John Peter Altgeld

Altgeld Monument by Gutzon Borglum, erected by the Illinois Legislature in Lincoln Park, Chicago (on labor day 1915)[14]

He was drafted by the Democrats to run for Governor of Illinois.

One of the obstacles in the way of Altgeld receiving the Democratic nomination was Palmer, still bitter over Altgeld challenging him for Senate in 1891.[9] Viewed as an elder statesman of the party, Palmer's opposition to Altgeld would have carried weight.[9] Altgeld supporter Michael C. McDonald made an empty promise to Palmer that, in turn for not opposing Altgeld's candidacy, Cook County Democrats would support him for the party's presidential nomination in the same year's presidential election.[9]

Altgeld was popular among his fellow German Americans.[9]

The only Chicago newspaper that provided positive coverage of Altgeld was the Chicago Globe, which was run by Michael C. McDonald.[9] Elsewhere in the Chicago press, Altgeld received vilification for his political association with Michael C. McDonald, his liberal sympathies towards the men convicted in the Haymarket Affair, and his alliance with Chicago's Iroquois Club.[9] He was painted as a hazardous radical and a dangerous threat to the state's business and commercial concerns.[9] However, many downstate newspapers provided positive coverage to Altgeld.[9]

Also initially seeking the Democratic nomination was John C. Black.[9] Other potential candidates were dissuaded from running. For instance, State Representative James Cockerell was convinced by Clarence Darrow to abandon his plans of running.[9] However, by February 23, it was reported that Black had withdrawn from the race, leaving Altgeld as the only candidate seeking the Democratic nomination.[9] Altgeld won the Democratic nomination on the first ballot at the state convention in Springfield.[9]

Altgeld's supporters dubbed him, "the poor man's friend".[9]

In the general election he faced popular incumbent Republican governor Joseph W. Fifer.[9]

Altgeld traveled across the state to campaign on a vigorous speaking tour.[9] He attacked Fifer's use of prison labor for state projects, and attacked his school reform record.[9] Fifer did not refute Altgeld's allegations against his record, which helped make them stick in the minds of voters.[9]

To dampen the negative impact that his association with Altgeld would have on Altgeld's electability, particularly among rural downstate voters, Michael C. McDonald temporarily resigned his role on the Cook County Central Committee a month before the election.[9]

Altgeld narrowly defeated Fifer. He was the first Democrat to have been elected governor of Illinois since 1856, the first time a foreign-born citizen had been elected, and the first time a Chicago resident had been elected.[9][15]

Altgeld suffered a nervous breakdown shortly after his victory, and nearly died of a concomitant fever. He managed to appear at his inauguration, but was only able to deliver a brief portion of his speech. Although the General Assembly hall was so warm as to cause several men to faint, Altgeld, clad in a heavy topcoat, was pale and visibly shivering. The clerk of the Assembly delivered the remainder of his speech.

As governor, Altgeld spearheaded the nation's most progressive child labor and occupational safety laws, appointed women to important positions in the state government, and vastly increased state funding for education.

In 1894, the Pullman Rail Strike, led by Eugene V. Debs, took place. Altgeld, however, refused to authorize President Grover Cleveland to send in Federal troops to quell the disturbances. Altgeld wrote to President Cleveland indicating that reports of strike-related violence had been exaggerated and warned that real violence would begin only as a result of sending soldiers. Nevertheless, a federal injunction was issued against the strike, with disruption of U.S. Mail deliveries, a Federal concern, cited as a justification. However, the superintendent of mails, L. L. Troy, stated that no mail had been disrupted.[16][17] Citing Article IV of the Constitution, which permits federal troops to enter a state only if a condition of insurrection exists, Altgeld argued that there was no legal bearing to a decision to send the military to quell the strike. Finally, he took the occasion to criticize the attorney general's misuse of court injunctions under the Sherman Act, writing: "This decision marks a turning point in our history for it establishes a new form of government never before heard of among men; that is government by injunction. . . . Under this new order of things a federal judge becomes at once a legislator, court and executioner."[18] However, on July 4, 1894, Cleveland went ahead and sent several thousand troops to Chicago without Altgeld's approval, an action later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Altgeld's opposition was seen as a highly unusual stance for a state governor at that time.[19] Altgeld may have opposed the use of federal troops but he wielded the state militia to rein in the strike. He sent the militia to eight areas during the strike, including to Mount Olive, where the miners blocked the Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis railroad from shipping coal. Once there the Governor issued General Order No. 8, which prohibited them from being used "as custodians or guards of private property."[20]

