Spies v. People (122 Ill. 1, 1887)

Mr. Justice Magruder

delivered the opinion of the Court: This case comes before us by writ of error to the Criminal Court of Cook county. The writ has been made a supersedeas.

Plaintiffs in error were tried in the summer of 1886 for the murder of Matthias J. Began, on May 4, 1886, in -the city of 'Chicago, Cook county, Illinois. On August 20, 1886, the jury returned a verdict finding the defendants August Spies, ¡Michael Schwab, Samuel Bielden, Albert E. Parsons, Adolph ¡Fischer, George Engel and Louis- Lingg guilty of murder, and fixing' death as the penalty. By the same verdict they also found Oscar W. ¡Neebe guilty of murder and fixed the penalty at imprisonment in the penitentiary for fifteen years.

About the 1st day of May, 1886, the workingmen of Chicago and of other industrial centers in the United States were greatly excited upon the subject of inducing their employers to reduce the time, during which they should be required to labor on each day, to eight hours. In the midst of the excitement, growing out of this eight-hour movement, as it was called, a meeting was held on the evening of May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket, on Eandolph street, in the West division of the city of Chicago. This meeting was addressed by the defendants Spies, Parsons and Bielden. While the latter was making the closing speech, and at some point of time between ten and half-past ten o’clock in the evening, several companies of policemen, numbering one hundred and eighty men, marched into the crowd from their station on Besplaines street, and ordered the meeting to disperse. As soon as the order was given, some one threw among the policemen a dynamite bomb, which struck Began, who was one of the police officers, and killed him. As a result of the throwing of the bomb and of the firing of pistol shots, which immediately succeeded the throwing of the bomb, six policemen besides Began were killed, and sixty more were seriously ■wounded.

It is undisputed that the bomb was thrown and that it caused the death of Began. It is conceded that no one of the convicted defendants threw the bomb with his own hands. Plaintiffs in error are charged with being accessories before the fact. There are sixty-nine counts in the indictment. Some of the counts charge, that the eight defendants above named, being present, aided, abetted and assisted in the throwing of the bomb; others, that, not being present, aiding, abetting or assisting, they advised, encouraged, aided and abetted such throwing. Some of the counts charge that said defendants advised, encouraged, aided and abetted one Eudolph Schnaubelt in the perpetration of the crime; others, that they advised, encouraged, aided and- abetted an unknown person in the perpetration thereof.

The Elinois statute upon this subject is as follows (chap. 38, div. 2, secs. 2 and 3):

“Sec. 2. An accessory is he who stands by, and aids, abets, or assists, or who, not being present, aiding, abetting or assisting, hath advised, encouraged, aided or abetted the perpetration of the crime. He, who thus aids, abets, assists, advises or encourages, shall be considered as principal, and punished accordingly.

“Sec. 3. Every such accessory, when a crime is committed, within or without this State by his aid or procurement in this-State, may be indicted and convicted at the same time as the principal, or before, or after his conviction, and whether the-principal is convicted or amenable to justice or not, and punished as principal.”

This statute abolishes the distinction between accessories before the fact and principals; by it all accessories before the fact are made principals. As the acts of the principal are thus made the acts of the accessory, the latter may be charged as ■ having done the acts himself,- and may be indicted and punished accordingly. Baxter v. People, 3 Gilm. 368; Dempsey v. People, 47 Ill. 323.

If, therefore, the defendants advised, encouraged, aided or abetted the killing of Degan, they are as guilty, as though they took his life with their own hands. If any of them stood by and aided, abetted or assisted in the throwing of the bomb, those of them, who did so, are as guilty as though they threw it themselves.

It is charged, that the defendants formed a common purpose, and were united in a common design to aid and encourage the murder of the policemen among whom the bomb was thrown. If they combined to accomplish such murder by concerted action, the ordinary law of conspiracy is applicable, and the acts and declarations of one of them, done in furtherance of the common design, are, in contemplation of law, the acts and declarations of all. This prosecution, however, is not for conspiracy as a substantive crime. Proof of conspiracy is only proper, so far as it may tend to show a common design to encourage the murder charged against the prisoners. It may be introduced for the purpose of establishing the position of the members of the combination as accessories to the crime of murder.

The' questions, which thus present themselves at the threshold of. the case, are these: Did the defendants have a common purpose or design to advise, encourage, aid or abet the murder of the police ? Did they combine together and with others with a view to carrying that purpose or design into effect ? Did they or either or any of them do such acts or make such declarations in furtherance of the common purpose or design, as did actually have the effect of encouraging, aiding or abetting the crime in question ?

The solution of these questions involves an examination of the evidence.

The first inquiry, which naturally suggests itself, is: who made the bomb which killed Degan ?

First—The bomb was round. Zeller, a witness for the defence, says of it, as he saw it going through the air: “It seems to me it was more round and about as big as a baseball.” Taylor, another witness for the defence, says: “I saw the bomb enough to know it was a round bomb.”

There is much evidence in the record as to the different kinds of bombs and as to the mode of their construction. The simplest and cheapest form is what is known as the gas-pipe bomb, the mode of constructing which is hereafter explained. The gas-pipe bomb is the one which the ordinary, unskilled laborer would be most apt to make, if he desired to use such a weapon..

The round bombs, however, are more expensive, and their construction is more difficult and more liable to discovery. Such a bomb consists of two semi-globes, which, if made of iron, must be obtained at a foundry, or if made of zinc or other material, require the use of brass or clay moulds and facilities for melting the metals entering into their composition. The semi-globes must be fastened together by solder or by bolts. Holes must be drilled for the insertion of the bolts and also for the insertion of the caps and fuse. Care must be taken to fill in the dynamite properly and to insert the fulminating cap into the dynamite and the fuse into the cap. The construction of such bombs requires time and skill and involves considerable expense in the purehas'e of materials.

Second—The bomb thrown at the Haymarket was exploded by means of a projecting fuse, ignited before leaving the hand by a match or a lighted cigar. This abundantly appears from the evidence of those who saw it before it fell. One witness • says it was like a fire-cracker in the air; another, that “it was like a burnt out match, that was lit yet;” another, that it was a “streak of fire” in the air; still another calls it “a little tail of fire quivering in the air.”

