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A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 THE 
 
 Life of Robert Ross, 
 
 Sacrificed to Municipal Misrule. 
 
 A Story of Patriotism 
 
 CALLING FOR MUNICIPAL REFORMS. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JAMES H, ROSS. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 REV. JOSIAH STRONG, D.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " OUR COUNTRY," " THE NEW ERA," ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 JAMES H. EARLE, PUBLISHER, 
 
 178 Washington Street. 
 1894. 
 

 Copyright, 1894, 
 By James H. Eak^e. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 TER PAGE 
 
 I. Parentage and Pupilage 15 
 
 II. Social Life and Business Career .... 28 
 
 II. Consecrated to Christ and the Church . . 46 
 
 :V. Martyrdom and Transfiguration .... 62 
 
 V. Committee of One Hundred for Public Safety 87 
 
 /I. Under the Stars and Stripes 99 
 
 II. Friends and Foes to America 109 
 
 II. A. P. A. in Controversy and in Court . . . 123 
 
 X. Y. P. S. C. E. versus Municipal Misrule . . 131 
 
 X. Officials as Spoilsmen and Freebooters . . 143 
 
 CI. Civil Service Reform Imperative .... 155 
 
 II. Redemption of the City the Goal of Civic 
 
 Life 163 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 THIS volume is the outgrowth of an article 
 by its author, in The Golden Rule, Boston, 
 Mass., entitled " A Martyr to Pure Politics." The 
 publisher of this book saw in that article the germ 
 of a book of national importance and interest, 
 and requested the author, Mr. Ross, to write it. 
 
 The martyrdom of Robert Ross, and its mean- 
 ing, have been commented upon in the daily and 
 weekly press of the nation. For the sake of 
 accuracy, and out of love for the deceased, the 
 family designated their pastor, the undersigned, 
 to furnish Mr. Ross with the materials available 
 for the publisher's purposes, because he was born 
 and bred in Troy, bears the family name, and 
 could be trusted to do justice to his theme. He 
 alone is responsible for the form of the narrative, 
 and for any expressions of opinion that it may 
 contain. 
 
 It is believed that the pure, symmetrical life of 
 5 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 Robert Ross will exert a wholesome influence 
 wherever the record of it becomes known; that 
 it cannot fail to interest all organizations of young 
 people, secular and religious, such as the athletic, 
 Sabbath schools, the Brotherhood of Andrew and 
 Philip, the Young Men's Christian Association, 
 and the Endeavor Societies; that the present 
 revival of public interest in municipal conditions, 
 problems, and reforms, by Lyceum and Municipal 
 Leagues, various civic clubs and societies, cannot 
 be stimulated in any better way than by noting 
 the situation in Troy as typical and crucial 
 Troy has been misgoverned. Reforms are now 
 attempted. If successful, there is no city in the 
 land that will not acquire new hope and courage ; 
 for the task is as difficult as can be found any- 
 where. The undersigned, in the address he gave 
 at the funeral of the deceased, said what he wishes 
 to reiterate, — 
 
 " The death of Robert Ross leaves with 
 
 US A LESSON AS CHRISTIANS AND CITIZENS. It 
 IS THAT A MAN CAN BE A THOROUGHLY GOOD 
 
 Christian, and at the same time a good 
 citizen; and, furthermore, that he cannot 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 BE A GOOD CITIZEN WITHOUT BEING A CHRIS- 
 TIAN. ... IT IS NOT UNMANLY TO BE A DE- 
 VOTED FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST." 
 
 In behalf of George Ross and family. 
 
 WILLIAM H. SYBRANDT. 
 
 Oakwood Manse, Troy, N.Y. 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 
 
 The author desires to tender his sincere and 
 hearty thanks to the parents and brothers of Rob- 
 ert Ross for photographs used in this biography, 
 and to the Rev. Wm. H. Sybrandt as their 
 prompt and efficient representative in communi- 
 cating details ; to Secretary Foster Turner, of 
 the Esek Bussey Fire Engine Company, for photo- 
 graph of the draped engine-house, and for corre- 
 spondence ; to the Troy Times for reports of the 
 murder and trial of the murderer, a verbatim re- 
 port of the address to the jury of Attorney 
 George Raines of Rochester, N.Y., and for 
 the plates loaned the publisher ; to The Telegram, 
 of Troy, for a verbatim report of the address 
 of the Rev. Herbert C. Hinds; to the Rev. 
 Josiah Strong, D. D., for his note of introduc- 
 tion ; and to numerous friends and editors who 
 have encouraged the writing of the biography. 
 Gratefully, 
 
 James H. Ross. 
 
 Boston, Mass., 1894. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ONE of the most hopeful signs of the times is 
 the widespread revival of civic patriotism. 
 
 Our most friendly critics abroad and our most 
 intelligent citizens at home alike recognize in the 
 government of our large cities the one conspicuous 
 failure of our institutions ; and this national dis- 
 grace is rapidly becoming a national peril. The 
 question whether the city is capable of self-gov- 
 ernment involves the question of national self- 
 government, for the city is soon to dominate the 
 nation. 
 
 At present the state does not trust the city to 
 govern itself ; it is the state which determines to 
 what extent the city shall manage its own affairs. 
 But soon the city will take matters into its own 
 hands, and control, not only its own affairs, but 
 those of the state and of the nation also. The 
 wonderful growth of our cities during recent years 
 is not local nor temporary. It is not due to the 
 
 9 
 
I O IN TROD UC TION: 
 
 peculiar conditions of a new civilization. It is a 
 world phenomenon, and is due to causes which 
 enter as essential elements into modern civiliza- 
 tion everywhere ; and as these causes are perma- 
 nent, there can be no reasonable doubt that this 
 tendency from country to city will be permanent. 
 Our urban population is now six times as large as 
 it was forty years ago, and relative to the whole 
 population it is more than twice as large. From 
 1880 to 1890 our rural population increased only 
 fourteen per cent, while our urban population in- 
 creased sixty-one per cent. If this rate of increase 
 continues for a quarter of a century, in 1920 our 
 urban population will be upwards of ten millions 
 greater than our rural. If the city is incapable 
 of self-government then, as it is now, what will 
 become of state and nation when it dominates 
 them both ? 
 
 Our American institutions are based on two 
 fundamental principles which are co-ordinate and 
 alike essential ; viz., local self-government and 
 federation. The latter was at stake in the civil 
 conflict of a generation ago, and was immovably 
 established by the result of the war. The other 
 principle is now on trial, and it is yet to be deter- 
 
INTRO D UC TION. I 1 
 
 mined whether a large city population is capable 
 of self-government. On that issue, as we have 
 already seen, depends the permanence of our free 
 institutions. 
 
 We need, therefore, a new patriotism which is 
 civil rather than military, which fixes its attention, 
 not on the Union, which is no longer imperilled, 
 but on local government, which has become widely 
 corrupted — not a patriotism which constructs 
 fortifications and builds navies (though with the 
 present degree of civilization these may still be 
 needed), so much as one which purifies politics 
 and substitutes statesmen for demagogues ; not 
 one which follows the drum-beat to battle, but one 
 which goes to primaries ; not one that " rallies 
 round the flag " so much as one that rallies round 
 the ballot-box ; not a patriotism which exhausts 
 itself in eulogizing our institutions, but one which 
 expresses itself in strengthening their foundations. 
 
 Such patriotism calls for courage no less than 
 that which devotes itself to military service. It 
 calls for men brave enough to face the hatred of 
 pothouse politicians, who are as mean as they are 
 unscrupulous ; it calls for men who dare to be un- 
 popular, who dare to be misunderstood and mis- 
 
1 2 INTROD UCTION. 
 
 represented ; men who dare to be ridiculed and lied 
 about and abused ; men who dare to suffer in their 
 business, and, if need be, in their bodies ; men 
 who can wait for justification because they are 
 working, not for applause, but for principle. 
 
 Such was the young man the story of whose 
 martyrdom is told in this book. He was as true a 
 patriot and hero as if he had fallen on the field of 
 battle. Not many like Robert Ross will be called 
 to resist unto blood, striving against municipal 
 corruption ; but we need the same spirit of cour- 
 age, of self-devotion, of intelligent patriotism, and 
 the same largeness of mind which is capable of 
 rising above all prejudice of party, race, and reli- 
 gion, if we are to stamp out the foul evils that are 
 brooded by bossism. 
 
 Happily this new patriotism is rapidly growing. 
 Its spirit is finding expression in many ways, one 
 of the most significant of which is the good-citi- 
 zenship movement of the Society of Christian 
 Endeavor, of which young Ross was an active 
 member. His early death was none too early, if 
 the spirit of Christian patriotism which animated 
 him becomes thereby the inspiration of a host of 
 American youth. 
 
INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 The biographer of Robert Ross, though bear- 
 ing the same family name, is not a relative. His 
 pen has been inspired, not by any personal mo- 
 tive, but by interest in municipal reform, to which 
 cause this volume is calculated to render eminent 
 service. 
 
 Josiah Strong. 
 
** 
 
 \ 
 
 Father of Robert Ross. 
 
A MARTYR OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PARENTAGE AND PUPILAGE. 
 
 OVER the pavilion, on the left of the visitor, 
 as he entered the Administration Building 
 of the World's Fair, in Chicago, 1893, was an 
 ideal and allegorical statue entitled " Strength." 
 It consisted of two youthful figures, male and 
 female. The name would seem to have been due 
 to the male figure only. He was represented as 
 seated, and he was the model of a modern trained 
 athlete. His figure was imposing, his face was 
 that of a youth conscious of his strength, eager 
 for the exertion of his powers, and his attitude 
 that of affection and protection for the woman 
 who leaned upon him confidingly, and whom he 
 covered with his broad shield. 
 
 The statue was one of many intended to illus- 
 trate the characteristics and virtues of Americans. 
 
 l S 
 
!6 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Not only physical strength, but moral courage 
 was typified. The face was intellectual. There 
 was in it the expectancy that anticipated a coming 
 adversary, against himself or the woman by his 
 side, or against both. No fear was apparent, no 
 prophecy except an assurance of perfect safety 
 and complete victory. 
 
