Provincetown, a Dutch vessel carried African slaves up the James River,
and on the soil of Virginia there was planted a system of servitude
which at last extended throughout the Colonies and flourished with
increasing vigor in the South, until, in the War of the Rebellion,
Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation put an end forever to
slavery in America. When the builders of our Government met in the
Constitutional Convention of 1787, slavery was a problem which more than
once threatened to wreck the scheme for an indissoluble union of the
States. But it was compromised under a suggestion implied in the
Constitution itself, that slavery should not be checked in the States
in which it existed until 1808. In the meantime the entire labor system
of the South was built upon African slavery, while at the North the
horror of the public conscience grew against the degrading institution
from year to year. By 1854 the men in the free States who were opposed
to slavery had begun to unite themselves by political bonds, and in the
spring and summer of that year, groups of such men met in more or less
informal conferences in Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Maine,
Massachusetts, Iowa, Ohio, and other northern States. But it was at
Jackson, Michigan, where the men who were uniting their political
fortunes to accomplish the destruction of slavery first assembled in a
formal convention on July 6, 1854, nominated a full State ticket, and
adopted a platform containing these declarations:
Resolved: That, postponing and suspending all differences with
regard to political economy or administrative policy, in view of
the imminent danger that Kansas and Nebraska will be grasped by
slavery, and a thousand miles of slave soil be thus interposed
between the free States of the Atlantic and those of the Pacific,
we will act cordially and faithfully in unison to avert and repeal
this gigantic wrong and shame.
Resolved: That in view of the necessity of battling for the first
principles of Republican government, and against the schemes of an
aristocracy, the most revolting and oppressive with which the earth
was ever cursed or man debased, we will cooeperate and be known as
"Republicans" until the contest be terminated.
On January 17, 1856, "the Republican Association of Washington, D. C.,"
referring to the extension of slavery into Kansas and Nebraska as "the
deep dishonor inflicted upon the age in which we live," issued a call,
in accordance with what appeared to be the general desire of the
Republican party, inviting the Republicans of the Union to meet in
informal convention at Pittsburgh on February 22, 1856, for the purpose
of perfecting the national organization, and providing for a national
delegate convention of the Republican party, at some subsequent day, to
nominate candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency, to be
supported at the election in November, 1856.
The Republican party met accordingly for the first time in a national
convention in Pittsburgh on the date appointed, and was largely
attended. Not only were all the free States represented, but there were
also delegates from Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, and
Missouri. John A. King was made temporary chairman, and Francis P. Blair
permanent chairman. Speeches were made by Horace Greeley, Giddings and
Gibson of Ohio, Codding and Lovejoy of Illinois, and others. Mr. Greeley
sent a telegraphic report of the first day's proceedings to the New York
"Tribune," stating that the convention had accomplished much to cement
former political differences and distinctions, and that the meeting at
Pittsburgh had marked the inauguration of a national party, based upon
the principle of freedom. He said that the gathering was very large and
the enthusiasm unbounded; that men were acting in the most perfect
harmony and with a unity of feeling seldom known to political
assemblages of such magnitude; that the body was eminently Republican in
principle and tendency; and that it combined much of character and
talent, with integrity of purpose and devotion to the great principles
which underlie our Government. He prophesied that the moral and
political effect of this convention upon the country would be felt for
the next quarter of a century. In its deliberations, he said that
everything had been conducted with marked propriety and dignity.
The platform adopted at Pittsburgh demanded the repeal of all laws
allowing the introduction of slavery into free territories; promised
support by all lawful measures to the Free-State men in Kansas in their
resistance to the usurped authority of lawless invaders; and strongly
urged the Republican party to resist and overthrow the existing national
administration because it was identified with the progress of the slave
power to national supremacy.
On the evening of the second day, a mass meeting was held in aid of the
emigration to Kansas. The president of the meeting was George N.
Jackson, and D. D. Eaton was made secretary. Horace Greeley and others
made addresses, and with great enthusiasm promises of aid to the
bleeding young sister in the West were made.
This record seems to show beyond question that the Republican party had
its national birth at Pittsburgh on February 22, 1856, and that it came
into being dedicated, as Horace Greeley described it at that moment, to
the principle of human freedom. A later formal convention, as provided
for at Pittsburgh, was held at Philadelphia on June 17, 1856, which
nominated John C. Fremont, of California, for President, and William L.
Dayton, of New Jersey, for Vice-President. This ticket polled a total
popular vote of 1,341,264, but was beaten by the Democratic
candidates,--James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, for President, and John C.
Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for Vice-President, who polled 1,838,169
votes. This defeat of a good cause was probably a fortunate piece of
adversity, for the men who opposed slavery were not yet strong enough to
grapple the monster to its death as they did when Lincoln was nominated
four years later. It was the high mission of the party in 1856 and 1860
to stand against the extension of slavery, and in 1864 against all
slavery as well as against the destruction of this Union; and in 1868,
against those who wished to nullify the results of the war. Its later
mission has been full of usefulness and honor.
