The prevalence of hard times and the growing numbers of unemployed brought to pass the assembling of “armies” in all parts of the country. The first of these aggregations of unemployed, led by a horse dealer named Coxey, set out for Washington from Ohio to demand relief from the government. Other armies with the same object started from the Western Coast states and from Texas, numbering in all about six thousand men. Many of them were honest and sincerely desired work. Others were toughs who joined for a lark and followed what seemed to promise adventure. Still others were plain everyday tramps and loafers and criminals. They begged for food, and when it was not forthcoming they foraged; and when they grew tired of marching, they simply boarded trains and rode. Coxey reached Washington, mounted the steps of the Capitol, made addresses, and hung around the city for a while. His “army” camped near by from April 26 to May 1, 1894. Its presence necessitated the increasing of the White House Guard from twelve to twenty-six men. As long as no open act of lawlessness and disorder was committed, Coxey and his followers were unmolested; they wearied of their futile task and disbanded without accomplishing anything. Soon afterward, in the city of Chicago, a strike occurred. Two thousand workmen employed by the Pullman Car Company decided they must have higher wages. Men on some of the Western roads also struck out of sympathy for the Pullman workers, deciding they would not work to help in the use or operation of the trains until the Pullman workers got their desired raise. They carried the determined stand so far that, for a time, not a train was running between San Francisco and Chicago. On June 28th, the American Railway Union, directed by Eugene Debs, declared a boycott on all Pullman cars, thereby tying up all railroads west of Chicago hauling these cars. The next day, the United States Court at Chicago issued an injunction against the strikers, as the mails were prevented from proceeding. When it was brought to the President’s attention that the governor of the State of Illinois either could not or would not take steps to break the strike, he made the cryptic statement, “I will call out the whole army, if necessary, to deliver a postcard.” Those who knew President Cleveland and his unfaltering determination in the pursuit of duty were satisfied that he would bring the strike to an end.