 If the statue had attempted to portray Robert 
 Ross and his betrothed on the very eve of their 
 marriage, and of his death by violence, it could 
 scarcely have been more accurate. He was mur- 
 dered March 6, 1894. and was to have been 
 married in May. If some image-breaker like Mo- 
 hammed had broken the statue into fragments, 
 suddenly and with one blow, he would have repre- 
 sented the murderer, who, by taking the life of 
 Robert Ross, transformed a romance into a tra- 
 gedy, and a private life into a public one attaching 
 itself to great governmental problems and reforms. 
 The same over-ruling Providence that changed the 
 Cross as a symbol of shame into a symbol of glory, 
 hallowed his name, glorified his death, and trans- 
 figured his life. 
 
 The circumstances that attended his death dis- 
 closed a youth of rare qualities, one upon whose 
 
PARENTAGE AND PUPILAGE. 1 7 
 
 entire career the search-light of publicity, legal 
 scrutiny, and ingenious, fertile hostility has been 
 turned, revealing nothing that discredits him and 
 much that elevates him above many youth of kin- 
 dred years and station in life. He was strong and 
 safe as a boy and a youth. Nature endowed him 
 with physical powers and moral qualities that 
 made him self-reliant, a help to the weak and the 
 timid, an example alike to the class of youth that 
 strive for moral mastery of themselves and to 
 those who surrender to temptations, vices, and 
 crimes. In life and aeath he did the state a mani- 
 fold service, which has been and will be recognized 
 and honored in various ways. 
 
 The genealogical and national fountains out of 
 which his life issued must be opened, or his life 
 and his victory in death cannot be comprehended. 
 They flowed from the Highlands and Lowlands of 
 old Scotland. He was of Scotch descent, from 
 both parents. 
 
 His father, George Ross, was born in Preston- 
 pans, Scotland, which is on the Firth of Forth in 
 the western part of the County of Haddington. 
 The tradition of the origin of the name of Pres- 
 tonpans is that it was first called Priest-toon 
 
1 8 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 because of a little colony of Roman Catholic 
 priests living there. It was also called "The 
 Pans," from the pans used in evaporating the salt 
 water. The two names were finally combined 
 into Prestonpans. 
 
 It is eight and one-half miles east of Edinburgh, 
 and participates therefore in the influences that 
 radiate from that terraced, beautiful, and cultured 
 city, that many regard as the most beautiful city 
 in the world. 
 
 The whole region is historic. Scotland and 
 Prestonpans shared in the witchcraft delusion of 
 the seventeenth century. In 1607 Isobel Grier- 
 son was burned at Prestonpans, on the ground 
 that, in the house of Adam Clark, in the likeness 
 of his own cat, she had frightened his household 
 and especially his maid-servant. She had also 
 disturbed by her enchantments the family of a 
 man named Brown, to whom she appeared as 
 " ane infant bairn." 
 
 During the English Revolution of 1603 to 1658, 
 Oliver Cromwell defeated at Prestonpans, in 1648, 
 a Scotch army led into England by the Duke of 
 Hamilton to help Charles the First, who reigned 
 from 1625 to 1649. 
 
PARENTAGE AND PUPILAGE. 1 9 
 
 A war between France and England induced 
 France, in 1744, to place Prince Charles Edward 
 Stuart, grandson of James II., at the head of the 
 Jacobites, and a formidable armament. The Jacob- 
 ites were the adherents of the male line of the 
 house of Stuart in Great Britain. In 1745 
 the youthful adventurer, who sought to recover 
 the throne of his royal ancestor, landed in a small 
 vessel, with only seven friends, on a little island 
 of the Hebrides. Soon some of the Scotch High- 
 land chiefs pledged themselves to support his 
 cause with their substance and followers. 
 
 Many, however, stood aloof, or sustained the 
 opposing side, under the leadership of the Lord 
 President, Duncan Forbes Stewart of Culloden. 
 Sir John Cope marched his royal troops north- 
 ward to Inverness, thereby avoiding rather than 
 encountering the opposing forces. On the 17th 
 of September the rebels marched into Edinburgh, 
 and proclaimed James the Pretender, father of 
 Edward, at the Town Cross, as King. They ob- 
 tained weapons and ammunition that had been 
 stored to defend the city against them. Then 
 they won an easy victory over Sir John Cope at 
 Prestonpans. A single charge of the clansmen 
 
20 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 cut to pieces his two thousand British troops, 
 and led to the capture of their cannon, baggage, 
 and military chests. From the church steeple of 
 the village, Rev. Alexander Carlyle [i 722-1 805] 
 had seen Prince Edward enter Edinburgh, and had 
 watched the battle, in which the gallant Colonel 
 Gardiner fell, with whom the Scotch village 
 parson had dined the previous day. There is a 
 monument to Colonel Gardiner at the appropriate 
 spot. 
 
 Prestonpans to-day is devoted to the manufac- 
 ture of salt by evaporation. It is supposed to 
 have had salt pans as early as the 12th century, 
 and thriving manufactures until some time after 
 the Reformation. The population is commercial 
 and sea-faring. There is an old ruined castle out- 
 side of the village. The house known as "Colonel 
 Gardiner's house" stood about half a mile south 
 of the castle. An old thorn-tree southeast of 
 Prestonpans is still pointed out as marking the 
 spot where the battle was hottest. There is also 
 a high wall standing there which was a barrier to 
 those escaping from the pursuers, and where a 
 great many were slain. A stone staircase re- 
 mains, but all the woodwork of the structure was 
 
PARENTAGE AND PUPILAGE. 21 
 
 long ago destroyed by fire. The grounds, cover- 
 ing five or six acres, and enclosed by a stone wall 
 six or seven feet high, contain apple and pear 
 trees, and are cultivated as a garden, the products 
 of which are sent to the Edinburgh market. 
 
 The clan of Ross represents the best Scottish 
 blood and history. It is traceable to the Scotch 
 Highlands. The meaning of the word Ross is 
 promontory or headland. The Scotch race are 
 identical historically with the Irish. They are the 
 remnant of the great Celtic race that the Roman 
 and Saxon invasions of Scotland on the south, 
 and the Danish invasions from the east and the 
 west, did not touch. They were the last to resist 
 with success the almost uniformly conquering 
 armies of Rome. 
 
 In the year 81 a.d., North Britain was in- 
 habited by twenty-one aboriginal tribes or clans. 
 The clan system was a larger family system, the 
 patriarchal form of government, manifesting nat- 
 ural authority, expressing and invoking affection 
 and unqualified reverence for the supreme com- 
 mand. "The Highlander," says Professor John 
 Stuart Blackie, himself a typical Scotchman, "was 
 a healthy man, a sturdy peasant, a good workman, 
 
22 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 a natural gymnast, an intrepid fighter, a daring 
 commander, and the best of colonists." In essen- 
 tials the description applies to Robert Ross. 
 
 The origin of clanships and tartans is un- 
 known. A^map of Scotland, published in 1654, 
 contained an ornamental title, representing two 
 Highlanders in striped clothes, one wearing the 
 « Belted Plaid," a large, long piece of plaiding, so 
 folded and confined by a belt around the waist 
 as to form a complete dress, plaid and kilt in one 
 piece. That is assumed to have been the origin 
 of the now highly ornamental Highland dress ; 
 and if correct, the style is exactly two hundred 
 and forty years old, or two centuries and two- 
 score years. 
 
 Various colored cloths have been worn by the 
 different clans of the Highlanders from a very 
 early period. Originally tartans, the striped and 
 spotted cloths, were worn only by native High- 
 landers ; and so the Lowlanders, the dwellers in 
 the Border Counties on the south, and the dwell- 
 ers in the northeast were excluded. More re- 
 cently many tartans have been invented and 
 manufactured. 
 
 The Highlanders have always been distin- 
 guished for bravery. 
 
3 hH 
 
 Mother 01 Robert Ross. 
 
PARENTAGE AND PUPILAGE. 2$ 
 
 The clan of Ross began with Paul MacTire, 
 famous in tradition for indomitable valor. To 
 him William, Earl of Ross, Lord of Skye, granted 
 a charter for the lands of Gairloch in 1366. 
 Some authorities date the origin as far back as 
 1220, so that the history of the clan covers from 
 five and one-quarter to six and three-quarters 
 cer tunes. The Rosses of Balnagowan were a 
 very ancient line, as they sprang from William, 
 Earl of Ross, a great patriot and steady friend 
 of King Robert I. Earl Hugh, the son of Earl 
 William of Ross, was killed at Halidon Hill, while 
 fighting for his king and country, in 1333. 
 
 Historically, therefore, Robert Ross and his 
 murderer, through their remote ancestors, were 
 natural allies by nationality. Religious dissen- 
 sions had made those ancestors members of con- 
 flicting forms of religion, Roman Catholic and 
 Protestant. The first great ecclesiastical strug- 
 gle in Scotland was for the overthrow of Roman 
 Catholicism, and accomplished its object. Inher- 
 ited prejudices had made his assailant a represen- 
 tative of historic antagonisms between Catholics 
 and Protestants. 
 
 George Ross, father of Robert, a descendant 
 
24 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 from the Highlanders, a Lowlander by birth, 
 before leaving Scotland, became engaged to Isa- 
 bella Connell, who was born in Renton, in the 
 county of Dumbarton, about fifty miles west of 
 Edinburgh, and so also her early life was spent 
 within the range of influences radiating alike from 
 the Highlands and from Edinburgh. The two 
 were born and lived in youth within sixty miles of 
 each other. 
 
 George Ross came to the United States in 1851. 
 His betrothed came in August, 1853; and they 
 were married in Brooklyn, N.Y., August 26, by a 
 Methodist pastor. They have had ten children, 
 five sons and five daughters. William Ross was 
 shot before Robert was, on the evil election day 
 in Troy, March 6, 1894. Both were born in Troy : 
 William, May 3, 1857, at 311 Ninth Street; Rob- 
 ert, September 2, 1868, at 4 43 Tenth ^ Street. 
 Robert was the youngest son. The training of 
 the several children, including that of these two 
 sons, was given first at home, a religious and moral 
 training, principally by the mother, as in most 
 homes. The Scotch antecedents and traditions 
 were a part of the family life; otherwise the 
 parents would not have been true Scotch, but a 
 
'-% 
 
 Robert Ross at four years 
 
PARENTAGE AND PUPILAGE. 2$ 
 
 Scotchman who forgets or disowns his native 
 heath is a rarity indeed. No nationality exceeds 
 his in loyalty to native land and history. 
 
