The 8-Hour Movement, Anarchists, the Haymarket Affair, and the Haymarket Trial Timeline.

The events in Chicago, and the following trial have captured the Nation’s attention and as a member of Congress your constituents are expecting to hear your opinion on the events.

You need to create a press release focused on one of the topics related to the events in Chicago.

You can choose from any of the topics related to the events in Chicago including the 8-hour movement, the Anarchists, the bombing at Haymarket, the Haymarket Trial itself.

You should consider elaborating on ideas such as worker's rights, limitations on the 1st Amendment (freedom of speech), limitations on the 2nd Amendment (right to bear arms), or the 6th Amendment (right to a fair trial).

The 8-Hour Movement, Anarchy, and Haymarket Affair timeline

1817 - Europe- Socialist reformer and factory owner Robert Owen creates the slogan "Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest"

1840 - France- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s (the first modern Anarchist), argues against capitalism and private property claiming “Property is theft”

1800’s Anarchists develop “Anti-Authoritarian” beliefs arguing governments are not necessary, and only restrict liberty.

1866: National Labor Union asks Congress to pass an Eight Hour workday law

1867 Illinois state government passes an Eight Hour Work Day Act. The law declared “eight hours of labor between the rising and the setting of the sun, in all mechanical trades, arts and employments, and other cases of labor and service by the day, except farm employments, shall constitute and be a legal day's work, where there is no special contract or agreement to the contrary.” The law is not well enforced, and the “special contract” loophole allowed many employers to avoid following the law at all.

1869 President Grant makes Proclamation 182—Eight Hour Work Day for Employees of the Government of the United States, saying “no reduction shall be made in the wages paid by the Government by the day to such laborers, workmen, and mechanics on account of such reduction of the hours of labor.”

1872, Congress makes it illegal for workers employed on behalf of the Government to have their pay cut as a result of having their hours reduced.

1870’s Socialist Civilian military organizations such as Lehr und Wehr Verein are organized to counter the private armies used by companies to break up strikes.

Jesse H. Jones and I.G. Blanchard, Eight hours, 1878

We mean to make things over,

We are tired of toil for naught,

With but bare enough to live upon,

And never an hour for thought;

We want to feel the sunshine.

And we want to smell the flowers,

We are sure that God has will’d it,

And we mean to have eight hours.

We’re summoning our forces

From the shipyard, shop, and mill:

Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest.

Eight hours for what we will!

The beasts that graze the hillside,

And the birds that wander free,

In the life that God has meted

Have a better lot than we..

Oh! hands and hearts are weary,

And homes are heavy with dole;

If our life’s to be filled with drudgery,

What need of a human soul!

Shout, Shout the lusty rally

From the shipyard, shop, and mill,

Eight hours, Etc.

The voice of God within us

Is calling us to stand

Erect, as is becoming

To the work of His right hand.

Should he, to whom the Maker

His glorious image gave,

The meanest of his creatures crouch,

A bread-and butter slave!

Let the shout ring down the valleys

And echo from ev’ry hill,

Eight hours, etc.

1879 -Albert Parsons give a Testimony to the House of Representatives Select Committee on Causes of the General Depression in Labor and Business, (Modified/link to original)

Parsons was an newspaper printer, socialist, and labor leader.

Congress has the power, under the Constitution, to pass an 8-hour work-day. We ask it; we demand it, and we intend to have it. If the present Congress will not give it to us we will send men to Congress who will give it to us.

We do not propose to bring an industrial confusion or a state of anarchy, or to precipitate revolution or a state of anarchy, or to start revolution in this country. We are peaceable citizens, husbands, fathers. We are citizens of the State and law-abiding men. . . . The working classes simply seek to improve their condition. This is a natural feeling, and I cannot say that there is anything unnecessarily criminal in such a desire. We simply want less work and more pay, knowing that only through short hours and high wages can our condition be improved. We know this, and so we struggle for it. We wish to get at it by degrees.

1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions demanded "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labour from and after May 1, 1886, and that we recommend to labour organisations throughout this jurisdiction that they so direct their laws as to conform to this resolution by the time named."

