Monday, October 30th, 1893.
The World's Fair Closes; The Harrisons Mourn; City Hall Plans; The Tribune Closes In
Saturday, January 13, 2024. Good morning. It was great to have a couple of weeks off, and I’m eager to continue the story!
Given that we are now into the election year, I plan to intersperse episodes of the story with some explainers on the history of election and campaign practices. But meantime…
Where Were We?
I fear this section will become intolerably long, but we need a recap because only some people read this weekly. I’ll be as brief as possible. Here is a link to the home page if you want to read past issues.
• Saturday night, October 28. Mayor of Chicago Carter Harrison is assassinated at home by an aggrieved (and troubled) campaign volunteer. It is soon discovered that Chicago has no current statutes governing how to replace a mayor who has died in office. Politicians and the newspapers that support - or revile - them begin to press for a succession process that will help their side. (Harrison had been a Democrat, but the City Council was majority Republican.)
• Political tempers are high because of the upcoming judicial election that has received national attention. Governor Altgeld, who had recently pardoned the remaining Haymarket prisoners, is mounting aggressive attacks against incumbent Judge Gary, who had initially sentenced them.
• By Sunday morning, October 29, newspapers are already promoting candidates. This is also the day that the inquest is held at Harrison’s home, with the killer in attendance.
Today, we cover some of the developments on Monday, October 30: The World’s Fair unceremoniously closes down, the City Council meets to prepare the mayor’s funeral, the Harrisons receive visitors, and the Chicago Tribune pursues its vendetta against Governor Altgeld.
October 30, Monday Morning. The Streets of Chicago. The Fair.
By now, every Chicagoan was aware of the shocking events of Saturday night. A day that was supposed to be filled with closing ceremonies for the World’s Fair began with workers placing black bunting over many of the city’s buildings. Lithographs of the mayor “within a knot of crape” were being snapped up by Chicagoans from vendors throughout the city.
Speeches commemorating the end of the fair were altered to celebrate the end of a life. A memorial gathering was held at Festival Hall, where Chopin's funeral march was played as dignitaries filed in. Frederick Douglass had been in Chicago for much of the World’s Fair and had planned to attend the closing ceremonies. Now, he was among those on the platform. And it was still cold. The Tribune reported: "The atmosphere of the hall was of such a frigid character that the presiding officer invited everybody to keep their hats on."
President of the World’s Fair National Commission Thomas W. Palmer (former U.S. Senator to Michigan, and a reformer credited with inventing the phrase "Equal rights for all, special privileges to none.") gave a solemn address:
"It was intended that the proceedings of today should be of a joyous character: that the closing ceremonies of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1892 and 1893 should be attended with festivities, the firing of cannon, the music of bands, the making of addresses, and with song. But a terrible tragedy has intervened and has made this day which we proposed to have a day of jubilee a day of mourning. The Mayor of this city which has done so much to create this Exposition has been shot down, assassinated in the portals of his home…"
President Harlow N. Higinbotham, President of the Exposition Company (and partner in Marshall Field & Company) also spoke.
"Nothing has ever occurred in our midst that has so disturbed and distressed our citizens as the very wicked and wanton termination of the life of Carter H. Harrison…"
Replicas of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria floated quietly in the South Pond. The caravels had been sent from Spain earlier in the year to take part in the World’s Fair. They were supposed to cap off their visit that day with a re-enactment of the landing of Christopher Columbus at Hispaniola. Their moment never came. Later, they would sail through lakes Michigan and Erie to Erie, PA, to be stored before being moved permanently to Washington, D.C., in the Spring.
At the signal from a 21-gun salute, all the half-mast flags were brought down. The Fair was over.
10 am. The Chicago City Council Meets in Special Session.
That morning, friends of the mayor packed the gallery of the Council chambers as aldermen met to plan the Mayor’s funeral. The crowd was quiet when temporary Chair George B. Swift stood, passed the Mayor’s chair, draped in black, and spoke briefly:
“Gentlemen of the Council: Under the shadow of great sorrow and in the midst of emblems of mourning we are called this morning to take official action upon the death of our Mayor. Understanding that a memorial meeting will be called in the near future the Temporary Chairman will defer the remarks he would like to make on this occasion.”
He then appointed various committees to take care of the funeral details: The Guards of Honor, the Arrangements, the Resolutions, and the like.
There was evidently already some concern about political shenanigans: Republican Alderman John M. Hepburn moved that “aldermen refrain from coming to the Council Chamber for the regular meeting that night.” Because the agenda for the special meeting had not included the adjournment of the regular meeting on Monday night, they could not technically do so. Thus, anyone could have shown up that night at the regular meeting time. (Anyone who has ever abided by Robert’s Rules of Order will appreciate the insistence on adhering to this one detail.) The motion was adopted.
“Johnny” Powers, a Democrat, made a motion to invite the public to the funeral. (The family had wanted the ceremonies to be private, but understood what would likely be required for this public servant.) Swift agreed, stating, “The late Mayor was loved by all the people of Chicago and endeared to them. The manner of his death is such as to prompt all citizens to become a part of the mourning congregation which will follow him to the grave.” The motion was adopted.
Morning and Mourning at the Harrison Household
The newspapers diverged in their coverage of how the Harrisons and fiancee Annie Howard were faring. Where the Inter-Ocean wrote a single paragraph stating that most visitors had stayed away to give the family some privacy to grieve, the Tribune painted a different picture, devoting an entire column under “IN HOUSE OF SORROW. MANY MANIFEST THEIR GRIEF AT THE HARRISON’S HOME.” (I think it’s likely that the Inter-Ocean didn’t have a reporter at the Harrison home. Although they did send an illustrator.)