XV
Among the eminent men who visited Pittsburgh in bygone days we find
record of the following:
1817, President Monroe
1825, General Lafayette
1833, Daniel Webster
1842, Charles Dickens
1848, Henry Clay
1849, President Taylor and Governor Johnston
1852, Louis Kossuth
1860, Prince of Wales (now King Edward VII)
1861, President Lincoln
1866, President Johnson, Admiral Farragut, General Grant,
and Secretaries Seward and Welles
In 1845 (April 10th), a great fire destroyed about one third of the
total area of the city, including most of the large business houses and
factories, the bridge over the Monongahela River, the large hotel known
as the Monongahela House, and several churches, in all about eleven
hundred buildings. The Legislature appropriated $50,000 for the relief
of the sufferers.
In 1889, the great flood at Johnstown, accompanied by a frightful loss
of life and destruction of property, touched the common heart of
humanity all over the world. The closeness of Johnstown geographically
made the sorrow at Pittsburgh most poignant and profound. In a few hours
almost the whole population had brought its offerings for the stricken
community, and besides clothing, provisions, and every conceivable thing
necessary for relief and comfort, the people of Pittsburgh contributed
$250,000 to restore so far as possible the material portion of the
loss.
In the autumn of 1908 a series of imposing celebrations was held to
commemorate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of
Pittsburgh.
XVI
In 1877, the municipal government being, in its personnel, at the
moment, incompetent to preserve the fundamental principles on which it
was established, permitted a strike of railroad employees to grow
without restriction as to the observance of law and order until it
became an insurrection. Four million dollars' worth of property was
destroyed by riot and incendiarism in a few hours. When at last outraged
authority was properly shifted from the supine city chieftains to the
indomitable State itself, it became necessary, before order could be
restored, for troops to fire, with a sacrifice of human life.
For some months preceding the riots at Pittsburgh disturbances among the
railroad employees, especially the engineers and brakemen of
freight-trains, had been frequent on railroads west and east of this
city. These disturbances arose mainly from resistance to reductions in
the rates of wages, made or proposed by the executive officers of the
various railroads, and also from objections of train crews to
regulations governing the transportation system.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, some time after the panic of 1873,
reduced the wages of its employees ten per cent., and, on account of the
general decline in business, made another reduction of ten per cent. to
take effect on June 1, 1877; these reductions to apply to all employees
from the president of the company down. The reductions affected the
roads known as the Pennsylvania Lines west of Pittsburgh, as well as the
Pennsylvania Railroad, and similar alterations were also made on the New
York Central and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroads. The changed conditions
caused a great deal of dissatisfaction among the trainmen, but a
committee was appointed by them, which held a conference with Mr. Thomas
A. Scott, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and agreed to
the reduction, reporting its conclusions to the trainmen.
On July 16th an order was issued by the railroad company that thirty-six
freight-cars, instead of eighteen, as before, were to be made up as a
train, without increase in the number of the crew, and with a locomotive
at the end to act as a pusher, assisting the one at the front, making
what is technically called "a double header." The train employees looked
upon this order as doubling their work under the decreased pay of June
1st, and in its effect virtually tending to the discharge of many men
then employed in the running of freight-trains. The strike which
followed does not seem to have been seriously organized, but was rather
a sudden conclusion arrived at on the impulse of the moment, and was
probably strengthened by a wave of discontent which was sweeping over
the roads to the east and west, as well as by an undercurrent of
hostility toward the railroads exhibited by some of the newspapers. As
far back as July 23, 1876, a Pittsburgh paper, in publishing an article
headed "Railroad Vultures," had said: "Railroad officials are commencing
to understand that the people of Pittsburgh will be patient no longer;
that this community is being aroused into action, and that presently the
torrent of indignation will give place to condign retribution"; and in
another paragraph the same paper had said: "We desire to impress upon
the minds of the community that these vultures are constantly preying
upon the wealth and resources of the country; they are a class, as it
were, of money jugglers intent only on practising their trickery for
self aggrandizement, and that, consequently, their greed leads them into
all known ways and byways of fraud, scheming, and speculating, to
accomplish the amassing of princely fortunes." These intemperate
utterances were the first seeds of popular sedition.
It was not until 8.30 o'clock on the morning of the 19th that the real
trouble began. Two freight-trains were to start at 8.40, but ten minutes
before that the crews sent word that they would not take the trains out.
