Chapter 1
Section 1 of 1900, or The Last President, by Ingersoll Lockwood. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. 1900, or The Last President, by Ingersoll Lockwood.
Chapter 1. The Chicago Platform assumes, in fact, the form of a revolutionary propaganda. It embodies a menace of national disintegration and destruction. GARRETT A. HOBART. Chapter 1.
That was a terrible night for the great city of New York, the night of Tuesday, November 3, 1896. The city staggered under the blow like a huge ocean liner which plunges full speed with terrific crash into a mighty iceberg, and recoils shattered and trembling like an aspen. The people were gathered light-hearted and confident at the evening meal when the news
burst upon them. It was like a thunderbolt out of an azure sky. Altgeld holds Illinois hard and fast in the Democratic line. This elects Brian, President of the United States. Strange to say, the people in the upper portion of the city made no movement to rush out of
their houses and collect in the public squares, although the night was clear and beautiful. They sat, as if paralyzed, with a nameless dread, and when they conversed it was with bated breath and throbbing hearts. In less than half an hour, mounted policemen dashed through the streets calling out, Keep within your houses, close your doors and barricade them.
The entire east side is in a state of uproar. Mobs of vast size are organizing under the lead of anarchists and socialists, and threaten to plunder and despoil the houses of the rich who have wronged and oppressed them for so many years. Keep within doors, extinguish all lights.
Happily, Governor Morton was in town, and although a deeper pallor overcame the ash and hue of age as he spoke, yet there was no tremor in his voice. Let the 7th, 22nd, and 71st regiments be ordered under arms. In a few moments hundreds of messengers could be heard racing through the silent streets, summoning the members of these regiments to their armories.
Slowly, but with astonishing nerve and steadiness, the mobs pushed the police northward, and although the force stood the onslaught with magnificent courtage, yet beaten back the dark masses of infuriated beings surged up again with renewed fury and strength. Will the troops be in time to save the city? Was the whispered inquiry among the knots of police officials who were directing the
movements of their men. At nine o'clock, with deafening outcries, the mob, like a four-headed monster breathing fire and flame, raced, tore, burst, raged into Union Square. The police force was exhausted, but their front was still like a wall of stone, save that it was movable.
The mob crowded it steadily to the north, while the air quivered and was rent with mad vociferations of the victors. Brian is elected, Brian is elected. Our day has come at last, down with our oppressors. Death to the rich man, death to the gold bugs, death to the capitalists.
Give us back the money you've ground out of us, give us back the marrow of our bones which you've used to grease the wheels of your chariots. The police force was now almost helpless. The men still used their sticks, but the blows were ineffectual, and only served to increase the rage of the vast hordes now advancing upon Madison Square.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel will be the first to feel the fury of the mob. Would the troops be in time to save it? A half cheer, a half cry of joy goes up. It is inarticulate. Men draw a long breath.
Women drop upon their knees and strain their eyes. They can hear something, but they cannot see as yet, for the gas houses and electric plants had been destroyed by the mob earlier in the evening. They preferred to fight in the dark, or by the flames of rich men's abodes. Again a cheer goes up, louder and clearer this time, followed by cries of,
They're coming, they're coming. Yes, they were coming. The 22nd down Broadway, the 7th down Madison Avenue, both on the double quick. In a moment or so, there were a few bugle calls and a few spoken commands rang out clear and sharp.
And then the two regiments stretched across the entire square, literally from wall to wall in line of battle. The mob was upon them. Would this slender line of troops, could it hold such a mighty mass of men in check? The answer was a deafening discharge of firearms, a terrific crack, such as some thunderbolts
make when they explode. A wall of fire blazed across the square. Again and again it blazed forth. The mob halted, stood fast, wavered, fell back, advanced again. At that moment there came a rattle as of huge knives in the distance.
It was the gallant 71st charging up 23rd Street and taking the mob on the flank. They came on like a wall of iron, bristling with blades of steel. There were no outcries, no cheers from the regiment. It dealt out death in silence, save when two bayonets crossed and clashed in bearing down some doubly vigorous foe.