 In 1877, when Robert was nine years old, the 
 family went to Mitchell, Mitchell County, Iowa, 
 where William was engaged in farming, having 
 gone thither three years before. Robert remained 
 on the farm three years. He attended the dis- 
 trict school while there, and some amusing inci- 
 dents are told of his love of fun. He was a 
 mischievous, but not an ill-disposed boy. On one 
 occasion he startled his female teacher by holding 
 a live rabbit close to her ear ; at another time 
 he suspended a broom so that when the teacher 
 opened the door to get it to sweep the school- 
 room, after the pupils were dismissed, it would 
 fall upon her. He and others waited after school 
 to see the show and hear the teacher scream. 
 While in the West all the children, except Robert, 
 were members of a Good Templar's Lodge. 
 Robert was then too young to join. The family 
 expressed the temperance sentiments and partici- 
 pated in the agitations that led Iowa to adopt 
 constitutional prohibition of the liquor traffic. 
 
 After Robert's return from the West he at- 
 
26 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 tended, for a short time, the public schools of 
 Troy, and was a faithful student. He never went 
 beyond the Grammar department. One of his 
 teachers, Miss Sarah Lundy, remembers distinctly 
 how eager he was, when a pupil of hers in the 
 drawing-class, to get all the information he could 
 in that branch. She speaks of him as serious, 
 eager, and alert to gain knowledge. He was es- 
 pecially interested in drawing, because it would be 
 of service in his anticipated work as a machinist. 
 
 While attending school in Troy, like many other 
 boys, he "carried collars." He did a kind of 
 wholesale business in this line. He had a wagon, 
 and took a large number of baskets to the shops. 
 The linen collar and cuff and shirt industries of 
 Troy are among its leading manufactures. 
 
 His teacher in the Sabbath School of the Oak- 
 wood Avenue Presbyterian Church was Wm. S. 
 Van Vleck, who had great interest in Robert as 
 well as love for him, and spoke of him as " his 
 
 boy." 
 
 When Robert was about twelve years old, one 
 of the neighbors in Troy, who kept a cow, prom- 
 ised him half a bushel of cherries from the tree 
 if Robert would catch his calf for him, as no one 
 
PARENTAGE AND PUPILAGE. 2/ 
 
 seemed to be able to do it. " Rob," or " Bob " as 
 he was nicknamed, easily caught the calf, and with 
 one hand on its head and the other on its tail, 
 which he occasionally twisted, he made the calf go 
 wherever he wished, and soon earned his basket 
 of cherries. 
 
 The remote and immediate origin of Robert 
 Ross, therefore, accounts for him fully, not merely 
 in the earlier, but later stages of his short career. 
 His Scotch ancestry, his religious parents and 
 home, his pupilage in the public schools and in the 
 Presbyterian Sabbath School, his training in the 
 knowledge of the Bible as the great rule of human 
 life and duty, his free contact with varying nation- 
 alities in a city and ward of the city proverbial for 
 its mixed nationalities, at once developed and lib- 
 eralized him. The finished result was a model 
 young man. At his funeral, held in the Second 
 Presbyterian Church, on Fifth Avenue, because of 
 its central location and its large seating capacity, 
 the Rev. Wm. H. Sybrandt, who had known him 
 well during the latter half of his life, said : 
 
 "The Americanized, Christianized blood of a 
 Scotchman flowed in his veins, and he was true to 
 his God, his home, his church, and his country." 
 
28 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER. 
 
 THERE is a phase and period of each life that 
 lies between the schools and one's home 
 and occupation. It is that phase which allies the 
 individual with his fellows, that recognizes social 
 instincts and obligations. The physical inherit- 
 ance of Robert Ross was splendid. When full- 
 grown, he was six feet, two and one-half inches in 
 height, weighed two hundred pounds, and was 
 finely proportioned. 
 
 He has been compared to Bishop Phillips 
 Brooks in two particulars — his statuesque figure, 
 and the purity of his life. He had trained him- 
 self athletically. He was fond of all kinds of in- 
 door and out-door sports, Scotch and American, 
 such as the Caledonian games, rope-pulling as a 
 test of strength, swimming, base ball, foot-ball, 
 croquet, lawn tennis, gymnastics, etc. He was 
 depended upon for feats demanding physical 
 strength and athletic judgment and skill. It was 
 
SOCIAL LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER. 29 
 
 natural and easy for him to respond to such de- 
 mands. He led in sports. He induced those 
 younger than himself to engage in them, and was 
 their eager, willing instructor. The children at 
 picnics found in him and in his leadership one 
 of the pleasures of their outing. The lower floor 
 of his home was a well equipped private gym- 
 nasium. 
 
 Not animalism but athleticism was the spirit 
 of his physical life. He kept himself pure. He 
 was free from physical vices, from the self-indul- 
 gence that is self-destroying. He refrained from 
 the roughness and pugilism to which a robust 
 physique may easily descend. He might have 
 made an admirable Y. M. C. A. gymnastic in- 
 structor, because of his trained physical powers 
 and dexterity, and his pronounced religious spirit. 
 
 In August, 1887, when he was only nineteen 
 years of age, while taking a ride in beautiful Oak- 
 wood cemetery with his father, mother, and sister 
 Maggie, the rear wheel of the carriage suddenly 
 collapsed and a serious accident seemed imminent. 
 Robert immediately jumped from the carriage and 
 caught by the head the horse, which had begun 
 to rear. With the other hand he took a firm 
 
30 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 hold of one of the horse's forelegs and threw him. 
 A runaway was thus prevented, and none of the 
 party was hurt. The horse and carriage belonged 
 to Eugene McClure, who played an unenviable 
 part in the election tragedy as a saloon-keeper 
 and alleged ally of repeaters in voting. McClure 
 had painted the wagon so that its defects were 
 concealed, although he must have known that 
 it was unsafe. 
 
 About two years ago, while Robert was put- 
 ting a water engine in a church, he got into 
 very close quarters. He had cut an opening in 
 the side of the pulpit platform just large enough 
 to admit his body by entering head first, but he 
 found after he had gone in that he was unable 
 to back out. He was all alone, and as he could 
 make no one hear him he had either to help him- 
 self out or remain a prisoner. His ingenuity, 
 however, suggested a way of egress, and his per- 
 severing will effected a release. Taking his saw, 
 which he had fortunately carried in with him, he 
 reached back and sawed off a timber behind him, 
 and thus made a safe retreat. 
 
 The Ross Valve Company belongs to the New 
 England Water Works Association, which has 
 
SOCIAL LIFE AND BUSINESS CARSEK. 
 
 31 
 
 active and associate members. Last year, 1893 
 wh.le Robert was in Worcester, Mass., two base 
 bail nines were made up one day, one nine con- 
 sisting of active members and the other of as- 
 socate members. The nine to which he be- 
 longed, consisting of associate members, was 
 victorious. 
 
 " Rob " knocked the ball away off into a body 
 of water, and made the only home run that was 
 made. 
 
 His school life was short. His tastes were 
 mechanical. They were revealed early in life 
 and were gratified and cultivated while in the 
 intermediate school. They hastened his entrance 
 upon a business career. He became a mechanic 
 a member of the Master Mechanics' Association,' 
 which held its last annual meeting in Saratoga, 
 N. Y. The Association held a memorial service 
 m Congress Hall Hotel, Sabbath evening, June 17, 
 1894. The memorial services were presided over 
 by G. W. Morris, of Pittsburg, and the memorial 
 was read by M. N. Forney, of New York. The 
 religious services were conducted by the Rev. 
 Dr. Joseph Carey, rector of Bethesda Episcopal 
 Church, Saratoga, and Archdeacon of the Convo- 
 
32 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 cation of Troy. The Bethesda Church surpliced 
 choir, and Reeve's American Band, of Providence, 
 R.I., assisted in the exercises. Robert Ross was 
 among those whose life and death were commem- 
 orated. 
 
 The hymns sung were : — 
 
 "Jesus Lover of My Soul." 
 
 " Nearer my God to Thee." 
 
 " Lead Kindly Light." 
 
 The railway officials and representatives of rail- 
 way supply houses united in a resolution, which 
 said that his qualities were gradually bringing 
 him into prominence as a successful business man, 
 and added : " we look upon him as one who gave 
 all, even his own young life, to help win and main- 
 tain clean and honest government. We recognize 
 and honor his high principles, his devotion to 
 duty, and his fearlessness in danger, which he 
 fully realized." 
 
 He was regarded as thoroughly efficient and 
 reliable. His chief work in the later years of his 
 life consisted in putting motors into church build- 
 ings for pumping organs by water power. He 
 was brought into contact with the representatives 
 of religious organizations. Church committees, 
 
SOCIAL LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER. 33 
 
 Roman Catholic priests, Protestant pastors and 
 rectors alike welcomed him as an agreeable man, 
 a skilled and trustworthy mechanic, and an ex- 
 emplar of religion and morality, whose influence 
 over his fellow-workmen was wholly for good. As 
 a business man, and a social companion, he had no 
 difficulty in affiliating with Roman Catholics, nor 
 with priests. Just before and after his death an 
 attempt was made to create the impression that 
 he was a bitter personal antagonist of Catholics. 
 His opposition was to corruption in politics. 
 
 A Protestant and a Republican, he could work 
 and vote at the polls for a Democrat and a Ro- 
 man Catholic. Any opposition from Catholics to 
 him as a Protestant issued from " the baser sort," 
 who would discredit any religious organization. 
 
 Assistant District Attorney Fagan, who pros- 
 secuted Bartholomew Shea as the murderer of 
 Robert Ross, said in his opening speech to the 
 jury: 
 
 "As a member of the Roman Catholic Church, 
 as one born and bred in the faith of that Church, 
 I wish to enter a most determined and heartfelt 
 protest against the attempt of this defendant, as 
 shown by the insinuations of his counsel, to wrap 
 himself up in the mantle of that great Church, and 
 
34 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 to attempt to hide his blood-stained hands beneath 
 the royal purple of her robe. As a member of 
 the great Democratic party, I most earnestly pro- 
 test against the effort of the defendant to clothe 
 himself in the mantle of that party, and to hide 
 his hands, stained as they are with the blood of 
 Robert Ross, in the robe of that party." 
 
 Certainly, Robert did not mix business and re- 
 ligion and Catholicism so as to defeat his own 
 legitimate objects, and the identical objects of 
 those whom he represented. He was companion- 
 able, receptive to proffered hospitality, silent 
 where controversy could easily be invited or pre- 
 cipitated ; diplomatic and wise in dealing with 
 men of varying habits, tastes, and opinions. 
 
