Neander97 / Historical Trivia: Armed militia organized at Butte, Montana! Militiamen hijack train! Dozens wounded in shoot out between militia and us marshals! Federal troops confront militia! Militia leaders on trial!
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MILITIA THREATENS MARCH ON WASHINGTON!
Beginning in the financial centers of the East, the Panic of 1893--a catastrophe second only in the intensity of its economic and social consequences to the Great Depression of the 1930s-- blazed across the nation with the speed of a racing wildfire. Fueled, in large part, by the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, the Panic roared through Montana with devastating fury. Following the collapse of the bullion market, scores of Montana mines ceased operation and thousands of miners and millworkers joined the already swollen ranks the state's unemployed. But, as terrible as the first round of layoffs appeared, the worst was yet to come. Within days of the collapse of the mining industry, additional thousands of Montanans lost their jobs as the businesses which depended on the trade of the mines and miners closed their doors. By Christmas of 1893 an estimated 20,000 Montanans (total state population, approximately 150,000) were out of work and lacking the wherewithal to provide the basic means of survival for themselves and their families.
The dawning of the new year offered no promise of comfort to the nation's unemployed--across the country as industry after industry collapsed, job after job was lost--the economy continued to decline and the toll in human suffering soared. Little help, or even little hope of help, was available for the unemployed and their dependents. Existing public and religious charities could not begin to cope with a disaster of such magnitude. In nearly every instance, local, state, and national governments, long steeped in laissez faire traditions, sat idly by, confident that "natural" market forces would restore the nation's economic health, eventually.
The depression continued to worsen until by mid-1894 some 2.5 to 3 million wage earners were unemployed. The social consequences of this disaster rippled across the land. The crime rate soared, alcohol and drug abuse seemed epidemic, families were torn apart by desertion and domestic violence, racial tensions boiled over, anti-immigration agitation flared into violence. Indeed, the nation seemed poised on the brink of chaos. Given these conditions, as one might correctly expect, radical politics, left and right, became the cause célèbres of the day.
Amidst this turmoil, one voice, among the many political demagogues of the day, struck a responsive chord with America's economic dispossessed. Jacob Sechler Coxey, a wealthy businessman from Massillon, Ohio, gained national prominence with his proposed cures for America's socio-economic ills. Given that he had named his son "Legal Tender" and had once belonged to the Greenback Party, it should come as no surprise that Coxey's political ideology focused on the question of monetary reform. As the Greenbackers faded into obscurity, Coxey transferred his allegiance to the Populist Party. Coxey burst onto the national political scene in 1892 through his advocacy of the "Good Roads Bill." The bill, which Coxey and his supporters hoped the Congress would enact, called for the issuance of $500 million in legal tender notes. These notes would, in turn, be used to employ the nation's surplus labor on road construction projects. The bill, of course, was quickly swept under the Congressional carpet and died in committee.
In 1894 Coxey and his supporters unveiled an even more ambitious plan to expand the nation's currency supply and provide jobs for the distressed. Their proposed "Noninterest-Bearing Bonds Bill" authorized states and local governments to issue noninterest-bearing bonds that would be used to borrow legal tender notes from the federal treasury. The monies raised by these transaction would, again, be used for public works projects. Unwilling to see this bill meet the same fate as his good roads proposal, Coxey called upon America's unemployed to travel to Washington, to, in his words, present the Congress with "a petition with boots on."
Believing that tens of thousands of the nation's unemployed would rally to his standard, "General" Coxey, who referred to his army as the "Commonweal of Christ," departed for Washington on March 25, 1894. By the time the General reached Washington, his troops had assembled, all 500 of them. Coxey's petition with boots proved as fragile as had his attempts to sponsor reformist legislation. Shortly after reaching the capitol, General Coxey and his principal lieutenants were arrested for violating an ordinance prohibiting walking on the grass. Following the capture of its leader, Coxey's Army retreated in ignominious, the "insurrection," indeed, seemed doomed.
Even after General's forces had departed the capital, the nation's press continued to report on Coxey's Army--leading many to believe that the "petition with boots on" still held the promise of success, if only enough recruits could reach the "battlefield." This, apparent, call to arms was heard by a responsive audience in the Western states and territories. In California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Montana new "armies" of Coxeyites were raised from among the ranks of the unemployed. Montana's army, recruited, largely, in Butte, was led by "General" William Hogan, an unemployed teamster from the Moulton Mine.
