Part 86
A. I found the city under a great deal of excitement. The trains, I was informed, had been stopped from running, and I immediately went to my counsel, Mr. Wise, for instructions in regard to my powers and duties, and met a number of the prominent citizens, and went to work at once under advice of my counsel to prepare a proclamation, and I was informed by the mayor and other citizens, that the citizens had been notified to assemble at two strokes of the court-house bell. I went around town and endeavored to get parties together, until about ten or eleven o'clock, as near as I can recollect, and spent sometime preparing a proclamation and advising with the prominent citizens, and one came to me at the Lochiel Hotel and said that the rioters were breaking into the stores on Market street. I called upon the good citizens for the preservation of law and order to go with me and suppress the riot. I suppose about one hundred or one hundred and fifty went with me, and went down Market street, and we dispersed the mob. We arrested a couple of the rioters there. Afterwards came back, and I sent squads out. I then organized the party into companies, and I sent squads out to arrest and take these men out of bed who had been prominent and active as rioters, who I was informed had been prominent and active as rioters, and we put those in jail. The next morning I had my proclamation out, and also orders organizing companies. The citizens responded promptly. We organized some ten or eleven companies, and we ran the town on military principles for about one week. We had an officer of the day detailed to patrol the town at night, and we had the fire department under command, and everything in readiness if there would be any further trouble.
Q. What was the nature of your proclamation, was it calling for citizens to join?
A. The substance of my proclamation was, commanding the rioters to disperse, warning them of the penalties of the law, and summoning all good and law-abiding citizens to assist me in putting down the riot.
Q. As a posse?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you have any difficulty in raising a posse of citizens?
A. No, sir; I cannot say that I had any great difficulty.
Q. They joined cheerfully.
A. They responded to my call. I arrived here at seven o'clock on Monday evening, and on Tuesday evening I paraded in the streets about nine or ten hundred men, organized as a regiment. My proclamation in the morning--that was issued on Tuesday morning. I had it printed during the night, and I had it posted all around town by daylight almost, and one of my proclamations called for them to assemble at the court-house, at two o'clock in the afternoon, and I supposed there were six or eight hundred men at two o'clock that afternoon there organized into companies.
Q. In the evening, at the Lochiel hotel, what was the nature of that call? Was it commanding the citizens to join you as a posse, or was it a request?
A. It was more of the nature of a request. Of course, the feeling in town was a matter I suppose would have to be handled very delicately, and I got up on the railing at the Lochiel hotel and said, "Gentlemen, I am informed the rioters are breaking into the stores down on Market street. For the preservation of law and order, how many of you will go with me to suppress it?" and there were a number of voices responded, "We will all go with you."
Q. And then you led off and they followed?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. When you reached the crowd, how large a crowd did you find assembled?
A. Well, I could not estimate the numbers. The line was drawn at the foot of Market street by the railroad. There was a line of men across the railroad there--standing there. I remember one man who was in front had a gun in his hand. I went up to him and took the gun from him, and he gave me some impudence and I took him by the neck and tossed him into the crowd.
Q. Was his gun loaded?
A. Yes; it was loaded.
Q. Who was that man?
A. A man by the name of Davis. He is now here in our jail.
Q. Was he a railroad man?
A. No, sir.
Q. What class of people were these rioters composed of?
A. Well, we afterwards arrested a number of railroaders, though we arrested a number who were not railroaders, and they who were not railroaders, I must say, were the worst characters. The railroaders did not want the trains to run, that was about the extent that they wanted or demanded. The other party, of course, that broke in stores, behaved in a riotous manner.
Q. What did your posse--or what did you find it necessary to do to disperse the crowd?
A. I think our appearance commanded respect. I could hardly put it in any other way. I think they thought we meant business when we went down there, and I gave them to understand that in as plain a way as I could.
Q. Did you disperse them?
A. Yes; we did.
Q. Was it necessary to use any violence in doing that, any more than to make the arrests you have told us?
A. Well, we arrested other parties there. In other words, when we came down there I told them what we proposed to do. We cowed them, and the parties who replied and gave us impudence, we arrested them at once.