 He often dined with Roman Catholic priests. 
 On one occasion he wanted a glass of milk, saw 
 none, and asked for it. The priest humorously 
 replied : " You'll get no milk here." A sug- 
 gestive wink directed Ross's attention to the 
 side-board, where equally suggestive and filled 
 decanters told well enough what he might have to 
 drink. He finally took tea, thereby neither of- 
 fending his host nor compromising himself as a 
 pledged total abstainer from intoxicating liquors 
 and a believer in absolute prohibition of the liquor 
 traffic. 
 
SOCIAL LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER. 35 
 
 Robert was a man of energy, a "hustler" as 
 some would say. To miss a train might mean to 
 him the loss of a clay, and he was on the alert 
 to save time and make the most of it. Having 
 occasion to do some work in a town on the 
 Hartford and New Haven Railroad, he gave up 
 his checks and left orders to have his bags all 
 ready for him when he should leave. At this 
 station a fence separates the trains going in one 
 direction from those going in another. When 
 Robert arrived at the depot, after having finished 
 his work in town, the south-bound train, which he 
 was to take, was nearly ready to start, but his 
 bags had not been cared for as he had ordered. 
 He quickly climbed over the fence, got his bags 
 and dropped them on the other side of the fence, 
 between the fence and the train. Then he 
 climbed over himself, and, standing on the car 
 platform, reached down, got the bags, and placed 
 them on the car; but in bending over to do this 
 he lost several small articles from his coat pocket : 
 he stepped quickly from the platform to pick 
 them up, and at the same moment the train 
 started ; and as the space between it and the fence 
 was very small, Robert's body was turned around 
 
36 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 by the moving car. He had presence of mind, 
 however, to drop down at once, otherwise he 
 would have been instantly killed, and to lie at full 
 length beside the track between the fence and the 
 train so that the steps of the cars passed over his 
 head, and he thus escaped unharmed. 
 
 While putting an organ motor in a church in 
 Williamsburgh, N.Y., he found that the plumbers 
 had filled with pipes the place he needed, and so 
 it was necessary to make another. 
 
 A member of the building committee, a Ger- 
 man, came in while Robert was busy, and, being 
 somewhat annoyed at what seemed to him a sort 
 of iconoclastic work, said to him, with a brogue 
 and a peculiar tone which Robert afterwards used 
 to imitate, to the great amusement of his friends, 
 " I see you're rippin' an' tare-m away." 
 
 Robert was a salesman as well as a mechanic. 
 He had tried on one occasion to sell an organ 
 motor to a Roman Catholic priest, but the rev- 
 erend gentleman would not purchase it, as he 
 thought the price was too high. Robert finally 
 made the price satisfactory, and then the priest 
 told him to "peck away." 
 
 His last business letter from the Valve Com- 
 
SOCIAL LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER. $? 
 
 pany was an order relating to work in a Catholic 
 Church. He was accustomed to sign his business 
 letters as -Rob," or -Bob," but in this instance 
 wrote his name in full, as it is seen in connection 
 with his portrait. 
 
 He patronized the firm of A. Meekin & Co., 
 King Street, Troy, in ordering printing. That 
 firm publishes a temperance and prohibition paper, 
 and in its issue for April, 1894, Mr. Meekin 
 said : — 
 
 " In business relations, we found him punctual 
 and exemplary. One trait will serve to illustrate 
 his thoughtfulness for others. While it is cus- 
 tomary in societies and churches for the chairman 
 of committee on printing to first order the work, 
 take a bill when completed and hand it to an au- 
 diting committee, through whose hands it must 
 pass in reaching the treasurer, who suits his con- 
 venience m paying it, necessitating a delay of 
 weeks and not infrequently of months, Robert 
 Ross always paid for work ordered by him took a 
 receipted bill, and thus assumed respLsSlity f ? 
 its payment. One who has waited over a year for 
 the payment of a bill amounting to one dollar 
 knows how to appreciate this trait in his character." 
 Robert Ross was one of the charter members of 
 the Esek Bussey Fire Company, No. 8, which was 
 organized January 23, 1888. Thus he became a 
 
38 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 fireman in his twentieth year. The company is a 
 volunteer organization ; named in honor of a busi- 
 ness man who has been a Trojan practically all his 
 life, and whose stove works are near the home of 
 Ross, and the Fire Company. It was confirmed by 
 the common council of the city, June 20, 1 890. An 
 honorable pride prevails in the northeastern sec- 
 tion of Troy over the existence of this company, 
 and the value of its services to the city, — the 
 name it bears, the social conditions of the build- 
 ing, its cleanliness, its homelike parlor, and the 
 fraternity of its members. 
 
 Robert Ross's name has been reviewed by the 
 company in the light of his membership, from its 
 origin to his death. Secretary Foster R. Turner 
 writes that fi his enemies can find no blot or stain 
 on his character." 
 
 He was a superb fireman, by virtue of his fig- 
 ure, strength, skill, perseverance, self-control, and 
 daring. He took a joke kindly, and ignored what 
 might offend others, when as sometimes hap- 
 pened and may happen anywhere, a joke was too 
 practical or personal, and remarks were made that 
 were stinging to a sensitive nature, whether so 
 intended or not. 
 
SOCIAL LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER. 
 
 39 
 
 It would not have been safe for most young 
 men to pick a quarrel with him, with expectation 
 that a personal encounter would ensue. He was 
 so conscious that the offender would be the worse 
 for it and so indisposed to quarrelsomeness and 
 fighting, that his silence and inaction were easily 
 comprehended and were not mistaken for crin- 
 ging and cowardice. He was a Christian when he 
 joined the company, and as a fireman he did not 
 discredit his Christianity. He was sound, not 
 only in faith, but in morals. He did not swear, 
 and, aside from the moral wrong of profanity, was 
 too much of a gentleman to be vulgar among gen- 
 tlemen. He respected their rights no less^than 
 the rights of ladies. He did not acquire the care- 
 less habits of the users of tobacco, chewers and 
 smokers, and therefore did not offend the sensi- 
 bilities of those who, whether gentlemen or ladies, 
 find cuspidors and all-pervading tobacco smoke an 
 unnecessary evil, as tested by good taste and 
 politeness. He could engage in exhausting labors 
 and exposures to extreme heat and cold, and 
 drenching rains, without resorting to alcoholic 
 stimulants as an immediate refuge and a quack 
 remedy for weakness and chills; a cure-all for real 
 
40 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 or fancied ills of the flesh. He was jovial, with- 
 out being coarse. As a young man among young 
 men he practised religion and morality so well, 
 that it was not necessary for him to preach much, 
 yet he agitated for good measures and causes. 
 
 He was spared from death by an accident only 
 to die by violence less than three months later. 
 On Thursday, December 14, 1893, a fire broke out 
 in the store of J. M. Warren & Co., corner of 
 Broadway and River Streets, the very centre of the 
 business district of Troy. A double alarm was 
 sounded at 2.21 p.m., and the signal tap announ- 
 cing that it was extinguished, at 2.30 a.m. of De- 
 cember 15. It had lasted twelve hours. During 
 its progress the officer in command ordered Fos- 
 ter R. Turner, the secretary of the Esek Bussey 
 Company, to pick out five men, and try to break 
 through the wall of the burning building. Climb- 
 ing to the neighboring roof of the firm of Stark- 
 weather & Allen, the group of picked men began 
 work. They worked long and hard but unsuccess- 
 fully, owing to the dense smoke which choked and 
 blinded them. They gave out, and a fresh relay 
 was sent to take their places, among whom was 
 Robert Ross. The fire in the meantime was 
 
SOCIAL LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER. 
 
 41 
 
 creeping slowly but surely into the building be- 
 neath them. By a determined effort on the°part 
 of the men, the hole was at last broken through 
 when the smoke became so dense, that they could 
 not see their associates at the pipes who were at 
 that time on the roof, stationed only ten feet 
 away. They started back from the wall but could 
 not see. Robert Ross approached, unconscious 
 of his danger, the edge of the roof; but others 
 apprehending it, drew him back and saved him 
 from stepping into mid-air. But for them he 
 would have fallen at least seventy-five or eighty 
 feet. As soon as the first hole through the wall 
 was broken, two streams were turned into the 
 building, stopping all further danger southward 
 Another hole was cut and the streams divided 
 and m about five hours the fire was out. 
 
 The members of the Esek Bussey Company, act- 
 ing under orders from the officer in command, had 
 accomplished the strategic and heroic work which 
 led to the extinction of the fire, and had arrested 
 its threatened extension. 
 
 On the evening of March 6, the day of Robert 
 Ross's martyrdom, about twenty of his fellow- 
 members in the Fire Company were grouped in 
 
 \ 
 
42 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 their building, enraged and outraged by the mui- 
 derous events attending the city election, that had 
 removed one of their own number, a man, a work- 
 man, a fireman, and a Christian whom they loved. 
 They were in a desperate frame of mind, obedient 
 to the law as citizens, yet eager that justice and 
 the penalties of broken law should overtake the 
 murderer. The neighborhood was the most ex- 
 cited part of a city aflame with indignation. The 
 man who would have lisped then an insinuation 
 against the name of Robert Ross probably would 
 have suffered violence at their hands. A few 
 days later, a Trojan attorney, George B. Welling- 
 ton, addressed eight hundred men who, he said, 
 would have flung away their lives for the sake of 
 the martyr and the city, if anything could have 
 been gained by it. 
 
 The walls of the parlor of the Esek Bussey 
 Fire Company are decorated by a framed crayon 
 portrait of Robert Ross, donated to the company 
 by A. Alexander, of the Troy Portrait Company. 
 A photograph is presented herewith of the engine 
 house as draped in mourning for a suitable period 
 after the martyr's death, in honor, it may be said, 
 of the loss of the most valued member of the 
 company. 
 
bd 
 
SOCIAL LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER. 45 
 
 On the eve of his death, Robert Ross was on 
 the eve of his anticipated marriage to Miss Nellie 
 May Patton, a member of a neighboring family in 
 the section of the city where he resided. Hartley 
 Coleridge [1 796-1849], son of the English philoso- 
 pher and poet, wrote an ode " On a Young Man 
 Dying on the Eve of Marriage," which may 
 rightly be recalled in its application to Robert 
 Ross and his betrothed : — 
 
 " With contrite tears, and agony of prayer, 
 
 God, we besought, thy virtuous youth to spare, 
 And thought, oh ! be the human thought forgiven, 
 Thou wert too good to die, too young for heaven; — 
 Yet sure the prayers of love had not been vain, 
 If death to thee wert not exceeding gain. 
 
