I896 represented accurately the strength of
the free-coinage movement. He cannot be convinced that the
free-silver men had as allies the discontented who had no interest
whatever in silver or in any other economic question, but who
voted for Bryan instead of McKinley because they were out of a
job. He cannot be convinced, either, that Bryan received thousands of votes from Democrats who not only deny the silver faith,
but who believe that the standard of value should be gold, and
gold alone, but who voted for Bryan because he was the regular
candidate of their party, and because their chief pride is in their
own "regularity." No; here were 6,500oo,ooo of votes for a candidate who believed in free silver, and therefore the 6,500,000 voters
were all free-silver men. The reasoning is far from sound. The
observation on which it is based is far from accurate, but it
will be potent to keep the free-silver plank in the next Democratic
national platform.
It is clear, however, that silver will not be the important issue
of the campaign if the Democrats can help it. It is difficult to
see, perhaps, how the issue can be made subordinate, for it is the
only issue concerning which Bryan can be taken seriously. But
Mr. Altgeld says that issues are not made by the politicians,
but by the people, and that candidates and party orators and news



Presidential Campaign of I900


317


papers must discuss the questions in which the people are interested. He points out that this is shown to be true in every
modern campaign. In some parts of the country the stumpspeaker naturally talks about the tariff; in other parts, about the
labor questions; in others, about silver; in others, about "government by injunction." He argues that next year the talk will be
about imperialism, and next in importance will be the trust question. This arrangement of issues puts the silver issue at least
third, and it may be that it will not be heard of except as it will
be talked about by the Republican orators, who will naturally
insist that Bryanism means cheap money and nothing else. It
was clear from Mr. Altgeld's conversation that he expected the
return of the gold Democrats to the organization which had driven
them out of their old party by revolutionizing it, and by making
it stand for everything contrary to old Democratic doctrine and
teaching. And this reunion of old partisans who seemed a short
time ago to have gone asunder for good and all, not only on the
silver question, but because Bryanism means socialism instead of
the old Democrati.o-:-                                 '_ re
be effected on the issue of imperialism. second_ n  t   rnn
trusts; although how the trust uestion can be made to play a
part in a ca      rvajg injwhich the twn Hntagnnts 1 nrofess th' __rne
ajt;I  concerning it s diffi ult.toS ee.  Imperialism, however, is
to be the main issue if the Democrats can make it so, and Mr.
Altgeld is of the opinion that the people will compel the issue
to be placed at the front-will demand the consideration of that
question to the subordination of the silver  d  11  jnther  isues.
And in this he and his party are likely to be helped by the general
apathy on the currency question which is due to the prosperity of
the country, and to the fact that the clamor for cheap money,
which was so loud four years ago, is not heard of outside of the
circle of professional free-coinage politicians. One unfortunate
feature of Mr. Altgeld's view lies in the fact that the Republicans
are to encounter opposition to their effort to make the money
question the prominent one of the campaign. It would seem to




318              Altgeld    of Illinois
be a thing of easy accomplishment if Bryan is to be the candidate.
At any rate, I set down the views of Mr. Altgeld for what they
may be worth. He assumes that Mr. Bryan will again be the
candidate of the Democratic party; that the party will not abandon
the silver issue, because it believes in its soundness, and, at all
events, that it will not do to confess to the 6,500,000 voters, who
he assumes are all I6 to I men, that the leaders and they were
all wrong in i896. He further assumes that the fact will be
recognized that something of more importance is now before
the country, that something being the issue of imperialism, in
which are involved the political fortunes of Mr. McKinley and
his administration. The question of importance to Mr. McKinley, to the Republican party, and to the country is as to the
reasonableness of the belief which is held by the Chicago-platform
Democrats that the gold Democrats and all anti-imperialists will
next year follow the man whom, three years ago, they rejected
even with scorn, because he now stands for the opposition to Mr.
McKinley's policy of imperialism, or expansion, or whatever else
men may see fit to call it.
With Mayor Harrison of Chicago in firm control of
the Illinois Democratic organization, there was no
possible chance that Altgeld would be sent as a delegate
to either the State or the national Democratic convention of 900oo. He did, however, attend both gatherings
as a private member of the party. At the State convention, held late in June, his appearance was marked by a
demonstration too enthusiastic and spontaneous to be
ignored. He was invited to the platform, where he
spoke with such force in support of the programme and
spirit of I896 that the hostile elements in the convention
later found it impossible to frustrate a vote of instructions for Mr. Bryan's candidacy. From the State convention Altgeld went, still without official status save as




Presidential Campaign          of I900      319
a member of the Democratic national committee, to the
national convention at Kansas City, which opened on
July 4. He arrived just in time to forestall, at the preconvention proceedings, what would have been a serious disaster to the Chicago-platform adherents. ExGovernor Charles S. Thomas of Colorado has recalled
the incident in the following paragraph from a personal
letter:
At Kansas City Governor Altgeld performed a very distinct
and important service to the cause of free coinage. A serious
but quiet plan had been formed by the opponents of silver to
prevent anything beyond casual mention of the subject in the
platform of I900. This plan had secured the adhesion of a very
respectable number of strong silver men through the specious assurance that the 'naming of a fixed ratio had led to defeat in I896,
and that a mere declaration for free coinage with the ratio to be
determined by later legislation would be a winner. The plan of
course contemplated an organization of the convention with that
end in view. Altgeld was among the first to detect this movement, and he resolved to defeat it. I was a candidate for temporary chairman of the convention. Altgeld sent for me, told
me what he knew, asked about my chances for success, and then
determined to support me. I was chosen for the position, thanks
to his good offices. Being a pronounced and uncompromising
silver man, my selection had much to do with weakening although it did not wholly discourage the movement.
The fight thus begun in the contest for temporary
chairman was immediately carried over into the deliberations of the resolutions or platform committee.
Essentially, this fight involved Mr. Bryan's candidacy
much more than it did the issue of free silver. Had the
convention merely declared its general adherence to the
silver clause of the Chicago platform, or had it supported




