Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned (83 page)

4.
In his autobiography, Darrow said he arrived in Chicago in 1888, though correspondence and contemporary news accounts clearly place him there in 1887. Darrow to Lloyd, Jan. 4, 1888, HDL;
Inter Ocean
, Aug. 25, 1887;
Chicago Times
, Apr. 2, Oct. 7, 1888, Mar. 10, 1889;
Chicago Tribune
, Apr. 2, Sept. 3, Oct. 5, 10, 11, 20, 1888; untitled Rock Island, Illinois, newspaper clipping, Oct. 29, 1888, OHL; Schilling remarks from Darrow’s sixty-first birthday dinner; Sissman interview with Stone, CD-LOC; Caro Lloyd,
Henry Demarest Lloyd
(New York: Putnam, 1912).

5.
Paul Avrich,
The Haymarket Tragedy
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984); Adolph Fischer to Lloyd and Salter, Nov. 4, 1887, HDL;
Chicago Tribune
, May 5, 1886; Philip Foner,
The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs
(New York: Humanities Press, 1969); Harry Barnard,
Eagle Forgotten
(Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1938); Darrow, “Justice to the Anarchists,”
Solidarity
, Dec. 24, 1887;
New York Times
, May 6, 1886.

6.
W. P. Black to Lloyd, July 22, 1893, HDL.

7.
Darrow was clear-eyed: he always believed that one of the defendants,
Louis Lingg, had made the Haymarket bomb and furnished it to the bomb thrower. Lingg was convicted with the four other condemned anarchists but cheated the executioner by igniting a dynamite cartridge, clenched in his teeth, in his cell on the eve of the hangings.
Democratic Standard
, Sept. 2, 1887.

8.
“We believe that capital punishment is unnecessary, barbarous and not in keeping with modern civilization; that it tends to cheapen the value placed on life, and to blunt the finer sensibilities of human nature,” the group declared
(Chicago Herald
, Oct. 14, 1887). Though the author of the resolution is not named, it is reasonable to assume that Darrow wrote it, or played an important role in its adoption, as Jessie Ohl Darrow included the news of it in her scrapbook of his accomplishments. It is an early public expression of his
opposition to capital punishment.

9.
Darrow, “Justice to the Anarchist,”
Solidarity
, Dec. 24, 1887.

10.
Chicago Times
, Feb. 20, 21, 1889;
Chicago Herald
, Feb. 21, Apr. 15, 1889;
Chicago Tribune
, Feb. 21, Apr. 15, 16, 1889; Darrow,
Story of My Life
;
Sunday Globe
, Apr. 21, 1889; Darrow to Lloyd, May 14 and May 20, 1889, HDL; Barnard,
Eagle Forgotten
.

11.
Clarence Darrow oral history (interview with Agnes Wright Dennis), Illinois Historical Survey, 1918; Altgeld tribute, circa 1903, CD-LOC; Schretter, “I Remember Darrow”; Waldo Browne,
Altgeld of Illinois
(New York: Huebsch, 1924); Darrow,
Story of My Life;
Barnard,
Eagle Forgotten; New York Times
, June 20, 1888;
Chicago Times
, June 20, 1888, Apr. 2, 1889.

12.
Chicago Tribune
, May 2, June 21, 1889;
Chicago Daily News
, June 20, 1889;
Chicago Times
, June 21, 1889.

13.
Carter Harrison Jr.,
Stormy Years
(Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1935).

14.
Darrow’s allies were back, “booming” him as an independent-minded candidate for Cook County attorney in 1891, but the corrupt county commissioners reached a backroom deal to name a more controllable candidate.
Chicago Tribune
, Sept. 1, Nov. 14, 1889, Jan. 3, 12, Mar. 21, 22, Apr. 17, 22, May 26, Aug. 24, Sept. 4, 16, 21, Oct. 12, 1890, Jan. 28, 29, Feb. 12, 14, 26, 1891;
Chicago Post
, Sept. 9, 18, 1890;
Chicago Herald
, Dec. 25, 1889; Nov. 2, 1890;
Chicago Times
, Dec. 25, 1889, Jan. 30, Feb. 1, Mar. 22, Apr. 23, May 6, 1890, Jan. 28, 29, Feb. 21, 25, 1891, Dec. 14, 1894;
Inter Ocean
, Oct. 24, 1890, Jan. 29, 1891;
Democratic Standard
, Sept. 2, 1887; undated newspaper clipping, OHL; W. B. Conkey,
Opinions of the Corporation Counsels and Assistants
, January 1872 to March 1897, published by the City Council of Chicago; Lloyd Wendt and Herman Kogan,
Lords of the Levee
(Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1943); Richard Lindberg,
Chicago by Gaslight
(Chicago: Academy Chicago, 1996); Darrow, “Corruption,” CD-LOC.