Q. Did you have any soldiers, any of the militia at your disposal during any of them?
A. No, sir; we did not call for the militia at all.
Q. Did not find it necessary?
A. Did not find it necessary.
Q. About how large was the crowd at that time? How many would it number in your opinion?
A. It is a hard matter to give you an estimate. The crowd broke and ran across the bridge, and parties who lived on the other side of the canal have estimated them from two to five hundred people. I judge there were two or three hundred people there anyhow.
Q. Did they re-assemble at any time after being dispersed that night?
A. No, sir. Right after we had dispersed them, we organized at once into companies and patrolled the whole town, and of course it was known that we would arrest any assemblies or any crowds at any place. On Tuesday evening there were a number of parties who were looked upon with a good deal of suspicion at the depot--at the railroad; but they made no demonstration, and dispersed on our approach.
Q. What was done with the parties that you arrested?
A. Tried and convicted at court.
Q. Do you know how many were tried and convicted?
A. No, sir; I could not tell you. We had forty under indictment, I believe. Some of them are in jail now.
Q. Were they tried by the county courts or police courts?
A. They were arrested and had a hearing before the mayor, and were tried by the county courts--committed by the mayor, and tried by the county court.
Q. Were any of the militia brought in at any time?
A. No, sir.
Q. Coming under your own knowledge.
A. No, sir; not under my own knowledge.
By Mr. Engelbert:
Q. I would like to ask you a question. I have understood that there was considerable grumbling and growling about the expense for that thing--how much was that?
A. The county paid in the neighborhood of $2,000. They paid me $1,965. We heard of a case in North street where a man had some two or three hundred guns in his house, and on Tuesday we took the guns from him, and he brought in a small bill and the items were made up. There were fifty men that were detailed as specials. They were on duty, in connection with the mayor's police, as policemen, and we paid those two dollars a night--or two dollars a day--and it amounted to something upwards of $1,200--between $1,200 and $1,300--and the balance of the expense was for providing rations for our men at night. We were organized as a regiment, and we had regiment and company quartermasters, and we were provided with rations at night. They had quarters and all that kind of thing. That caused the expense, which was paid by the county commissioners.
Q. Not charged to the State?
A. No, sir; charged to the county. As it was all done under my orders, the county was liable for the expense--that part of it. The mayor had charge of these fifty men, to a great extent, that acted with his policemen--the mayor's policemen acted with me from the very start.
By Mr. Engelbert:
Q. Both acted in conjunction harmoniously?
A. Yes; the mayor and his police were the first to tender their services.
Q. Not afraid of one superseding the other?
A. We had no trouble at all. We procured fifty revolvers from the State for the use of those fifty men we had. The other men armed themselves.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Armed with muskets, and rifles, and shot guns?
A. No, sir; I wanted them only to have clubs, but nearly every one of them had pistols.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. I understood you to say the mayor and police tendered their services to you?
A. As soon as I arrived in town, it was supposed by the people that the sheriff would take charge of it. The mayor came to me, and tendered the services of himself and the policemen, and the policemen and the mayor were in front in anything done where the danger was supposed to be.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. Held the post of honor?
A. Yes, sir. We used the policemen as skirmishers--you understand that.
By Mr. Engelbert:
Q. Of course, that expense has been paid by the county, and considered finally settled?
A. Yes; the expense consisting of pay for these fifty men, and there were some twenty--to distinguish them from them the rioters, we had badges printed and labeled, and all that kind of thing--did not think it necessary to get uniforms--and that cost something. The members of the posse got no pay at all.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. In your official duties, did you inquire into the causes and origin of the riots, to ascertain what were the causes and grievances complained of?
A. The principal one was they did not receive enough to pay for the labor.
Q. These railroad men?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What did the others complain of?
A. The others talked about being in want, and sympathizing with them on general appearance. I heard "bread or blood" in quite a number of places.
Q. Were the mill men and furnace men and the employés of the manufactories in and about the cities engaged in this riot as a general thing?
A. No, sir; I would say no. Not the men that worked. The fact of the matter was, my idea was, that the parties who were most active and violent were those who did not work at any time.