 Tho' for ourselves, and not for thee we mourn, 
 The weakness of our hearts thou wilt not scorn; 
 And if thy Saviour's and thy Father's will, 
 Such angel love permit, wilt love us still, 
 For Death, which every tie of earth unbinds, ' 
 Can ne'er dissolve ' the marriage of pure minds.' " 
 
46 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CONSECRATED TO CHRIST AND THE CHURCH. 
 
 THE fruit of training in a Christian home, 
 permeated by the traditions, methods, and 
 proverbial characteristics of Scotch Presbyterian- 
 ism, ripened early in the personal life of Robert 
 Ross. The Rev. George VanDeurs, who is still 
 living in Philadelphia, was pastor of the family 
 at the time of his birth. The Rev. Wm. H. 
 Sybrandt, under whose ministry he united with 
 the church, has no recollection of having spoken 
 to the youthful parishioner on that subject. He 
 had watched the development of an attractive 
 youth, but before he was aware, Robert was ready 
 for church membership, and voluntarily presented 
 himself. The candidate met the Session of the 
 Oakwood Avenue Presbyterian Church, October 7, 
 1885, and was received into full communion, and 
 on the following Sabbath, October 11, made a 
 public profession of his faith. The pastor's text 
 that morning was Psalm 89:33 : "Nevertheless my 
 
CONSECRATED TO CHRIST 49 
 
 loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, 
 nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." The theme 
 considered was the " Faithfulness of God." It is 
 a theme worth recalling in the light of the reli- 
 gious trust and faithfulness unto death of the 
 solitary member thus received. He had been in 
 the Sabbath School since childhood. He came 
 into the church intelligently, deliberately, sin- 
 cerely, and freely. He was always a faithful 
 member of it, regular in his attendance morning 
 and evening, and a liberal contributor to its sup- 
 port. His membership covered about eight and 
 one-half years. 
 
 The church with which he united was organized 
 and its edifice dedicated in the very year that he 
 was born. It is on the corner of Tenth and Hoo- 
 sick Streets in the northeastern and hilly part of 
 the city. The manse adjoining it was built in 
 1892. In the belfry of the church is a memorial 
 bell given by John Sherry, one of Troy's success- 
 ful merchants, in memory of his wife. The bells 
 manufactured in Troy are heard all over the world. 
 In this city was cast the famous Liberty bell of 
 the Chicago Exposition. 
 
 The life of the church and the life of Robert 
 
50 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 were parallel, chronologically considered, down to 
 the date of his death. It was an off-shoot from 
 the First Presbyterian Church on First Street, and 
 had its origin in a Sunday-school formed on Tenth 
 Street by elder A. H. Graves of that church dur- 
 ing the pastorate of the Rev. Marvin R. Vincent, 
 D.D., now professor in Union Theological Semi- 
 nary, New York City, and the honorary pastorate 
 of the famous Rev. N. S. S. Beman, D.D. 
 
 George Ross, father of Robert, was one of the 
 seven deacons chosen when the church was 
 organized. He afterward served as an elder. Its 
 members belong to those whom Abraham Lincoln 
 honorably designated as " the plain people." 
 
 They are industrious, energetic, enterprising, 
 and prosperous. Robert was well aware of the 
 standing of all the churches in Troy, but he never 
 left Oakwood for a larger or richer church. 
 
 The Presbyterian churches of the city have 
 been strong in their " Young People's Christian 
 Unions " for numbers and work accomplished. 
 They have been reluctant or slow, because of this 
 fact, to re-organize as Societies of Christian En- 
 deavor. The Union in the Oakwood Avenue 
 Church is an illustration of the rule. Robert 
 
CONSECRATED TO CHRIST. 5 1 
 
 Ross identified himself with several organizations 
 of young people in the church and in the city, for 
 both sexes and for males only, such as the Union 
 already referred to, the Brotherhood of Andrew 
 and Philip, the Y. M. C. A., North Troy, and the 
 R. R. Y. M. C. A. He was favorable to the re- 
 organization of the Union as a Society of Chris- 
 tian Endeavor, which was effected November 23, 
 1893. 
 
 All the societies referred to are branches, sub- 
 divisions of the church, spiritual organizations for 
 spiritual ends. They are ecclesiastical, not secular 
 nor political. They are open to church-members 
 only, as active members ; in effect open to all the 
 young, save as differentiated by sex. They are 
 not secret. Robert was an active member, a 
 participant by accepting offices, engaging in 
 public exhortation and prayer, contributing to- 
 ward expenses and beneficences, and sharing the 
 activities and responsibilities of varied forms of 
 Christian work. Every Trojan who ever knew 
 Henry Sherrill, of the Second Presbyterian 
 Church, will think of the two as belonging to 
 the same spiritual type. 
 
 The Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip is, 
 
52 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 therefore, a young men's organization in the local 
 church, with national and inter-denominational 
 affiliations. It was organized in Reading, Penn., 
 in May, 1888, by Rev. Rufus W. Miller; and in 
 the Oakwood Avenue Church in Troy, February 
 26, 1 88 1. Robert joined it as a charter member. 
 It is religious, Christian, Protestant, denomina- 
 tional, and inter-denominational. Each denomi- 
 nation has its own Brotherhood, made up of the 
 chapters within its own body. No chapter can be 
 organized without the consent of the pastor or 
 officials in charge of a congregation. 
 
 Every man desiring to become a member must 
 pledge himself to obey the rules of the Brother- 
 hood so long as he shall be a member. These 
 rules are the rule of prayer: to pray daily for the 
 spread of Christ's kingdom among young men and 
 for God's blessing upon the labors of the Brother- 
 hood ; also the rule of service : to make an earnest 
 effort each week to bring at least one young man 
 within hearing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as 
 set forth in the services of the church, young 
 people's prayer-meetings, and young men's Bible- 
 classes. 
 
 The object and rules were adopted from the 
 
CONSECRATED TO CHRIST. 53 
 
 Brotherhood of St. Andrew, in, the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 The Badge is a button, made of various mate- 
 rials, but always in the colors red, orange, and 
 black ; the star being the symbol suggested by 
 the 
 
 MOTTO OF THE BROTHERHOOD : 
 
 <<( 3ntf trjeg tJjat be forise sfjall sfjme as trjc brightness of trje 
 firmament; antJ tfjen trjat turn mang to righteousness, as tfje 
 stars for eocr ano erjer." 
 
 Daniel xii. 3. 
 
 The three colors in combination are derived from 
 the national emblems of the countries in which 
 the Protestant Reformation arose — Germany and 
 Switzerland — and of the Netherlands, whose 
 glorious eighty years' struggle for civil and reli- 
 gious freedom and for gospel truth was for the 
 benefit of the whole world. 
 
 The chapter in the Oakwood Avenue Presby- 
 terian Church has been accustomed to meet every 
 Sabbath morning after the morning service and 
 hold a prayer meeting. Robert Ross was present 
 at the meeting held on the last Sabbath morning 
 of his life, and knelt and offered prayer. His 
 
54 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 pastor's reminiscences are peculiarly interesting 
 at this point. Mr. Sybrandt says : 
 
 " Our subject was the topic used by the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor Society in the evening, and found 
 in the eighth chapter of Romans. (Rom. viii. 
 12-17, 3 I- 39) I called attention to one verse in 
 the chapter. 'For I reckon that the sufferings 
 of this present life are not worthy to be com- 
 pared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.' 
 The last one to pray before myself was Robert 
 Ross. . . . He prayed that he might be guided 
 to know and do his duty at the coming elec- 
 tion." 
 
 That simple scene, in the light of subsequent 
 events, becomes sublime. It reminds us of the 
 Ironsides of Cromwell preparing for battle by 
 prayer. 
 
 His prayer was answered to the letter. The 
 reason for giving these facts, aside from their 
 interest and historic value in illustration of the 
 life of a hero and martyr, will appear in a later 
 chapter. It is easy to see that the society and its 
 badge would naturally attract him. It is not easy 
 to see how any one could misconceive the facts, 
 except through gross ignorance, stupidity, or 
 malice, so as to endeavor to identify him with 
 
CONSECRATED TO CHRIST 55 
 
 an alleged political-religious secret society, the 
 " A. P. A.," or American Protective Association, 
 now very much in evidence in all parts of the 
 United States, and introduced again and again 
 into the conditions that ended his life, and into 
 the proceedings in court, in the trial of Bartholo- 
 mew Shea as his murderer. 
 
 Pure and undefiled religion had the first place 
 in the expression of Robert's nature and in the 
 proportioning of his time and labors in behalf of 
 the church. He was fond of amusements, of 
 affording entertainment for others ; but he did 
 not reduce the church, as a means or an end, to 
 the rank of a social club. He did not cease 
 to cultivate himself, physically and mentally, 
 when he withdrew from school into business ; yet 
 he did not transform the church into an evening 
 school nor a parlor for society. He had the 
 power and the taste for self-culture. He used his 
 gifts freely and incessantly for the benefit of 
 others. He was always losing his own life ; but 
 on the principle revealed and formulated by Jesus 
 of Nazareth, he was finding it again in the lives 
 of others. To say so is to narrate history, not 
 to indulge in eulogy. 
 
56 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 The ninth anniversary of the Young People's 
 Christian Union of his church occurred Sabbath 
 evening, November 25, 1891. His elocutionary 
 gifts were utilized on that occasion in the recita- 
 tion of a sacred poem which had been published 
 in the New York Observer. It was entitled 
 
 "THERE IS BUT ONE BOOK." 
 
 (From the last .words of Sir Walter Scott.) 
 BY MRS. AGNES E. MITCHELL. 
 
 Fetch me the Buke, dear Lockhart, 
 
 An' gie me ane sweet ward. 
 
