Q. Dated where?
A. That is on the Pennsylvania Central, dated 28th. This was in answer
to a telegram to know if I could have troops. He had previously sent me
a message like this:
"General Osborne and troops have been ordered to aid civil
authorities. His attention has been called to your dispatch. His is
all the force now at command."
I will state that General Osborne has command of forces of the division
that belongs here in this section, and my committee were of the opinion
that that force would be of no benefit to us. Thus things remained in a
comparatively quiet state until the 27th, when I sent the following
message to the Governor:
"The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company have asked
me for aid, to prevent their mines from being flooded, and
otherwise destroyed. I am unable to render the assistance required.
Can you have sent here a body of United States troops. The militia
are in sympathy with the strikers, and, in the opinion of my
advisory committee, would be of no avail. The presence of United
States troops, in my opinion, would secure the desired purpose,
without a conflict."
It was in answer to this dispatch that the Governor sends this of the
28th, marked Carney's. On Friday evening was the first evening that I
met any portion of my posse, or special police, as they were called;
swore in at that time a portion, and again on Saturday they were
furnished with arms, which we procured here--Remington rifles, mostly.
There were some muskets that had been left by the companies, in the
armories of the companies that had gone to rendezvous with General
Osborne, which I took possession of, and had them sent to my
head-quarters. I had established my head-quarters for the posse at the
Lackawanna Coal Company's store, where the arms were all kept, and
where men were on duty day and night. Thus matters stood with us until
Sunday, when, sending for a committee of the employés that had been
appointed at the meeting at the Round woods, and laying the state of
the case before them, that a cessation of the pumps in the mines was
only going to destroy and injure them; that as far as the company was
concerned, they would be but little injured, for they didn't care
anything about the coal getting out; that some of our mines were in
such a situation that if the lower pumps were drowned out, which they
would be, it would take six months, or even a year, for them to get
pumped out again. The committee, after a couple of hours talk with
them, were enabled to see the folly of their course, and I issued
there, in their presence--framed the following proclamation, which I
had posted in the many mines in the disaffected districts, during the
riot: