Labor Riots Follow Civil War; Jay Cooke Company Failed September 18, 1873

Following the suggestion of Governor John White Geary, the Legislature on June 2, 1871, adopted a resolution to submit the question of calling a convention to amend the Constitution to a vote of the people. The delegates were elected October, 1872, and assembled in the Capitol November 12, 1872.

Hon. William M. Meredith was elected president and served until his death, August 17, 1873, when Hon. John H. Walker, of Erie County, was chosen to fill the vacancy. The convention adjourned November 27 to meet in Philadelphia on January 7, 1873.

A new Constitution was drafted and adopted, after which it was submitted to the people on December 16, 1873, and approved by a vote of 263,560 to 109,198.

This new Constitution contained several important changes: An increase in the number of Senators and Representatives in the General Assembly; biennial sessions of the Legislature; the election by the people of sundry officers heretofore appointed; minority representation; modification of the pardoning power; the term of the Governor made for four years, and not eligible to the office for the succeeding term; the office of Lieutenant-Governor created; changes in tenure and mode of electing Judges of the courts. The new Constitution became effective January 1, 1874.

The good times which followed the Civil War were in a few years followed by a financial depression that extended over the whole country and reduced innumerable financial establishments to ruin.

These financial troubles began in Philadelphia with the failure of the banking house of Jay Cooke & Co., September 18, 1873. Mr. Cooke’s bank had given such help to the United States Government during the period of the war that he was frequently called the “Financier of the Rebellion.”

When this banking institution collapsed there followed a run on other banks, the effects of which soon spread throughout the United States.

The excellent “Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal,” by Howard M. Jenkins, says: “The condition of the times was rendered more deplorable by a series of labor difficulties, extending from 1874–1877. In 1874, there was a conflict in Westmoreland County between Italian and resident miners, in which four of the Italians were killed. The same year there was a railroad strike at Susquehanna on the New 647York and Erie Railroad. A number of trains were seized by the mob, and order was not restored until after the Governor had sent the State militia into that region. In January, 1875, the miners of the Lehigh and Schuylkill regions began a strike, which lasted six months. There was but little violence; yet the Governor found it necessary to order the militia to the scene of the disturbance.”

In 1877, the spirit of lawlessness increased, culminating in a series of destructive riots in different parts of the State. The cause of all this trouble was the railroad strike, which began on July 16, and soon became general throughout the United States.

In the beginning of July, a circular was issued from the offices of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, announcing a reduction of 10 per cent from the wages which the men were then receiving. A new schedule of wages was announced, to take effect on July 16. At all points along the railroad, there were demonstrations against this reduction. A strike was ordered, and before midnight of the 16th the immense property of the Baltimore and Ohio was in the hands of the rioters.

On July 19 the employes of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh inaugurated a strike, and stopped the passage of all freight trains east and west. By the evening of the 20th, a large number of freight trains were tied up in the city. The striking workmen resisted all efforts of the railroad officials to remove these trains, and threatened acts of violence. At this time Governor John F. Hartranft was on a trip across the continent, but upon the call of the Sheriff the Adjutant General ordered the Sixteenth Division of the National Guard to assist in restoring order.

Adjutant General James W. Latta arrived at Pittsburgh on July 21, to take personal charge of all the troops ordered out. The First Division of the National Guard was also called into service, and on the forenoon of the 21st, the troops took position upon the hill overlooking the tracks at Twenty-eighth Street.

At 2 o’clock in the afternoon the troops from Philadelphia arrived, and they at once proceeded to open the road. As they approached Twenty-eighth Street, the crowds pressed in upon them and stones were thrown by the mob.

There was considerable firing on both sides, and in the melee twenty soldiers were wounded. In the evening the soldiers withdrew to the roundhouse and adjacent buildings. At midnight the rioters determined to drive them out by burning the freight cars in the vicinity. The result was a great conflagration, in which vast quantities of freight were consumed and all the rolling stock and buildings of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh were destroyed.

Hastening from his trip, Governor Hartranft reached Pittsburgh on July 24. After a consultation with the leading citizens he went to 648Philadelphia to confer with Generals Hancock and Schofield, of the United States Army.

Arrangements were made to forward a detachment of the regular army to Pittsburgh, there to join the State troops which the Governor collected on the way.

A large force was soon gathered at the scene of the disturbance, and, with Governor Hartranft in personal command, order was restored in a few days and railroad communications were opened with all parts of the country. In the meantime there were serious riots in other parts of the State.

The lawless spirit in Philadelphia and Harrisburg was quelled by the prompt action of the officials, but in Reading the work of destruction was almost equal to that in Pittsburgh. The railroad bridge over the Schuylkill was burned, and the mob virtually controlled the city.

As the authorities of Berks County were unable to suppress the riot, General Reeder was sent there with a division of the National Guard. On the evening of July 23 there was a severe street fight between the mob and the soldiers, in which some of the latter were wounded, while eleven of the crowd were killed. The next day a detachment of the United States troops arrived and the railroad was opened to traffic.

The contagion of lawlessness affected the miners of Luzerne County, and on July 25 they began a general strike. All railroad traffic was suspended in that region, and at Scranton the rioters attempted to drive the workmen from the shops. The Sheriff with a number of aides dispersed the crowd, but he was seriously wounded and three of the mob were killed.

As the conditions became more threatening, it was necessary to forward a division of the National Guard to the coal regions. Early in August all disorder was suppressed, and in a few weeks all the railroads in the State were running on schedule time.