1884 Albert Parsons founds the Chicago Anarchist newspaper The Alarm. The Alarm is one of the multiple Anarchist papers in Chicago (it was the only printed in English, others printed in foreign languages such as German). In an article Parsons supported the use of dynamite by workingmen to gain political power.

January 4, 1886 - Supreme Court Case Presser v. Illinois. In 1879 in reaction to the creation of the Civilian military organizations, the Illinois State Government created a law prohibiting those organizations from marching with weapons in public. Presser was arrested for leading a military parade in Chicago in 1879, and he argued the law violated the 2nd Amendment. The Supreme Court ruled the 2nd Amendment only made it illegal for the Federal Government to restrict firearms, not the States.

May 1, 1886: 340,000 Industrial workers across the U.S. go on strike, demanding an 8-hour workday. In Chicago Albert Parsons, head of the Chicago Knights of Labor, led 80,000 people down Michigan Avenue, Chicago, in the first modern May Day Parade, demanding an "Eight-hour day with no cut in pay." (drawing of the Chicago parade below)

May 3, 1886- After their wages are cut, workers go on strike at McCormick’s factory in Chicago. Unarmed strikers and police clash. Several strikers are killed by the police.

Following the violence at McCormicks, labor leaders and anarchists organize a meeting at Haymarket Square in Chicago to protest the killing of the strikers at McCormicks

August Spies, a German immigrant, anarchist leader, and editor of the German Anarchist newspaper ArbeiterZeitung, agreed to speak at the Haymarket meeting, but saw a sign saying "Workingmen Arm Yourselves and Appear in Full Force."(below left). Spies refused to speak unless the words were removed. The maker of the sign, Adolph Fischer, made a new sign, (below right).

Albert Spies writes a flyer in response to the killing of workers on May 3, 1886 at the McCormick Reapers Works. The flyer was written in both English and German. Hundreds of copies of the "Revenge" circular were distributed by anarchists on the night of May 3.

May 4, 1886 -In the evening of May 4th, Workers hold a meeting in Haymarket Square. The police arrive to break-up the meeting. A bomb is thrown into the ranks of the police. Fighting and shooting begin. Police and an unknown number of workers are killed.

May 5, 1886 - Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison issues a proclamation banning the gathering of crowds in the streets and public places of Chicago, ordering police to break up such gatherings.

May 27, 1886: Anarchists Albert Parsons, August Spies, Oscar Neebe, Louis Lingg, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden—are arrested and charged as accessories to murder.

June 21-August 10, 1886: The trial is held

Transcripts from the Trial

Testimony of Harry L. Gilmer examined by Julius Grinnell, (modified)

Grinnell was a State attorney, and Gilmer was one of the State’s witnesses.

Q: What did you do when you got to the meeting at Haymarket Square?

A: I saw the gentleman there, (Pointing to Fielden) speaking. I stayed around there a few minutes, then stepped back in the alley.

Q: What did you see when you stepped in the alley?

A: I noticed people holding a conversation there. Somebody out on the sidewalk said, "Here comes the police." There was a rush to see the police come up. A man came from the wagon down to the people in the alley. He lit a fuse. The fuse commenced to fizzle, and he stepped forward and tossed it over into the street.

Q: Do you know who it was that tossed that fizzling thing. Look at that photograph, (handing witness photograph) Was this the man?

A: I say that is the man that threw the bomb out of the alley.

Q: Is the man who came from the wagon to the group one of the defendants?

A: That is the man right there (pointing to Spies).

Q: Did you see any of the other defendants in the alley at that time?

A: That man that sits over there was one of the parties (pointing at Fischer).

Q What did these parties do when the bomb exploded?

A: They immediately left through the alley.

Q: What did you do?

A: I stood there. The firing commenced immediately afterwards, and my attention was attracted by the firing, and I paid more attention to that than anything else.

Cross Examination of Harry L. Gilmer by William Foster. (modified)

Gilmer was one of the State’s witnesses and William Foster was a defense attorney.

Q: When did you first hear of the reward for the conviction of the bomb throwers?

A: This is the first time I ever heard of it.

Q: Since being at Hay-Market, you have read in the papers about the police killed?

A: I read the Daily newspapers generally in the evening.