320


Altgeld of Illinois


a plank in favor of free coinage without specifying the
I6 to i ratio, the position of the Democratic party on the
silver issue would have been virtually unchanged. But
Mr. Bryan had already served notice that unless the platform of 900o specifically restated and reaffirmed the
silver plank of I896 he would not accept a second
nomination for the presidency. By successfully opposing
a word-for-word reiteration of the Chicago silver plank,
the machine delegates at Kansas City would thus have
eliminated Mr. Bryan and then have carried through the
nomination of some such "conservative" as Gorman or
Hill or Harrison. Only after a bitter struggle, and by
such a narrow vote as 24 to 26, were these plans defeated
in the resolutions committee. The platform, as finally
decided upon for presentation to the convention,
reaffirmed and endorsed "the principles of the National
Democratic platform adopted at Chicago in I896," and
demanded once more the "immediate restoration of the
free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the
present legal ratio of 16 to i without waiting for the aid
or consent of any other nation." Other planks denounced the "colonial policy" of the Republican administration, declared opposition to militarism, attacked the
trusts and all private monopolies, and characterized the
Dingley tariff act of 1897 as a "trust-breeding measure."
Of central importance, however, was the following paragraph: "The burning issue of imperialism growing out
of the Spanish War involves the very existence of the
Republic and the destruction of our free institutions.
We regard it as the paramount issue of the campaign."
Thus Altgeld's prediction regarding the platform, as
expressed in the Harper's Weekly interview of October,
I 899, was fulfilled to the letter.


I




Presidential Campaign of 900o 321
On the opening day of the convention, after the usual
official preliminaries, Altgeld was formally invited to
address the convention from the platform. His speech
was devoted in the main to a eulogy of Mr. Bryan and a
plea that no backward step be taken on the money question. "Four years ago," he said, "we quit trimming,
we quit using language that has a double meaning..
We went forth armed with the strength that comes from
candor and sincerity, and we fought the greatest campaign ever waged on the American continent.... [For]
the first time irn the history of this republic the Democracy
of America have risen up in favor of one man." This
speech, and Senator Tillman's reading of the platform,
which immediately followed, received a tremendous
ovation. The next day, July 5, the platform was adopted
and Mr. Bryan was nominated by acclamation, amid
tumultuous cheering. Adlai E. Stevenson later received
the nomination for Vice-President.
At Philadelphia two weeks before, President McKinley
had been chosen by unanimous vote to head the Republican ticket once more, with Theodore Roosevelt for
running mate. The Republican platform renewed the
party's allegiance to the gold standard and to the policy
of protection and reciprocity, reaffirmed the usual number
of popular generalities, and (in a half-hearted effort to
spike Democratic guns on the trusts issue) denounced
"conspiracies and combinations to restrict business."
The regular Populists and the "silver Republicans" endorsed the Democratic candidate and platform at their
national conventions, and the newly-organized AntiImperialist League pledged its support to Mr. Bryan.
With the ensuing campaign there is no need to deal
at any length here, Mr. Bryan repeated his strenuous




322


Altgeld of Illinois


and spectacular canvass of four years before, laying
chief stress throughout his tours on the anti-imperialist
issue. Both in directing campaign strategy and in active
field work, Altgeld did everything that a man in such
frail physical health could do. During October he
accompanied Mr. Bryan on a speaking trip through the
New England States-his first political invasion of that
territory. Here, oddly enough, he found some of the
largest and most enthusiastic audiences that he had ever
addressed. The Republican candidate for Vice-President
thundered valorously up and down the country against
the exponents of "lawlessness and disorder, dishonesty
and dishonor, license and disaster at home and cowardly
shrinking from duty abroad"; but otherwise the campaign
was not conspicuous for either hysteria or vituperation.
It happened that the economic winds and tides were just
then running strongly in favor of the Republicans, and
the latter could well afford to rest their case in the main
upon the concrete and visible entity of a "full dinner pail,"
as opposed to the Democratic arguments in favor of such
relative abstractions as anti-imperialism, trust regulation,
and free coinage. In the November election President
McKinley received a popular majority of nearly 850,oo000
votes over Mr. Bryan, and an electoral vote of 292
against 155 for his opponent.
A conversation between Altgeld and his private
secretary, Miss Louise Howard, during the I900 campaign deserves to be set down here, as refuting (if that
were necessary) the charge so frequently brought forward
both in this campaign and in that of I896, to the effect
that Altgeld's support of Mr. Bryan was determined
solely or chiefly by hopes of personal political preferment. Miss Howard writes:




Presidential Campaign of I900 323
There is one conversation which is the most memorable of any
I ever had with Governor Altgeld. In thinking of it I am reminded that in answer to the usual inquiries, "How do you do?"
or "How have you been lately?" he would frequently say: "Oh,
I have been fairly well, but I am not accomplishing anything."
Accomplishment-that was so evidently, from his tone and emphasis, his only idea of happiness! But on this day of which I am
thinking, in reply to the customary inquiries, he said that he was
greatly depressed and discouraged. I wished to remind him of
something more cheerful, and said that I did not see why he should
be discouraged, that Mr. Bryan seemed to have a very good
chance of success in the coming election. "And," said I, "if Mr.
Bryan is (lected you will certainly be in his cabinet." "No,"
said the Governor, "I shall never be in Mr. Bryan's cabinet."
"Why not?" I asked in surprise, adding that it was generally expected that he would occupy a leading place in any cabinet which
Mr. Bryan might select. "I would not accept a place in Mr.
Bryan's cabinet, if it should be offered me," said Governor Altgeld. Again I asked in surprise, "Why not?" and he replied:
"Because Mr. Bryan, if he is elected President, will have a very
difficult task before him, in conducting his administration-a very
difficult task. The American people do not understand me. If
I accepted a place in Mr. Bryan's cabinet it would handicap
him and make his administration more difficult, and that I will
not do."




