The History of the Standard Oil CompanyTarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
History
The History of the Standard Oil Company
Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
Petroleum industry and trade -- United States -- History; Standard Oil Company -- History
Early in June Governor Hoyt was called upon to issue a requisition for
the extradition of John D. Rockefeller, William Rockefeller, H. M.
Flagler, J. A. Bostwick, Daniel O’Day, Charles Pratt and G. W. Girty. A
full agreement was made before the state officials, but a decision was
deferred repeatedly. Finally, worn out with waiting, Mr. Campbell, in a
telegram to the Governor on July 29, threatened, if there was longer
delay, to make his request for extradition through the public press. The
answer from Harrisburg was that the attorney-general was sick and could
not attend to the matter. Mr. Campbell wired back that he was tired of
“addition, division, and silence,” and he sent out the following letter:
“FAIRFIELD, July 31, 1879.
“TO HIS EXCELLENCY HENRY M. HOYT,
Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
_Sir_—On behalf of the producers of oil, whom I represent as
president of their General Council, I most respectfully ask a
decision at your hands, of the requisition on the Governor of the
state of New York, for the surrender of the officers of the Standard
Oil Company, indicted by the Grand Jury of Clarion County, and now
believed to be within the limits of the state of New York.
The case was exhaustively argued before you, more than four weeks
ago, and the great oil interest which I have the honour to represent
has a right to a prompt decision on this vital question. If these
parties—who for their own profit and its ruin control Pennsylvania’s
most valuable product, and compel its greatest carrier to undertake
their warfare and to do their bidding at the sacrifice of its
innocent stockholders—can, under the plea of being ‘aliens,’ defy
the law of Pennsylvania and laugh at our impotent attempts to reach
them, the sooner it is known the better. It is possible that if we
are denied protection within the limits of our commonwealth, we may
obtain justice by appealing to the courts of a sister state, where
at least the defendants will be obliged to admit that they are
residents.
Your obedient servant,
B. B. CAMPBELL,
_President of Producers’ Council_.”
The Governor remained obdurate, nor was the request ever granted. In a
message sent out in January, 1881, Governor Hoyt gave a review of the
case—as he was compelled to do, so great was the popular criticism of
his course in not pushing the suits and in refusing the request for
extradition—in which he attributed his refusal to the negotiations begun
between the railroads and the Producers’ Union.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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