Q: How long were you at Haymarket before the explosion of the bomb?

A: It was perhaps fifteen minutes before I went into the alley.

Q: You say that Mr. Spies is the man, you saw standing upon the sidewalk before you ever went into the alley at all? And he is the man that struck the match?

A: Yes sir.

Q: Were Mr. Schwab,and Mr. Fischer in the group where the bomb was lighted?

A: Well very nearly so.

Q: You are as sure the man that threw the bomb was Schnaubelt?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you know where Zepf's Hall is?

A: I do.

Q: Was you up to Zepf's Hall that night?

A: I was not.

Q: You don't know what ones of these defendant were at Zepf's hall at the time the Bomb exploded?

A: I do not.

Testimony of Chief Inspector John Bonfield by Julius Grinnell and George Ingham (modified)

Grinnell and Ingham were State attorneys.

Q: You are the Police officer in charge of the policemen at Haymarket Square?

A: Yes.

Q: What caused the police to go to Haymarket Square?

A: We heard about a circular calling for a meeting at the Haymarket square.

Q: What weapons were the police officers carrying?

A: Their orders were that no man should draw a weapon or fire or strike anybody-- until he received orders from his commander. Each officer had his club his holster

Q: Pistols in your hands?

A: No sir.

Q: In your pockets?

A: Yes.

Q: Go on?

A: As we approached the truck where the person was speaking Captain Ward gave the order to disperse in the name of the People. Almost instantly after that remark was repeated, I heard from behind me a hissing sound. Almost instantly after the explosion, or whatever it was, the gun fire poured right in on us from the crowd

Q: You did not see from what direction the bomb came at all, itself?

A: No sir.

Mr. INGHAM: Q Did you see any circulars on the 5th day of May?

A: I did.

Q: How many did you see there?

A: I could not say as to that. There was quite a number.

Q: Did they say: "Workingmen arm yourselves and appear in full force"?

A: They did.

Testimony of Witness Mayor Carter Harrison

Testimony of Mayor Carter Harrison, examined by William Perkins Black (modified)

Harrison was the Mayor of Chicago, and Black was a defense attorney

Q: Are you personally acquainted with any of the defendants in this case?

A: Two of them, Mr. Spies and Mr. Parsons.

Q: What did you to go to the Haymarket meeting?

A: The riot the day before at McCormick's was supposedly caused by Mr. Spies’ speech. I heard about a poster for the Haymarket meeting. I told the police chief the meeting should be broken up if anything dangerous was said. I believed it would be better to disperse the meeting myself, instead of the police.

Q Did any behaviors of the speakers or audience attract your attention?

A Mr. Spies got my attention when he said "Why this gathering together of the policemen? Why the is militia armed, and the Gatling gun loaded? Why were our brethren shot down at McCormick's factory yesterday afternoon?" The audience responded "Shoot them," "Hang them." When he said McCormick's name they said "Hang him" "damn him,". I felt that the majority of that crowd were just watching and their replies were not serious, but some of the replies were bitter.

Q: Did either of the speakers call for the use of force or violence?

A: No. If there had been I would have dispersed them at once.

Q: What did you and Police Captain Bonfield talk about before you left?

A: I went back to the station and told Bonfield nothing looked like it would require police action, and he should send his reserves home. He said he had already did. He did want to keep some men in the station until the meeting broke up, based on a rumor that he had heard that night. I agreed.

Q When you were there attending the meeting, did you see any weapons in the hands of any of the audience?

A: I saw no weapons at all upon any person.

Cross Examination of Mayor Carter Harrison by Julius Grinnell, (modified)

Grinnell was a State attorney, and Harrison was Mayor of Chicago

Q What was that rumor that you and Police Captain Bonfield discussed?

A: Capt. Bonfield told me that he heard the leaders planned to go blow up two houses full of strike breakers after the meeting. Some others said the meeting was to distract the police to haymarket while a real attack was made on McCormick's.

Q: When listening to those speeches did you hear any plan to blow up houses?

A: No sir.

Q: You concluded there was no plan to destroy property, so you went home?

A: That was the fact.