As we understand the evidence in regard to the mode of constructing a round bomb with a fuse, the method is as follows : When the two semi-globular shells are fastened together, and the dynamite is filled in through an opening made for that purpose, a fuse six or eight inches long is inserted in a detonating cap; the cap is pinched so as to hold the fuse; the cap is then inserted about two-thirds of its length into the dynamite through the opening, and five or six inches of fuse are left to project outside of the bomb.

There are bombs which do not have the projecting fuse. When explosion is desired from a distance, a wire and electric battery are used. A primer bomb has a percussion cap on each side, so that, when it is thrown, “whichever side strikes will explode the cap.” Another kind of bomb is described in the testimony, as having the appearance of a fruit-can, containing a glass tube connected with the top by a screw, and so fixed as to explode when thrown against a hard substance.

The bomb with a projecting fuse of six or eight inches is made to be thrown into a crowd of men and when “only a few minutes are desired to get away,” and “only so much fuse is required as can burn in the interval of throwing.” When the fuse projects in the manner indicated it is necessary to apply a light externally to the end of the fuse before the bomb is thrown.

Third—The shell of the bomb, which exploded, was of composite manufacture. ■ Pieces of the shell'were taken by the physicians from the body of Degan and from the body of officer Murphy, who had fifteen shell wounds. These pieces were subjected to chemical examination, and were found to be composed of tin and lead, with traces of antimony, iron and zinc. The Degan piece contained slightly more tin than the Murphy piece, but the ingredients of the two pieces were exactly the same. The chemists, who made the analysis here referred to, and who have given their testimony in relation to the same, swear, that there is no commercial substance which has the same composition as these pieces of shell. Commercial lead, they say, never contains tin. Solder is composed of tip. and lead, but the proportion of tin in solder to the amount of lead therein is so different from the proportions of those ingredients in the pieces of shell so analyzed, that the latter could not have been made of solder. Experiments also demonstrated that the exploded bomb could not have been made out of old lead-pipe, that had been plugged or mended with solder. The proportions of lead and tin in such case are vastly different from their proportions in the pieces of the bomh, which were subjected to examination. In the latter, lead was the basis of the preparation, but tin, or some other metal containing tin, was mixed with the lead.

Fowrih—The bomb, which exploded, had upon it a small iron nut. One Michael Hahn was standing on the north-west corner of Desplaines and Randolph streets when the bomb exploded at the Haymarket meeting, and was struck by a part of it. On the morning of May 5, 1886, a surgeon extracted from his body an iron nut, threaded in the circular opening through its center, so as to fit upon the screw end of a bolt, of which it had evidently been' a part. The discovery of this nut points unerringly to the conclusion, that the two semi-globular halves of the exploded bomb had been fastened together by a bolt and had not been soldered together. The evidence shows that soldering was the usual method of fastening together the two halves of the round bomb.

The four characteristics of the exploded bomb, which have been thus indicated, were found to exist in the bombs, which were made by the defendant Louis Lingg.

First—Many of the bombs made by Lingg were round or globular in form. The defendant Lingg came to this country for the first time in the summer of 1885 from some place in Germany. In August of that year he became acquainted with William Seliger, a German carpenter, who had resided in America three years and a half. Two weeks before Christmas, 1885, he went to board and room at Seliger’s house, No. 442 Sedgwick street, in the North division of the city of Chicago. More than six weeks before May 1, 1886, he brought a bomb to the house and said he was going to make bombs. Some six weeks before that date, or about the middle of March, 1886, he brought dynamite there. He had three different kinds of dynamite. He had no regular employment for about four weeks prior to May 1, 1886. During this time he was experimenting with dynamite, and with round and long or gas-pipe bombs. He exploded the latter in the woods north of the city, and “says he put one right in the crotch of a tree and slit it‘ all up.” During a period of six weeks prior to May 1, 1886, he was at work from time to time making semi-globular -bomb shells, and was often assisted in this wnrk by Seliger and by two men named Thielen and Hermann or Heumann. These semi-globes appear to have been all finished before May' 4, 1886, and, of course, were intended for round bombs, the only kind in the construction of which such shells were used. After Lingg’s arrest, round bombs were found in a trunk in his room and under a sidewalk on Sigel street, 'where he is proven to have hidden them, and in the possession or under the control of one Lehmann, to whom lie is proven to have given them. It thus appears that the exploded bomb corresponded in shape and form with many of the bombs made by Lingg.

Second—The bombs made by Lingg had the projecting fuse so as to be exploded by the external application of fire.

On April 30, 1886, being the Friday before the day of the Hajonarket meeting, Lingg brought to Seliger’s house a large wooden box, about three feet long, from sixteen to eighteen inches high and from sixteen to eighteen inches broad, inside of which was a tin box, containing dynamite. On the next Tuesday, May 4, 1886, he was occupied, during the afternoon and until after seven o’clock in the evening, in filling this dynamite into gas-pipes and globular shells, using a flat piece of wood, which he had made for that purpose. He was assisted in his labors by a number of persons, and among these were Seliger, Thielen and Hermann, already mentioned, and two men, named Huebner and Munsenberg or Muensenberger, the latter of whom was probably the blacksmith hereafter inferred to. Upwards of fifty bombs were finished that afternoon, and the work on them would appear to have been continued up to or beyond the hour on that evening for which the Haymarket meeting had been called, as hereafter stated. The rooms in Seliger’s house, which were used by Lingg and his assistants for their work, are spoken of as the front room and the bedroom. The witness Lehmann visited these rooms twice on Tuesday afternoon in company with a countryman of his, a Prussian, named Smideke, who went there with him to buy a revolver. His first visit was made at five o’clock in the afternoon, at which time he saw there Lingg, Seliger, Huebner, and a person of whom he speaks as follows: “One whose name I did not know; it is said that he is a blacksmith.” They were in the bedroom, and each had a cloth tied around his face, but the witness “could not precisely see what they were doing.”