CHAPTER XXIX


LAST DAYS
WHAT was destined to be Altgeld's final activity in
connection with national politics has been described in
the preceding chapter. Had he lived a few years longer,
the progressive wing of the Democratic party might have
prevailed in 1904 as it had in 900o. At any rate, it is
difficult to imagine that Altgeld would have acquiesced in
such a reactionary triumph as that of the Democratic
forces which nominated Alton B. Parker for the Presidency. Greatly as he had suffered under the scurrilities
of Theodore Roosevelt, he might very conceivably have
decided that support of the Republican candidate involved
a lesser apostasy to the Chicago platform. More probably, however, he would have organized or attempted
to organize a secession movement within his own party,
with a programme similar in all important respects to
that adopted by the "Progressive" Republicans in 1912.
Certainly during the two or three years just before his
death, Altgeld made it sufficiently plain that he was prepared to sacrifice party "regularity" and even party
allegiance whenever the occasion demanded. This was
demonstrated by his course in the Chicago mayoralty
campaign of I899, and also by two later incidents, now
to be briefly described, which mark the close of his
political career.
In connection with one of those spasmodic reform
324




Last Days


325


lovements so familiar in American municipal politics,
ome of the better elements in St. Louis induced Mr. Lee
vieriwether, a prominent attorney of that city, to run:or mayor in the spring contest of 190o. At the prinaries Mr. Meriwether won a majority fo, nomination
)n the regular Democratic ticket. In the nominating:onvention, however, the local Democratic bosses took
"orcible control of the proceedings with a large body:f police, ejected the reform candidate and his adherents,
seated their own delegates, and nominated their own
ticket. Mr. Meriwether then entered the mayoralty
contest as an independent, on a platform advocating
nunicipal ownership of public utilities. Although many
prominent western Democrats contributed privately to
his campaign fund, few were willing to offend the "regular" Democratic organization by open support of his
candidacy. Altgeld was appealed to, and at St. Louis
on March 27 he made an eloquent plea for the independent candidate before an audience of nearly twelve
thousand. At the ensuing election, Mr. Meriwether was
"counted out" by methods which eventually retired the
chief Democratic boss from active political concerns to a
three-year sojourn in the State penitentiary.
Returning at once to Chicago after his St. Louis
speech, Altgeld addressed a large public meeting on
March 28 in support of Judge Elbridge Hanecy, then
running for mayor of Chicago on the Republican ticket.
Hanecy's nomination had evidently been brought about
through a bi-partisan "deal" between the local political
bosses, which had for its purpose the ensuring of Mayor
Harrison's reelection to a third term. "Pursuant to
this arrangement, the Republican machine defeated
John M. Harlan for the Republican nomination.




326           Altgeld of Illinois
Harlan had been pressed upon the convention by an
immense popular petition. Had he been nominated,
nothing would have prevented his election. But that
would have amounted to a repudiation by the Republican machine of its arrangement with the Burke'Harrison [Democratic] machine. So the Republican
machine 'turned down' Harlan and nominated Judge
Hanecy, probably the most unpopular Republican of note
in Chicago." *  Altgeld's support of the Republican
candidate was no doubt determined to some extent by his
bitter hostility to Mayor Harrison. But, as in the St.
Louis contest, local traction affairs constituted an important issue of the campaign. Altgeld felt that Judge
Hanecy's stand on this issue was much more definite and
progressive than Harrison's. "I believe," he said in his
speech of March 28, "that if Mr. Harrison is reelected
the cause of municipal ownership of public utilities will
be set back a quarter of a century." Without questioning his sincerity or criticising his right to disregard
party allegiance, many of Altgeld's warmest admirers
believed that his support of Hanecy was decidedly illadvised. Harrison was reelected, although his plurality
of I897 was reduced by nearly two-thirds.
Early in I9oI Altgeld completed and published his
little book on "Oratory: Its Requirements and Rewards," which brought him numerous letters of warm
praise from prominent men in this country and abroad.
One of these men was Henry D. Lloyd, to whom Altgeld
wrote in acknowledgment: "Many thanks for your kind
words about my little book. I cannot tell you how sweet
they are to me. It is one of my children that the world
is not frowning on." At this time, also, he must have
*The Public (Chicago), April 6, I9oI.




Last Days


327


J
been occupied with another of his literary "children,"
"The Cost of Something for Nothing," which was
finished just before his death, although it did not find
publication until some two years later. But these two
books were merely the product of spare moments, stolen
from the prosaic task of earning a livelihood. Since the
expiration of his term as Governor, in I897, Altgeld had
maintained offices in the Unity Building, ostensibly for
the practice of law, although political and other activities still continued to engross the larger part of such time
as he could give to.work of any sort. At thel  g
of 1901, however, he forme  aactive Thaartn ershi
With hIS od friend Clarence Darrow and with William
fl.-Thompson, uner tie rm name of Altgeld, Darrow
& Thompson; and the last year of his life was devoted
almost exclusively to legal practice. In another part of
the letter to Henry D. Lloyd which is quoted on page
326, he wrote: "You will see from the heading of this
letter that I have gone to work and am trying to make an
honest (?) living. Although I have a deep conviction
that a reformer ought not to have to work." One may
readily read in this the feelings with which Altgeld returned actively to his old profession. After a decade of
strenuous public service, he had now to resume the relatively petty concerns of a private law business-to begin
anew where he had left off long before, in an occupation
that had never been congenial to him. But the stoic element in his nature was equal to this, as it had been to all
of his previous necessities. He threw himself resolutely
into the work before him, and within a few months
achieved a more brilliant reputation than comes to most
lawyers in as many years of effort. This second phase of
Altgeld's legal career is referred to in the following quo



328              Altgeld     of Illinois
tation from an article by Elbert Hubbard in The Philistine for May, I902:
He was the most systematic of workers-the most practical of
men-and keenest of politicians and the best trial lawyer in
Chicago. But to see him at his best, the interests involved must
not be trivial nor the opposition small fry. He demanded big
game and high stakes. In his mental make-up-in temperamenthe had qualities akin to those of Caesar.
In talking with a Chicago judge a few days ago about Altgeld,
the judge corrected me thus, "I did not say John. P. Altgeld was
a good lawyer, I said he was a great lawyer. He had the
leanest, most sinewy intellect of any man who ever came before
me-and in the course of a year I saw them all. He could sift,
weigh, analyze, and make distinctions in a way that kept the other
fellows in a perspiration. His thoroughness raised the status of
the entire Bench and Bar of Cook County. He gloried in the
bright scintillating sword-playing of the mind, and when he
willed it his words were whips of scorpions. I used to watch
him; and when he was needlessly calm and suave, carefully considering the other side, giving due credit and paying courtly deference, I knew that it was coming. He etched 'em with a stylus
and then bit in his argument with sulphuric acid; and often it
was a month before the other side knew they were scarified for
life-like a big vaccination mark on beauty's arm. If Altgeld had
let the workingman just go to the devil, he would be today to
Illinois what Thomas Jefferson is to Virginia.
A last personal glimpse of Altgeld has been contributed
to this book by Mr. Edgar Lee Masters, author of "The
Spoon River Anthology." The incident described took
place during the winter of I9go-2, only a few weeks before Altgeld's death. Mr. Masters was then, as he still
is, a practicing lawyer in Chicago. He writes:




