John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[480] was the only prominent editor in the country who at all times stood firmly for the rights of the employer as well as of the individual workman. The Sun was notably outspoken in its condemnation of the railroad and other strikers, not for leaving their job nor for demanding higher wages and shorter hours, but for the injury they inflicted on the property of their employers, and for the outrages and violence which they visited upon those who were willing to take the places they had vacated.

It will be remembered that the great strike at Chicago, and the interference of the mob with the operation of the railroads engaged in interstate commerce, called forth a notable proclamation from President Cleveland for the restoration of public order. The occasion led to a correspondence by telegraph with the governor of Illinois that attracted much attention at the time. Its immediate effect was to make it plain that the President required no call from him for assistance as a warrant for sending troops to disperse the mob and insure the free transmission of the United States mails. It was clearly his duty to see that all the laws of the United States, including the act regulating commerce between the States, were enforced, that the government's mail service should be performed, and that to this end he should use, at his own discretion, such part of the army as he might think proper. Troops were accordingly sent at once to Chicago, and to other parts of the country where the running of trains had been stopped. The effect was magical; the mobs were dispersed, their organization was broken, mail service was re-established, and order was everywhere restored.

Upon all previous occasions, except in the case of receivers who were operating railroads under the orders of the federal courts, it had been regarded as the established law of the land that United States troops could not be ordered into a State to repress riots or insurrection until