Historically, Altgeld is remembered chiefly for pardoning the three surviving men convicted in the 1886 Haymarket bombing (four others had already been executed, one committed suicide in prison). After reviewing their cases, he concluded, as have subsequent scholars, that there had been a serious miscarriage of justice in their prosecutions. Altgeld concluded that the trial had taken place in such an atmosphere of prejudice that the convictions were not credible. As a result of his decision to pardon the three surviving men, he came under intense attack.

Some argue that in addition to his findings that there had been a miscarriage of justice, Altgeld was also motivated by revenge in his Haymarket pardon. The judge that prosecuted the men, Joseph E. Gary, had upheld a ruling that found Altgeld in contempt of the Cook County Superior Court.[9] Altgeld was known to hold strong grudges.[9]

By the end of 1895, he freed eighty-one prisoners, leading newspapers to dub him John "Pardon" Altgeld.[9]

In May 1895, mob violence erupted after one of Altgeld's pardons, with farmers lynching two accused rapists in Danville.[9]

On his last day in office, he released twenty-six offenders convicted of serious crimes, including seven murderers.[9]

In total, he pardoned or commuted sentences of:

• 75 people convicted of forgery, embezzlement, manslaughter, burglary, or larceny[9]
• 19 people convicted of murder[9]
• 8 people convicted of rape, assault, or incest[9]
• 5 people convicted or armed robbery or arson[9]

The Pullman incident and the Haymarket pardons were used against Altgeld by his conservative enemies. In 1896, Altgeld was ineligible to run for president (since he was born in Germany), but he led the fight against the Cleveland forces. Altgeld publicly broke from Cleveland and his conservative supporters. Altgeld helped split the Democratic Party during the 1896 presidential election into Free Silver and Bourbon Democrats. He ran for re-election on the same ticket with Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan. Altgeld had not supported Bryan for the nomination and hesitated to support the "Free Silver" plank that was central to Bryan's campaign.[21] Harper's Weekly warned that Bryan would be a puppet of Altgeld, whom it referred to as "the ambitious and unscrupulous Illinois communist." However, Bryan, who was being hurt by Republican charges that he was a stooge for Altgeld, avoided the governor and did not endorse him.[22]

Republicans in Illinois focused their attacks on Altgeld. Theodore Roosevelt, before an audience of 13,000 cheering partisans in Chicago, said Altgeld was "one who would connive at wholesale murder," who "condones and encourages the most infamous of murders," and who "would substitute for the government of Washington and Lincoln a red welter of lawlessness and dishonesty as fantastic and vicious as the Paris Commune."[23] Altgeld campaigned energetically despite his failing health, and was defeated by John R. Tanner; Altgeld outpolled his party's presidential candidate, Bryan, by 10,000 votes in Illinois.

Altgeld was a political opponent of Carter H. Harrison, Jr. (1860–1953), who had been elected Mayor of Chicago in 1897.[24] Altgeld believed that Harrison aimed to spearhead conservative forces in the Democratic Party at the national level and that if he were re-elected as mayor Harrison would have the power to hand pick conservative delegates to the 1900 Democratic National Convention.[24] Finding Harrison's prospective opponent, a "Free Silver" Republican, a less offensive option, Altgeld decided to himself run for Mayor – having faint hope of victory himself, but seeking to split away the progressive Democratic vote and thereby send Harrison to defeat.[24]

Altgeld charged that Harrison was building a political machine and that his administration was corrupt, publicly claiming in March 1899 that Harrison's administration was complicit in the theft of city funds by political allies in connection with city public works projects.[25]

In his final campaign, Altgeld ran for mayor of Chicago as the candidate of the Municipal Ownership Party. He finished third, garnering more than 15% percent of the vote, but was unable to achieve his ulterior motive, the defeat of Mayor Carter Harrison.

In 1901, Altgeld made a quixotic effort to challenge Harrison for the Democratic nomination for mayor.[26]