Last Days                        329
I was trying to organize an independent bar association to
counteract the influence of the Chicago Bar Association. Altgeld
and some others were with me in this, and I was chosen to prepare the declaration of principles of the new association. I prepared them and went to Altgeld's office, then on the twelfth
floor of-the Ashland Block, as my office was. He had a small
room on the south side of the building overlooking Randolph
Street-no rug on the floor, no pictures on the walls, a folding
top desk of yellow oak, a swivel chair, and perhaps other chairs.
He was standing at the window as I entered looking toward the
Unity Building, absorbed in reflection. He heard me and turned
around, but did not leave the window; and I came up to him.
The bright light of the window acted as a microscope upon his
face, which was almost ivory pale. But two things that impressed me were his voice and his eyes. His voice rasped from
the rostrum, for I have often heard him make speeches. But in
this conversation it was of marvellous sweetness, laden with infinite kindness, and something of a transfiguring resignation. And
his eyes were the bluest that I ever saw, child-like, gentle, and
radiant. So he took my writing and went to his desk and read it.
After doing so he said, "This is excellent, excellent; but we can
condense it a little. This word can go out and this one." So he
took his pencil and made emendations. The next time I saw his
face he was in his coffin, and it looked as clear and calm as ice,
his nose very thin and pointed which I had not observed in life,
and almost transparent through the chisel of the sculptor Death.
You will find in one of the epitaphs of the Spoon River Anthology
a reference to Altgeld and his eyes.*
'The epitaph here mentioned is that written for "Magrady Graham,"
a Spoon River inhabitant who appears to have succumbed to an excess
of emotion during the election of 1892. It reads as follows:
Tell me, was Altgeld elected Governor?
For when the returns began to come in
And Cleveland was sweeping the East,
It was too much for you, poor old heart,
Who had striven for democracy




330


Altgeld of Illinois


Absorbed as he was in his law practice during these
last months, Altgeld still maintained as keen an interest
as ever in public affairs, and he occasionally yielded to
one of the many requests which he received to speak before public gatherings.  At Ann  rbr      n DecerPmh I4,
1901, h   d         he  Good Government Club of the
ersi eMichigan on 'American                 " d eaoting
articular attention to the conditions of social injustice
and official repression that make for the growth of anarchism. On March 8, I902, he spoke before the Independent Club of Buffalo on his favorite topic, "Shall the
People Own the Monopolies?" His next public appearance, only three days later, was destined to be his last.
The Buffalo address was delivered on a Saturday evening.
On Monday and Tuesday of the following week, Altgeld
was almost continuously engaged in the Federal circuit
court at Chicago, arguing a case in behalf of the local
cabmen's union against the Pennsylvania railway. Although much exhausted at the conclusion of his final plea
on Tuesday afternoon, he took a train at once for Joliet,
where he was scheduled to speak that evening at a public
mass-meeting arranged by the Will County Pro-Boer Association. Some of his associates, seeing that he was in
In the long, long years of defeat.
And like a watch that is worn
I felt you growing slower until you stopped.
Tell me, was Altgeld elected,
And what did he do?
Did they bring his head on a platter to a dancer,
Or did he triumph for the people?
For when I saw him
And took his hand,
The child-like blueness of his eyes
Moved me to tears,
And there was an air of eternity about him,
Like the cold, clear light that rests at dawn
On the hills!




Last Days


331


no condition to undergo the strain of an important speech,
attempted to dissuade him from it, but without success.
The cause of the "embattled farmers" of South Africa,
in support of which the Joliet meeting was being held,
had aroused the deepest sympathies of Altgeld's libertyloving nature; and stirred by the news of General Methuen's capture a day or two before, he went to Joliet
resolved upon making one of the chief oratorical efforts
of his life.
At the meeting he spoke with much feeling and energy
for about forty-five minutes. Apparently his voice was
as strong as ever; but he hesitated a little at times, wiped
his forehead frequently, and occasionally reached out
somewhat unsteadily for support by the speaker's table
or a near-by chair. At the last, after an eloquent plea
for the Boer women and children penned up in British
concentration camps, he concluded with these words:
I am not discouraged. Things will right themselves. The
pendulum swings one way and then another. But the steady pull
of gravitation is toward the centre of the earth. Any structure
must be plumb if it is to endure, or the building will fall. So it
is with nations. Wrong may seem to triumph. Right may seem
'to be defeated. But the gravitation of eternal justice is toward
the Throne of Godc.  Anypolitical institution which is to endure must be plumb with that line of justice.
Amid the cheers of a large audience, Altgeld sighed
deeply and sat down. Then two or three minutes later,
as the next speaker began his address, he arose and
started a little uncertainly toward the wings of the stage.
Just as he was out of sight of the audience, he staggered
and fell into the arms of two members of a local singing
society who had noticed his distress and had arisen to




332


Altgeld of Illinois


assist him. From the theatre he was taken at once if a
semi-conscious condition to his hotel. There he revived
and spoke coherently to those about him. His chief
concert was that his wife should not be alarmed about his
condition. "I've got to be careful of her, you know," he
said. After being put to bed, he again lapsed into a state
of semi-consciousness. When Dr. Cushing of the State
penitentiary arrived, Altgeld recognized him, and attempting to extend his hand, he said: "How do you do,
Cushing? I am glad to see you." These were his last
intelligible words. After several hours of almost complete unconsciousness, he died a little after seven o'clock
on the morning of March I2. According to the statement of his attending physicians, death had been caused
by cerebral hemorrhage. As truly as any soldier on the
battlefield, Altgeld went down fighting for human liberty.
It was the death which of all others he would have chosen
for himself. He had
Fired his ringing shot and passed,
Hotly charged-and sank at last.
From Joliet the body wg   een to Chrago in charge
of Altgeld's law partner and devoted friend of many
years Clarence D5arrow. There, at the family home
on Malden Avenue, private funeral services of a very
brief and simple nature were held on the afternoon of
March 14. Miss Jane Addams and Mr. Darrow were
the only speakers other than the presiding clergyman,
Dr. Frank Crane. Next morning, escore be y Governor
Yates andis staff, the casket was carried to the Public
Library building and placed on a flower-banked bier in
the north corridor. All tat da   from eleven in the