The second visit was made to the rooms at seven o’clock in the evening, and lasted about ten minutes. At this time Lehmann did not get into the bedroom, but they were busy there as at the first visit. He saw Heubner working at some coil of fuse, which looked like strings or white cord; he was cutting it into pieces; they were putting fuse into caps in the front room. During one of these visits Lingg gave to Lehmann a small leather hand-satchel or trunk, which the latter took home and placed in his woodshed, and, at three o’clock next, morning, after he had learned of the destruction wrought at the Haymarket, carried “away to the prairie,” there burying its contents. The satchel contained a tin box or can nearly full of dynamite, and three round bombs, some caps, and two coils of fuse. Another circumstance may be mentioned in this connection. After ten o’clock on Tuesday night, wheh Lingg and Seliger were on Larrabee street, just south of North avenue, in the North division of the city, a patrol wagon passed them, which was manned with policemen, and-had been summoned to the Haymarket by a call through the telephone.. Lingg proposed to throw among the policemen in the wagon, a bomb, which he had about his person, and, for the purpose-of exploding it, demanded a light of Seliger, who was smoking-a cigar at the time. It thus appears, that the bombs made-by Lingg were made with the projecting fuse, and, so, corresponded with the second feature of the exploded bomb, as. already noticed.

Third—The shells of the round bombs made by Lingg were-constructed of composite metal.

Their correspondence in this particular with the shell of' the exploded bomb tends very strongly to show, that the same-hand, which made them, also made the exploded bomb. Lingg, Seliger, Thielen and Hermann were frequently engaged in “melting and casting” in Seliger’s kitchen during the six weeks, before May 1, 1886. Lingg melted lead or some other metal in a ladle on the kitchen stove. A pan is identified, as one-which was used by him in making the semi-globes, found in his round bombs. He also made use for such purpose of clay molds, constructed by himself. One of these clay molds could only be used twice.

Pieces of bomb shells proven to have been made by Lingg in the manner and with the materials here indicated, were subjected to chemical analysis. They were composed of' a. certain percentage of tin, and the remainder was lead, with traces of antimony, iron and zinc. Out of four bombs examined, the percentage of tin in the different bombs varied slightly in three, and in the fourth considerably more than in the other three. As a result of the chemical analysis, the piece of shell taken from Degan’s body, and the pieces of the shells, discovered in Lingg’s possession after his arrest, were shown to be composed of exactly the same -ingredients.

After May 4 there were found in Lingg’s room a metal cup, a cold chisel, a file, shells, loaded cartridges, “metal and also some lead,” “some babbitt-metal, some sheets of lead,” bolts, pieces of metal in a Japan dinner box with four dynamite gas-pipe bombs, two loaded and two empty, a Remington rifle, a round dynamite bomb, loaded, two pieces of solder, a blast hammer and a smaller pointed hammer, a couple of iron bits and drills, a two-quart pail with sawdust in the bottom, a tin quart basin with fuse and sawdust or dynamite in it, two long cartridges of dynamite and some fuse already fixed, fuse about four inches long and caps, a“big coil of fuse in the trunk, a piece of block tin, a piece of candlestick. Babbitt-metal is an alloy of copper, tin and zinc. Many of the articles found were chemically analyzed. The candlestick or toy proved, upon analysis, to contain tin, lead, antimony, zinc and a trace of copper. All.the ingredients necessary to make up the composite material, out of which the exploded shell was constructed, were thus discovered to be in Lingg’s possession.

The shell of the globular bomb, if entirely of lead, would be soft and yielding, and on this account would fail to furnish that degree of resistance to the dynamite, which appears from the evidence to be necessary, in order to make the explosion effective. It was evidently for this reason, that some other ■substance, such as tin, was combined with the lead to give the shell a firmer consistence and make its effects more deadly. "With the same end in view, nails and wire, as will be hereafter seen, were recommended by the defendant Engel to be put around the gas-pipe bombs.

It appears, that, of the bombs made by Lingg, which were analyzed, each differed slightly from the others in the amount of tin, "though all contained the same ingredients. It also appears, that the two halves of the same bomb would differ somewhat in the proportions of the metal present, and this accounts for the fact, that the piece from Degan’s body eoniained a very little more tin than the piece from Murphy’s body, each evidently coming from a different half of the bomb.

These slight differences are such as would naturally be expected, when shells were made with the rude materials with . which Lingg worked, melting his metals in a small ladle on ' a kitchen stove, casting half a shell- at a time, making use (of clay molds made by himself, each one of which could only ■be used twice.

Fourth—The semi-globular halves of each round bomb made by Lingg were fastened together by a bolt, upon one end of ■which was screwed a small iron nut, showing a remarkable correspondence between the Lingg bombs and the exploded bomb in the fourth peculiarity of the latter, which has been heretofore mentioned.

On the morning of Tuesday, May 4, Lingg left Seliger’s house to go to a meeting on the West Side and did not return until one o’clock in the afternoon. Before leaving he instructed Seliger to go to work at the bombs, remarking that they would be taken away that day. He gave Seliger a bolt, and said “that he had not enough of those bolts,” and told him to go to Clybourne avenue and “get there some that he had already spoken to the man about.” About fifty of the bolts were procured in- accordance with the directions thus given. Seliger was engaged in the forenoon in drilling holes in the shells already on hand for the bolts to pass through. He was chided hy Lingg, upon the latter’s return, for having progressed so slowly with the work, and was informed, that they would “have to work very diligently during the afternoon.”

The evidence shows, that the bolt used by Lingg was a metallic pin running through the bomb, that a head was formed on one end of this pin, and on the other end there was cut a thread, upon which was screwed a moveable piece called a nut, the head at one end and the nut at the other holding the two semi-globes together. These bolts were found in the bombs afterwards taken from the possession of Lingg, and proven by the undisputed testimony in the ease to have been made by him.

The nut taken from the body of Hahn, and which was a part of the exploded bomb, was applied to the threaded end of one of the bolts taken from a bomb made by Lingg and was found to fit it exactly. This can not be regarded otherwise than as a circumstance of very grave significance.