 What buke? there is nae ither, — 
 
 The Life o' th' Incarnate Lord; 
 
 I feel the shadows creepin' : 
 
 My licht's nae burnin' lang, 
 
 Sae read frae the blessit gospels 
 
 A bit, chiel, ere I gang; 
 
 Fin' whaur He holpit the needy, 
 
 His pity wi' His micht ! — 
 
 Oh, my soul's fair hungry, Lockhart, 
 
 For the Livin' Bread, the nicht; 
 
 I think o' the dear disciples 
 
 Sae tassit on the sea, 
 
 An' the wards he spak' tae Simon, — 
 
 I ken they'd comfort me; 
 
 Tell o' the chitterin' sparrows, — 
 
 " Nae wan o' them can fa'; " 
 
CONSECRATED TO CHRIST 57 
 
 Tell hoo he callit the bairnies, — ■ 
 The dearest thocht o' a'; 
 Read owre hoo the ravin' tempest 
 Seekit silence i' the deep; 
 Sae the surges i' my bosom 
 Are croonin' a' tae sleep; 
 
 Ye maun catch the roll o' Jordan 
 I' his wards tae the Pharisee, 
 But ye'll hear him prayin', dearie, 
 P the sough o' Galilee; 
 Dinna fash 'bout Judas's kisses; 
 Nae greet i' the garden dim, 
 But joy hoo the dyin' beggar 
 Foun' paradise wi' Him; 
 Nae hent o' Thamas dootin', 
 Nae ward hoo Peter fell; 
 It grie's me, sair, — their weakness 
 Wha ken't oor Lord sae weel; 
 
 Read o' the walk tae Emmaus 
 
 That long an' tearfu' day, 
 
 An' lat oor hearts burn, Lockhart, 
 
 As we gang the countrie way; 
 
 Pluck me ane lily, Lockhart, 
 
 A' siller-dewt an' sweet; 
 
 I speer the rose o' Sharon, 
 
 An' smell the growin' wheat; 
 
 Lat's join the throngin', dearie. 
 
 An' wait i' the wee bit ships 
 
 For the wards, like beads o' honey, 
 
 That fa' frae His haly lips; 
 
58 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Hoo sad the gospels, Lockhart, 
 Wi' His wand'rin', hameless life; 
 But there's ane grief fetches comfort, 
 Ane rest that comes o' strife; 
 Noo tak' me, kin' gude Lockhart, — 
 Aye tenner-true tae me ! — 
 Oot wi' the dear disciples, 
 " As far 's tae Bethany ;" 
 I sair need rest, belov'd, 
 An' the licht's a-wearin' dim; 
 But heaven's nae far frae Bethany, 
 An' sune I'll be wi' Him. 
 
 The selection is Scotch throughout. The re- 
 citer was of Scotch descent, and he rendered 
 effectively the sentiment by his power to inter- 
 pret the meaning through accurate and forcible 
 utterance of the dialect. It would be a difficult 
 task for a trained elocutionist who had not the 
 Scotch twist in his tongue. 
 
 When Robert was shot, he died without uttering 
 a word. If, like his brother William, he had been 
 wounded, and his sick chamber, unlike William's, 
 had become his death chamber, we can easily 
 imagine him uttering sentiments like those of the 
 last verse of the preceding poem. Bethany was a 
 hill-town. Troy is a hilly city. Ross's home was 
 on one of the hill-sides, and in reality heaven for 
 
CONSECRATED TO CHRIST. 59 
 
 him was not far away. Like Enoch, he walked 
 with God, and in the midst of a deadly strife he 
 soon was not ; for not only the cowardly, brutal 
 assassin, but the all-controlling God took him. 
 
 Wednesday evening, October 25, 1893, an en- 
 tertainment was given in the Oakwood Avenue 
 Presbyterian Church, to raise funds for sending 
 two delegates to the Council of the Brotherhood 
 of Andrew and Philip, in New York. It might 
 be called " The Society of the Innocents," so far 
 as itself or Robert Ross could be identified in any 
 way, good, bad, or indifferent, with the "A. P. A." 
 Or it might be called the two-letter society as dis- 
 tinct from the three-letter " A. P. A.," or the 
 several kindred four-letter societies, male and fe- 
 male, like the « Y. P. C. U.," the " Y. M. C. A," 
 the " W. C. T. U.," or the five-letter " Y. P. S. C. 
 E." Not one of the societies named, except the 
 " A. P. A.," is a secret society. 
 
 The subject of the entertainment was "The 
 White City " — the World's Fair in Chicago. 
 " Seven Oakwooders " told what they saw and 
 heard there, inclusive of the Ferris Wheel, the 
 Moorish palace, Russian carriages, the dairy and 
 stock-yard, agriculture, machinery, the battle-ship, 
 
6o A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Lot's wife, the street of Cairo, the electric foun- 
 tains, Buffalo Bill, humbugs, big valve, big tree, 
 and big telescope. 
 
 Robert had been one of the visitors and in- 
 vestigators, and was one of the select seven who 
 were to lecture and report in "Big Talks." His 
 subject was the " Electric Fountains," fascinating 
 to him as a master mechanic, and to all visitors and 
 listeners. He gave a very interesting explanation 
 of them. Sufficient money was raised for the 
 purpose in hand. 
 
 Such was Robert Ross, the alert, active boy; 
 the agreeable, companionable youth ; the stalwart, 
 full-grown man ; the earnest, exemplary, influential, 
 loved, admired Christian ; a Timothy under the 
 tuition of his parents, and in association with a 
 minister of the gospel. His pastor never saw him 
 angry. He was at the opposite extreme from that 
 of the Pharisee. He identified religion and moral- 
 ity. He did not divorce them so as to make the 
 two contradictory to each other. 
 
 If American Christian homes, the public schools 
 and Sabbath-schools, and the varied Young Peo- 
 ples' Societies produce one like him occasionally, 
 they do well. If their united and co-operating 
 
CONSECRATED TO CHRIST 6 1 
 
 forces can multiply the number by ten, or one 
 hundred, or one hundred thousand, the advance- 
 ment and regeneration of the nation will be accel- 
 erated at a rapid rate, and soon the final Kingdom 
 of God will be at hand. 
 
62 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MARTYRDOM AND TRANSFIGURATION. 
 
 THERE were events that preceded the fated 
 election day of March 6, that were prel- 
 udes to the revealed heroism of the several male 
 members of the Ross family and to the shooting 
 of one of them and to the martyrdom of Robert. 
 February 3, 1894, a " revolver caucus" was held, 
 so called because of the use of revolvers to accom- 
 plish election purposes through fraud and violence. 
 It was held in the first election district, on the 
 west side of River Street. Inside of the room 
 was one John McGough, who claimed to be a Re- 
 publican, manipulating votes. On the outside 
 were Bartholomew Shea, Jerry Cleary, Owen 
 Judge, and others of the same stamp. The cau- 
 cus was Republican, but the men named were re- 
 puted Democrats. They had no moral right to 
 be there, and such as they will have no legal right 
 hereafter if proposed State laws fixing penalties 
 for such conduct are enacted and executed. Dem- 
 
MARTYRDOM AND TRANSFIGURATION. 6$ 
 
 ocrats and residents in other wards voted. Re- 
 peaters voted. Pistol politics were exhibited in 
 attempts to prostitute the purity of the ballot. 
 
 Stanley O'Keefe was at the caucus, but testified 
 at the murder trial that he did not take an active 
 part. 
 
 " Did you vote ? " asked the counsel for the 
 prosecution. 
 
 "Yes, sir," was the reply. 
 "Are you a Republican ?" 
 
 "No, sir," replied the witness; and then, seeing 
 his mistake, he said that in ward elections he was 
 neutral. 
 
 John H. Boland, a well-known citizen and busi- 
 ness man, an Irishman, a Roman Catholic, de- 
 manded that such voting should cease. John Ross 
 was in the room. Turmoil ensued ; the crowd 
 from the outside forced its way into the room, and 
 " Bat " Shea ran out the back way with the ballot- 
 box, covering his retreat with a revolver. 
 
 When on the witness stand, he was asked, — 
 "What use did you have for the ballot-box?" 
 and he answered, " None." 
 " What did you take it for ? " 
 "For safe keeping." 
 
64 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 " How many more ballots were in the box when 
 you returned it to McGough than before you got 
 it : 
 
 •• I didn't count them." 
 
 The caucus related to the election of an alder- 
 man. The ballot-box was returned, the caucus 
 continued, and McGough and his assistant declared 
 their candidate the successful candidate. Mean- 
 while, the people opposed to the designers and 
 iters, among whom were the Ross boys, held 
 another caucus. 
 
 T::eir father was choked at the election in No- 
 vember, 1893. by a policeman, when Robert was 
 ejected from the polls for challenging illegal voters, 
 and the other Ross boys were driven away. 
 
 The Rosses were determined, yet not defiant. 
 Antagonism to themselves as citizens and Repub- 
 licans was to be met by resistance, in the interests 
 of a pure and protected ballot. They knew their 
 
 rs nai rights and the common rights of citizens, 
 and dared to maintain them. Hence they were 
 hated. Cowardice or courage was their alterna- 
 tive, and they showed courage. Submission or 
 brigandage was the alternative of McGough and 
 Shea, who were lawless and wicked enough to re- 
 
MARTYRDOM AXD TRAKSFIGURATIOa \ 
 
 sort to further violence ; to carry firearms, and, in 
 
 madness or desperation, to _ 
 
 deadly aim and consequ -.-.-. 
 
 meeting and test of both sides would be a: 
 
 election a month later. The R sses : 
 
 their lives were in danger. : 
 
 cured cocobola sticks, ten and a half inches long, 
 
 for defensive purposes, turned them at their own 
 
 A distributed them among their co- 
 ers. who were watcher - oils. Al : u 
 
 of these sticks were distributed, but not all 
 actually carried to the polls. R 3 had 
 
 one, but en lost it when he fell in :. g 
 
 One was used with good effc 
 
 During the indiscrimi:. iring ol 
 
 revolvers that occurred at noon. March 6. a re- 
 volver shot flashed in the face o: ss : 
 He turned, and saw a rev 
 He threw up his hand and pushed up th e 
 and : on exploded over his head. He 
 his stick from his side 
 sailant, .vho fell. Xo further attention « 
 to the fallen assailant, because Robert had been 
 shot, and needed and received attention. 
 
 The lesal counsel that the Rosses had received 
 
66 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 was supported by the advice of Governor Flower, 
 given to a committee of citizens who waited on 
 him in Albany, on the day previous to election, 
 that repeaters should be driven from the polls. 
 