The Trib reporter described friends visiting the body of Harrison, which lay under a white sheet strewn with roses on a couch upstairs. The Harrison sons, Carter Jr. and William Preston received visitors, while the daughters and Annie Howard kept to themselves. Mrs. William Chalmers and Mrs. Ferdinand Peck received visitors in the Harrison women’s stead. Mrs. Chalmers, who had been one of the first to find Harrison after he’d been shot, took time to describe the murder scene to the Trib reporter. “I shall never forget it, for although I have seen death several times, never murder in cold blood.”
Maybe it’s because I’m just now watching the final season of “The Crown,” but the reaction to Carter Harrison’s death seems similar to the response to Diana’s death, which I don’t need a TV program to recall. It makes sense in a way. Diana’s death was a trauma suffered by the whole world because of the place she had in it (thanks in large part to the media). I’m not sure her death would engender the same response today. It takes a lot to shock us now, and you’d think it would have taken a lot to shake wild and wooly Chicago. But back then, even there, it wasn’t often that someone was murdered in …cold blood, to quote Mrs. Chalmers. And especially not a public figure that everyone felt they knew. So bear that in mind as we go through these next few days.
The Tribune Takes Aim at Altgeld.
One might have expected all involved to pause for some decent amount of time before politicking, but no. The campaigning for the judicial elections had been well underway, and no newspaper was more partisan than the Chicago Tribune. The Trib had had it in for Governor Altgeld since Haymarket and before. I could write pages here, but essentially the conflict came down to this: The Tribune was a conservative, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic newspaper (being run by a man, Joseph Medill, who embodied those values). German-born John Peter Altgeld was a progressive, pro-worker, pro-immigrant governor whose decision to pardon the living Haymarket defendants was called by author Don Miller “one of the most courageous acts ever taken by an American politician.”
Altgeld issued those pardons in late June, our months before. Barely a day went by between the pardons on June 26 and the judicial elections on November 7 when the Trib did not disparage Governor John “Pardon” Altgeld somewhere in its pages. It did not pause for the killing of Mayor Harrison.
On the same day that newspapers were reporting the news of Harrison’s killing, the Trib continued its attack on Altgeld on its editorial page. In “ALTGELD AGAINST GARY,” the Tribune reprised its June conclusion that Altgeld was “animated by a personal hate” for Judge Gary when he issued the pardons. In his decision, Altgeld cited the sitting of a “packed” jury in which no member was an industrial worker. He also accused Judge Gary of conducting the trial with a “malicious ferocity” that revealed his prejudice against the politics of the men on trial.
The next day, the Trib published a piece accusing Altgeld of running the Democratic campaign against Gary and of supporting a circular that was designed to stir up “race prejudices.”
Appeal to City Hall Gang
Another appeal will be made to the City Hall men to come into line against Gary. They will be urged to give up their personal candidates and work for the whole ticket. The active section of this group has a brilliant new scheme. This is nothing less than the issue of a “secret” circular in the interest of the “A.P.A.” Association which in excited language is to ask true Americans to support Judge Gary and to defeat the Democratic ticket. The object of this move is to excite the hostility of the Irish and German Roman Catholics against Gary and the Republican ticket. This is an old dodge. It has been played too often.”
The creation and distribution of this circular was a 3-D chess level of political chicanery used all too often in Chicago. It was a tactic that would be used again later that year in the special election for Mayor.
While the Trib was issuing these broadsides against Altgeld, it also slammed both major political parties for similar activity:
There seems to be an indecent desire on the part of certain politicians of both parties to go into the business of caucusing on the Mayoralty question and into booming of candidates also. There are reports of several meetings - one in the City Hall itself. It is only fair to say, however, that the more responsible politicians have refused to go into caucuses, to discuss them, or to discuss candidates until after the funeral of Mayor Harrison. It is but justice also to several men of both parties who have been mentioned as candidates that their names are used without their knowledge or consent, and, in fact, their wishes.
—Chicago Tribune October 31, 1893
That same day, the Tribune directed its lowest blow against Altgeld, linking the murder of the mayor to Altgeld’s pardons of the anarchists.
Under the headline MISPLACED LENIENCY TO ‘CRANKS,’ the Trib opinion writer wrote the following (I include relevant excerpts from a lengthy piece):
“It cannot be denied that our present mode of dealing with the pests who are called cranks after they have committed some atrocious act is too lax for the public safety…Prendergast showed himself able to reason out the consequences of buying the revolver, and it is legitimate to infer that he reasoned out the chances of escaping the dread penalty that ought to be sure and certain…
“…the activity of Gov. Altgeld in pardoning criminals is construed as evidence that he has a soft place in his heart for the lawless element of the community. Whether or not the Governor is misunderstood in this particular, the effect is the same…
“…It is safe to say that not one in twenty of the murders by either cranks or criminals would be committed if punishment for the crime were believed to be sure.”
So, the knives were out. More accurately, the knives that had been out before Carter Harrison was killed were never going to be sheathed just because of the assassination of a Mayor.
Next week:
I’ll dive deeper into the four main political factions that fall in Chicago and finish up the events of October 30th. I am also writing a piece about the history of primaries that will probably run the week after next.
Sources
City of the Century, by Don Miller
A History of Chicago: The Rise of a Modern City, 1871-1893, by Bessie Louise Pierce
Becoming the Second City: Chicago’s Mass Media 1833-1898, by Richard Junger
Chicago Tribune via newspapers.com
Inter-Ocean via newspapers.com