As the bells rang out midnight, the last remnants of the mob were driven to cover, but the wheels of the dead wagons rattled till daybreak. And then the aged governor, in response to the mayors, thank God we've saved the city, made an answer, Aye, but the Republic. Chapter II
Great as has been the world's wonder at the uprising of Mr. Brian's struggling masses in the city by the sea, and the narrow escape of its magnificent homes from fire and brand, yet greater still, was the wonderment when the news was flashed across the land that Chicago did not stand in need of a single Federal soldier. Chicago is mad, but it is the madness of joy.
Chicago is in the hands of a mob, but it is a mob made up of their own people, noisy, rude, and boisterous, the natural exultation of a suddenly enfranchised class, but bent on no other mischief than glorying over the villainous and self-seeking souls who have ground the faces of the poor and turned the pitiless screw of social and political power into the hearts of the common people, until its last thread had been reached and despair
pressed its lupine visage hard against the door of the laboring man. And yet at this moment when the night air quivered with the mad vociferations of the common people, that the Lord had been good to them, that the wicked money changers had been driven from the temple, that the stony-hearted usurers were beaten at last, that the Pope William was at the helm now, that peace and plenty would in a few moons come back to the
poor man's cottage, that silver was king, aye, king at last, the world still went wondering why red-eyed anarchy, as she stood in Haymarket Square with thin arms aloft, with wild men and wilder gesticulation, drew no balm of dynamite from her bosom to hurl at the hated minions of the law who were silent spectators of this delirium of popular joy. Why was it thus?
Look and you shall know why white-robed peace kept step with this turbulent band and turned its thoughts from red-handed pillage. He was there, the master spirit to hold them in leash. He and he alone had lifted Brian to his great eminence. Without these twenty-four electoral votes, Brian had been doomed, hopelessly doomed.
He and he alone held the great commonwealth of the West hard and fast in the democratic line. Hence he came as conqueror, as king-maker, and the very walls of the sky touching edifices trembled as he was dragged through the crowded streets by this orderly mob. And ten times ten thousand of his creatures bellowed his name and shook their hats aloft
in mad exultation. You're our savior. You've cleaned the temple of liberty of its foul horde of usurers. We salute you. We call you king-maker.
Brian shall call you master too. You shall have your reward. You shall stand behind the throne. Your wisdom shall make us whole. You shall purge the land of this unlawful crowd of money-lenderers.
You shall save the republic. You are greater than Washington. You are a better friend of ours than Lincoln. You'll do more for us than Grant. We are your slaves.
We salute you. We thank you. We bless you. Hurrah! Hurrah!
Hurrah! But yet this vast throng of tamed monsters, this mighty mob of momentarily good-natured haters of established order, broke away from the master's control for a few brief moments and dipped their hands in the enemy's blood. The deed was swift as it was terrible.
There were but four of them, unarmed, on pleasure bent. At sight of these men a thousand throats belched out a deep and awful growl of hatred. They were brave men and backed against the wall to die like brave men, stricken down, beaten, torn, trampled, dragged. It was quick work.
They had faced howling savages in the far west, painted monsters in human form, but But never had they heard such yells leave the throats of men. And so they died, four brave men clad in blue livery of the republic, whose only crime was that some months back, against the solemn protest of the master, their comrades had set foot on the soil of the commonwealth and had saved the metropolis of the west from
the hands of this same mob. And so Chicago celebrated the election of the new president, who was to free the land from the grasp of the moneylenders and undo the bad business of years of unholy union between barterers and sellers of human toil and the lawmakers of the land. Throughout the length and breadth of the south and beyond the great divide, the news struck
hamlet and village like the glad tidings of a new evangel, almost as potent for human happiness as the heavenly message of two thousand years ago. Bells rang out in joyful acclaim, and the very stars trembled at the telling, and the telling over and over of what had been done for the poor man by his brethren of the north. And around the blazing pine knots of the southern cabin and in front of the mining campfires
of the far west, the cry went up, Silveris king, Silveris king! Black palms and white were clasped in this strange love-feast, and the dark-skinned grandchild no longer felt the sting of the lash on his sire's shoulder. All was peace and good-will, for the people were at last victorious over their enemy who had taxed and tithed them into a very living death.
Now the laborer would not only be worthy of his hire, but it would be paid to him in a people's dollar, for the people's good, and now the rich man's coffers would be made to yield up their ill-gotten gain, and the sun would look upon this broad and fair land and find no man without a market for the product of his labors. Henceforth the rich man should, as was right and proper, pay a royal sum for the privilege
of his happiness, and take the nation's taxes on his broad shoulders where they belong. Chapter 3 The pens of many writers would not suffice to describe with anything like historical fullness and precision the wild scenes of excitement which on the morning after election day burst forth on the floors of the various exchanges throughout the Union.