Q: Just before you went home you told Capt. Bonfield to watch the speeches and if they became inflammatory or incendiary to disperse the meeting?

A: The order was to send the reserves home, because all was quiet in the district where McCormick's was; and I didn’t think there was a plan for anything else that night. Bonfield agreed, and said he already sent the reserves sent home, but he would hold the men that were in the station until everything was over in case something happened. I didn't give an order. I only I accepted his suggestion.

Q: Did you hear any response by the crowd to any of the speakers, and did anything said by the speakers sound like a threat?. For example, did they say "Don't make any idle threats. If you have anything to do go and do it."?

A: I don't remember any such expression. I was thinking only of what might occur that night. I didn’t want a repeat of the violence at McCormick's hall.

Q: Did you hear Parsons call "To arms, to arms, to arms" while you were there?

A: I don't remember it. I don't think I did, for if I had I think I should have noticed it.

Testimonies of the Defendants

Defendant Gottfried Waller

Gottfried Waller’s Testimony under examination by George Ingham (modified)

George Ingham, the prosecutor for the State of Illinois.

Q Were you or have you been a member of any Socialistic organization in this city?

A Yes, the "Lehr and Wehr Verein"society for military skills, but I left 4 months ago.

Q Where were you on the evening of the third of May?

A In a meeting in Grief's Hall.

Q What was discussed at the meeting?

A. Mr. Engle said “If the strike was attacked by the police and should come to the rescue." If a riot started we should attack the police station. . He suggested throwing a bomb in the station would be the easiest way to attack..

Q Why did you plan to attack the police stations?

A We have seen how the police oppressed the workingmen, how the capitalists oppress the workingmen, and that six men were killed at McCormick's and that we should take the rights in our own hands.

Q Did you plan anything in case the police tried to stop the Haymarket meeting?

A Nothing was said about Haymarket. We didn’t expect the police to be there , Only if strikers were attacked would we attack the police with guns or bombs.

Q Where were you when the bomb was thrown?

A. In Zepf's Hall.

Q Did you ever have any bombs and who did you get those bombs from?

A From Fisher. But they were exploded in the woods in a hollow tree.

Q Did you have any bomb or any revolver with you when you went to the Haymarket Square or any arm of any kind?

A I had a revolver with me, but no bomb.

Cross Examination of Gottfried Waller’s by Sigmund Zeisler (modified)

Sigmund Zeisler was the defense attorney for those on trial

Q Isn't Lehr and Wehr Verein’s goal to improve members physically and mentally?

A I became aware of that afterwards.

Q Didn’t Mr. Engel say at the Sunday and Monday meetings this plan was to be followed only if the police interfered with your rights of free speech and assembly?

A It was said any time we are attacked by the police we should defend ourselves

Q And nothing was said during the meeting about taking actions at Haymarket?

A We did not plan anything at the Haymarket Square, we did not plan to be there.

Q So no preparations were made for fighting police at Haymarket Square?

A No; not by us.

Q Did Engel say anything to you when you met him at the Haymarket?

A I did not meet him at Haymarket. I saw him after 10 Tuesday night at his house.

Q You were at Engel’s house at 8, but did not see him until after 10?

After the bomb had been thrown?

A Yes.

Q Did you meet Fischer on your way from the Haymarket to Zepfs' Hall?

A I met him at Haymarket.

Q Did he say anything about the police?

A We saw police, and I said "I think they are getting ready to go to McCormick's."

Q Wasn’t the purpose of the meeting on the Haymarket to protest against the police shooting at the workingmen at McCormick's riot?

A Yes.

Q Now, when you saw Fischer there and there, did Fischer or you say anything about preparations to meet an attack by the police?

A No. There was nothing said between them.

Defendant Samuel Fielden

Direct Examination of Samuel Fielden by William Foster.(modified)

Gilmer was a defendant and William Foster was a defense attorney.

Q: What did you say in your speech at Haymarket?

A: That socialists fight for worker’s rights, and workers should organize for safety.

Then I noticed the police. Captain Ward came up and said: "I command this meeting, in the name of the People of the State of Illinois, to peaceable disperse." I asked "Why Captain, this is a peaceable meeting," He called up the police to disperse it. I jumped from the wagon and said "All right, we will go." Then the explosion came. People rushed past me because the police were shooting at them

Q: Mr. Fielden did you have a revolver at Haymarket and fire at any policeman?

