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
Very blind or confiding policemen they must have been that night of the
19th and 20th, and very confiding was the mayor to go to Castle
Shannon, a distance of six miles, and let matters take care of
themselves. The mayor, to excuse himself for doing nothing after the
sheriff made a call for the troops, says that he considered himself
superseded by the sheriff and by the military. It has usually been
considered that the military was subordinate to the civil authority,
and that the clause of the Constitution, which reads: "The military
shall, in all cases, and at all times, be in strict subordination to
the civil power," means something, and was placed in the Constitution
for a purpose. If the construction of the law, given by the mayor, is
to prevail, people have been very much mistaken in their understanding
of what is the law, and that all the military need do, under the
mayor's dispensation, is to get some authority to call them out, and
then, as they supersede the civil authority, they have full control,
and can decide for themselves, when the necessity for their services
has ceased, and can, therefore, take charge of the affairs of the
community as long as any ambitious officer may elect. It is a new
doctrine, this of the mayor's, in this country, and he must excuse this
committee if they fail to take any stock in it. The other excuse given
by the mayor for his inaction, to wit: That the men (meaning the
sheriff and military officers,) who had charge of matters after the
19th, were narrow gauge men, and he could not coöperate with them in
their views, and the measures necessary to be taken in the emergency,
is also untenable. It does not appear that he ever consulted with these
men, or any one of them, in regard to what should be done, while it
does appear that he was sought after, and frequent attempts made to
consult with him by the railroad officials, until they learned that
nothing could be expected of him. If his excuse for neglecting his duty
in the matters within his immediate jurisdiction, (to wit: Keeping the
peace, dispersing a mob, and enforcing the law in the city of which he
was chief executive officer,) is a valid one, the others might, with
the same propriety, claim that his gauge did not suit them, and,
therefore, they could not coöperate with him, to keep the peace in his
bailiwick, and refuse to do anything, and the mob allowed to have its
own way.
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