On
1st May, 1886 a strike was began throughout the United
States in support a eight-hour day. Over the next few days over
340,000 men and women withdrew their labor. Over a quarter of these
strikers were from Chicago and the employers
were so shocked by this show of unity that 45,000 workers in the city
were immediately granted a shorter workday.
The campaign for the eight-hour day was organised by the International
Working Peoples Association (IWPA). On 3rd May, the IWPA in Chicago
held a rally outside the McCormick Harvester Works, where 1,400 workers
were on strike. They were joined by 6,000 lumber-shovers, who had
also withdrawn their labour. While August Spies,
one of the leaders of the IWPA was making a speech, the police arrived
and opened-fire on the crowd, killing four of the workers.
The following day August Spies, who was
editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung,
published a leaflet in English and German entitled: Revenge!
Workingmen to Arms!. It included the passage: "They
killed the poor wretches because they, like you, had the courage to
disobey the supreme will of your bosses. They killed them to show
you 'Free American Citizens' that you must be satisfied with whatever
your bosses condescend to allow you, or you will get killed. If you
are men, if you are the sons of your grand sires, who have shed their
blood to free you, then you will rise in your might, Hercules, and
destroy the hideous monster that seeks to destroy you. To arms we
call you, to arms." Spies also published a second leaflet calling
for a mass protest at Haymarket Square that evening.
On 4th May, over 3,000 people turned up at the Haymarket meeting.
Speeches were made by August Spies, Albert
Parsons and Samuel Fielden. At 10
a.m. Captain John Bonfield and 180 policemen arrived on the scene.
Bonfield was telling the crowd to "disperse immediately and peaceably"
when someone threw a bomb into the police ranks from one of the alleys
that led into the square. It exploded killing eight men and wounding
sixty-seven others. The police then immediately attacked the crowd.
A number of people were killed (the exact number was never disclosed)
and over 200 were badly injured.
Several people identified Rudolph Schnaubelt as the man who threw
the bomb. He was arrested but was later released without charge. It
was later claimed that Schnaubelt was an agent provocateur
in the pay of the authorities. After the release of Schnaubelt, the
police arrested Samuel Fielden, an Englishman,
and six German immigrants, August Spies,
Adolph Fisher, Louis
Lingg, George Engel, Oscar
Neebe, and Michael Schwab. The police
also sought Albert Parsons, the leader
of the International Working Peoples Association in Chicago,
but he went into hiding and was able to avoid capture. However, on
the morning of the trial, Parsons arrived in court to standby his
comrades.
There were plenty of witnesses who were able to prove that none of
the eight men threw the bomb. The authorities therefore decided to
charge them with conspiracy to commit murder. The prosecution case
was that these men had made speeches and written articles that had
encouraged the unnamed man at the Haymarket to throw the bomb at the
police.
The jury was chosen by a special bailiff instead of being selected
at random. One of those picked was a relative of one of the police
victims. Julius Grinnell, the State's Attorney, told the jury: "Convict
these men make examples of them, hang them, and you save our institutions."
At the trial it emerged that Andrew Johnson, a detective from the
Pinkerton Agency, had infiltrated
the group and had been collecting evidence about the men. Johnson
claimed that at anarchist meetings
these men had talked about using violence. Reporters who had also
attended International Working Peoples Association meetings also testified
that the defendants had talked about using force to "overthrow
the system".
During the trial the judge allowed the jury to read speeches and articles
by the defendants where they had argued in favour of using violence
to obtain political change. The judge then told the jury that if they
believed, from the evidence, that these speeches and articles contributed
toward the throwing of the bomb, they were justified in finding the
defendants guilty.
All the men were found guilty: Albert Parsons,
August Spies, Adolph
Fischer, Louis Lingg and George
Engel were given the death penalty. Whereas Oscar
Neebe, Samuel Fielden and Michael
Schwab were sentenced to life imprisonment. On 10th November,
1887, Lingg committed suicide by exploding a dynamite cap in his mouth.
The following day Parsons, Spies, Fisher and Engel mounted the gallows.
As the noose was placed around his neck, Spies shouted out: "There
will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices
you strangle today."
Many people believed that the men had not been given a fair trial
and in 1893, John Peter Altgeld, the
new governor of Illinois, pardoned Oscar Neebe,
Samuel Fielden and Michael
Schwab.