A: No sir, I never owned a revolver or fire at a person in all my life.

Q: Did you know of any plan to use violence at the Haymarket meeting?

A: No sir. From my knowledge of other strikes, it was possible trouble would start between the strikers and their employers, or even the police..

Q: That is what you meant when you worried there might be danger?

A: Yes sir.

Q: You suggested “throttling the law, killing it and stabbing it”---can you explain?

A: It was just the same as a republican speaker might say that he would kill the democratic party or "We will kill it", or "We will throttle it" or "Defeat it”.

Q: Why do you believe your speech was not dangerous?

A: My remarks that night were intended in my own mind on that night to call the people’s attention to resisting not by force, but to resist the present social system so that they would be enabled to live, and that by their organizing together they might benefit from all the advances of civilization.

Cross Examination of Samuel Fielden by George Ingham (modified)

George Ingham was the prosecutor for the State of Illinois.

Q: How long have you been an anarchist?

A: Soon after I joined a socialist organization in 1884 I began to study anarchism.

Q: How long have you believed that the existing order of things should be overthrown by force?

A: I never believed that. I believe the existing order of things will have to be overthrown either by one method or the other, peaceful or by force if necessary

Q: Have you been making socialistic and anarchistic speeches?

A: I have been making labor speeches. Sometimes I have touched upon socialism and anarchy, but most speeches were ordinary trade union speeches

Q: Why did you go to the Haymarket?

A: They needed speakers.

Q: Who was speaking with you on the wagon at Haymarket?

A: I only remember Mr. Parsons, Mr. Spies and Mr. Snyder--

Q: Did you use this language in your speech "The law is your enemy"

A: I did not say "the law is your enemy."

Q: Did you say "The law makes no distinctions. A million men own all the property of this country. The law is of no use to the other fifty four million. You have nothing more to do with the law except to lay hands on it and throttle it until it dies."

A: I think so.

Q: Do you consider your speech inflammatory or incendiary?

A: I didn't incite anybody to do anything. I spoke from a general standpoint.

Q: Somebody threw a bomb and you didn't know who it was or anything about it?

A: I did not know, I don't know now.

Defendant August Spies

Testimony of August Spies examined by William Perkins Black (modified)

Black was a defense attorney and Spies was editor of Anarchist paper Arbeiter Zeitung.

Q: Did you see the “workingmen arm yourselves circular” announcing Haymarket?

A: Yes sir. I told the man who handed it to me to take out that line.

Q: At Haymarket did you and Schwab talk about pistols and police in an alley?

A: I was not in the alley. I cannot have spoken to or given anything to anybody.

Q: After speaking on the wagon at Haymarket and Captain Ward commanded you to disperse what happened?

A: I jumped down from the wagon. When I reached the sidewalk I heard a terrible explosion. I thought that the police had brought a cannon there to scare us away.

Q: Did you go into an alley strike a match and light a bomb?

A: I did not.

Q: Did you give an interview to witness Wilkinson, a reporter in 1886?

A: Yes. I said workingmen should enjoy the rights of the Constitution, and should defend themselves if necessary. I said Dynamite would make democracy a reality,

but there was no reference to Chicago or any fighting on our part.

Q: Did you know of the meaning of the word Ruhe when you wrote it on May 4th?

A: None whatever. I didn't even stop and reflect as to what it meant.

Q: When did you learn what it means?

A: An Arbeiter Zeitung worker told me armed sections used the word to mean they should prepare themselves to come help if the police cause a riot. Fischer told me it was just a harmless signal. I asked him if it had any reference to the meeting on the Haymarket. He said none whatever. I told Rau it was a very silly thing, that such nonsense should be stopped.

Cross Examination of August Spies by George Ingham (modified)

Ingham was the prosecutor and Spies was editor of Anarchist paper Arbeiter Zeitung

Q: How many bombs did you have in your editor’s office of the Arbeiter Zeitung?

A: I think six. A man named Schwape from Cleveland gave them to us.