15.
Chicago Times
, Nov. 19, Dec. 10, 1890, and Jan. 19, 20, 22, 23, Feb. 6, Mar. 12, 1891;
Chicago Post
, Feb. 5, 1891;
Chicago Tribune
, Feb. 5, 6, 1891;
Chicago Herald
, Feb. 3, 4, 6, 7, 1891; Medill letter quoted in Thomas Pegram,
Partisans and Progressives
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992).

16.
Paul Darrow and Wilson interviews with Stone, CD-LOC; Jane Addams to Marcet Haldeman-Julius, CD-LOC;
Chicago Times
, Aug. 10, 1890;
Chicago Tribune
, May 24, 1890; Oct. 20, 1891, May 30, Dec. 24, 1892;
Chicago Herald
, April 26, 1891.

17.
Edgar Lee Masters,
Across Spoon River
(New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936); Darrow, “The State: Its Functions and Duties,”
Echoes of the Sunset Club
(Chicago: Sunset Club, 1891). Darrow “spoke everywhere, promulgating the socialistic theories of Edward Bellamy, and the crude philosophy of Herbert Spencer, pleading against the conviction of the Anarchists, denying orthodox religion and advocating free trade, the eight hour day and the programme of Henry George,” said the
Chicago Journal
on July 13, 1893. For examples of Darrow’s radical views on women’s rights, capital punishment, American foreign policy, and other issues during this period, see Sunset Club yearbooks and
Chicago Times
, Feb. 3, 1889;
Chicago Tribune
, May 29, 1889, Feb. 4, 28, Apr. 11, 1890, Oct. 14, Nov. 6, 1891, Dec. 30, 1892, Jan. 27, Feb. 23, 1893;
Chicago Evening Post
, Nov. 7, 1891; the clippings saved in the Jessie Ohl Darrow scrapbook, including the
Daily Evening Call
, Jan. 24, 1891, the
Rockford Register-Gazette
, Sept. 8, 1891, the
Rockford Morning Star
, Sept. 8, 1891, and an untitled Rockford newspaper, Aug. 6, 1889.

18.
Chicago Times
, Apr. 2, 3, 1891;
Chicago Tribune
, Mar. 20, Apr. 4, Apr. 10, Aug. 1, 1891.

19.
Darrow oral history, 1918; Darrow, Altgeld memorial address, Apr. 20, 1902, CD-LOC.

20.
Joseph Gary, “The Chicago Anarchists of 1886; The Crime, the Trial, and the Punishment,”
Century Magazine
, Apr. 1893. Darrow to Lloyd, Apr. 28, 1893, HDL.

21.
Chicago Tribune
, Apr. 30, 1893;
Chicago Journal
, July 13, 1893.

22.
Darrow to Lloyd, May 17, 1893, Alzina Stevens to Lloyd, May 30 and June 7, 1893, HDL;
Chicago Tribune
, May 16, 1893; Jessie Darrow interview with Stone, CD-LOC; Adolf Kraus,
Reminiscences and Comments
(Chicago: Rubovits, 1925); Harrison,
Stormy Years;
Miller,
City of the Century
.

23.
Darrow oral history, 1918.

24.
John P. Altgeld, June 26, 1893, “Reasons for Pardoning Fielden, Neebe and Schwab.” The text of the governor’s pardon message was reprinted in pamphlets at the time. It can be found at the Chicago Historical Society’s site:
http://www.chicagohs.org/hadc/books/b06/B06.htm
.

25.
Darrow, Altgeld tribute;
New York Times
, June 28, June 29, 1893; see also the
Chicago Tribune
, June 27, 1893, which said that Altgeld was “not merely an alien by birth, but an alien by temperament and sympathies” with “not a drop of true American blood.”

26.
H. L. Mencken,
American Mercury
, Oct. 1924.

27.
Schilling to Lloyd, Aug. 1, 1893, HDL; Sunset Club yearbook, 1893.

28.
Chicago Times
, Sept. 17, 1893;
Chicago Record
, Feb. 18, 1897; Altgeld to Harrison, Sept. 13, 1893, Carter Harrison papers, Newberry Library.