 The polling-place on election day was a one- 
 story frame house on the eastern side of Orr 
 Street, in North Troy. It stands by itself in the 
 picture of its surroundings. Across the street is 
 a gully filled with brush, the whole scene being 
 then bare of verdure, owing to the season of the 
 year. On election morning law-abiding citizens 
 who knew the bravado and criminality of the 
 roughs with whom they were dealing were early at 
 the polls, determined by their presence, their num- 
 bers, their character and reputation, to prevent 
 illegal voting. The roughs were not over-awed. 
 They too appeared, and carried concealed firearms, 
 contrary to law. The Rosses did not carry fire- 
 arms, even for defence. The watchers represented 
 the Republican, Democratic, Socialist-Labor, and 
 Prohibition parties. Neither McGough nor Shea 
 were registered voters in the third district of the 
 thirteenth ward. All the male members of the 
 Ross family were registered voters in that ward 
 and district. Between ten and eleven o'clock in 
 
: 
 
MARTYRDOM AND TRANSFIGURATION. 69 
 
 the morning William Ross spoke to Martin Kane, 
 a policeman who was off duty. As he did so, 
 Shea reached over and struck him in the face. 
 His younger brother John, diplomatic, but wise, 
 said to him, "Take that; we don't want any 
 trouble here." 
 
 Repeaters voted on four names ; and the in- 
 spector of election at the trial of Shea testified 
 that he knew all four persons, and that the men 
 who voted were not those persons. They were 
 compelled to swear in their votes. They entered 
 the polling-place in a line. The Democratic in- 
 spectors did not challenge any voters. The name 
 of William Armstrong was one of the names 
 illegally voted on. He testified as follows, — 
 
 " I got my ballots and went into the booth. I 
 was folding the ballot-s when I heard my name 
 called out. I then stepped out of the booth and 
 faced a man, whom I asked, l Are you William 
 Armstrong?' — 'Yes, I am,' said be. * Do you 
 live at 53 Glen Avenue?* I asked. The man 
 said he did ; but I told him he did not, for I 
 was the only William Armstrong who lived there. 
 I told the election officers not to take the vote, 
 and then stepped back into the booth and com- 
 pleted my ballots. When I went out to vote I 
 was compelled to swear it in, some one having 
 voted on my name." 
 
yo A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Armstrong's vote was cast about half-past 
 twelve o'clock. A fifth repeater, hearing the dis- 
 charge of firearms on the outside, discontinued 
 his attempt to vote, and escaped. 
 
 The firing had been occasioned by the fact that 
 a protest had been made by Ellis Hayner, a repre- 
 sentative watcher, against the illegal voting. 
 Hayner was struck; William Ross was shot in the 
 back of the head, and did not see who shot him ; 
 Robert Ross was murdered. He was bareheaded 
 when shot. His face was turned to the west. 
 Bartholomew Shea fired the fatal shot, standing 
 within two feet of him. Robert had fallen while 
 pursuing McGough, the assailant of his brother. 
 Four or five months previously, on his way from 
 Long Island City, where he had been engaged in 
 putting a motor in a church organ, to Brooklyn, 
 he crossed Newtown Creek. He was in a great 
 hurry to keep an appointment he had made ; and, 
 without waiting until the draw in the bridge upon 
 which he had stepped had swung to its place, he 
 jumped to the other part of the bridge, and 
 sprained his ankle. He was laid up for a couple 
 of weeks, and his ankle was left so weak that 
 when he stepped upon a small stone it would 
 
MARTYRDOM AND TRANSFIGURATION. yi 
 
 throw him down. It was still weak at the time 
 of the tragedy. These facts probably account for 
 his sinking to a sitting position. Shea took 
 advantage of the situation, came close to him, 
 and fired the fatal shot ; then escaped, and after- 
 ward was arrested. He passed between William 
 and Robert Ross while firing. John Ross was 
 quick to reach Robert and minister to him ; and 
 he exclaimed, " If there are American citizens 
 here, arrest that man ! " meaning the fleeing mur- 
 derer. One hundred people stood about the polls 
 at the time of the tragedy. 
 
 The firing was general and rapid from the 
 crowd of roughs, a fusillade "sounding like a bunch 
 of fire-crackers." From fifteen to twenty shots 
 are supposed to have been fired. It seemed, said 
 one witness, as if a Wild West show were in 
 progress. Shea himself received a scalp wound. 
 It could not have been made by Robert Ross, for 
 he had no revolver. He was abundantly able to 
 defend himself in tackle with most men ; he was 
 conscious of the fact, and he acted accordingly. 
 Hatred was not in his heart, except the right- 
 eous anger against criminals and brutes, without 
 which human nature is dehumanized and un- 
 Christianized. 
 
a ::artyr of to-day. 
 
 Dr. S. F. I g M.D., who made the post- 
 
 mortem examination, has made many similar ex- 
 aminations, but has never seen M a finer specimen 
 of physical manhood than the dead man." 
 
 We have given the :. uts, not as derived from 
 rumor, nor from newspapers only, nor from the 
 family and friends, but from legal proceedings, the 
 coroner's inquest, and the trial of the murderer 
 E x :ement followed as a matter of course. The 
 :ts of the people, true as truth itself, dis- 
 cerned instantly that Robert Ross was something 
 more than a victim and an unfortunate ; that he 
 : :. v blameless, but heroic and representa- 
 that he had died for a principle, for the 
 purity of elections, for an honest ballot in the 
 voting and the counting, for the preservation of 
 American ins: is. He was a martyr, "a bless- 
 
 ed m His blood was sacrificial blood, and 
 
 •juld make it the seed of municipal 
 purification and reform. He died on Tuesday. 
 
 The indignation meeting of Thursday evening 
 
 I i funeral mi Friday afternoon. 
 
 Twice, on successive days, the city paid its tribute 
 
 of affection to its dead hero and its transfigured 
 
 martyr. 
 
MARTYRDOM AXD TRANSFIGURA TIOl ' 
 
 Troy has known the pomp and glorv of 
 funerals, in the burial of I 
 
 - - [86c Colonel Ellsworth 1 837-1 861 
 Major-General George H. Thor. s -: ": 
 
 General W .-s a her : : ; : 
 
 the Mexican War, of Indian : our 
 
 Civil War. Troy honored him br 
 had opened a recrui: , ffice en a 
 
 and had circi: : 
 otic young men of the count and 
 
 _ 5 then to avenge ^ngs 
 
 committed on on . country, or die in 
 
 attempt." Rot- that s ;h an 
 
 appeal had come to him from God, and he d. 
 the attempt to prevent and undo the wrongs com- 
 mitted against his city and coun: 
 
 Colonel E'.r.:er E.'s shot in 1861, 
 
 at Alexandria, Va,, while hauli. lg 
 
 flag as a former I 
 but transient residence and e g _ . .ent in busi- 
 ness. Frank Brownell, his ai eng 
 Hence both men were bigl 
 
 the remains issed 
 
 through Troy on their Mechanics - XV. 
 
 for buriaL 
 
74 A MARTYR OF TO-BAY. 
 
 General George H. Thomas, " the Rock of 
 Chickamauga," died in San Francisco in 1S70, and 
 his body was brought to Troy for burial in beauti- 
 ful Oakwood Cemetery, closely following that of 
 General Wool to its last resting-place. President 
 Grant and the members of his cabinet, Generals 
 Sherman, Sheridan, and Meade, attended the 
 funeral. 
 
 Troy has known, also, the solemnity and awe 
 and righteous but suppressed wrath attending the 
 burial of a leading citizen and public official who 
 was murdered. In 1867 Thomas H. Bailey, Chief 
 Engineer of Hugh Ranken Steamer Company 
 No. 2, was shot and killed without cause; and his 
 funeral occurred from the same Second Presby- 
 terian church as the funeral of Robert Ross. 
 Similarly, it was attended by crowds far too 
 numerous to secure admission into the church. 
 
 It is with such men, and such mournful yet 
 honoring and honorable conditions, that Robert 
 Ross and his funeral and burial are to be classed ; 
 yet from which his life and death are isolated 
 and differentiated. He was a private citizen, the* 
 youngest of those mentioned. They were all 
 heroes, and he was a hero. Three were soldiers ; 
 
MARTYRDOM AND TRANSFIGURATION. 7$ 
 
 but he was not a soldier. Two were firemen, and 
 he was a fireman. But, strictly speaking, he alone 
 was a martyr. His funeral was a civic funeral; 
 and Trojans, irrespective of sect, political party, 
 or social rank, were his mourners, save as his an- 
 tagonists at the polls had sympathizers among 
 men of their own class ; and a few political parti- 
 sans sought to eliminate the thought of martyr- 
 dom, by representing the result as due to partisan 
 or religious strife, and a personal encounter be- 
 tween a few individuals and ward factions. Sena- 
 tor Murphy of the United States Senate, and a 
 resident of Troy, regarded the killing and death 
 as "deplorable." Less than that no one ought to 
 say who believes in law and order, in human free- 
 dom and righteousness. 
 
 The funeral addresses were delivered by the 
 Rev. Wm. H. Sybrandt and the Rev. James W. 
 Ford. The address of the pastor of the deceased, 
 the intimate friend of the living and the dead of 
 the family, was brief but comprehensive. It out- 
 lined Robert's youthful life, characterized him 
 worthily, and drew the lessons of his career as 
 teaching the manliness of true Christianity and 
 the nobility of blameless and zealous Christian 
 
?6 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 citizenship. The family requested that there be 
 no police protection at the funeral. The request 
 was granted, and there was good order, notwith- 
 standing the vast crowds. Likewise, at their re- 
 quest, there was no band music. Boring's band 
 had been engaged by the Republican club. The 
 vocal and instrumental (organ) music was by the 
 most gifted musicians of the city, members of 
 the Mendelssohn quartet. Two brothers and four 
 cousins of the deceased acted as pall-bearers. 
 The Esek Bussey Fire Company, of which he was 
 a member, was strongly represented at the funeral 
 service and in the line of march. The Andrew 
 and Philip Brotherhood wore their colors, red, 
 orange, and black. The organ loft was draped 
 with the American flag ; the pulpit with mourn- 
 ing and patriotic emblems. The tolling of the 
 church bell could be heard by the murderer con- 
 fined in the Troy jail. 
 