In view of the considerations thus far presented, and of others which will suggest themselves as the examination proceeds, we think the jury were warranted in believing from the evidence that the bomb, which killed Began, was one of the bombs made by the defendant Lingg.

This conclusion receives indorsement from the fact, that the making of such bombs as have been described is a new, unusual and dangerous occupation. There are no bomb manufactories. A bomb is not an article, which can be bought in the market like a revolver. He, who would use such a weapon, must make it himself.

According to the evidence in this record, dynamite is composed of nitro-glyeerine and clay or sawdust; it must be handled with care; it will explode, if subjected to too great a degree of heat; it should not be exposed to the rays of the sun, or placed too near the fire; if kept for any length of time, it must he stored with caution, for instance, it is recommended that it be wrapped in oil paper, placed in a box of sawdust and buried in the cellar; when, in handling it, it gets upon the skin, headache is produced; if its dangerous gases are inhaled, frightful pains in the head will be the result. Moreover, information as to its peculiarities and as to the safest mode of handling it is limited and, to some extent not accessible.

For these reasons so hazardous a business as filling bomb shells with dynamite will not usually be engaged in. Hence, when a murder is the result of the explosion of a dynamite bomb, and, about the time of the murder, a man is found making such bombs near the scene of the explosion, his responsibility for the crime, viewed in connection with other criminating circumstances which may exist, will be a more natural inference than where some more common weapon of destruction has been used.

The next question to be considered is: why did the defendant Lingg make the bomb, which killed Began?

In order to satisfactorily answer this question, it becomes necessary to examine the character and purposes of an association, with which all the defendants in this case were connected.

The record shows the existence of an organization, known as the International Workingmen’s Association, or the International Arbeiter Association, generally called the “Internationals,” and sometimes designated for brevity as the I. A. A.

The platform or declaration of principles adopted by this organization was published by a certain bureau of information and by certain newspapers, called the “Alarm” and the “Arbeiter Zeitung,” which are more particularly referred to hereafter. It appeared in all the issues of the latter paper during the months of February, March and April, 1886. It is too long for insertion here. It urges, that the present' system, under which property is owned by individuals, should be destroyed, and that all capital, which has been produced by labor, should be transformed into common property. It says: “It is only when capital is made common and indivisible that fl.11 can be made to partake fully and freely of the fruits of common activity; only by the impossibility of acquiring individual (private) capital can every one be compelled to work who claims the right to live.” It charges, that the government, the law, the schools, the churches, the press, are in the pay and under the sway of the property-owning and capitalistic classes, and that the laboring classes must achieve their deliverance through their own strength.

This international platform thus addresses the workingmen: “As in former times no privileged class ever relinquished its tyranny, no more can we take it for granted, that the capitalists of the present day will forego their privileges and their authority without compulsion. . . . It is therefore self-evident, that the fight of proletarianism (the laboring classes) against the bourgeoise (the middle classes) must have a violent revolutionary character, and that mere wage conflicts can never lead to the goal. We could show, by numerous illustrations, that all attempts, which have been made in the past to do away with the existing monstrous social system through peaceable means, for example, through the ballot-box, have been entirely useless and will be so in the future. ... We know, therefore, that the ruling classes will not voluntarily relinquish their prerogative, and will make no concessions to us. Under all these circumstances, there is only one remedy left—force! . . . Therefore, it is your right, it is your duty, says Jefferson, to arm yourselves. Agitation, with a view to organization, organizations for the purpose of rebellion; herein is indicated, in a few words the way which workingmen must take, if they would rid themselves of their ■chains.”

It is here admitted, that the property of each individual in the community could not be taken away from him and put into a common fund to be divided among all the members of the community without a resort to revolution and force. The way to the result, sought to be reached by the International platform here referred to, leads, through the crimes of robbery, theft and murder, to the destruction of the existing system of social order and of all the laws and institutions upon which that system is based.

The association, whose principles are thus outlined in its "platform, was divided into groups, of which there were eighty in the United States in March, 1885, located principally in the centers of industry. For some time prior to May 1, 1886, there was a number of these groups in Chicago. The following are spoken of by different witnesses: The North Side group, which met at No. 58 Clybourne avenue in the North division of the city; the North-west Side group, which met at Thalia Hall, No. 636'Milwaukee avenue, in the north-western part of the city; the American group, which met generally at No. 54 West Lake street, in the West division of the city, but sometimes at Baum’s Pavilion at the corner of Cottage Grove avenue and Twenty-second street in the South division of the city, and at No. 45 North Clark street, No. 106 Randolph street, and on the Lake Front; the group “Karl Marx, ” which met at No. 63 Emma street in the West division; the group “Freiheit,” which met on Sherman street in the South division; the South-west Side group, which met at No. 611 Throop street in the south-western part of the city; the group, “Jefferson No. 1,” which met at No. 600 Milwaukee avenue.

The defendants Schwab, Neebe and Lingg belonged to the North Side group, the defendants Epgel and Fischer to the North-west Side group, and the defendants Spies, Parsons and Fielden to the American group. Spies had also belonged to the North-west Side group.

The members of these groups were known by numbers and not by names. The members of the North Side group began to be known by numbers in July, 1884. The number of the witness Seliger, who belonged to the North Side group, was 72. Certain members of these groups were armed with rifles and drilled regularly once a week at their respective places of meeting, taking their rifles home with them after drill. These armed members were known _ and designated as the “armed sections” of the groups. The North Side group met every Monday night at 58 Clybourne avenue, and the aimed section drilled there every Sunday morning. The armed section of the American group met every Monday evening at No. 54 West Lake street. The North-west Side group met Thursday evening at No. 636 Milwaukee avenue. The South-west Side group met every Saturday evening at No. 611 Throop street.

There was also a certain armed socialistic organization, called the Lehr und Wehr Verein, whose members seem to have been members also of the International groups, but to have been of a higher rank and to have attained a higher grade in the perfection of their drill than was the case with the ordinary members of the “armed sections.” The evidence does not disclose the exact number of those, who belonged to the Lehr und Wehr Verein at the time of the trial, but in 1819 it had one thousand men. Its members were armed with Springfield rifles and were known by numbers. They conducted their drills and military exercises at Thalia Halfi No. 636 Milwaukee avenue, where the North-west Side group, the most radically anarchistic of all the groups, held its meetings.