Two yard crews were then asked to take their places, but they refused to
do so. The trains were not taken out, and the crews of all the trains
that came in, as they arrived, joined the strikers. As the day wore on
the men gradually congregated at the roundhouse of the road at
Twenty-eighth Street, but did not attempt or threaten any violence. The
news of the strike had spread through the two cities, and large numbers
of the more turbulent class of the population, together with many
workmen from the factories who sympathized with the strikers, hastened
to Twenty-eighth Street, and there was soon gathered a formidable mob in
which the few striking railroad employees were an insignificant
quantity.
When the railroad officials found their tracks and roundhouse in the
possession of a mob which defied them, they called upon the mayor of the
city for protection, to which Mayor McCarthy promptly responded, going
in person with a detail of officers to the scene of the trouble. When
the police arrived on the ground they found an excited assemblage of
people who refused to listen to their orders to disperse, and the mayor
made no serious effort to enforce his authority effectually. There was
no collision, however, until a man who had refused to join the strikers
attempted to couple some cars, when he was assaulted. An officer of the
road who undertook to turn a switch, was also assaulted by one of the
mob, who was arrested by the police. His comrades began throwing stones,
but the police maintained their hold of their prisoner, and conveyed
him to the jail. A crowd then gathered in front of the police station
and made threats of rescuing their comrade, but no overt act was
committed. The mob, which had by this time become greatly enraged, was
really not composed of railroad employees, who had contemplated no such
result of their strike, and now generally deplored the unfortunate turn
which the affair had taken. It was for the most part composed of the
worst element of the population, who, without any grievance of their
own, real or imagined, had gathered together from the very force of
their vicious inclinations and the active hope of plunder.
The strikers held a meeting that evening, at which they demanded that
the ten per cent. should be restored, and the running of double headers
abolished. In the meantime, the railroad authorities, perceiving the
inefficiency of the local police powers, and alarmed at the
still-increasing mob and the vicious spirit which it displayed, invoked
the aid of the sheriff of the county. At midnight Sheriff Fife came to
Twenty-eighth Street with a hastily summoned _posse_, a part of which
deserted him before he reached the scene of action, and ordered the
rioters to disperse, which they, with hoots and jeers, defiantly refused
to do. The sheriff then sought aid from the military, and General A. L.
Pearson issued an order to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth regiments of
the National Guards of Pennsylvania, with headquarters at Pittsburgh, to
assemble at half past six the next morning, armed and equipped for
duty. Sheriff Fife also telegraphed to the State authorities at
Harrisburg, stating that he was unable to quell the riot, and asking
that General Pearson be instructed to do this with his force; and
Adjutant General Latta issued the orders accordingly. General Pearson
marched his forces to the Union Depot and placed them in position in the
yard and on the hillside above it. The mob was not, however, deterred by
this action, as the troops were supposed to be more or less in sympathy
with the strikers, and were expected to be disinclined to fire upon
their fellow citizens if they should be ordered to do so. The employment
of local troops at this moment constituted a grave mistake in the
management of the riot.
The governor had, however, been telegraphed to, and had ordered General
Brinton's division of troops to leave Philadelphia for Pittsburgh. This
became known to the mob, which was still increasing in numbers and
turbulence, and the calling of troops from the east drove them to fury.
The feeling had spread to the workingmen in the factories on the South
Side, where a public meeting was held, and demagogical speeches made,
upholding the action of the strikers; and five hundred men came thence
in a body and joined the crowd.
At this critical moment the mob received an endorsement that not only
greatly encouraged it, but incited it to extreme violence. A local
newspaper, on Friday, the 20th, in the course of an editorial headed
"The Talk of the Desperate," which formulated what was assumed as the
expression of a workingman, used this language:
This may be the great civil war in this country between labor and
capital that is bound to come.... The workingmen everywhere are in
fullest sympathy with the strikers, and only waiting to see whether
they are in earnest enough to fight for their rights. They would
all join and help them the moment an actual conflict took place....
The governor, with his proclamation, may call and call, but the
laboring people, who mostly constitute the militia, won't take up
arms to put down their brethren. Will capital then rely on the
United States Army? Pshaw! Its ten to fifteen thousand available
men would be swept from our path like leaves in a whirlwind. The
workingmen of this country can capture and hold it, if they will
only stick together, and it looks as though they were going to do
so this time. Of course, you say that capital will have some
supporters. Many of the unemployed will be glad to get work as
soldiers, or extra policemen; the farmers, too, might turn out to
preserve your law and order; but the working army would have the
most men and the best men. The war might be bloody but the right
would prevail. Men like Tom Scott, Frank Thomson--yes, and William
Thaw--who have got rich swindling the stockholders of railroads, so
that they cannot pay honest labor living rates, we would hang to
the nearest tree.
Although the paper in a later edition suppressed that part of the
editorial, and the other papers of the city refrained from any
editorials that might increase the excitement, yet the mischief had been
done, the unfortunate words had been widely read, and the more
intelligently vicious of the rioters proceeded to make the most of
them.