Photographs
taken on 3rd May, 1887.
August Spies, Albert
Parsons,
Louis Lingg (centre)
George Engel and Adolph
Fisher.
(1)
George McLean, The Rise and Fall of Anarchy in America (1890)
The eight hour system of labor had been agitated for some time, and
the first of May, 1886, was the time set for it to go into effect
by all the trade and labor unions. It was suspected by many that the
insubordinate element of socialists and anarchists would take advantage
of the already fermented state of the working classes, to make a bold
stand to revolutionize and demoralize, by their treasonable and inflammatory
speeches, the otherwise peaceful and respectable citizens of Chicago.
The McCormick reaper works, with over one thousand employees, mostly
foreigners, had been out on a strike for several weeks, and being
at fever heat the anarchists sought to produce a riot among these
turbulent men. The troublesome element consisted largely of the ignorant
lower classes of Bavarians, Bohemians, Hungarians, Germans, Austrians,
and others who held secret meetings in organized groups armed and
equipped like the nihilists of Russia, and the communists of France.
(2)
August Spies, Die Arbeiter Zeitung
(18th March 1886)
If we do not soon bestir ourselves for a bloody revolution, we cannot
leave anything to our children but poverty and slavery. Therefore,
prepare yourselves! In all quietness, prepare yourselves for the Revolution!
(3)
Attorney General Julius Grinnell, opening address to the jury (September,
1887)
On May 3 everything was done that could be done to arouse the people
to anarchy. The conspiracy was so large, the numbers so appalling,
that it seems impossible to describe it. The men who have incited
this bloodshed have been picked out and should be blotted out. In
breaking up the meeting Inspector Bonfield did the wisest thing he
could have done. If he had waited until the next night the Socialist
would have gained strength, and hundreds would have been killed instead
of the seven that did fall. The action was the wisest thing ever done
in this city. The courage and strength of the police saved the town.
The inflammatory speeches of these people decided Inspector Bonfield
that the meeting should be broken up.
Captain Ward alone of all those policemen had a revolver in his hand.
He stepped forward in the usual manner, and ordered the people to
disperse. At this command Fielden stepped from the wagon and said
in a loud voice: "We are peaceable." At this remark, as
though it was some secret signal, a man who had before been on the
wagon, taking a bomb from his pocket, lit the fuse and threw it into
the ranks of the police. Fielden, standing behind the wagon, opened
fire and kept it up for several minutes, when he in turn disappeared.
Fielden was the only one of all the men who had a spark of heroism
in him. The action of the police cannot be too highly commended. Not
a shot was fired by them until many of their comrades had fallen.
I will try and show to you who threw the bomb, and I will prove to
your satisfaction that Lingg made it. There are a great many counts
in this case, but murder is the main one. It is not necessary to bring
the bomb-thrower into the court. Though none of these men, perhaps,
threw the bomb personally, they aided and abetted the throwing of
it, and are as responsible as the actual thrower."
(4)
Andrew Johnson, a Pinkerton Detective,
infiltrated the Chicago anarchist group and reported on what was said
at their meetings. He repeated this information during the men's trial.
A man named Bishop introduced a resolution of sympathy for a girl
named Sorell. Bishop stated that the girl had been assaulted by her
master. She had applied for a warrant, which had been refused her
on account of the high social standing of her master. August Spies
said: "What is the use of passing resolutions? We must act, and
revenge the girl. Here is a fine opportunity for some of our young
men to go and shoot Wight." That was the man who had assaulted
the girl.
(5)
Moses Salomon, defence lawyer (September, 1887)
Now, gentlemen, I desire to call your attention to what these defendants
on trial are charged with. They are not charged with Anarchy; they
are not charged with Socialism; they are not charged with the fact
that Anarchy and Socialism is dangerous or beneficial to the community;
but, according to the law under which we are now acting, a charge
specific in its nature must be made against them, and that alone,
must be sustained, and it is the duty of the jury to weigh the evidence
as it bears upon that charge; an upon no other point can they pay
attention to it. Now, gentlemen, the charge here is shown by this
indictment.
The section of the law under which this indictment is framed is as
follows: Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being in the peace
of the people with malice aforethought, either expressed or implied.
