Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
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Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878
Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
A. They called a meeting about four o'clock. I sent up to that meeting
and asked them to send me down a man to take out the passengers that
had come into the city that morning, so that we could get them home. I
could not get any person to do that, and had to do it myself. I took
the train out. That evening there was a committee waited on me with a
proposal that they would run two of our trains--would select the crew
to take charge of them. I had been unable to get any protection
whatever either from the military or civil authorities.
Q. Did they carry out that arrangement?
A. I sent a request to the committee of public safety, and had also
gone and seen General Brown, personally, to get some protection for our
shops, and also some ammunition for a company that we had at Verona
guarding our property there. General Brown said he could give me no
assistance, whatever, and so far as his ammunition was concerned, he
had but very few cartridges for his command. He, however, gave me
forty, and an order to gather up the company at Verona, and place them
on duty there. He said he could not allow any troops to be sent out of
the city at all, as he deemed it of more importance to keep them in the
city than to send them on the outskirts. From Mr. Thaw, I learned also,
that the committee of public safety had declined to send any persons.
After the men had made their proposal, I notified them that I would
give them an answer in the morning, and started up to the east end and
saw Mr. Shinn, our vice president, and submitted their proposal to him,
and explained the position we were in--that we could get no protection
either from the civil or military authorities, and that if our men were
willing to work, I thought it would be prudent, on our part, to submit
to the men until such times as the authorities could regain control. He
agreed with me, and authorized me to let the men take charge of the
trains and run them, so as not to stop the United States mails. The
trains were run under the charge of the men for two days--Wednesday and
Thursday. On Friday, we took charge of the trains ourselves again. We
ran the passenger trains on Friday and on Saturday--all we desired to,
and notified the men on Saturday that we proposed to commence running
trains on Monday. And I advised all the men that desired to retain
their positions, and who wanted to go to work again, that if they would
come down on Monday and take their trains they could do so.
Q. How many responded on Monday?
A. We had some difficulty up until two o'clock, and I was compelled to
employ a few new men. After that, the men saw that we were determined,
to start the business on the road again, and the majority came in, and
we had all the men we wanted.
Q. Did you have any assistance from the military at any time?
A. Yes.
Q. When was it?
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