The eastern troops left Philadelphia on Friday night and arrived at the
Union Depot on Saturday afternoon, tired and hungry. After a scant and
hasty lunch they were placed out along the tracks to the roundhouse
where the great bulk of the mob was assembled. In order to secure and
protect the building and tracks it was necessary that the crowd should
be forced back. When the troops undertook this movement some stones were
thrown and a few soldiers were hit. Then one of the subordinate officers
gave an order to fire, and about twenty persons were killed and thirty
wounded, three of whom were children.
When the rioters beheld their associates attacked, their rage passed all
control, and the troops were closed in upon and driven into the
roundhouse. Encouraged by this retreat, the mob took steps to burn them
out. Many cars loaded with whisky and petroleum were set on fire and
sent down the track against the building, and fire was opened on it with
a cannon which the crowd had seized from a local armory. General Brinton
came personally to one of the windows of the roundhouse and appealed to
the mob to desist, warning them that if they did not he must and would
fire. The rioters paid no attention to his appeal, but continued their
assaults, whereupon General Brinton gave orders to his men to fire at
those who were handling the cannon, and several of them were killed and
wounded. Incendiarism, having been inaugurated, went on through the
night, whole trains being robbed and then burned. The troops held their
position until Sunday morning, and then retreated out Penn Avenue to
Sharpsburg, where they went into camp.
During Saturday night and Sunday morning the mob seemed to have taken
possession of the city. They broke open several armories and gun stores,
and supplied themselves with arms and ammunition. The banks were
threatened, and the city seemed about to be pillaged, the business part
of the city being filled with bands of rioters who uttered threats of
violence and murder. On Sunday morning the roundhouse and all the
locomotives which it contained were destroyed by fire. The Union Depot,
the grain elevator, the Adams Express building, and the Pan Handle depot
were also set on fire and consumed. The firemen who hastened to the
scene and attempted to extinguish the flames were met by armed men and
driven back. At half past twelve on Sunday morning a committee appointed
by a citizens' meeting tried to open a consultation with the mob, but
were promptly driven away. The committee found that they were not
dealing with dissatisfied railroad employees but with a mob of the worst
of the city's population, there being neither organization nor leader,
but each man or party of men doing what the frenzy of the moment
suggested. When it seemed as if the whole city was to be destroyed, some
of the original strikers were persuaded to attend a meeting of the
citizens at four o'clock and arrange to aid in suppressing the
incendiarism, and they did this with such a good spirit as showed that
the railroad strikers were not a part of the mob and did not countenance
its violence. At this meeting the mayor was authorized to enroll five
hundred police, but the accounts of the day show that the ranks filled
up slowly. The state of terror continued through all of Sunday night,
and on Monday morning the mob was still in an unorganized control.
Throughout the thirty-six hours from Saturday night until Monday morning
a most unusual state of public mind developed here and there which
seemed like a moral epidemic. There was almost a wholesale appropriation
of goods from the burning cars by men and even women who would at other
times have shuddered at the idea of robbery; and after the riot was
suppressed goods were for some time voluntarily returned by persons who
had taken them unreflectingly, having at length recovered their moral
perceptions, which had seemingly been clouded by the vicious influence
of the mob.
On Monday morning, however, the uprooted law seemed to be recovering a
portion of its dissipated majesty. During the night posters had been
placed conspicuously throughout the city, on which was printed the law
under which the citizens of Allegheny County were liable for all the
damage done by the mob or arising from its actions. At eleven o'clock
in the morning, a meeting of citizens was called at the Chamber of
Commerce, to form a Committee of Public Safety to take charge of the
situation, as the city authorities, the sheriff, and the military seemed
powerless to control it. This committee presented the following address
to the public:
The Committee of Public Safety, appointed at the meeting of
citizens held at the Chamber of Commerce July 23d, deeming that the
allaying of excitement is the first step toward restoring order,
would urge upon all citizens disposed to aid therein the necessity
of pursuing their usual avocation, and keeping all their employees
at work, and would, therefore, request that full compliance be
accorded to this demand of the committee. The committee are
impressed with the belief that the police force now being organized
will be able to arrest and disperse all riotous assemblages, and
that much of the danger of destruction to property has passed, and
that an entire restoration of order will be established. The
committee believe that the mass of industrious workmen of the city
are on the side of law and order, and a number of the so-called
strikers are already in the ranks of the defenders of the city, and
it is quite probable that any further demonstration will proceed
from thieves and similar classes of population, with whom our
working classes have no affiliation and will not be found among
them.
It is to this end that the committee request that all classes of
business be prosecuted as usual, and our citizens refrain from
congregating in the streets in crowds, so that the police of the
city may not be confused in their effort to arrest rioters, and the
military be not restrained from prompt action, if necessary, from
fear of injuring the innocent.