The Lehr und Wehr Verein had four companies in Chicago. The witness August Krueger, whose number was 8, was orderly sergeant and corresponding secretary of the second company. G-odfried Waller, whose number was 19, and Bernard Schrade, whose number was 32, were members of this second company. Schrade also belonged to the North-west Side group, and says they drilled once a week and kept their Springfield rifles at home. The third company seems to have had a drill every Thursday evening at a workingmen’s hall on West Twelfth street.

The “armed section” of the American group was called the “International Rifles:” After one of its drills on August 24, 1885, at No. 54 West Lake street, ten men, dressed in blue blouses and each armed with a Springfield rifle, and who belonged to the first company of the Lehr und Wehr Verein, were introduced into the room and drilled for the benefit of the new members of the “International Rifles.” It was then and there stated, that, in case of a conflict with the authorities, the International Rifles were to act in concert with the Lehr und Wehr Yerein and obey the orders of its officers. From this it would appear, that the Lehr und Wehr Yerein or its officers were to direct the movements of the ordinary “armed sections,” when occasion should require.

In the spring of 1885 there were in the city of Chicago three thousand of these armed socialists, of whom the defendant Parsons then said that “they were well-armed with rifles and revolvers and would have dynamite and bomhs when they got ready to use them.” As they Were known by numbers, no record was kept of their names, and a system was adopted by which the members would be as little known to each other as possible.

These groups were represented by a general committee, composed of delegates from all the groups of the International Association in Chicago. This committee met every two weeks in a building in the South division of the city, known as No. 107 Fifth avenue, and called hy the witnesses the “Arbeiter Zeitung Building,” or the building of the International Arbeiter Association. The meetings of this committee were held in a library ro&m which is spoken of by one of the witnesses as belonging to the “Arbeiter Zeitung” newspaper hereinafter mentioned, and which was located in the rear of the office room of that paper. In August, 1885, at the time of what is called the “car-drivers’ strike,” the witness Seliger was present in this room, as a delegate from the North Side group to the meeting of the general committee, and speaks of the defendant Spies as being there present on that occasion.

The members of the general, committee had been in the habit of meeting in this library-room for a number of years, certainly since 1880. One Hirschberger was the librarian.

An exception should be made to the statement that all the groups appointed delegates to the general committee. The North-west Side group did not do so, and the reason given for this by Fricke, who was at one time a member of that group and for two years book-keeper of the “Arbeiter Zeitung,” was, that the principles of the North-west Side group were more strongly anarchistic than those of the other groups. It was called an “autonomous” group.

A newspaper, called the “Arbeiter Zeitung,” and conducted in the interest of the German-speaking groups of the International Arbeiter Association, was published in -the building No. 107 Fifth avenue,- and had its office and editorial rooms there. Its superintendent and chief editor was the defendant Spies. The defendant Schwab was co-editor, and wrote some of the most important of the editorials. The defendant Fischer ' was a type-setter in the office, and about the 1st of May, 1886, was the head foreman of the printing department. This paper was owned by a corporation, in which Spies, Schwab, Fischer and Neebe were stockholders. It was printed in the German language, and, besides its daily issue, had a Sunday edition, called the “Fackel,” and a weekly edition called the “Vorbote.”

Its circulation was about thirty-six hundred. Notices of the meetings of workingmen were inserted in its columns without charge.

Another newspaper by the name of the “Alarm,” owned by the International Arbeiter Association, and conducted in the English language in the interest of the English-speaking groups, was also published at the same building, No. 107 • Fifth avenue. Its editor and manager from October, 1884, to May, 1886, was the defendant Parsons. The defendant Fielden owned some of the stock in the corporation which controlled it. Its circulation was about two thousand. It was-first issued as a weekly, and afterwards as a semi-monthly paper. Still another newspaper, called the “Anarchist, ” was started in January or February, 1886, by the North-west Side group and two of the South Side groups. It was under the management of the defendant Engel. Its origin was announced as being due to the fact, that the “Arbeiter Zeitung” was not outspoken enough in its anarchistic principles. Its efforts were directed to the same ends as those contemplated by the other papers mentioned.

All the bills for the printing of the “Arbeiter Zeitung” and the “Alarm” were made out to the “Arbeiter Zeitung” and were paid by the defendant Spies, occasionally by check, but generally in currency.

There was a bureau of information of the Internationals. This also had its headquarters at the “Arbeiter Zeitung” building. The bureau of information, designated to act for the years 1885 and 1886, consisted of the defendants Spies and Parsons, the librarian Hirschberger, one Belthazer Bau, an advertising agent of the “Arbeiter Zeitung,” and one Joseph Bach, a member of the North Side group and afterwards a director of the “Arbeiter Zeitung.” Letters were always addressed to Spies, as a member of this bureau, at 107 Fifth avenue.

Besides the regular weekly meetings of the groups heretofore mentioned in their respective halls, there was occasionally a meeting of all the “armed sections” of the different groups at No. 54 West Lake street, known as Greif’s Hall.

These meetings of the armed sections, whose members were located in the North, South and West divisions of the city, were irregular. They were called by a signal, given by the “Arbeiter Zeitung.” This signal was: “Y.—Komme Montag Abend,” or “Y.—Come Monday night.” Whenever these words appeared in the letter-box column of the “Arbeiter Zeitung, ” they were understood to be a summons to the “armed sections” to meet on Monday night at Greif’s Hall.

The evidence in the record shows, that there were in the city of Chicago twenty-five or thirty labor unions, containing from fifteen thousand to sixteen thousand laborers, and that delegates from these unions constituted a body called the Central Labor Union. The large majority of those, who belonged to the labor unions, were well-meaning workingmen, whose designs were not unlawful, and the object of whose organization was to better their own condition. They did not all belong to the groups of the International Association. But the members of those groups were, as a general thing, also members of the different labor unions.

