When the remaining eleven jurors were discharged by the court, Edwin
Walker extended his hand to them, but they rushed by him and surrounded
the writer and his co-defendants, grasping their hands and assuring
them, each and every one of them, that they were convinced of their
innocence and only regretted that they had been prevented from returning
their verdict accordingly. The details appear in the Chicago papers of
that time.
At the very time we were being tried for conspiracy we were serving a
sentence in prison for contempt, the program being that six months in
jail should be followed by as many years in penitentiary.
For a jury to pronounce us innocent in substantially the same case for
which we were already serving a sentence would mean not only our
complete vindication, but the exposure of the Federal Court that had, at
the behest of the railroads, sentenced us to prison without a trial.
And so the trial was abruptly terminated on account of the alleged
illness of a juror and they could find no other to take his place.
These are the facts and I have all the documentary evidence in detail,
and only lack of space prevents me from making the exhibits in this
article.
If President Cleveland or the Railroad Managers doubt it I stand ready
to meet them face to face in discussion of the issue upon any platform
in America.