Last Days


333


mornin   until ten at night, and for three hours during the
f   o wingorenst continuous double line of
sorrowing admirers filed slowly past the coffin. Despit
the harsh and rainy weather, from     forty    fifysand persons thus pad   aibu    tb    d     ttes    n.
All day long they stood; all day long in the rain. Bitter, bitter
Chicago! As if, even in his death, she would scourge by her
lowering clouds the men who dared to love him. Oppression,
Falsehood, Compromise, Cowardice breathed more freely; for in
the great north corridor of the Chicago Public Library John P.
Altgeld, friend of the common people, lay upon his bier. The
great rock against which the waves of corruption in high places
had beaten so long in vain had crumbled into clay at last. All
day long they stood, in imperceptibly moving line: the common
people, care-worn, toil-stained, wet to their thinly covered skins,
men and women and children together, waiting to look upon the
dead face of the man who had borne their troubles in his heart,
a heart great enough to know and to understand. As they
turned away, in men and women alike, shining, in some, through
tears, there was a look of dignity that was impressive, awful, as if
by that one look his spirit had caressed them, had raised them for
the instant to the height of his own towering manhood.*
Early in the afternoon of March 16 the doors of the
library building were closed, a few eloquent words were
spoken at the bier by William J. Bryan, and the casket
was then carried at the head of a long funeral procession to Graceland Cemetery. No military display
marked this procession, which was made up for the most
part of working-class organizations. At the grave, brief
addresses were given by two of Altgeld's political associates, Mr. Bryan and Charles A. Towne, and by his life* The Socialist Spirit (Chicago), April, 1902.




334


Altgeld of Illinois


long friend, Joseph W. Errant. The final scene here
has been thus impressively pictured by an eye-witness,
Mr. Louis F. Post:
A bleak landscape stretching away from his open grave, fierce
March winds bearing down the bitter cold of a northern blizzard
as they howled through the leafless trees, tumbling waves beating
on the near-by shore of the angry lake, and a lowering but not
altogether sunless sky overhanging the scene-this was the emblematic tribute which external Nature paid to the memory of
John P. Altgeld, while his friends returned his mortal part to
the absorbing elements of the earth from which it came.
It was a grand and fitting tribute. No other could so well
have symbolized the man. The bleakness was the bleakness of
March and not of December, of life renewing and not of life
at an end; and the signs and sounds of stress and storm, in the
midst of which the dead body lay-composed, silent, indifferent,
and as cold as the furious blast itself-pictured forth with graphic
fidelity the story of a devoted life lived out to the mortal end
in unflinching loyalty to principle and with cold indifference to
the malignant clamorings and their inane echoes which had assailed it on every hand.
Nor was the picture wholly harsh. Perfect artist that she is,
Nature was faithful to the whole truth. She had cast a thin
veil over the sky, and through the fleecy meshes of that token
of grief, the bright sun thrust its softened rays to symbolize at
once the hope which lies "beyond our mortal ken" and the
tender love that had vitalized this brave man's nobly strenuous
career.*
Public meetings to honor Altgeld's memory were held
in several large cities soon after his death, the huge gatherings in Cooper Union, New York, on April 3 and in the
* The Public (Chicago), March 22, 90o2.




Last Days                       335
Chicago Auditorium on April 20 being particularly impressive. In the same year (1902) there was organized
an Altgeld Memorial Association, having for its avowed
purpose "to keep alive the inspiring memory of John P.
Altgeld, volunteer soldier, jurist, statesman, publicist,
and humanitarian, and to inculcate the principles of free
government to which he heroically dedicated his life."
Besides providing for the pecuniary relief of Mrs. Altgeld, this Association organized three notable memorial
services in Chicago-the first on March io, I907, five
years after Altgeld's death; the second on September 4,
190o, when four bronze tablets now affixed to the cemetery monument were dedicated; and the last on March
10, I912, ten years after Altgeld's passing. The moving
spirit, the chief organizing force, in these activities was
Joseph S. Martin, whose name deserves to be inscribed in
shining letters in this or any similar record. For many
years both before and after Altgeld's death, Martin devoted virtually the whole of his time and fortune first to
the personal service then to enhancing the memory of the
man who was quite literally the god of his idolatry.* In
addition to his whole-hearted labors in connection with
the Memorial Association, Martin secured after long effort the passage of a bill through the Illinois legislature
of I913 appropriating $25,000 for the erection of a
*At the memorial service of 19I2, one of the speakers (Rev. Herbert
S. Bigelow) said: "While sitting here, I have been thinking of another name that it seems to me we should link with the name of Altgeld
upon this occasion; for next to greatness itself is the power of appreciating greatness.... There is a man, not in evidence of course, biding somewhere out on the edges of the crowd this afternoon, a man
who would have been glad to have laid down his life for Governor
Altgeld; and I want that name written into the record this afternoon.
Let us remember the name of Joseph S. Martin."




336


Altgeld of Illinois


public monument to Altgeld. As designed by Gutzon
Borglum, this monument has stood since I915 at the
north end of Lincoln Park, in Chicago.
During the last three or four years of Altgeld's life,
as already noted in these pages, he enjoyed the novel experience of being treated by a considerable section of the
American press with something like common decencyin some cases almost with respect. Even Harper's
Weekly and The Nation now found it possible to mention
his name without at the same time unlocking the floodgates of savage invective. After his death, the prevailing note in the press obituaries was one of eulogy. As in
the case of Lincoln, many of those who had been his most
relentless detractors now joined with his devoted followers in paying tribute to the dead. The "arch-anarchist"
was suddenly metamorphosed into a staunch though
"occasionally mistaken" champion of democratic American institutions; the "friend of disorder" and "ally of
criminals" became a zealous exponent of law and justice;
the "frenzied demagogue" was declared to be a leader
of forlorn hopes, whose whole effort "was to force his
party to stand for unpopular principles, rather than gain
office through compromise." The newspaper which of
all others had been most vociferous in its tirades against
"viper Altgeld" now discovered and proclaimed that "he
was a sincere, earnest and honest man, whose feelings at
times possibly played him false. Someone has truthfully said that Altgeld would be assured of immortality
if the memorial notices published at his death had appeared as many days in succession as the life-long attacks.
But in a sense that has no remotest association with
such evanescent things as press obituaries, Altgeld is in