Q: Why did you have the dynamite?

A: I wanted to experiment with dynamite just the same as I would take a revolver and go out and practice with a revolver.

Q. Why did you object to the “workingmen arm yourself” line in the circular?

A: Because I thought it was ridiculous. It would prevent people from coming to the meeting, and a call for arms might cause trouble between the police and the crowd

Q: You wrote the revenge circular?

A: I did, everything except the word "revenge"?

Q: Workingmen to arms" you wrote?

A: I did, yes sir.

Q: Did you want them to do anything?

A: I did not.

Q: Didn't you intend that they should arm themselves?

A: I did.

Q: You wrote it to arouse the workingmen of this city so they should arm themselves in order to resist the police, if the police should appear against them?

A: I have called upon the workingmen for years and years to arm themselves, and they have a right, under the Constitution, to arm themselves.

Q: You did call on them to arm themselves so as to resist the police?

A: The unlawful attacks of the police or any other organization.

Defendant Michael Schwab

Testimony of Michael Schwab examined by William Foster(modified)

Schwab was a defendant and Co-editor of Arbeiter Zeitung, and William Foster was a defense attorney.

Q: Do you remember where you were on the 4th of May about eight o'clock?

A: I was in the office of the Arbeiter Zeitung.

Q: After you left Arbeiter Zeitung how long did you walk around at haymarket?

A: Well, I could not say that, I walked all over.

Q: Where did you go when you left haymarket?

A: To Deering's factory to make a speech about the eight hour movement.

Q: At what time did you return home that night?

A: Well, it must have been about eleven o'clock.

Q: At any time while at the haymarket did you enter an alley with Mr. Spies?

A: No sir.

Q: Did you and Mr. Spies hand Mr. Schnaubelt any package or anything?

A: No sir.

Q: I will ask you whether you saw Mr. Spies at the haymarket market that night?

A: No sir.

Q: Did you say anything to anybody in an alley anything about pistols or police?

A: No sir.

Q: Did you say to Mr.Spies, Mr.Schnaubelt, or to any other man "Now, if the police come, we are ready for them," or "We would give it to them"?

A: No sir.

Q: When was the last time that night that you had seen Mr.Spies?

A: I had not seen him that night at all. I saw him in the afternoon.

Q: From the afternoon of the 4th to the morning of the 5th, you didn't see him?

A: No sir.

Cross Examination of Michael Schwab by Julius Grinnell, (modified)

Grinnell was a State attorney, Schwab was a defendant and Co-editor of Arbeiter Zeitung,

Q: What group of Internationals were you a member of?

A: I was a member of the north side group.

Q: How long have you been a member of that?

A: Since it started some years ago.

Q: Do you know any of the other defendants?

A: I know all of them.

Q: What time was it you went to the Arbeiter Zeitung office the 4th of May?

A: According to the clock in my house it was twenty minutes to eight.

Q You left the Arbeiter Zeitung office for the west side about eight o'clock?

A: No.

Q: Did you walk to the haymarket that night?

A: Yes

Q: How long did you stay there?

A: I didn't stay long-- I just went to find August Spies. Five, ten or fifteen minutes?

Q: When did you get home?

A: I estimate around 11.

Q: Are you an anarchist?

A: There are several divisions of the anarchists.

Q: Are you an anarchist?

A: Well, I can't answer that.

Defendant Albert Parsons

Testimony of Albert Parsons examined by William Perkins Black (modified)

Black was a defense attorney, Parsons was the leader of the American branch of the International Working People's Association an anarchist group

Q: What did you do after you finished your speech at Haymarket?

A: I got down from the wagon. I saw clouds, and I said we better end the meeting. I went to a saloon and was looking outside wondering if the meeting would end. I saw a bright light followed by a load roar; then heard gunshots.

Q: Will you please tell us what you said in your speech that night?

A: I said the strikes, and boycotts show something is wrong in our society. I said the eight hour movement is a peaceful movement to help civilization. I said monopolies are creating revolutionists by the way they treat workers. I said the police’s actions at the McCormick's strike was an outrage. I said, "I am not hereto incite anybody. I am here to tell the truth, even if it will cost me my life."

