John Peter Altgeld
John Peter Altgeld was an American politician and the 20th Governor of Illinois, serving from 1893 until 1897. He was the first Democrat to govern that state since the 1850s. A leading figure of the Progressive movement, Altgeld signed workplace safety and child labor laws, pardoned three of the men convicted in the Haymarket Affair, and rejected calls in 1894 to break up the Pullman strike by force. In 1896 he was a leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, opposing President Grover Cleveland and the conservative Bourbon Democrats. He was defeated for reelection in 1896 in an intensely fought, bitter campaign.
Born in Germany, Altgeld grew up on a farm in the American Midwest. After a stint in the Union Army as a youth, Altgeld studied law in Missouri, while working as a manual laborer, and became involved in progressive politics. Altgeld eventually opened a law practice in Chicago, and became a real estate developer, and local judge before being elected governor. He was married to Emma Ford. Often in poor health, he died at the age of 54, while working in the law office of Clarence Darrow.
Early life
Altgeld was born in the town of Selters in the German Westerwald, the first son of John P. and Mary Altgeld. His parents left Germany when he was three months old, bringing their infant son with them. They settled on a farm near Mansfield, Ohio. He left home at age 16 to join the Union Army; lying about his age, he enlisted in the 164th Ohio Infantry. Altgeld's regiment served in Virginia as a reserve unit, doing labor and reconnaissance, participating in only one skirmish. Altgeld himself nearly died of fever. He then worked on his father's farm, studied in the library of a neighbor and at a private school in Lexington, Ohio, and for two years taught school.After a brief stint in an Ohio seminary, he walked to Missouri and studied to become a lawyer while working on itinerant railroad construction crews. Becoming ill from the climate and the labor, Altgeld wandered to Kansas and Iowa before settling as a teacher and farmhand near Savannah, Missouri. There, he began to read law at a private law firm and was admitted to the Andrew County bar in 1871. He was not educated at any university. The university law school at which he would have studied was not even founded until 1872, one year before Altgeld was admitted to the bar. In Savannah Altgeld first became involved in politics. He served as city attorney and was elected state's attorney, resigning after one year of a two-year term.
In 1875, Altgeld moved to Chicago hoping to continue his legal career there. He frequently visited his home in Ohio. He was married to Emma Ford, the daughter of John Ford and Ruth Smith, in 1877 in Richland County, Ohio. Their marriage was a happy one by all accounts but produced no children.
Altgeld's practice of law began to show success and he was managing an independent legal practice by 1880. He became wealthy, however, from a series of real estate dealings and development projects, including residential and office properties in Chicago and a streetcar line in Newark, Ohio. His most notable project was the Unity Building, the 16-story office building that was at that time Chicago's tallest building. In January 1890, Altgeld bought a lot at what is now 127 North Dearborn Street in downtown Chicago, and he established the Unity Company to build and manage the future Unity Building. He indiscriminately contributed his own fortune toward the endeavor, and for a while the construction was moving more quickly than expected. However, this led to a $100,000 mistake and much of the framework of the building had to be rebuilt. Altgeld also made an error by trying to borrow $400,000 from John R. Walsh, president of the Jennings Trust Company and of the Chicago National Bank. Technicalities in the contract caused many problems for Altgeld. Eventually, a new contract was signed, but Altgeld was able to borrow only $300,000 from Walsh. He ended up raising the rest of the money himself, and the construction of the Unity Building was completed. In 1893, he declared that the Unity Building had given him the most personal satisfaction of all his achievements.
Altgeld became a millionaire, and would, by the time he ran for governor, own six buildings in Chicago.
Early political career
Altgeld's name, according to historian Philip Dray, "is synonymous with the dawn of the Progressive era." His first public post was city attorney in Savannah, Missouri, in which capacity he rewrote a code of ordinances. In Missouri Altgeld became involved in the Granger movement and the Democratic Party and was elected to be state's attorney for the county in 1874. As Altgeld later wrote, he quickly became disillusioned with the criminal justice system and resigned after just one year.Altgeld decided to run for congress in 1884 against incumbent George Adams of Illinois's 4th congressional district. That year, he published an essay on penal reform entitled, Our Penal Machinery and Its Victims. His essay argued that rather than reform criminals, incarceration produced hardened criminals. Although this district was heavily Republican, Adams defeated him by just 8 points, a better showing than well-known Democrat Lambert Tree had made two years earlier. As a Republican leader recalled, "He was not elected, but our executive committee was pretty badly frightened by the strong canvass he made."
