The image on the left is of the announcement of the meeting at Haymarket printed on May 4, 1886. The poster was introduced as evidence by the prosecution on July 16, 1886 as "People's Exhibit 5." The prosecution exhibits features a version of the announcement with the inflammatory language (encircled in the image below), "Workingmen Arm Yourselves and Appear in Full Force!" The image on the right is of the same announcement, except without the line making the controversial call to arms. The announcement on the right was introduced on August 2, 1886 as "Defense Exhibit 1." The controversial line written by Adolph Fischer. Albert Spies feared that the call to bring arms to the rally would scare potential supporters and reduce the crowd. When Spies threatened not to speak at the rally unless the line was taken out, the presses were stopped and the line removed--but not before a few hundred copies of the first version were in circulation. |
LINK TO LARGER FULL-COLOR IMAGE (Chicago Historical Society image) |
LINK TO LARGER FULL-COLOR IMAGE (Chicago Historical Society image) |
The circular below was
written by Albert Spies in response to the killing of workers on May 3,
1886 at the McCormick Reapers Works. The circular was written in
both English and German. The prosecution introduced the circular into
evidence on July 16, 1886 as "People's Exhibit 6." Hundreds of
copies of the "Revenge" circular were distributed by anarchists on the
night of May 3. |
According to prosecution
witnesses, George Engel, at a May 3 meeting of anarchists at Grief's
Hall (a saloon), announced a plan involving the German-language paper Arbeiter-Zeitung. Under
Engel's plan, the appearance of the German word "Ruhe" (meaning "rest")
in the notices column of the paper would be a signal to North Side
activists to
take militant action including bombing police stations, shooting police
officers, and pulling down telegraph lines. In fact, the word
"Ruhe" did appear in the notices ("Briefkasten") column
of the Arbeiter-Zeitung
edition of May 4 (image at left). The prosecution used this to
link Albert Spies to the violence at Haymarket, although Spies claimed
to have had no knowledge of the word's significance when it appeared in
the paper. The image on the right is of a note in the handwriting
of Spies introduced by the prosecution as "People's Exhibit 10." |