It thus appears, that the branch of the International Workingmen’s Association, which existed in Chicago during the year 1885, and up to May 4, 1886, was a compact, well-disciplined organization. At the head of it was a general or central committee. Next to the committee came the Lehr und Wehr Verein, a secret military organization divided into companies. Next to the Lehr und Wehr Verein came the “armed sections” of the various groups, practicing their weekly drills at night and on Sunday in various parts of the city, and, in some instances, under the direction of the officers of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. Next came the unarmed members of the groups, who were constantly in contact with their armed brethren and in hearty sympathy with their purposes and principles. As to some of the groups, however, all the members seem to have been engaged in arming and drilling.

There can be no doubt that the organization here described was an unlawful conspiracy.

First—Its purpose was unlawful. It designed to bring about a social revolution. Social revolution meant the destruction of the right of private ownership of property, or of the right of the individual to own property; it meant the bringing about of a state of society in which all property should be held in common. As a court, we are not concerned with the question, whether it was right or wrong to adopt and advocate an abstract theory in regard to the ownership of property, such as is here indicated. But this abstract theory assumed a concrete and practical form. The police and militia were looked upon as protectors and guardians of the form of ownership in property, which was objected to. Hence, “social revolution” meant war upon the police and militia. The destruction by force of the police and militia in the city of Chicago was the practical' object which this organization proposed to accomplish in that city.

Second—Its methods were unlawful. • The arming and drilling of the groups were in violation of the Militia law of the State of Illinois, which provides that “it shall not be lawful for any body of men whatever, other than the regular organized volunteer militia of this State and the troops of the United States, to associate themselves together as a military company or organization, to drill or parade with arms in any city or town of this State without the license of the Governor thereof,” etc. It is not pretended, that any such license-was ever issued to these groups by the Governor of the State.

The central or governing authority of this International organization had its headquarters in the “Arbeiter Zeitung” building and in a room connected with the office of the “Arbeiter Zeitung” newspaper. From that place mainly its policy was dictated and the orders, which controlled its movements, were issued. Among the principal persons, who shaped its policy and outlined its course of action, were the defendants Spies, Schwab, Engel, Lingg, Fielden, Parsons, Fischer, and, in a subordinate degree, Neebe.

These defendants sought to use the organization for the purpose of bringing about the “social revolution,” and, to that end, endeavored to increase its membership and perfect its discipline so as to hurl it against the police and militia, as the representatives of law’and order. Among the means, employed to accomplish this, were, “agitation with a view to organization,” and “organization for the purpose of rebellion.” The object of “agitation” was to increase the ranks of the “armed sections” of the International groups by recruits from the “Labor Unions” and other associations of workingmen. The meaning of “organization” was the arming of such recruits with dynamite and revolvers.

During the years 1885 and 1886 the defendants Spies, Schwab, Parsons, Engel and Fielden by numerous speeches, and by articles published in the newspaper organs above mentioned, persistently advised and encouraged the workingmen to arm themselves for a conflict with what were called the property-owning classes and ydth the police and militia, who were regarded as the special protectors of those classes. These speeches were made at picnics, in workingmen’s halls, at gatherings of the International groups, in Market square, and from the windows of the “Arbeiter Zeitung” building. They 1 denounced the police and militia. They inveighed against the “private right of property.” They advised the purchase of rifles and dynamite.

Extracts from the-“Alarm,” the “Arbeiter Zeitung” and the “Anarchist,” and from speeches of Schwab, Spies, Parsons, Fielden and Engel, are set out in the statement which precedes this opinion.

The articles in the “Alarm” were" most of them, written by the defendant Parsons, but some of them by the defendant Spies. The articles, quoted from the “Arbeiter Zeitung,” were written by the defendants Schwab and Spies. The single extract from the “Anarchist” was written by the defendant Engel.

The articles and speeches so collated are of the most violent and incendiary character. They seek to inspire a feeling of hatred among the workingmen against the police and militia and the property-owning classes. They not only recommend the workingmen to arm themselves with dynamite and rifles, but they give specific instructions how to handle and use dynamite and how to make bombs and how to procure weapons. They recommend the workingmen to attend the meetings of the International Arbeiter Association and read its organs. They advise the formation of special groups for committing deeds of violence, which are called “revolutionary actions,” and point out the means of avoiding discovery after such deeds are committed. In the “Arbeiter Zeitung” articles will be found such expressions as these: “Each workingman ought to have been armed long ago;” “Daggers and revolvers are easily to be gotten, hand grenades are cheaply to be produced; explosives, too, can be obtained;” “The workingmen ought tó take aim at every member of the militia;” “Your passport to it, Eden, is that banner which calls to you in flaming letters the word ‘Anarchy; ’ ” “Therefore, workingmen, do arm yourselves with the most effective means;” “There is no other way than to become immediately soldiers of the revolutionary army and establish conspiring groups, and let the ruins fall on the homes of such;” “We wonder whether the workingmen . . . will at last supply themselves with weapons, dynamite and prussic acid;” “Workingmen, arm yourselves;” “Enough is said about the importance of being armed. . . . We are to go to work to supply ourselves as quickly as possible with these useful things. . ’ . . Dynamite bears several names here in America; among others it is known in trade also under the names of Hercules powder and giant powder;” “There marched a strong company of well-armed comrades of the 'various groups; . . . the nitro-glycerine pills were not missing;” “There exists to-day an invisible net-work of fighting groups;” “Every trades-union should make it obligatory to every member to keep a good gun at home and ammunition;” “If we do not bestir ourselves for a bloody revolution, we can not leave anything to our children but poverty and slavery. Therefore prepare yourselves in all quietness for the revolution.”