I compared the wage system to slavery. I said socialism is the solution of the difficulties between capital "and labor." I said corporations are a conspiracy against the poor and working classes. I called upon them to unite, to organize, and to work for the eight hours movement. If the employers refused, it meant war, not by the workers, but by corporations upon the lives and upon the liberties and upon the happiness of the working classes. I said the Government is in the hands of corporations and they are driving labor into open revolt.

I told them the Constitution gives them the right to arm themselves, to defend themselves, their rights, their liberties. I told them to unite, for in union there was strength. That, gentleman, was the substance of my Haymarket speech.

Q Did you surrender yourself voluntarily?

A: Yes, a voluntary surrender to this court.

Cross Examination of Albert Parsons by Julius Grinnell, (modified)

Grinnell was a State attorney, Parsons was the leader of the American branch of the International Working People's Association an anarchist group

Q: Did you tell the crowd at Haymarket that they should fight the corporations?

A: I told them they should defend and protect themselves.

Q: How?

A: Anyway they could.

Q: By arming?

A: If necessary.

Q: By the use of dynamite?

A: If necessary, but I didn't mention dynamite at that meeting.

Q: Did you say anything to the audience about the use of bombs?

A: No sir.

Q: You told them that night that the present social system must be changed?

A: Yes, in the interest of humanity.

Q: Did you explain to them how it should be changed?

A: No sir, because I didn't know myself.

Q: What did you mean by the expression "to arms, to arms?"

A: I said based on the use of the military and the police upon strikers and upon workingmen, that if they would not see their children starving, and their wives in misery and want, and themselves cut down like dogs in the street, that they should assert their rights as American citizens to arm themselves, and protect themselves if necessary against oppression and wrong and such things as these.

Q: Are you an Anarchist?

A: I am as I understand it.

Results of the Trial

August 19, the men are found guilty, and seven are sentenced to death by hanging. The eighth man, Oscar Neebe is given a lighter sentence of 15 years in the penitentiary.

September 14, The convicted men appeal the courts decision to the Illinois Supreme Court. The Illinois Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s ruling. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in November is denied.

August 20, Albert Parsons writes a letter to his wife Lucy Parsons (Modified/link to original)

While in jail, Parsons wrote the letter below to his wife Lucy Parsons, who was also a radical labor activist and anarchist.

My Darling Wife:

Our verdict this morning cheers the hearts of tyrants throughout the world. There was no evidence that any one of the eight doomed men knew of, or advised, or abetted the Haymarket tragedy. But what does that matter? The privileged class demands a victim, and we are offered a sacrifice to appease the hungry yells of an infuriated mob of millionaires who will be contented with nothing less than our lives. Monopoly triumphs!

Well, my poor, dear wife, I, personally, feel sorry for you and the helpless little babes. My children—well, their father had better die in the effort to secure their liberty and happiness than live contented in a society which condemns nine-tenths of its children to a life of wage-slavery and poverty. Bless them; I love them unspeakably, my poor helpless little ones. Ah, wife, living or dead, we are as one. For you my affection is everlasting. For the people, humanity. I cry out again and again in the doomed victim’s cell: Liberty! Justice! Equality!

Harper’s Weekly, October 1887(modified):

On September 14, 1887, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the convictions of the Haymarket anarchists. This editorial praises the state court and explains why the Haymarket defendants were guilty even though they were not linked directly to the bomb or the bomb thrower

It is impossible not to hold the anarchists legally and morally guilty of the crime.

The meetings, talk of violence, making bombs, the call to arms after the riot at McCormack’s, resisting police, the Haymarket meeting, and the catastrophe are all connected, and are all steps toward the crime.

Anarchy is a forcible undermining of society, which must begin, like it did in Chicago. People who spread ideas of violence, and encouraging murderous passions in more ignorant minds, are morally guilty. During the last two years there has been enormous suffering among honest laboring men and women, produced by strikes for a hundred reasons. Now is it the men who have obeyed the Anarchist leaders and gone on strike, or is it the leaders themselves, who are really responsible for all the suffering and loss?