The larger and more important the money center, the deeper, blacker, and heavier despair which sank upon them after the violent, abolitions of protest, defiance, and execration had subsided. With some it seemed that visions of their swift but sure impoverishment only served to transform the dark and dismal drama of revolution and disintegration into a side-splitting farce, and they greeted the prospective loss of their millions with loud guffaws and indescribable
antics of horseplay and unseemly mirth. As the day were on, the news became worse and worse. It was only too apparent that the House of Representatives of the 55th Congress would be controlled by the combined vote of the populist and free silver men, while the wild joy with which the entire South welcomed the election of Brian and Sewell left little doubt in the minds of the Northern people
that the Southern Senators would, to a man, range themselves on the administration side of the great conflict into which the Republic was soon to be precipitated. Add to these the 20 Senators of the free silver states of the North, and the new President would have the Congress of the Republic at his back. There would be nothing to stand between him and the realization of those schemes which an exuberant fancy, untamed by the hand
of experience and scornful of the leading strings of wisdom can conjure up. Did we say nothing? Nay, not so, for the Supreme Court was still there, and yet Justice Field had come fully up to the 80th milestone in the journey of life, and Justice Gray was nearly 70, while one or two other members of this high court of judicature held to their lives with feeble grasp. Even in due and orderly course of events, why might there come vacancies?
And then? In spite of the nameless dread that rested upon so many of our people and chilled the very blood of the country's industries, the New Year 97 came hopefully, serenely, almost defiantly in. There was an indescribable something in the air, a spirit of political devil-me-care, a feeling that the old order had passed away and that the Republic had entered into the womb of time and been born again. This sentiment began to give outward
and visible signs of its existence and growth in the remote agricultural districts of the South and far West. They threw aside their working implements, loitered about, gathered in groups, and the words of Washington, the White House Silver, Bryan, offices, two for one, the South's Day, reign of the common people, taxes, incomes, year of Jubilee, free coinage, Wall Street, Altigeld, Tillman, Peffer, Coxie, were whispered in a mysterious way
with head-knottings and pursing up of mouths. As January wore away and February slipping by brought Bryan's inauguration nearer and nearer, the groups melted into groups, and it was only too apparent that from a dozen different points in the South and North West, the armies were forming for an advance on Washington. In some instances they were well-clad and well-provisioned. In others, they were little better than great bands of hungry and
restless men demoralized by idleness and wrought up to a strange degree of mental excitement by the extravagant terrains of their leaders who were animated with but one thought, namely to make use of these vast crowds of silver pilgrims as they called themselves to back up their claims for public office. These crowds of deluded people were well-named silver pilgrims for hundreds of them carried in hempen bags pieces of silverware in 99 cases of 100. Plated
stuff of little value which unscrupulous dealers and peddlers had palmed off on them as sterling with the promise that once in Washington, the United States Mint would coin their metal into Bryan dollars, giving two for one in payment for it. While these motley armies marched upon the capital of the Republic, the railway trains night and day brought vast crowds of new men, politicians of low degree, men out of employment, drunken and disgruntled
mechanics, farmer's sons, to seek their fortune under the reign of the people, healers and hangers-on of ward bosses, old men who had not tasted office for 30 years and more, all inspired by Mr. Bryan's declaration that the American people are not in favor of life tenure in the civil service, that a permanent office holding class is not in harmony with our institutions, that a fixed term in appointive offices would open up the public service to
a larger number of citizens without impairing its efficiency, all bearing new besomes in their hands or across their shoulders, each and every one of them supremely confident that in the distribution of the spoils something would surely fall into his share since they were the common people who were so dear to Mr. Bryan and who had made him president in the very face of the prodigious opposition of the rich men whose coffers had been thrown
wide open all to no purpose and in spite too of the satanic and truly devilish power of the hell upon earth known as Wall Street, which had sweated gold in vain in its desperate efforts to fasten the chains of trusts and the claws of soulless monsters known as corporations upon these very common people soon to march in triumph before the silver chariot of the young conqueror from the west. End of Section 1. Read by C.J. Plogue.