Last Days


337


deed assured of immortality. The tide of public affairs
runs swiftly in this country, carrying those who for the
moment ride and in some degree control it to quick oblivion. The large outstanding figures of one generation
are commonly no more than shadows (when they are
even that) to its successor. For the most part it is only
as some specious national myth entwines itself about the
reputation of a vanished statesman or politician, like the
bright swathing-cloths about an Egyptian mummy, that
his name seems to endure with any permanence or make
any urgent appeal to the popular imagination. Outside
a little group of surviving friends, associates, and followers, there are probably few today to whom the name
of John P. Altgeld is significant or even familiar. His
heroic struggles in behalf of the common people, in behalf of justice and honesty, in behalf of truly democratic
government, are largely unknown to a contemporary
world intent mainly upon what is visibly and tangibly before its eyes. He belongs with what is called the dead
past, which we in America bury more speedily and with
less reverence than any other people. But, as the sages
frequently remind us, the past is never dead-"at last it
is all that lives." In any large sense, whatever free and
orderly and equitable social existence we enjoy today
comes as a heritage from the past, a direct boon from the
pioneers of progress who have long since left the human
scene. In the twenty years or more since Altgeld's
death, his influence has been a constant and potent force
in the public life of this country. In some degree his
voice still speaks in every programme of political or
social reform; the work of every earnest man or woman
who would alleviate the ills under which humanity suffers
has been made easier because of his efforts. Although




338              Altgeld    of Illinois
his name may be forgotten, he lives and will continue to
live in the perpetual strivings of mankind toward a better
collective existence. The last word on any subject is
usually spoken by a poet, and the essential truth about
Altgeld finds eloquent expression in the following commemorative lines written by Mr. Vachel Lindsay:
Sleep softly... eagle forgotten... under the stone.
Time has its way with you there, and the clay has its own.
"We have buried him now," thought your foes, and in secret rejoiced.
They made a brave show of their mourning, their hatred unvoiced.
They had snarled at you, barked at you, foamed at you day after
day,
Now you were ended. They praised you... and laid you away.
The others that mourned you in silence and terror and truth,
The widow bereft of her crust, and the boy without youth,
The mocked and the scorned and the wounded, the lame and the
poor
That should have remembered forever... remember no more.
Where are those lovers of yours, on what name do they call,
The lost, that in armies wept over your funeral pall?
They call on the names of a hundred high-valiant ones,
A hundred white eagles have risen, the sons of your sons;
The zeal in their wings is a zeal that your dreaming began,
The valor that wore out your soul in the service of man.
/Sleep softly... eagle forgotten... under the stone,
Time has its way with you there, and the clay has its own.
Sleep on, 0 brave-hearted, 0 wise man, that kindled the flameTo live in mankind is far more than to live in a name,
To live in mankind, far, far more... than to live in a name.


THE END




INDEX


Abbott, Lyman J., (quoted) 286.
Abbott, Willis J., (quoted), 87, 135.
Addams,    Jane,   (quoted)   36
(quoted), Ixi, xI5, (quoted)
192-193; 332.
Allen Law, the, 305-306.
Altgeld, Darrow & Thompson, 327.
Altgeld, Emma Ford, 12, 335.
Altgeld, John Peter (see also Table
of Contents).
Interview, Chicago Evening Post,
23.
Letter to Henry D. Lloyd, 30-31.
Newspaper interview, July 31,
1891, 42-43.
Inaugural address (1893), 63,
195, 204-205.
Address, U. of Il1., 69-72, 190, 210.
Interview with Clarence S. Darrow, 89.
Pardon message, 94-105.
Cooper Union Speech (I896)
133, 135-I36, IS5.
Dispatch to President Cleveland
(July 5, 1894), 144, I54-157.
Biennial message, (Jan. 6, 1897),
184-185.
"Our Penal Machinery and Its
Victims,"' 8, 28, 178, I79-183.
"Eight-hour Movement, The"
(quotation from), I89.
Labor Day Speech (1892) 190,195.
Proclamation (I895), I96.
General message to State legislature (1895), 200-201, 213.
Second biennial message to State
legislature, 228-229.
Pardon message, 252-253.
"Oratory: Its Requirements and
Rewards," 326.
"Cost of Something for Nothing,
The," 26, 27, 327.
"American Ideals" (address), 330.
"Shall the People Own the Monopolies?" (address), 330.
"Live Questions," 28, 43, 94, x36,
204.
Altgeld, John Peter (father), 2, 3, 5.
Altgeld, Mary Lanehart (mother),
2, 5.
Altgeld Memorial Association, 335.
33


American Federation of Labor, 126.
American Railway Union, x19, 2ao,
123, I24, 125, 130, I45, 151,
Amnesty Association of 1890, 87.
Anarchists, See Chicago Anarchists.
Anti-Imperialist League, 321.
Appellate Court, Altgeld's letter to,
II2.
Baker, Col. David J., 66, 67, 69.
Bedford, Alexander, 15.
Bemis, E. W., 147.
Beveridge, Governor, 246.
Bigelow, Rev. Herbert S., 335.
"Black International," 75-77, 8i.
Black, John C., 282.
Bland, Richard P., 270, 277, 28, 285.
Board of pardons, 253.
Boer cause, 330-331.
Bonfield, Captain John, 79, 1oo, 101,
102.
Borglum, Gutzon, 336.
Brennan, George, 66, 248-249.
"Bribe, the million dollar," 234.
Brough, Governor of Ohio, 6.
Brown, Judge Edward Osgood, 19,
(quoted) 19-20, 24, 26, 29-30,
114, 208-209, 294.
Browne, Francis Fisher (quoted),
274-275, 277-279, 313-314.
Bryan, William Jennings, 57, 272,
273, 277, 279, 280, 281, 284,
285, 319-323, 333.
Bryce, James, "The American Commonwealth, 254, 255.
Buckner, Simon B., 282.
Bunn, John W., 219, 220,
Burrill, Dr. Thomas, 211-212, 2i6.
Carter, Zina R., 308, 309.
"Centennial History of Illinois"
(quotations) 47-49, 89, 199.
Charitable institutions, Illinois, 206 -207, 222.
Charleston University, 228.
Chicago Anarchists, 74-115.
Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad, 132.
Chicago   Auditorium,  memorial
meeting, 335.




