Louis
Lingg was
born in Baden, Germany on 9th September,
1864. Spies emigrated to the United States in 1885 and settled in
Chicago. He was employed as a carpenter
and became involved in trade union activities.
Lingg also developed a reputation as an outspoken supporter of anarchism.
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also withdrawn their labour.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, Lingg, August Spies,
Adolph Fisher, 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
Fisher 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."
(1)
Louis Lingg, Autobiography
of Louis Lingg (1887)
At thirteen I received my first impressions of the prevailing unjust
social institutions, i.e., the exploitation of men by men. The main
circumstances which caused this reflection in my youthful mind were
the experiences of my own family. It did not escape my observation
that the former employer of my father grew continually richer, despite
the extravagant life he and his family were leading, whilst, on the
other hand, my father, who had performed his respective part in creating
the wealth his employer possessed and who had sacrificed his all,
which was his health, in his effort to serve his master, was cast
aside like a worn-out tool which had fulfilled its mission and could
now be spared.
(2)
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."
(3)
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.
(4)
Louis Lingg, speech made when
found guilty of conspiracy to murder (September, 1887)
I declare here openly that I do not acknowledge these laws, and less
so the sentence of the Court. You perhaps think I will not use bombs
any more, but I tell you I die gladly upon the gallows in the sure
hope that hundreds and thousands of people to whom I have spoken will
now recognize and make use of dynamite. In this hope I despise you,
and I despise your laws. Hang me for it.
(5)
George McLean, The Rise
and Fall of Anarchy in America (1890)
Louis Lingg, had by some process
unknown to the keepers, secured a fulminating cap such as is used
in exploding dynamite, which he coolly placed in his mouth, and igniting
the fuse which protruded from his mouth a short distance, calmly awaited
the end. A traffic report sounded in the jail about 9 o'clock on the
morning of the day previous to the day set for the execution. The
deputies hastened in the direction of the sound of the explosion and
beheld clouds of bluish-white smoke curling out from between the bars
of the door of Lingg's cell. On turning him over he presented a ghastly
sight, the entire lower jaw was blown away, and the features mutilated
beyond recognition, only the stump of his tongue was remaining. He
died in great agony at 2.45 of the same day.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
