and driving away passengers and freight offered for transportation. The peace of the community is seriously disturbed by these lawless acts." Every class of society is made to suffer. The comfort and happiness of many families not parties to the grievances are sacrificed. A controversy which belongs to our courts, or to the province of peaceful arbitration or negotiation is made the excuse for an obstruction of trade and travel over the chartered commercial highways of our State. The commerce of the entire country is interfered with and the reputation of our community is threatened with dishonor among our neighbors. This disregard of law and the rights and privileges of our citizens and those of sister States cannot be tolerated. The machinery provided by law for the adjustment of private grievances must be used as the only resort against debtors, individual or corporate. The process of the courts is deemed sufficient for the enforcement of civil remedies, as well as the penalties of the criminal code, and must be executed equally in each case. To the end that the existing combination be dissolved and destroyed in its lawless form, I invoke the aid of all the law-abiding citizens of our State. I ask that they denounce and condemn this infraction of public order, and endeavor to dissuade these offenders against the peace and dignity of our State from further acts of lawlessness.

To the Judiciary: I appeal for the prompt and rigid administration of justice in proceedings of this nature.

To the Sheriffs of the Several Counties: I commend a careful study of the duties imposed upon them by statute, which they have sworn to discharge. I admonish each to use the full power of his county in the preservation of order and the suppression of breaches of the peace, assuring them of my hearty co-operation with the power of the State at my command, when satisfied that occasion requires its exercise.

To those who have arrayed themselves against government and are subverting law and order and the best interests of society by the waste and destruction of property, the derangement of trains and the ruin of all classes of labor, I appeal for an immediate abandonment of their unwise and unlawful confederation. I convey to them the voice of the law, which they cannot afford to disregard. I trust that its admonition may be so promptly heeded that a resort to extreme measures will be unnecessary, and that the authority of the law and the dignity of the State, against which they have so grievously offended, may be restored and duly respected hereafter.

Given at Indianapolis this 26th day of July, 1877. Witness the seal of the State and the signature of the Governor.

JAMES D. WILLIAMS.

This calmly worded proclamation was issued on the third day of the suspension of railway service in Indianapolis. The strike meantime had extended to Terre Haute. In other words, it was no longer a local affair. There was danger that it would involve the State. With this view of it, Governor Williams took immediate steps to make his official warning respected. He resolved to provide a military force. The State was full of experienced soldiers, but appreciating the need of a chief officer who had something more than experience, who was in nature prudent, judicious, conservative, he addressed a note to General Harrison, which we give as undoubtedly the highest personal tribute he ever received, coming as it did not merely from one differing from him in politics, but from the very man who had defeated him in the preceding gubernatorial race:

STATE OF INDIANA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, INDIANAPOLIS, July 26, 1877.

Dear Sir: I have to request that you will assume command of all the military forces organized and to be organized at the capital for the preservation of order and the protection of life and property during the existing emergency. JAMES D. WILLIAMS,

To Gen. BENJAMIN HARRISON.

Governor.

Proceeding as it did from the Executive of the State, the letter must be construed as evidence that the "strike" had passed beyond the control of the civil authorities. Indeed, the Governor

expressly affirmed this fact in a succeeding paper of the same date.

General Harrison declined the commission with due acknowledgments, and upon the ground that he was then captain of a military company organized, under call of the Committee of Safety, for the protection of life and property. He also recommended the appointment of General Daniel Macauley to command the militia. The Governor acted upon the suggestion. and issued a commission as follows:

THE STATE OF INDIANA.

To All Who shall See these Presents Greeting:

Whereas, I have been officially informed of the existence in Marion and adjoining counties of an unlawful combination of disaffected employés of railroad companies whose lines centre at the capital, which threatens the property and lives of the community, and is beyond the power of the civil authorities to control, and may require the use of the militia;

Therefore, Know ye that in the name and by the authority of the State aforesaid, I do hereby appoint and commission Daniel Macauley, of Marion county, a Brigadier-General of the Indiana Legion, to command the organized militia, to serve as such from the 26th day of July, 1877, and until the emergency requiring this appointment shall have passed.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused to be affixed the seal of the State, at the city of Indianapolis, this 26th day of July, in the year of Lord 1877, the sixty-first of the State, and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and second.

JAMES D. WILLIAMS.

The motive of the declination by General Harrison was past doubt that, while his connection with the military sufficiently identified him with the law and order party, he did not want to antagonize the good men amongst the strikers to a degree putting out of his power to assist all he

could in a peaceable settlement of the trouble. With this latter object he continued a member of the committee appointed, as has been seen, to confer with the committee of the strikers.

General Macauley called out several militia companies, and the drilling went on industriously. To support him, in case of need, a company of United States regulars marched into the city, in compliance with a request from Governor Williams. While these serious preparations were in progress, conferences with the strikers were unremitted. In one of them, on the 27th of July, a report was presented offering a basis of arrangement. After insisting that all unlawful means for redress must be first abandoned, the conference committee of citizens pledged themselves to exert their whole power and influence to obtain satisfaction for the strikers, and especially the increase of wages sought. This offer was accepted, and the Union depot given up. Traffic was resumed.

On the 29th of July the Committee of Safety published an address stating that order was restored, and congratulating the public that it had been done without bloodshed. The committee declared also that the "strikers" were not the dangerous element which they feared. They thereupon dissolved their organization.

That the committee was constituted of good men, irrespective of party-of Democrats and

Republicans of men who wanted order and abhorred bloodshed, the signatures of the address amply established. Here they are: T. A. Morris, Benjamin Harrison, John Love, Joseph E. McDonald, Walter Q. Gresham, Conrad Baker, and A. W. Hendricks.

These gentlemen were all equally energetic in bringing the peaceable solution about. While General Harrison did not shirk duty in connection with the military, it cannot be said that he at any time counselled violence or was the enemy of the strikers. On the contrary, he was tireless in efforts to secure peace without fighting while the strike was on, and redress for the strikers when all was over. As has been said, he was at the same time a firm supporter of the government and a true and efficient friend of the men engaged in the movement.

His feelings towards the railroaders may be fairly inferred from a circumstance shortly suc ceeding the strike.

It happened that some of the railways involved were at the time in charge of the United States Court through receivers. Judge Drummond had a number of the men, supposed to be leaders, brought before him for contempt. General Harrison appeared for them voluntarily. He argued that they were all good men; that their claims were founded in justice; that they erred simply in the course taken to recover their dues. He