The Rise and Fall of Anarchy in America: From its Incipient Stage to the First Bomb Thrown in ChicagoMcLean, George N.
History
The Rise and Fall of Anarchy in America: From its Incipient Stage to the First Bomb Thrown in Chicago
McLean, George N.
Anarchists -- United States; Haymarket Square Riot, Chicago, Ill., 1886
On April 29 Spies wrote: "The wage slave who is not utterly demoralized
should have a breech-loader in his house." And the next day he said:
"As we have been informed the police have received secret orders to
keep themselves in readiness for fear of a riot on Saturday next, to
the working men we again say: Arm yourselves! Keep your arms hidden so
that they will not be stolen by the minions of the law, as has happened
before." In the Letter-Box was the following: "A dynamite cartridge
explodes not through concussion. A percussion primer is necessary."
January 5, in the _Arbeiter Zeitung_, a report said: "The meeting
which the American group held at 54 West Lake street was one of the
best meetings ever held in Chicago. Comrade Spies said: 'When we
murder we put an end to general murder. We only follow the law of
self-preservation.'"
On January 18 all working men were called to attend a meeting
at Steinmetz hall. "To Arms," was the caption. "Those who desire
instruction in drilling will not have to pay." At Mueller's hall, a
few days later, Schwab made an address, saying: "We have made all
preparations for a revolution by force." Spies said: "I have been
accused by a paper that I tried to stir up a revolution. I concede
this. What is crime, anyhow? When the working men try to secure the
fruits of their labor it is called crime."
Guns, dynamite and prussic acid, Spies preached, should be given the
working men, and "for every clubbed head in the ranks of the working
men there should be exacted twelve dead policemen." In a long discourse
on the means of action, Spies said: "In the action itself one must
be personally at the place, to select personally that point of the
place of action which is the most important, and is coupled with the
greatest danger, upon which depends chiefly the success or failure of
the whole affair. Otherwise the thing would reach the long ears of the
police, which, as is known to every one, hear the grass grow and the
fleas cough; but if this theory is acted on, the danger of discovery
is extremely small." "The Love of Self-Sacrifice", as manifested by
those who were killed during the uprising of the Paris Commune, while
fighting under the red flag, was the subject of a long address on
March 22, and March 23 it was said the question of arming was the one
uppermost in labor circles. Working men, it was held, ought to be armed
long ago. Daggers and revolvers were easily purchased; hand-grenades
were plentiful, and so was dynamite. The approaching contest should not
be gone into with empty hands.
The State here rested its case.
CHAPTER IV.
UNDER A CLOUD. A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. CONTESTING EVERY POINT BY
SHREWD COUNSEL. BRAVING IT OUT. THE DEFENSE.
Attorney Zeisler moved to have the jury sent from the room pending
a motion, and this the Court refused to do, saying it was a vicious
practice, and that the jury should hear all there was in a case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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