The unlawful killing may be perpetrated by poisoning, striking, stabbing,
shooting, etc., or by any other of the various forms or means by which
human nature may be overcome and death thereby occasioned. Express
malice is that deliberate intention unlawfully to take away the life
of a fellow-creature, which is manifested by external circumstances
capable of proof. Malice shall be implied when no considerable provocation
appears, or when all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned
and malignant heart.
(6)
William Foster, defence lawyer (September, 1887)
It is not enough to warrant the conviction of the defendant Lingg
that he may have manufactured the bomb, the explosion of which killed
Mathias J. Degan. He must have aided, abetted or advised the exploding
of the bomb, or of the doing of some illegal act, or the doing of
the legal act in an unlawful manner, in the furtherance of which,
and as incident thereto, the same was exploded and said Degan killed.
If, as to the defendant Lingg the jury should find beyond all reasonable
doubt that he did in fact manufacture said bomb, but are not satisfied
beyond all reasonable doubt that he aided, advised, counseled or abetted
the throwing of said missile, or the doing of any unlawful act which
resulted in the explosion of said bomb, your verdict should acquit
him as far as the establishment of his guilt is attempted by the manufacture
of said missile or bomb.
Whatever may be our criticism upon the matter of manufacturing dynamite
bombs for any purpose, there is no law within this State which makes
the mere manufacture of such missiles a crime punishable by death
or otherwise. Louis Lingg could not have been convicted of murder
because of all this matter detailed by Seilger and his wife and Lehman,
even if it were clear that the bomb thrown at Haymarket had come from
his hands, if it had been thrown by a third party acting upon his
own responsibility an without Lingg's knowledge, consent, aid , assistance,
advice or encouragement.
(7)
Albert Parsons, speech at his trial
(September, 1887)
The labor question is up for settlement. It demands and commands a
hearing. The existing disorders threaten not only the peace, but the
destruction of society itself. The movement to reduce the work hours
is intended by its projectors to give a peaceful solution to the difficulties
between capitalists and laborers. I have always held that there were
two ways to settle this trouble-either by peaceable or violent methods.
Reduced hours- or eight hours - is a peace-offering. It is for capitalists
to give or laborers to take. I hold that capitalists will not give
eight hours. Why? Because the rate of wages in every wage-paying country
is regulated by what it takes to live on; in other words, it is subsistence
wages. This subsistence wage is what political economists call the
'iron law of wages', because it is unvarying and inviolable. How does
this law operate? In this way: A laborer is hired to do a day's work.
In the first two hours of the ten he reproduces the equivalent of
his wage; the other eight hours is what the employer gets and gets
for nothing. Hence the laborer, as the statistics of the census of
1880 show, does ten work for two hours pay. Now, reduced hours, or
eight hours, means that the profit monger is to get only six hours
instead of, as now, eight hours for nothing. For this reason employers
of labor will not voluntarily concede the reduction. I do not believe
that capital will quietly or peaceably permit the economic emancipation
of their wage-slaves. It is against all the teachings of history and
human nature for men to voluntarily yield up usurped or arbitrary
power. The capitalists of the world will for this reason force the
workers into armed revolution. Socialists point out this fact and
warn the workingmen to prepare for the inevitable.
(8)
August Spies, speech at his trial (September,
1887)
The contemplated murder of eight men, whose only crime is that they
have dared to speak the truth, may open the eyes of these suffering
millions; may wake them up. Indeed, I have noticed that our conviction
has worked miracles in this direction already. The class that clamors
for our lives, the good, devout Christians, have attempted in every
way, through their newspapers and otherwise, to conceal the true and
only issue in this case. By simply designating the defendants as anarchists
and picturing them as a newly discovered tribe or species of cannibals,
and by inventing shocking and horrifying stories of dark conspiracies
said to be planned by them, these good Christians zealously sought
to keep the naked fact from the working people and other righteous
parties, namely: that on the evening on May 4, 200 armed men, under
the command of a notorious ruffian, attacked a meeting of peaceable
citizens! With what intention? With the intention of murdering them,
or as many of them as they could.
(9)
George Engel, speech at his trial (September,
1887)
When I left Germany in the year 1873 it was by reason of my recognition
of the fact that I could not support myself in the future as it was
the duty of a man to do. I recognized that I could not make my living
in Germany because the machinery of the guilds of old no longer furnished
me a guarantee to live. I resolved to emigrate from Germany to the
United States, praised by many so highly.
