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
History
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
The refusal of the mayor to go to the scene of the disturbance himself,
when specially requested to do so, and to raise a special police to
meet the emergency, is inexplicable on any theory of a wish on his part
to do his duty and enforce the law, and when contrasted with the
vigorous measures taken by the mayor of the sister city of Allegheny,
and of nearly every other place in which riots occurred, must be most
humiliating to the people who elected such a man as their chief
magistrate. Had he shown a proper appreciation of his duty by going to
the grounds of the railroad company when requested, he would have known
better the extent of the troubles threatened, and if determined to
enforce the law, could have prepared to do so by swearing in special
policemen, as was done in all other places. If he chose to rely on a
subordinate to do what was manifestly his duty, and that subordinate
failed from any cause, either incapacity or sympathy with the mob, to
appreciate the danger, and take measures to prepare for it, the
responsibility must still rest on him. His evidence, that he received
reports from his officers through the night of the 19th and 20th, that
all was quiet, is belied by all the testimony in the case. When a call
was first made by the railroad officials for ten policemen, and for his
personal presence, followed in a short time by a call for fifty
policemen, and that by a call for one hundred and fifty, most men would
have concluded that all was not quiet, even if the police should report
to the contrary. This taken in connection with the fact that the
morning papers of the 20th, contained the call of the sheriff on the
Governor for troops, and the orders for the troops to assemble, and
that this was done only after an appeal, soon after midnight, by the
sheriff in person to the crowd to disperse, and their answer to him by
blasphemy, and hooting, and yelling, and other indignities would leave
the people generally to believe that the mayor had willfully shut his
eyes to what was transpiring on the premises of the railroad company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account