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. To the best of my recollection the telegram was from Mr. Watt. I
immediately went out and hunted some of the policemen who had been
discharged--I hunted them up, and several of the officers went out and
hunted them up. I notified a number myself to report at the office for
duty at the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's depot. How many reported I
don't know. It not being my special duty, I paid no attention to it.
But I know a number of them reported. Where they went to I don't know
personally. About four o'clock that evening, the mayor asked me if
there was any news from the Twelfth ward. I told him I could telegraph
to the Twelfth ward and see. We did so, and the report came from the
station that all was quiet.
Q. The Twelfth ward takes in this district at Twenty-eighth street?
A. Yes; the mayor then left the office to go to Castle Shannon where
his family is, as I believed, for the night. About that time--about
five o'clock, Mr. Watt came in and asked for from fifty to a hundred
additional policemen. I told him I didn't know where we could get
them--that all we had for effective duty was ninety men, and, in the
absence of the mayor, I couldn't take away the policemen from all
portions of the city, for the purpose of protecting the property of the
railroad company. Mr. Watt said to me, what will I do. I said, I don't
know--the only thing--if you have a fear of any danger to your
property--you had better call upon the sheriff, and the sheriff can
call a _posse comitatus_ to protect the property if there is any
danger. Mr. Watt said he would do so. That is the last I saw of him
until some time after the riot. No--the next morning--the morning of
the 20th--he came in, and made this information against Thomas McCall.
The mayor, at the time, said to him, that our police force was very
limited, and in making those arrests we would have to make quiet
arrests. The warrants were placed in the hands of the officers, for the
purpose of ascertaining where those parties lived, and to find out who
they were, and all about them. For the most part, they were strangers,
as far as we knew. Officer McGovern had the warrants. The next morning
Mr. Houseman, of the firm of Hampton & Dalzell, came into the office,
and asked me how many of the parties had been arrested. I told him I
didn't know that any were arrested. That the mayor's instructions were
to proceed quietly. He said, can you give me this information. I said,
no, it is part of the record, and cannot go out of our hands. He then
asked for the names of the parties against whom the information was
brought, and he copied the names, and as he was going out he said, I am
instructed by Mr. Hampton to tell you folks not to execute these
warrants. I said, very well--this is a matter entirely in your own
hands. I went out with him to the officer, and told the officer to
produce his warrants. He produced them, and I told him, you are
instructed by Mr. Hampton, through Mr. Houseman, not to execute them.
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