When I landed in Philadelphia, on the 8th January, 1873, my heart
and my bosom expanded with the expectation of living hereafter in
that free country which had been so often praised to me by so many
emigrants, and I resolved to be a good citizen of this country; and
I congratulated myself on having broken with Germany.
For the first time I stand before an American court, and at that to
be at once condemned to death. And what are the causes that have preceded
it, and have brought me into court? They are the same things that
preceded my leaving Germany, and the same causes that made me leave.
I have seen with my own eyes that in this free country, in this richest
country in the world, so to say, there are existing proletarians who
are pushed out of the order of society.
(10)
Albert Parsons, speech at his trial
(September, 1887)
My ancestors came to this country a good while ago. My friend Oscar
Neebe here is the descendant of a Pennsylvania Dutchman. He and I
are the only two who had fortune, or the misfortune, as some people
may look at it I don't know and I don't care-to be born in this country.
My ancestors had a hand in drawing up and maintaining the Declaration
of Independence. My great great grand-uncle lost a hand at the Battle
of Bunker Hill. I had a great great great grand-uncle with Washington
at Brandywine, Monmouth and Valley Forge. I have been here long enough,
I think, to have rights guaranteed at least in the constitution of
the country.
(11)
Albert Parsons, letter to his
wife, Lucy Parson (14th September, 1887)
Our verdict this morning cheers the hearts of tyrants throughout the
world, and the result will be celebrated by King Capital in its drunken
feast of flowing wine from Chicago to St. Petersburg. Nevertheless,
our doom to death is the handwriting on the wall, foretelling the
downfall of hate, malice, hypocrisy, judicial murder, oppression,
and the domination of man over his fellowman. The oppressed of earth
are writhing in their legal chains. The giant Labor is awakening.
The masses, aroused from their stupor, will snap their petty chains
like reeds in the whirlwind.
We are all creatures of circumstance; we are what we have been made
to be. This truth is becoming clearer day by day.
There was no evidence that any one of the eight doomed men knew of,
or advised, or abetted the Haymarket tragedy. But what does that matter?
The privileged class demands a victim, and we are offered a sacrifice
to appease the hungry yells of an infuriated mob of millionaires who
will be contented with nothing less than our lives. Monopoly triumphs!
Labor in chains ascends the scaffold for having dared to cry out for
liberty and right!
Well, my poor, dear wife, I, personally, feel sorry for you and the
helpless little babes of our loins.
You I bequeath to the people, a woman of the people. I have one request
to make of you: Commit no rash act to yourself when I am gone, but
take up the great cause of Socialism where I am compelled to lay it
down.
My children - well, their father had better die in the endeavor to
secure their liberty and happiness than live contented in a society
which condemns nine-tenths of its children to a life of wage slavery
and poverty. Bless them; I love them unspeakably, my poor helpless
little ones.
Ah, wife, living or dead, we are as one. For you my affection is everlasting.
For the people. Humanity. I cry out again and again in the doomed
victim's cell: Liberty! Justice! Equality!
(12)
August Spies, letter to Richard
Oglesby, the Governor of Illinois (6th November, 1887)
During our trial the desire of the prosecutor to slaughter me, and
to let my co-defendants off with milder punishment was quite apparent
and manifest. It seemed to me then, and a great many of others, that
the persecutors would be satisfied with one life - namely mine. Take
this, then! Take my life! I offer it to you so that you may satisfy
the fury of a semi-barbaric mob, and save that of my comrades. I know
that every one of my comrades is as willing to die, and perhaps more
so than I am. It is not for their sake that I make this offer, but
in the name of humanity and progress, in the interest of a peaceable
- if possible - development of the social forces that are destined
to lift our race upon a higher and better plane of civilization. In
the name of the traditions of our country I beg you to prevent a seven-fold
murder upon men whose only crime is that they are idealists, that
they long for a better future for all. If legal murder there must
be, let one, let mine, suffice.
(13)
The Chicago Daily News, report on the execution of August
Spies, Adolph Fischer, George
Engel, and Albert Parsons (12th
November, 1887)
Seldom, if ever, have four men died more gamely and defiantly than
the four who were strangled today. Every eye was bent upon the metallic
angle around which the four wretched victims were expected to make
their appearance. A moment later their curiosity was rewarded. With
steady, unfaltering step a white-robed figure stepped out from behind
the protecting metallic screen and stood upon the drop. It was August
Spies. It was evident that his hands were firmly bound behind him
underneath his snowy shroud.