The man who encourages violent revolution is responsible when revolution begins. If he is a courageous man he will accept the consequences. Those who resisted the Fugitive Slave Law, and helped save the innocent slave from torture and wrongs, paid the legal penalty, and accepted public criticism. Anarchists who justify and counsel murder as necessary to the overthrow of society, when murder begins in consequence of their incitement, cannot be held guiltless.

While in Jail Albert Parsons writes a book titled, "Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Scientific Basis as Defined by Some of Its Apostles" (modified/link to original)

What, then, is our offense, being anarchists? The word anarchy is derived from the two Greek words an, meaning no, or without, and arche, government; hence anarchy means no government. Anarchy means a society which has no king, emperor, president or ruler of any kind. The purpose, the only purpose of capital is to take away the product of the wage-workers. The origin of government was in violence and murder. Government enslaves the governed. Government is for slaves; free men govern themselves.

The right to live, to equality of opportunity, to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, is yet to be acquired by the workers. . . . Capital and government stand or fall together. They are twins. The liberty of labor makes the government not only unnecessary, but impossible. When the people—the whole people—become the government, that is, participate equally in governing themselves, the government ceases to exist.

Anarchy, therefore, is liberty; is the negation of force, or compulsion, or violence. Anarchy would strike from humanity every chain that binds it, and say to mankind: "Go forth! you are free! Have all, enjoy all!"

November 10 - Louis Lingg ends his own life by lighting off a blasting cap in his mouth in his jail cell.

November 11 - Parsons, Spies, Engel & Fischer are executed.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, The Law Vindicated Four of The Chicago Anarchists Pay The Penalty of Their Crime- Scenes in the Cook County Jail at the Moment of the Executions, November 19, 1887

Public Reaction to the Bombing, the Anarchists, and the Trial

C. Bunnell. “After the Riot: The Shadow of Death”, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1886.

Ramage, A History of Anarchy in Chicago", Chicago Tribune, May 16, 1886 in Chicago Tribune

A. R. Cassidy, "Justice Hurling a Bomb" Engraving, Graphic News, June 5, 1886

Thomas Nast, "Liberty or Death", Harper’s Weekly, June 5th, 1886

Liberty (to go it you do not like the Institutions of our republic) or

(commit murder and you will be punished with) death.

Liberty points to ships going to Europe.

Uncle Sam stands next to the gallows

Lady Justice Deals with "Anarchist Agitator", The Pictorial West, August 1886

“The Red flag or the anarchists of Chicago.” New York Detective Library. Vol. 1, no. 192, August 7, 1886

Thomas Nast, "Liberty is not Anarchy", Harper's Weekly, September 4, 1886

June 26, 1893: Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld pardons Neebe, Fielden, and Schwab.

John P. Altgeld, Reasons for Pardoning Fielden, Neebe, and Schwab (modified/link to original)

August Spies, Albert R. Parsons, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden, George Engel, Adolph Fischer and Oscar Neebe were indicted for the Haymarket murder. All were found guilty, five were sentenced to hang

Thousands of Chicago citizens have petitioned for an executive pardon of Neebe, Fielden, and Schwab, believing they have been punished enough. But a number of them think they should be set free because they believe:

The Jury was Packed Instead of selecting random names to guarantee a fair jury, the judge had bailiff Henry L. Ryce pick the jury. Ryce bragged the men would hang as certain as death. Many jurors believed the defendants were guilty before the trial began Two jurors knew policemen at Haymarket and couldn’t be fair

The Proof Does not Show Guilt The state could not prove who threw the bomb. The judge said they were guilty because what they had said and written had "advised people to commit murder.” Petitioners claim The Judge did this because a conviction would make the public happy.

If the defendants had a fair trial then there should not be an executive pardon, for no punishment under our laws could then be too severe.

Government must defend itself; life and property must be protected and law and order must be maintained; murder must be punished. America is not made for anarchy. While our institutions are not free from injustice, they are still the best that have yet been invented, and therefore must be maintained.

"The Friend of Mad Dogs," Judge, 1893.

Governor Altgeld of Illinois in freeing the anarchists bitterly denounced Judge Gary and the jury that convicted them.”

“Portraits of the Haymarket Martyrs” Liberty Magazine, England, 1894