"To the Hon. John P. Altgeld, governor of Illinois. Federal troops were sent to Chicago in strict accordance with the constitutions and laws of the United States upon the demand of the post office department that obstructions of the mails should be removed, and upon the representations of the judicial officers of the United States that process of law federal courts could not be executed through the ordinary means, and upon abundant proof that conspiracies existed against commerce between the states. To meet these conditions, which are clearly within the province of federal authority, the presence of federal troops in Chicago was deemed not only proper but necessary, and there has been no intention of thereby interfering with the plain duty of the local authorities to preserve the peace of the city. GROVER CLEVELAND." CHAPTER VIII. INCENDIARISM AND BLOODSHED. The 6th day of July was one long to be remembered, as the first act of incendiarism was committed. A conflagration was started along the tracks of the Pan Handle, Baltimore & Ohio; Chicago & Northern Pacific, and Belt Line R. R., which terminated in the burning of whole trains of cars, switch houses and tool-houses belonging to these companies. A splendid tower house belonging to the Pan Handle was saved through the supreme efforts of the strikers, who tore away the burning sidewalks which connected the tool-house with the tower-house. This fine structure was recently built and cost the company $40,000. Upon the authority of the city police and firemen, I can state that the fires were started by a crowd of young hoodlums and toughs living in the vicinity, and the strikers were in no way responsible for them. There was only a small crowd of these young toughs around the yards, they scattered in different directions and simultaneously fire broke out in different places. One boy was seen to set fire to a bunch of waste, and throw it into the empty cars as he ran, and the dry woodwork was soon a mass of flames. Between eight hundred and sixteen hundred cars were destroyed by this conflagration and the loss aggregated over $200,000, besides three men killed outright and seven wounded.