In 1886, he was elected as a Superior Court of Cook County Justice and served on the bench until 1891.
Illinois governorship
In 1891, he unsuccessfully challenged John M. Palmer in seeking to have the Illinois General Assembly appoint him to the United States Senate.1893 election
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. Viewed as an elder statesman of the party, Palmer's opposition to Altgeld would have carried weight. 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.
Altgeld was popular among his fellow German Americans.
The only Chicago newspaper that provided positive coverage of Altgeld was the Chicago Globe, which was run by Michael C. McDonald. 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. He was painted as a hazardous radical and a dangerous threat to the state's business and commercial concerns. However, many downstate newspapers provided positive to Altgeld.
Also initially seeking the Democratic nomination was John C. Black. Other potential candidates were dissuaded from running. For instance, State Representative James Cockerell was convinced by Clarence Darrow to abandon his plans of running. However, by February 23, it was reported that Black had withdrawn from the race, leaving Altgeld as the only candidate seeking the Democratic nomination. Altgeld won the Democratic nomination on the first ballot at the state convention in Springfield.
Altgeld's supporters dubbed him, "the poor man's friend".
In the general election he faced popular incumbent Republican governor Joseph W. Fifer.
Altgeld traveled across the state to campaign on a vigorous speaking tour. He attacked Fifer's use of prison labor for state projects, and attacked his school reform record. Fifer did not refute Altgeld's allegations against his record, which helped make them stick in the minds of voters.
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.
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.
Transition
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.Tenure
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.Pullman Strike
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 superindent of mails, L. L. Troy, stated that no mail had been disrupted. 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." 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. 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."Pardons and clemency
Historically, Altgeld is remembered chiefly for pardoning the three surviving men convicted in the 1886 Haymarket bombing. 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 sentences 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. Altgeld was known to hold strong grudges.
Altgeld was inconsistent and careless in how he administered his power of pardons and clemency.
By the end of 1895, he freed eighty-one prisoners, leading newspapers to dub him John "Pardon" Altgeld.
In May 1895, mob violence erupted after one of Altgeld's pardons, with farmers lynching two accused rapists in Danville.
On his last day in office, he released twenty-six offenders convicted of serious crimes, including seven murderers.
In total, he pardoned or commuted sentences of:
- 75 people convicted of forgery, embezzlement, manslaughter, burglary, or larceny
- 19 people convicted of murder
- 8 people convicted of rape, assault, or incest
- 5 people convicted or armed robbery or arson
Unsuccessful 1896 reelection campaign
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." 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.
Chicago mayoral candidacies
1899
Altgeld was a political opponent of Carter H. Harrison, Jr., who had been elected Mayor of Chicago in 1897. 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. 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.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.
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.
1901
In 1901, Altgeld made a quixotic effort to challenge Harrison for the Democratic nomination for mayor.Post-gubernatorial years
Sickly since his brush with death in the Civil War, Altgeld had suffered from locomotor ataxia while governor, impairing his ability to walk. He lost all of his property except his heavily mortgaged personal residence, and only the intervention of his friend and former protégé, Clarence Darrow, saved him from complete financial ruin.Death and legacy
Altgeld was working as a lawyer in Darrow's law firm when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while delivering a speech on behalf of the Boers in Joliet, Illinois in March 1902. He was 54 years old when he died. Thousands filed past his body as it lay in state in the lobby of the Chicago Public Library, and he was eulogized by Darrow and by Hull House founder Jane Addams.Altgeld is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Uptown, Chicago.
The governor influenced the design of five castle-like structures in Illinois universities. One is Altgeld Hall at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is currently home to the Mathematics Department, and had previously housed the College of Law and the University Library. The other four are the eponymous edifices at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Northern Illinois University, as well as John W. Cook Hall at Illinois State University and Old Main at Eastern Illinois University. Chicago's Altgeld Gardens Homes, one of the first housing projects in the United States, was named after the former governor as well as the street located at 2500 North in Chicago's grid system, Altgeld Street.