By Mr. Reyburn:
Q. Never worked?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did they belong to the city, mostly?
A. Oh a good many of them did; yes, sir. It brought our worst characters to the surface, of course.
By Mr. Engelbert:
Q. When you found a man who was boisterous, and rather of an ugly disposition, you did not wait until the next day to arrest him?
A. We went for him at once.
Q. Right then and there?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you not propose to do it in a quiet way?
A. We did not want to bark up a fight in any way. Of course, our whole course was to suppress disorder; but when a man was violent, we would not hesitate, and we did not run around with a chip on our shoulders, and ask some one to knock it off, or anything of that kind.
Q. The posse had pluck enough to arrest them at once?
A. We arrested them after we went to work--after we got the posse organized--wherever they could be found. The mayor's police made the largest number of arrests.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Did you have any conversation with the railroad men to ascertain what their grievances were?
A. No, sir; not to any extent.
Q. Did you, with any of the parties that you arrested?
A. Oh, I talked with them after they were in jail; yes, sir.
Q. Did you find out from the railroad strikers, or from any reliable source, whether there was any pre-arranged plan for a strike or not among the railroad men?
A. From what they told me, they would give me that impression--that there was a pre-arranged plan for a strike. They complained. My understanding of what they told me was that they had been got into this thing by the engineers, and then the engineers had stood back and let them stand the trouble. Their words were, "Stand the racket."
Q. What day did they first strike here in Harrisburg?
A. That I cannot tell. I was not here.
Q. Was there any organization here known as the Trainmen's Union?
A. I understand that they have an organization here--Locomotive Engineers' and Trainmen's Union.
Q. Did you learn it from any of the men themselves?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you learn the objects of the Trainmen's Union?
A. Well, all objects--the idea that they gave me was, it was for beneficial and mutual protection. The parties that were arrested--the larger part of them that were arrested by the mayor's police, they blamed it more on the locomotive engineers than any other society. That they had got them to strike, and showed their hand, and got them into trouble, and they had stood back and done nothing. We often find, when persons are in trouble and they are in jail, they always have some other parties to blame it on.
Q. Did they say to you what they proposed to do?
A. No, sir; other than they wanted their wages increased. They did not speak of the organization as one of the objects being for the purpose of getting up strikes. They said it was more as a beneficial and mutual protection society; but I inferred from what they said that they regarded the society would act together in a strike.
By Mr. Larrabee:
Q. Was it a complaint they made of the reduction of the wages--that the wages had been reduced?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you learn when that reduction had taken place?
A. I did not.
Q. Whether it was immediately preceding this strike or not?
A. That I do not know, sir.
Q. Did not learn from them how long their complaint had been standing--how long it had been running--whether recent?
A. No, sir; they did not go into the particulars at all in their complaint. It was on general principles about the workingmen being oppressed, and the road oppressing them.
Q. The rich oppressing the poor?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did these men that you talked with claim the right to interfere with other men who were willing to work; did you have any talk with them on that subject?
A. Well, I cannot say that I could answer that direct. They said, in substance, that those men who did not assist them, that were working men, that did not go into the strike with them, were blacklegs, and all that kind of thing; appeared to have a good deal of feeling against those that wanted to work, and did not go in with them to the strike.
Q. Complaining against those who would not join them?
A. Yes, sir.
* * * * *
Thomas Reckord, _sworn_:
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Where do you reside?
A. I resided, at that time, at the bridge--the toll bridge.
Q. In July last.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What was your business then?
A. Toll-gate keeper.
Q. At what bridge?
A. Harrisburg bridge--toll bridge.
Q. The bridge across the Susquehanna?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. On Monday, the 23d day of July, state whether there was any crowd coming there to cross the bridge from the city?
A. Yes; I was sitting in the office, reading a paper. All at once I heard a great noise, and I looked out the window of the house, and I saw a large crowd coming up, I suppose two or three hundred.