The following expressions will be found in the extracts from the “Alarm:”

“One man, armed with a dynamite bomb, is equal to one regiment of militia,” etc.; “Every man, who is master of these explosives, can not be approached by an army of men;” “How can all this be done? Simply by making ourselves masters of the use of dynamite; then. . . . administer instant death, by any and all means, to any and every person, who attempts to continue to claim personal ownership in anything. . . . Our war is not against men, but against systems; yet we must prepare to kill men who will try to defeat our cause. . . . The rich are only worse than the poor because they have more power to wield this infernal ‘property-right” “Dynamite is the emancipator! in the hands of the enslaved it cries aloud, ‘Justice or annihilation.’ But, best of all, the workingmen are not only learning its use, they are going to use it. They will use it, eand effectually, until personal ownership, property-rights are destroyed, etc. . . . Hail to the social revolution! Hail to the deliverer Dynamite ■“Nothing but an uprising of the people and a bursting open of all stores and store-houses to the free access of the public, and a free application of dynamite to every one who opposes, will relieve the world of this infernal nightmare of property and wages“Seeing the amount of needless suffering all about us, we say a vigorous use of dynamite is both humane and ■economical. . . . It is upon this theory that we advocate the use of dynamite. It is clearly more humane to blow ten men into eternity than to make ten men starve to death;” ■“Dynamite! of all the good stuff, this is the stuff. Stuff several pounds of this sublime stuff into an inch pipe, gas or water-pipe, plug up both ends, insert a cap with a fuse attached, place this in the immediate neighborhood of a lot of rich loafers, who live by the sweat of other people’s brows, and light the fuse. A most cheerful and gratifying result will follow;” “The next issue of the ‘Alarm’ will begin the publication of a series of articles concerning revolutionary warfare, viz.: ‘The Manufacture of Dynamite Made Easy,’ ‘Manufacturing Bombs,’ ‘How to use Dynamite Properly,’ ” •etc. “All governments are domineering powers, etc. . . . Assassination will remove the evil from the face of the earth. _ . . Assassination properly applied is wise, just, humane and brave. For freedom, all things are just;” “Though everybody nowadays speaks of dynamite, . . . few have any knowledge of the general character and nature of this explosive. For those, who will sooner or later be forced to employ its destructive qualities in defence of their rights as men, and ' from a sense of preservation, a few hints may not be out of place. Dynamite may be handled with perfect safety, if proper care is used,” etc. (Then follows.a series of minute directions.)

During the months of December, 1885, January, February and March, 1886, the following notice appeared in the “Arbeiter Zeitung: ” ,

“ ‘Exercise in Arms.’ Workingmen, who are willing to exercise in the handling of arms, should call every Sunday forenoon, at half past nine, at .No. 58 Clybourne avenue, where they will receive instructions gratuitously.”

In the “Alarm,” from August 17, 1885, to April 24, 1886, appeared the following notice:

“The armed section of the American group meets Monday night, at No. 54 West Lake street.”

One Herr Most had prepared a treatise or book, entitled “Eevolutionary Warfare,” containing instructions, that entered into the minutest details, as to the best mode of preparing dynamite and other explosives, and of making bombs and other weapons. From time to time in 1885 and 1886, the “Alarm” and the “Arbeiter Zeitung” published translations and extracts, from this book, for the evident purpose of communicating the information in it to the members of the groups and to their other readers among the workingmen. Specimen extracts from this treatise are set out in the statement which prefaces this opinion.

In the extract from the “Anarchist” will be found the following expressions: “All government we hate. . . . Complaints should be sent to G-. Engel. . . . Workingmen and fellows: . ... he, who would war successfully, must equip himself with all implements adapted to destroy his opponents. . . . We strive towards the overthrow of the existing order,” etc.

The defendant Schwab, in a speech delivered on April 26,' 1886, about a week before the Haymarket meeting, said: “Everywhere police and murderers are employed to grind down workingmen. For every workingman, who has died through the pistol of a deputy sheriff, let ten of those executioners fall. Arm yourselves!”

The defendant Spies, in a speech made in October, 1885, said that “there were nine millions of people engaged in industrial trades in this 'country; there were but one million of them as yet organized, while there were two millions of them unemployed; to make a movement, in which they were engaged a successful one, it must be a revolutionary one; don’t let us . . . forget the most forcible argument of all—the gun and dynamite.”

In speeches made by him, the defendant Parsons said, in February, 1885: “We need no president, no congressmen, no police, no militia and no judges; they are all leeches sucking the blood of the poor, who have to support them by their labor; I say to you, rise, one and all, and let us exterminate them all. Woe to the police or the militia whom they send against us!” In April, 1885, he said: “The only way to convince these capitalists and robbers is to use the gun and dynamite.” Again he said, in April, 1885: “If we would achieve our liberation from economic bondage and acquire our natural right to life and liberty, every man must lay by a part of his wages, buy a Colt’s navy revolver, a Winchester rifle, and learn how to make and to use dynamite. Then raise the flag of rebellion, the scarlet banner of liberty, fraternity, equality, and strike down to the ‘earth every tyrant, that lives upon this globe. Tyrants have no rights, which we should respect. Until this is done, you will continue to be robbed, to be plundered, to be at the mercy of the privileged few; therefore agitate for the purpose of organization, organize for the pur pose of rebellion, for wage-slaves have nothing to lose hut their chains.” And in August, 1885, referring to the street-car strike, he said: “If but one shot had been fired and Bonfield had happened to be shot, the whole city would have been deluged in blood and the social revolution would have been inaugurated. ”

The defendant Bielden, in speeches made by him, said in March, 1885 : “I want all to organize; every workingman in Chicago ought to belong to our organization; it is of no use to go and beg of our masters to give us more wages or better times. When I say, ‘organize,’ I mean for you to use force; it is of no use for the working people to hope to gain anything by means of the ordinary weapons; every one of you must learn the use of dynamite, for that is the power with which we hope to gain our rights.” In October, 1885, he said: “You must all organize and use force; you must crush out the present government, as by force is the only way, in which you better your present condition. ” He said in January> 1886: “It is quite true, that we have lots of explosives and dynamite in our possession, and we will not hesitate to use it, when the proper time comes. We care nothing either for the military or police, for these are in the pay of the capitalist.” Again in March, 1886, he said: “We are told that we must attain our ends and aims by obeying law and order. Damn law and order! We have obeyed law and order long enough. The time has come for you, men, to strangle the law, or the law will strangle you.”