On April 24, 1894, after failing to
convince Butte's business community to provide funds for rations and transportation,
"Hogan's Army," comprised of some five hundred militant reformers, seized a
Northern Pacific freight train and prepared to move on Washington. US Marshall William
McDermott, long aware of the plan to commandeer a train, attempted to arrest Hogan and his
lieutenants, only to be confronted by a large contingent of Butte's citizens. Fearing
violence at the hand of the mob, who persisted in brandishing arms while referring to the
Marshall and his deputies as "bloodsuckers," McDermott allowed Hogan's Army to
depart for points East.
Upon reaching Bozeman, the Hoganites received a rousing welcome from the locals, added a few recruits to their ranks, and rolled on down the line. The citizens of Livingston, whether motivated by solidarity to the cause or by mere boredom, likewise turned out to greet the unemployed heroes as the commandeered train steamed through their town. At Columbus, McDermott and his posse again attempted to arrest the Hoganites and once again the US Marshals were compelled to retreat.
On the morning of April 25 the train bearing Hogan's Army pulled into Northern Pacific Depot at Billings to the cheers of a large boisterous crowd, including approximately one hundred additional recruits. It was at the Billings depot that McDermott and his deputies, finally, made a stand and attempted to arrest the Hoganites. Gunfire broke out and one bystander was killed and several of Hogan's and McDermott's men were wounded before the Marshall withdrew from the battle field.
Hearing of the shooting and alarmed at the potential for additional civilian casualties, Montana Governor John E. Rickards wired President Grover Cleveland to alert him of the situation. Within hours, US Attorney General Richard Olney authorized the Army, stationed at Fort Keogh near Miles City, to seize the train and arrest the Hoganites.
Unaware of the regular army's involvement in their affairs, Hogan and his men departed Billings, believing that their way was now cleared to proceed to Washington. On the evening of the 25th, US infantry troops barricaded the Northern Pacific line, just west of present day Forsyth, stopped the train, arrested Hogan's Heroes. The army then obligingly transported their "POWs" to the jail at Helena.
Several aspects surrounding the trial of the dissidents seem, at least from today's perspective, curious. Of the six hundred or more volunteers who had filled the ranks of Hogan's Army, only the General and 42 of his troopers were actually tried for any of the many criminal acts they had participated in. Despite the magnitude of the activities undertaken by the Hoganites, those tried in Federal District Court at Helena were merely charged with seizing of property (a train) without a proper warrant.
Hogan et al. were tried before US District Judge Hiram Knowles, who during his more than thirty years on the bench had presided over much of the legal wrangling surrounding the famed "War of the Copper Kings." The prosecution team was led by US Attorney for Montana Preston H. Leslie (governor of Montana Territory, 1887-1889), who had as his assistant an attorney in the employee of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Joseph K. Toole (governor of Montana, 1889-93 and 1901-08). While the defense team was comprised of two of Montana foremost Populists, George Haldorn and Robert Burns Smith (governor of Montana, 1897-1901). In the end, William Hogan was sentenced to six-months in jail, while the remainder of the defendants received thirty-day sentences. The consequences of Hogan's actions, especially the gun battle at Billings, were felt nation wide. The threat of armed insurrection so alarmed the nation that the concepts underlying the petition with boots (direct action, civil disobedience, and the march on Washington), were almost totally discredited. One prominent Populist leader, Iowan Charles T. Kelly, lamented: "I fear our cause is ruined. We are now reduced to the level of a mob."
Readings:
Clinch, Thomas A. URBAN POPULISM AND FREE SILVER IN MONTANA, A NARRATIVE OF IDEOLOGY IN POLITICAL ACTION (1970).
Clinch, Thomas A., "Coxey's Army in Montana," MONTANA: THE MAGAZINE OF WESTERN HISTORY, (Autumn, 1965).
Goldman, Eric F. RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY (1955).
Goodwyn, Lawrence. DEMOCRATIC PROMISE: THE POPULIST MOMENT IN AMERICA (1976).
Hackney, Sheldon. POPULISM: THE CRITICAL ISSUES (1971).
Hofstadter, Richard. THE AGE OF REFORM (1955).
Larson, Robert W. POPULISM IN THE MOUNTAIN WEST (1986).
McMath,Robert C. THE DREAM OF COMMONWEALTH: AMERICAN POPULISM (1992).
McMurry, Donald Le Crone. COXEY'S ARMY: A STUDY OF THE INDUSTRIAL ARMY MOVEMENT OF 1894 (1929).
Schwantes, Carlos A. COXEY'S ARMY: AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY (1985).
Vincent, Henry. THE STORY OF THE COMMONWEAL (1969).
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