340


Index


Chicago Chronicle, 2711-272.
Chicago College of Pharmacy,:zi8.
Chicago College of Physicians and
Surgeons, 217, 2x8.
Chicago gas trust, 233.
Chicago park system, 2o8-209.
Chicago Railway Strike of x894,
iz6, 128-162.
Chicago Record-Herald, 303.
Chicago Tribune (quotation from),
235-241, embezzlement case,
252-253, (quotation from) 295.
Civic Federation, 125, 2o6.
Civil Service Reform League, 206.
Civil Service law for cities of 1895,
2o6-207.
Cleveland, Grover, 46, 47, 69, 117,
124, 129, 137,148, (quoted) 149 -150, 151, 152, '153-162, x63, x64,
x66, 170, 171,) 172, 3173, 256.
Constitution, Federal, 163-z64, T66,
1T67, 16g, 3171.
Constitution, Illinois, 204-206, 232.
Cooley, Thomas M., (quoted) 164,
i66, 171.
Cooper Union, memorial meeting,
334.
Crane, Dr. Frank, 332.
Croker, Richard, 305.
Cronin case, 97.
Cullom, Governor, 246.
Cushing, Dr. 332.
Daniel, Senator John W., 272.
Darrow, Clarence, 89, 327, 332.
Debel, Niels H., 255.
Debs, Et'gene V., 121, 3126, 128.
"Debs' Rebellion," i 128.
Degan (policeman), 98.
De Kalb university, 228.
Democratic National Convention
(1892) 46, (i896) 270-2.82,
(igoo) 318-321.
Democratic State Convention at
Springfield, (11892), 44, 45; at
Peoria (i896), 202., 265.
Depew, Chauncey M., 243.
Dose, William F., 66.
Draper, Dr. Andrew Sloan, 2,13-:217.
Dreier (Chicago banker), 92.
Dreiser, Theodore, see "Titan,
The" and "Financier, The."
Dunlap, Henry M., 2112, 2x6.
Dunne, Edward F., (quoted) 242.
Ebersold, Captain (quote~d), 103.


Eight-hour movement, 77-7S.
Engel, George, 8o, 83, 84, 96.
Errant, Joseph W., 334.
"Eternal monopoly bills," 231-244,
265.
Everett, William S., 2:2.
Farmer's Alliance Movement, 54.
Favor, Otis 5., 96.
Federal troops, 134-1r62.
Fielden, Samuel, 8o, 84, 86, 87, 90,
91, 103, 105, zo6.
Fifer, Governor, 26, 45, 50, 87.
"Financier, The," 234.
Fischer, Adolph, 8o, 83, 84, 96.
Folk, Joseph W., 57.
"Force Bill" of 1890, 46, 47.
Forman, William 5., 282.
"Forty Years of It," see Whitlock,
Brand.
Gage, Lyman J., 82, 87.
Gailey, Rev. Richard, 9.
Gary, judge J. E., Si, III, 112, 113.
General Managers' Association,
120-1121, 1126, 144, 145, 1146, 151.
George, Henry,:25, 57, 204, 302."Gold Brick, The,"1 see Whitlock,
Brand.
Goudy, William C., 24, 29.
"Government in the Chicago Strike
of z894, The," see Cleveland.
Granger Movement, x6, 117, 54.
Grant, U. 5., 167, z68, 170, 1711.
Guiteau, 287.
Halstead, Murat, l09.
Hanecy, Judge Elbridge, 325,-326.
Hanna, Mark, 269, 284, 2.85, 289,
290, 299.
Harlan, John M., 3:25-326.
Harp~er's Weekly (quotation from)
270, 273-274, 2z80, 285-286;
287, (quotation from) 290, 296,
31I3, 31-4-318; 320, 336.
Harrison, Benjamin, 46.
Harrison, Mayor Carter, 79, 305,
306, 307, log, 318, 325-326.
Haymarket riot, 79-8i. See also
Chicago Anarchists.
HWile, Adolph, 21-22.
Herald, The (Chicago), 5i.
Heren, William, z6.
Hill, David B., 27:2, 277.
Hinrichsen, Win. H., (quoted) 6,
90-91, 250-251.




Index


34I


Hobart, Garret A., 270.
Hogg, James S., 281.
Hopkins, Mayor, 124, 136, 147.
Howard, Louise, (quoted) 323.
Howells, W. D., 82, 83; 115, 275.
Hubbard, Elbert, (quoted) 328.
Hughes, Charles Evans, 56-57.
Hull-House, 19I, see also Addams,
Jane.
Illinois and Michigan Canal, 230.
Illinois Central Railroad, 130, I35.
"Illinois Industrial University," see
University of Illinois.
Illinois, legislature of, 59-61, 64,
203, 206, 207.
Illinois National Guard, see State
Militia.
Illinois, State of, 57-58.
Industrial reforms, 188-198.
Ingersoll, Robert G., 82.
Inheritance tax, (1895) 203-204.
"Injunction, blanket," 123.
Insane asylums, 228.
Interstate Commerce Act of 1887,
57, 148-149.
James, Dr. Edmund J., 210, 22r.
Joliet prison, 91.
Judicial reforms, see Prison and
judicial reforms.
Kelley, Florence, 191, 192, 194, 227.
Kohlsaat, H. H., (quoted) 280-281.
Ku Klux Klan, I66.
Labor Party, 25.
Labor Statistics, Bureau of, x88-189,
202.
Lamont, Daniel, 151.
Lanehart, John W., 25, 33, 300.
Lathrop, Julia, 227, (quoted) 227.
Lehr und Wehr Verein, 77.
Lemont, Ill., 72-73, 117, 129.
Leupp, Francis E., 273-274.
Levy, David R., (quoted) 292-293.
Lincoln, Abraham i, 6, 248.
Lindsay, Vachel, 67, (quoted) 68,
296-297, 338.
Lindsey, Ben B., 57.
Lingg, Louis, 80, 83, 84.
Livingston, Edward, (quoted) 174.
Lloyd, Caro, "Life of Henry Demarest Lloyd," 87, 140, 147, 152.
Lloyd, Henry Demarest, 30, 57,
82,  (quoted), 1o9-IIo,   IS5,
(quoted)     I34-x35,    137,


