_Issued upon his sentence being affirmed by the Supreme Court of the
United States_
TERRE HAUTE, IND., June 1, 1895.
Sirs and Brothers—A cruel wrong against our great order, perpetrated by
Wm. A. Woods, United States Circuit Judge, has been approved by the
United States Supreme Court, and from under its shadow I address this
communication to you; but though prison walls frown upon myself and
others whom you chose as officials, I assure you that neither
despondency nor despair has taken the place of the courage which has
characterized our order since the storms of persecution first began to
beat upon us. Hope has not deserted us. Our faith in the future of our
great order is as strong as when our banners waved triumphantly over the
Great Northern from St. Paul to the coast. Our order is still the
undaunted friend of the toiling masses and our battle-cry now, as ever,
is the emancipation of labor from degrading, starving and enslaving
conditions. We have not lost faith in the ultimate triumph of truth over
perjury, of justice over wrong, however exalted may be the stations of
those who perpetrate the outrages.