CHAPTER 3: PRENDERGAST

1.
Accounts of Harrison assassination and funeral coverage,
Chicago Tribune
and
Chicago Times
, Oct. 29 through Nov. 5, 1893.

2.
Chicago Herald
, Nov. 18, 1893.

3.
Accounts of testimony, Prendergast trial,
Chicago Times
and other papers, November and December, 1893;
Chicago Times
, Oct. 29, 1893, June 28, 1894.

4.
Chicago Times
, Dec. 19, 1893;
New York Times
, Dec. 30, 1893;
Chicago Tribune
, May 6, 1894.

5.
Chicago Times
, Nov. 5, 1893.

6.
Chicago Daily News
, Feb. 14, 1894; Darrow,
Story of My Life
.

7.
Chicago Tribune
, Feb. 17, 20, 1894;
Chicago Times
, Feb. 18, 1894.

8.
Chicago Evening Post
, Feb. 20, 1894;
Chicago Daily News
, Feb. 24, 1894;
Chicago Times
, Feb. 25, 1894.

9.
Chicago Times
, Mar. 22, 1894;
Chicago Daily News
, Mar. 22, 1894;
Chicago Tribune
, Mar. 23, 1894; Trude to Todd, Mar. 2, 1894, Carter Harrison papers, Newberry Library; Brand Whitlock,
Forty Years of It
(New York: Appleton, 1914).

10.
Chicago Times
, Mar. 26, 27, 28, June 17, 1894;
Chicago Daily News
, Mar. 30, 1894;
New York Times
, May 22, 1894.

11.
Chicago Times
, June 15, 26, 27, 1894;
Chicago Daily News
, June 26, 1894.

12.
Chicago Daily News
, June 26, 1894.

13.
Chicago Times
, July 3, 4, 1894; transcript, Darrow closing argument, CD-LOC.

14.
Stone begins his biography with fanciful scenes that place Darrow at the heart of the action of the Debs Rebellion in the first days of July, without any mention of the Prendergast trial, which in fact was consuming Darrow’s time. Elsewhere, Stone mistakenly puts the formation of Darrow’s law firm, the Harrison assassination, and the “Pendergast” trial in 1895, and erroneously states that the mayor was shot at City Hall.
Chicago Tribune
, July 13, 14, 1894;
Chicago Times
, July 13, 14, 1894;
Chicago Daily News
, July 13, 14, 1894.

15.
Medill to Harrison, July 17, 1894, Carter Harrison papers, Newberry Library.

CHAPTER 4: POPULIST

1.
Chicago Times
, Apr. 24, 1894; Gompers quote in
New York World
, Feb. 1, 1894, quoted in Philip S. Foner,
History of the Labor Movement in the United States
, vol. 2 (New York: International, 1955).

2.
Darrow,
Story of My Life;
Ray Ginger,
Altgeld’s America
(New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1958).

3.
New York Times
, Apr. 12, 1893, July 1, 1894;
Chicago Times
, Jan. 10, 1890, Dec. 10, 11, 1893, Apr. 23, June 2, 1894;
Inter Ocean
, July 2, 3, 1894;
New York Sun
, Oct. 11, 1885, and
Chicago Tribune
, Sept. 21, 1888, quoted in Almont Lindsey,
The Pullman Strike
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942); Richard Ely, “Pullman: A Social Study,”
Harper’s Magazine
, February 1885; U.S. Strike Commission,
Report on the Chicago Strike
(Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1895).

4.
Cleveland veto message, Feb. 16, 1887. See Allan Nevins,
Grover Cleveland
(New York: Dodd, Mead, 1932).

5.
Milchrist to Olney, June 30, 1894, Records of the Department of Justice, National Archives; Richard Olney to C. E. Perkins, Dec. 28, 1892, Olney papers, Library of Congress; see Matthew Josephson,
The Politicos
(New York: Harcout, Brace & World, 1938) and Gerald G. Eggert,
Richard Olney: Evolution of a Statesman
(State College, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1974).

6.
U.S. Strike Commission,
Report;
I used newspaper coverage of the strike between July 1 and July 13, 1894, from the
Chicago Times, Inter Ocean, Chicago Tribune, New York Times
, and
Chicago Daily News;
Pullman strike records in Records of the Department of Justice, National Archives, see especially Walker to Olney, July 2, 3, 6, 14, 20, 1894, and related correspondence in the
Appendix to the Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States for the Year 1896
(Washington, 1896); McAlister Coleman,
Eugene Debs: A Man Unafraid
(New York: Greenberg, 1930).