(quoted)  x37-140,  (quoted)
147, I49, (quoted) 152, 19I,
302; 326, 327.
McConnell, S. P., (quoted) go, II2 -113, 241.
McCormick Reaper Factory, 78-79,
I00, 101.
McKinley tariff act I890, 46, 47.
McKinley, William, 87, 13o, 268,
269, 270, 284, 321, 322.
Martin, Joseph S., 335.
Mason, William E., 303.
Masters, Edgar Lee, 328, (quoted)
329-330.
Mead, Edwin D., 87.
Meriwether, Lee, 324.
Miles, General, I24, 150.
Morrill Land Grant Act, 211.
Most, Johann, 76.
Mounds, Ill., disturbance at, 131.
Municipal Ownership News, 308.
Municipal Voters' League, 306.
Nation, The, (quotation from) 172 -3; 287, 336.
National Democratic Party, 282.
Neebe, Oscar, 8o, 8i, 86, 87, 90, 91,
95, 103, 105, xo6.
Nelson,   Henry    Loomis,   313,
(quoted) 314-3I8.
Nevins, Allan, 2I1, 214-216.
Newv England Magazine, 150.
New   York Tribune, 291.
New York World, 270-271.
"Nortons, The," 21.
Oglesby, Governor, 82, 83, 84, 86.
Olney, Attorney-General Richard,
I22, 123, I34, 143, (quoted)
143, 144, 146, I47-148, 149, I68,
i69-170.
Outlook, The, 223.
Palmer, General John M., 47, 167,
I68, 255, 282.
Pardon Messages, see Altgeld J.
Parker, Alton B., 324.
Parsons, Albert R., 80, 83, 84, 96.
Peck, Harry Thurston, 146.
Parton, James, (quoted) 283.
People's party, 46, 47, 54, 281.
Philippine Islands, 311-312.
Pillsbury, W. L., 216, 219.
Pingrec, Hazen S., I25, x50.
Pinkerton men, 99.
Populist party, see People's party.




342


Index


Post, Louis F., 90; 313, 334.
Prison and judicial reforms, 175-187.
Prohibition Party, 282.
Public, The, 325-326, 334.
Pullman Company, 201-202.
Pullmian strike, 117-120, 130, 138,,
145-146.
Railway Strike, see Chicago Railway Strike Of 1894.
Rea, judge David, 15, x6.
Reforms, miscellaneous, i99-209.
Republican  National   Convention
(1892z) 46, (1896) 269.
Revenue System, 200-206.
Revised Statutes, 164-166.
Rhodes, J. F., "The McKinley and
Root -.,elt  Administrations,",
269.
Rock Island hospital, 228, 229.
Rogers, W. A., 287.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 287; 324.
Russell, Charles Edward (quoted),
76-77, (quoted) 84-85.
Schaack, Captain, oro, 1103.
Schilling, George A., 25,.189, 20:2.
Schnaubelt, Rudolph, 8o-8i, 84.
Schofield, Lieut.-Gen. John M.,
(quoted) 150-1151.
Schwab, Michael, So, 84, 86, 87, 90,
91, 105, xo6.
Sewall, Arthur, 277, 281.
Sexton, Colonel James A., 223.
Shepard, judge Henry M., 22, 29.
Sheridan, General Philip, ic68.
Sherman Anti-Trust Law of 1i890,
55, 1123, 1127, 1148, 149.
Sherman   Silver-Purchase Act of
1890, 256, 259, 268.
Shibley, George H., 308.
Sickles, General (quoted), 287.
Silver question, 256-267.
Single tax, zo4'.
Smith, Goldwin (quoted) 290.
Smyth, John M., 231.
"Socialist SPirit, The," 333.
Soldiers' Home, 223.
Southack, Senator John H., 6o-6!x.
Spalding, Charles W., President
Globe Savings Bank, 219-220,
S01.
Spies, August, So, 81-84, 96.
"Spoon River Anthology," 328-3 30.
State Bar Association, 2x6.
State board of charities, 222.
State board of equalization, 201.


State institutions founded or enlarged by' Altgeld, 227-228.
State insurance department, 230.
State militia, t28-16z.
Steffens,  Lincoln  (quoted),  56,
~33,:265.
Stevenson, Adlai E., 47, 32!
Stone, Governor of MO., 26!.
Supplies, reforms in purchase of,
22z6.
Supreme Court, Ill-, 207.
Sweet, Leonard, 83.
Taft, William H., 1711.
Tammany Hall, 305.
Tanner, John R., 194, 265, 298, 305.
Taxation reform, 199-206.
Taylor Horace, 51.
Teller, Senator, 270.
Thomas, Charles S., (quoted) 319.
Thompson, William H., 327.
"Titan, The" (quotation from) 6o.
Torrens system, 207.
Towne, Charles A., 333.
Tree, judge Lambert, 173, 218, 300,,
304.
Turner Hall incident, 99, 100.
United States Strike Commission,
11]E7, -119, 121, 124, (quoted)
'126, '146, 147.
United States Supreme Court, 12-7.
Unity Building, 28, 34-4I, 6a2, 300.
University of Chicago, 216.
University of Illinois, 65, 210-221.
Vetoes, 253-2-55.
Vilas, William F., 277.
Wade, Senator George M. 6o-6i.
Walker, Edwin, 12:2, 148.
Walsh, John R., 37-41, 51, 233.
Warren, Clinton B., 35.
Washin~gton Post, io8.
Watson, Thomas E., 281r.
West Division Street railway, zoo.
White, Senator S. M., 272.
Whitlock, Brand, 44 —45, 50-52, 57,
66, 82, 931-93, '133, 1E37, 242,
243, 247, 248-250, 2989
Williams, C. H., 3i5.
Williams, Isaac R., 13.
Wilson tariff bill, 256, 258.
Women on State boards, 226, 227.
World's Columbian Exposition, 62.
Yerkes, Charles T., 40, 231-234,
265, 305, 3o6.
















- =THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GRADUATE LIBRARY
DATE DUE


E-.— of
r, - _:=- 3,


FRr, ';asi
7 -S
~r tr -hbXryl L 1


DEC 10
Form 9584
_/


1996




fU-NIVERSITY OFMIHG f
UbN 1Z \,                 3 9015 00268 4846
v,-rdor, Pvwsorvaoon
APR '1999O






r' '