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. I have already stated that the call for the militia was made by
Sheriff Fife, after he had gone out with General Pearson, and
endeavored to disperse the mob at Twenty-eighth street. He then came
back and reported his inability to do so, and that he had no further
power at his command, and announced his decision that he would call
upon the Governor, and, at his request, I wrote a dispatch to the
Governor, announcing his conclusion, and asking for the Governor's aid.
Q. At the request of the sheriff?
A. Yes; he signed that dispatch sent to the Governor.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Did you call upon the mayor for assistance before you called upon
the sheriff?
A. I did not personally. Mr. Watt informed me he did. He can give you
that.
Q. Was General Pearson connected with the sheriff's office at that time
as a deputy?
A. I don't know.
Q. You stated he was counsel for the sheriff?
A. Oh, no. I stated to the sheriff that I was calling upon him as
counsel for the railroad company, and I insisted that he ought to have
his own counsel to guide him in determining his duty in this emergency;
but, saying that Mr. Carnahan was his regular counsel, and that he
could not send for him, he went to the depot without him, with a deputy
named Haymaker. When we reached the depot General Pearson was there,
saying he had been requested by the Adjutant General to be there. When
Sheriff Fife saw him there, he turned to me and said: "Mr. Scott, I
know him, and for this occasion I will be governed by his counsel."
General Pearson was not there as a deputy or a clerk, but in obedience
to the dispatch of the Adjutant General, and the sheriff, finding him
there, was governed by his counsel at that time.
By Senator Reyburn:
Q. Have you any knowledge as to who sent for the troops at
Philadelphia, who ordered them here?
A. I have no other knowledge of it than that which came in the
dispatches that night, which was that the Adjutant General had ordered
them. A dispatch came from Mr. Quay saying that the Governor had
ordered out the militia.
Q. The Philadelphia troops of the First division?
A. I have no actual knowledge as to who ordered them out, except in a
general way; the Adjutant General was here afterwards, and when those
troops came it was my understanding, derived from my intercourse with
General Latta and all the others, that the military had been ordered
out by the Adjutant General, he being the military officer of the State
under the Governor. In speaking of all this, I am giving what occurred
by the dispatches in the outer depot while I was there.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Can you give the extent of the destruction of the railroad property
by the fire?
A. I cannot, with any accuracy.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Approximately?
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