The defendant Engel made a speech in German in February, 1886, to a crowded hall of workingmen, of which one witness says: “He advised everybody—‘every man wants to join them, to save up three or four dollars to buy revolvers to shoot every policeman downhe says he wants every workingman, whom he could get, to join them, and then advise every body you know—you save up three or four dollars to buy a revolver that was good enough for shooting police'men down;” and again in the same month he made a speech ■to the North Side workmen at Neff’s Hall, 58 Clybourne ave,nue, where the North Side group met, as already stated, in which he said “that those who could not arm themselves and ■ could not buy revolvers, should buy dynamite; that it was very cheap and easily handled; he gave a general description how bombs could be made, how gas-pipes could be filled; that a gas-pipe was to be taken and a wooden block put into the end, and it was to be filled with dynamite; then the other end is also closed up with a wooden block, and old nails are tied around the pipe hy means of wire; then a hole is bored into one end of it and a fuse with a cip is put into that hole; that the nails should be tightened to the pipe, so that when it explodes, there will be many pieces flying around; that gas-pipe could be found on the West Side from the river, near the bridge.”

The utterances by printed and spoken words, of which the , quotations above made are specimens, were addressed to work.'ingmen, of whom the defendant Spies says that they were “stupid and ignorant.” While the members of the International groups were reading and hearing the appeals, thus made to their prejudices, they were discussing their condition in weekly meetings, and very many of them participating in weekly drills with arms.

The time, when the war against the police was to be inaugurated, was not an indefinite period in the future. The evidence shows, that the date, fixed for the inauguration of the social revolution, was the 1st of May, 1886.

Two years before May 1, 1886, the working people had “resolved that the eight-hour system should be introduced in the United States” at that date. The defendants in this case and the more radical members of the International groups had no faith in the eight-hour movement. This abundantly appears from the testimony in the record. Gruenhut swears, that Spies did not consider the movement as amounting to anything; that he regarded it as “only a palliative measure, not radical enough.” A want of confidence in it on the part of the defendant Spies is apparent from the language of some resolutions, introduced hy him on October 11,1885, at a meeting at the Twelfth street Turner Hall, one of which began in this wise:

“Resolved, That, while we are skeptical in regard to the benefits that will accrue to the wage-workers in the introduction of an eight-hour work day,” etc. At a speech made at the same meeting Fielden said: “The eight-hour law will be of no benefit to the workingman.” An article in the “Alarm,” dated April 3,-1886, in which the defendant Parsons gives an account of a speech made by him to the American groups, shows that he only valued “the attempt to inaugurate the eight-hour system,” because he thought it “would break down the capitalistic system and bring about such disorder and hardship, that the ‘social revolution’ would become a necessity.”

Engel said in the “Anarchist:” “We reject reformatory measures as useless play. . . . All endeavors of the working classes not aiming at the overthrow of existing conditions of ownership . . . are to us reactionary,” etc.

The 1st of May was fixed upon as the date for the inauguration of the “social revolution” because of the strikes and disturbances, which were then expected to grow out of the demand for the eight-hour working day. It was anticipated, that many workingmen would then be out of employment and that their discontent and sufferings would drive them into an adoption of the revolutionary plans of the International groups.

The witness Johnson says, that, at the meetings of the armed section of the American group, “the 1st day of May was frequently mentioned as a good opportunity” for the revolution.

In a speech in December, 1885, at Twelfth street Turner Hall, Fielden said:

“The 1st of May will be our time to strike the blow; there ■are so many strikes and there will be fifty thousand men out of work.”

Spies said that the conflict between the police and the ■“dynamiters” would probably occur, when there should be an universal strike for the eight-hour law.

The international groups and other associations of workingmen were frequently urged to prepare to demand the eight-hour law on the 1st of May, 1886, with arms in their hands. They were told that such demand would be the more readily acceded to, if made by armed men.

In an article published in the “Arbeiter Zeitung,” on the ■afternoon of Tuesday, May 4, 1886, only a few hours before the Haymarket meeting occurred, the defendant Spies said: '“Six months ago, when the eight-hour movement began, there were speakers and journals of the I. A. A. who proclaimed and wrote: ‘Workmen, if you want to see the eight-hour system introduced, arm yourselves. If you do not do this, you will be sent home with bloody heads, and birds will sing May songs on your graves.’”

Looking into some of the statements, made by the journals •and speakers referred to, we find the following:

The “Arbeiter Zeitung” said on January 22, 1886: “With ■empty hands the workingmen will hardly be able to cope with the representatives of the club, in case, after the 1st of May ■of this year, there should be a general strike; . . . but if the workingmen are prepared to eventually stop the working of the factories, to defend himself with the aid of dynamite and bombs against the militia, which will of course be employed, then and only then can you expect a thorough success of the eight-hour movement.” It said on January 23, 1886: “Therefore, comrades, armed to the teeth," we want to demand our rights on the 1st of May; in the other case there are only blows of the club for you.” It said on March 2, 1886 : “Who wants to attack capitalism in earnest must overthrow the body-guards of it, the well-drilled and well-armed ‘men of order,’ and kill them, if he does not want to be murdered himself. But for this is needed an armed and systematically drilled organization;” and on the same jDage are these words: “The time up to the 1st of May is short-Look out!”

The “Alarm” said on September 5, 1885 : “Now in regard to the proposed strike next spring, a few practical words to our comrades. . . . Will the manufacturing kings grant the-modest request ? . . . No, sir, . . . they will then, draw from the army of unemployed; the strikers will attempt to stop them. Then comes the police and the militia. . . - Say, workingmen, are you prepared to meet the latter; are you armed?”

The defendant Spies, on October 11, 1885, at the meeting, at Twelfth street Turner Hall, already referred to, introduced,, in a speech made by him, the following resolution:

“Whereas, a general move has been started among the organized wage-workers of this country for the establishment of an eight-hour work day, to begin May 1, 1886. And

“Whereas, it is to be expected that the class of professional idlers, the governing class, who prey upon the bones and marrow of th