Q. What time of the day was it?
A. I can hardly tell you what time of the day it was. I think it was towards noon, or some place about that time.
Q. Go on and tell us all the facts about?
A. Well. I jumped off my seat and ran out of the door. I saw they were making for the bridge. I run and shut the gate. There was a great part of them got over before I got that accomplished. I shut the gates and kept a great many this side. Those that got in passed over the bridge while I was there. There was another crowd came and insisted upon going over, and I wouldn't unlock the gates. They told me they would break the gates. Very well, said I, you can do so. There was one man--a young man--he was half grown--a great part of them were young men--he went and took hold of the picket-gate to break it open. I caught him by the collar of the neck and threw him back. I said I would throw him in the river if he didn't stop. He wanted to know what I had to do about it. I told him I would show him. I kept him at bay there for a long time. Finally there was a man came there--I cannot recollect his name now--and told me the mayor had sent him up there to tell me to open the gate. I used the remark that the mayor had nothing to do with that--I wouldn't open the gate--this was individual property, and it had nothing to do with the matter at all. I wouldn't open the gates. Some of them jumped over--some of them jumped over the gates, and finally this man insisted that the mayor had sent him. I wouldn't believe him at first. Finally he said it was so, and there was two or three men stood at the gate there and begged me to leave them over. Says I, if I open the gates they will crowd in. They said they wanted to go over, and would help me to shut the gates. These men were standing there waiting to get over, and they promised to help. I unlocked the gate, and after I unlocked it these men came in and tried to help me shut it, but the crowd pressed so hard, by the time I got the latch in they sprung the gate and threw it off its hinges--it is just set on hinges--and the gate fell over, then they all rushed in. I had no more command over them at all. They all rushed right through.
Q. How large a crowd went through?
A. I suppose there was a couple of hundred went over. I may say so by the looks of them.
Q. Did they say what they were going for?
A. Yes; some of them.
Q. What did they give as their object?
A. Their object was to go over there for some soldiers--over there to bring them over in safety. These soldiers over at Fairview--they wanted to come over, and they sent a man over to get some one to protect them.
Q. Did you see the man the soldiers sent over?
A. No; I didn't. He might have paid his toll, and went over.
Q. Do you know of your own knowledge that they sent a man over?
A. No, sir: I don't.
Q. You only get that from the crowd?
A. Hearsay.
Q. Did they come back?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. State the facts?
A. When they came back they had soldiers in the center, they flanked all around, and came in a kind of square across the bridge.
Q. How many soldiers were there?
A. There might have been twenty or thirty. I really don't recollect. I knew at the time. It has passed my memory. Something near that. They were in the center of these--fetched them over with music.
Q. What kind of music did they have?
A. Drum and fife, I think it was.
Q. How large a crowd was surrounding the soldiers?
A. There was not so many surrounding them as they came over. There was a kind of square formed, and the balance was running loose around.
Q. What class of men?
A. Most of them were half grown boys and negroes.
Q. Who carried the arms?
A. Some few boys carried some of the soldier's arms, and the rest the soldiers carried themselves.
Q. Did you try to prevent them going through the gates when they came back?
A. Oh! no.
Q. You allowed them to pass?
A. Yes, sir.
By Mr. Larrabee:
Q. No one seemed to be commanding this crowd or to lead the mob--no one seemed to be leading the mob or controlling it?
A. No one, individually. There was some men there that used very hard expressions toward me, sitting on the bench, and they threatened to mash my head, and everything else.
Q. Was there any one giving commands to the mob?
A. No; I didn't see any individual giving commands. They all seemed to take part in it--no one individual that I took notice.
Q. No one directed their movements?
A. No; they came up in a crowd.
Q. Did there seem to be any officers among the soldiers?
A. That is more than I can answer.
Q. You didn't see any one that from their uniform or any other emblem seemed to be officers?
A. Not that I can recollect. I don't know as there was any officers among them. I cannot recollect whether there was or not.
Q. The soldiers and the crowd were on good terms?
A. They came very quietly through, there was nothing----
Q. Did the soldiers act as if they were prisoners of war?
A. They walked very quietly surrounded by these men--went up Market street.
Q. There didn't seem to be any coercion there?
A. No, sir.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. How long was the crowd gone before they returned with the soldiers?
A. It might have been a couple of hours--fully that, I guess. There was a crowd continued there until they came back. I had to keep the gates locked all the time--the crowd was still remaining there waiting for them to come back.
* * * * *
Attorney General Lear, _sworn_:
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. You may state what facts came under your own observation in relation to the railroad riots of last July?