He waited ten years to cast his aspersions upon the honor of John P.
Altgeld, and if that patriotic statesman had not fallen in the service
of the people, if he were still here to defend his official acts, it is
not probable that the ex-President would have ventured to assail him.
Reluctantly, indeed, do I close without the space to incorporate his
burning messages to President Cleveland and at least some extracts from
his masterly speech on “Government by Injunction.”
His memory requires no defense, but if it did I could speak better for
him than for myself. He never truckled to corporate wealth; he did not
compromise with his conscience; he was steadfast in his devotion to
truth and in his fidelity to right, and he sought with all his strength
to serve the people and the people will gratefully remember him as one
of the true men, one of the great souls of his sordid age.
The Chicago strike is not yet settled, and its “concluding pages” are
YET TO BE WRITTEN.