He walked with a firm, almost stately tread across the platform and
took his stand under the left-hand noose at the corner of the scaffold
farthest from the side at which he had entered. Very pale was the
expressive face, and a solemn, far-away light shone in his blue eyes.
Nothing could be imagined more melancholy, and at the same time dignified,
than the expression which sat upon the face of August Spies at that
moment.
Spies had scarcely taken his place on the scaffold when his place
when he was followed by Fischer. He, too, was clad in a long white
shroud that was gathered in at the ankles. His tall figure towered
several inches over that of Spies, and as he stationed himself behind
his particular noose his face was very pale, but a faint smile rested
upon his lips.
Next came George Engel. There was a ruddy glow upon the rugged countenance
of the old anarchist, and when he ranged himself alongside Fischer
he raised himself to his full height, while his burly form seemed
to expand with the feelings that were within him. Engel smiled down
at the crowd, and then turning to Deputy Peters, who guarded him,
he smiled gratefully toward him and whispered something to the officer
that seemed to affect him.
Last came Parsons. His face looked actually handsome, though it was
very pale. When he stepped upon the gallows he turned partially sideways
to the dangling noose and regarded it with a fixed, stony gaze - one
of mingled surprise and curiosity. Then he straightened himself under
the fourth noose, and, as he did so, he turned his big gray eyes upon
the crowd below with such as look of awful reproach and sadness as
could not fail to strike the innermost chord of the hardest heart
there. It was a look never to be forgotten. There was an expression
almost of inspiration on the white, calm face, and the great, stony
eyes seemed to burn into men's hearts and ask: "What have I done?"
The four men stood upon the scaffold clad from top to toe in pure
white. For an instant there was a dead silence, and then a mournful
solemn voice sounded from behind the right-hand mask, and cut the
air like a wail of sorrow and warning. Spies was speaking from behind
his shroud. The words seemed to drop into the cold, silent air like
pellets of fire. Here is what he said: "There will be a time
when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle
today."
(14)
Howard Zinn, A People's History of the
United States (1980)
A meeting was called for Haymarket Square on the evening of
May 4, and about three thousand persons assembled. It was a quiet
meeting, and as storm clouds gathered and the hour grew late, the
crowd dwindled to
a few hundred. A detachment of 180 policemen showed up, advanced on
the speakers' platform, ordered the crowd to disperse. The speaker
said the meeting was almost over. A bomb then exploded in the midst
of the police, wounding sixty-six policemen, of whom seven later died.
The police fired into the crowd, killing several people, wounding
two hundred.
With no evidence on who
threw the bomb, the police arrested eight anarchist leaders in Chicago.
The Chicago Journal said: "Justice should be prompt in dealing
with the arrested anarchists. The law regarding
accessories to crime in this State is so plain that their trials will
be short." Illinois law said that anyone inciting a murder was
guilty of that murder. The evidence against the eight anarchists was
their ideas, their literature; none had been at Haymarket that day
except
Fielden, who was speaking when the bomb exploded. A jury found them
guilty, and they were sentenced to death. Their appeals were denied;
the Supreme Court said it had no jurisdiction.
The event aroused international
excitement. Meetings took place in France, Holland, Russia, Italy,
Spain. In London a meeting of protest was sponsored by George Bernard
Shaw, William Morris, and Peter Kropotkin, among others. Shaw had
responded in his characteristic way to the turning down of an appeal
by the eight members of the Illinois Supreme Court: "If the world
must lose eight of its people, it can better afford to lose the eight
members of the Illinois Supreme
Court."
(15)
John Peter Altgeld, statement why
he was going to pardon Oscar Neebe,
Samuel Fielden and Michael
Schwab for the Haymarket Bombing
(26th June, 1893)
On 1st May, 1886, 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 (attempts to secure an eight-hour day),
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 running as fast as they could; that
at least four of the number so shot down died; and 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 seeing 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, who simply
seeking personal revenge for having been clubbed, and the Captain
Bonfield is the man who is really responsible for the death of the
police officers.
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 them.
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, 1893.
Flavio
Costantini, Chicago, May 3rd,
1886 (1974)
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