 The burial was in Oakwood Cemetery, one of 
 the most beautiful cemeteries in the country. It 
 is not far from the scenes of the martyr's entire 
 life. It commands extensive prospects of the 
 surrounding country. It contains the Gardner 
 Earl Memorial Chapel, a beautiful and imposing 
 
MARTYRDOM AND TRANSFIGURATION. ? g 
 
 Romanesque structure, whose tower is as con 
 sp.cuous as the cluster of towers on the Roman 
 Cathohc Theological Seminary, and equally con- 
 sp.cuous in arresting the attention of travellers 
 in entering or leaving the city. 
 
 The monument that contains the portrait of 
 Kobert ,s a family monument owned by his father 
 and his uncle, Adam Ross. The flowers that 
 env.ron it tell their own story. The inscriptions 
 bespeak the love of his nearest kindred, and of 
 his youthful associates in the Brotherhood of 
 Andrew and Philip, and in soeia]> ^^ ^ 
 religious life. Among them was a beautiful 
 wreath, bearing the familiar name « Rob " in im 
 mortelles, sent by his intended bride. They tell 
 how "He Stood for His Rights," as a man and 
 an American. They record that he died as a 
 "martyr." The cross on which the Saviour died 
 whose atonement he accepted, is repeatedly sym- 
 bolized. The flag that he revered as the emblem 
 of his country is in the foreground and in the 
 background. The dove, emblem of the Spirit of 
 God, as the life of the spirit of man, and the gen- 
 erator of holiness in men, is pictured with -real 
 beauty and reverence. The whiteness of his° life 
 
80 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 is symbolized by the entire collection of flowers 
 and groups of designs. The wreath and the harp 
 are suggestive of his condition and occupation in 
 the regions of bliss and immortality. The grave 
 of his sister Jennie, who, in 18S7 and in her 
 sixteenth year, died of slow fever, is concealed ; 
 but they who were united to Christ in life, and 
 who are asleep in Jesus, are reunited, we may be 
 sure, where " there shall be no more death," no 
 more sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. 
 
 The burial is not only in a beautiful cemetery 
 and location, but in comparatively close neighbor- 
 hood with two of the nation's great generals 
 whom we have named. The monument to Gen- 
 eral Wool is the most conspicuous of the numer- 
 ous monuments that adorn the city of the dead, 
 and silently teach the lessons of the life that is 
 life indeed. It consists of a stately monolith, 
 seventy-five feet in height. 
 
 The inscription was composed by William Cul- 
 len Bryant, — 
 
 " THIS STONE IS ERECTED TO 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN E. WOOL, 
 
 THE GALLANT SOLDIER, 
 
 THE ABLE COMMANDER, AND THE PATRIOTIC CITIZEN, 
 
 DISTINGUISHED IN MANY BATTLES." 
 
MARTYRDOM AND TRANSFIGURATION. 8 1 
 
 The monument to General Thomas, in another 
 part of the extensive grounds, is a finely sculp- 
 tured sarcophagus, surmounted with a granite 
 American eagle, grasping in its talons an accurate 
 representation of the sword used by him and with 
 which he obtained renown during the war. 
 
 A suitable monument appropriate in design will 
 be erected to Robert Ross, probably not in the 
 cemetery nor on the spot where he was killed. A 
 tablet on an inscribed stone will be sufficient for 
 the latter place. -The Robert Ross Memorial 
 Association" of Troy ladies was organized in 
 Music Hall, Monday, March 26, and is now 
 rapidly collecting funds, securing designs, and 
 site, and will ultimately dedicate a bronze statue. 1 
 ^ Seminary Park was selected by the associa- 
 tion, but refused by a tie vote of the Park Com- 
 missioners. It is an eminently desirable place in 
 the heart of the city. The monument would be 
 only two blocks distant from the splendid Sol- 
 diers' and Sailors' Monument on Washington 
 Square, which commemorates the record of the 
 men of Rensselaer County, New York, who took 
 part in the Civil War of 1861-65. Its naval 
 
 1 See Note, page 86. 
 
82 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 scene on one of the sides in the lower stone-work, 
 in bronze bas-reliefs, represents an engagement 
 between the floating batteries, "The Monitor" 
 and "The Merrimac," because two Trojans, John 
 A. Griswold and John F. Winslow, obtained for 
 Capt. John F. Ericsson, the contract for the con- 
 struction of "The Monitor," and with Cornelius 
 S. Bushnell of New Haven assumed the heavy re- 
 sponsibility of securing the government against 
 all loss of money, if the vessel should prove un- 
 serviceable or incomplete. 
 
 A monument to Mrs. Emma Willard, the princi- 
 pal of the famous Troy Female Seminary, is to be 
 erected in Seminary Park. A monument to the 
 Rev. N. S. S. Beman, D.D., a clergyman of na- 
 tional reputation, and for a generation a leader in 
 the Presbyterian Church in the United States, 
 ought to be erected there. One of the parks of 
 the city is already named after him. 
 
 The court-house in which the murderer of 
 Robert Ross was tried and convicted faces Semi- 
 nary Park. There was poetic justice in securing 
 the verdict on the eve of the Fourth of July ; for 
 he was a martyr to the cause of human liberty. 
 If the statue of Robert Ross should face toward 
 
MARTYRDOM AND TRANSFIGURATION. 85 
 
 the court-house, in gratitude for the accomplish- 
 ment of the ends of justice, and in appeal for the 
 enforcement of all laws, especially those intended 
 to secure a pure ballot and to punish the violators 
 of the laws of the suffrage, the proprieties would 
 be suitably observed. But another location must 
 be chosen. 
 
 An appropriate conclusion of this narrative of 
 pathetic and tragic facts which redound to the 
 glory of Robert Ross, and the credit and dis- 
 credit of Troy, is the following poem by John C. 
 Ball, published in The Troy Times, April 3, 
 
 IN MEMORIAM — ROBERT ROSS. 
 
 BY JOHN C. BALL. 
 
 A hero slain ! His sacred ashes rest 
 
 Where Oakwood's silence urns the hallowed dead, 
 
 In beauty near Troy's high industrial walls. 
 
 Slain ! Slain for what? Slain for fair Freedom's sake ! 
 
 Sad kinship weeps, a city's heart is stirred 
 
 With deep emotion, a great commonwealth, 
 
 Ay, a nation for a martyred son 
 
 Trembles from centre to circumference, 
 
 And queries, Why, O God, this sacrifice? 
 
 A hundred years a nation ! This freedom? 
 
 The freedom which our fathers bought with blood, 
 
 That all inheritors should be to life, 
 
 Liberty, and pursuit of happiness? 
 
 O Freedom, thy fair name is writ in blood ! 
 
86 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 To espouse thy beauty is to win thee, 
 By force of arms: and then to hold thee fast 
 From ravishment still costs the price of blood. 
 Freedom, fair goddess of the human heart ! 
 Thou priceless gift the soul of man esteems — 
 E'en death with thee amid dread war's alarms 
 Is counted gain, for then no slavery is; 
 And yet, to live and own thee as a guest, 
 Perpetual 'neath each roof-tree in the land, 
 Each loyal heart desires. For this brave Ross 
 Upon thine altar shed his loyal blood; 
 And men and women weep. 
 
 Hail, goddess fair ! 
 Thy votaries rear upon thine altared hills 
 Their heart's memorial to the loyal brave 
 Who gave his fresh young life a sacrifice. 
 We raise no bleeding hecatomb, nor pyre 
 Of sacrificial flame to unknown gods; 
 But to the God of justice and of right, 
 To thee, fair goddess — thou his gift to man — 
 And to Robert Ross — a martyred freeman — 
 We give the tribute of our grateful hearts. 
 
 Troy, N.Y., March 26, 1894. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 About ten well-known artists, several of whom are ladies, will sub- 
 mit models by the first Tuesday in October, and from these, one will be 
 selected. The successful artist will secure the commission, while a prize 
 of $250 will be given for the second best design, and another of #150 for 
 the third best. 
 
COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY. 8y 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED FOR PUBLIC 
 SAFETY. 
 
 DEFORE Robert Ross was buried, the citizens 
 L> of Troy had assembled in mass meetings, 
 to commemorate his death and to institute meas- 
 ures for the safety not only of the lives of other 
 citizens, but the security and welfare of the city 
 itself. More than one man had been shot. More 
 than two men had been fired at. More than three 
 men had been threatened. More than four were 
 regarded as in danger of their lives. The friends 
 of several clergymen accompanied them for a 
 number of days, knowing more than the clergy- 
 men themselves how numerous were the threats 
 made against them, and how base and rash were 
 the roughs who threatened. 
 
 The citizens' meetings were held in the Second 
 Presbyterian and Second Baptist Churches on 
 Fifth Avenue. In reality they were one meeting, 
 and the addresses were repeated. Hon. Martin 
 
A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 I. Townsend, ex-Congressman, the Gladstone of 
 Troy, characterized it as the grandest meeting 
 which had ever been held in Troy during his ex- 
 perience of fifty years. Probably there has been 
 not a single meeting in the city, of great public 
 moment, for half a century, that he has not at- 
 tended and in which he has not borne a promi- 
 nent part. He is still "the old man eloquent" 
 and witty. 
 
 The fact that the meeting was held so promptly 
 was significant, itself an evidence of the revival 
 of the Trojan spirit of earlier and better days. 
 Before Fort Sumter was fired on in 1861, as soon 
 as some of the Southern States had passed or- 
 dinances of secession, a number of Trojans vol- 
 unteered their services to preserve the Federal 
 Union, January 2, 1861. They formed an infantry 
 company January n, '61, "in anticipation" of the 
 necessities that might arise from a rupture in 
 civil affairs ; and " The Freeman Cadets " was 
 the first purposely organized body of local sol- 
 diery north of Mason and Dixon's line to take 
 part in the war inaugurated several months later. 
 Troy sent the second regiment of the State to the 
 war ; and Capt. John W. Armitage's Company, on 
 
COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY. 89 
 
 Thursday, April 18, 1861, tendered its services to 
 Governor Morgan, the first company offered to and 
 accepted by the State under President Lincoln's 
 call for troops made on the previous Monday. 
 
 The speakers were representative men, in the 
 pulpit, at the bar, and in business. They avowed 
 that henceforth by the process of rebellion against 
 tyranny and corruption, citizens should be free 
 from brutality, from the audaciously illegal and 
 perjured voter, from one-man power centralized in 
 a political boss, and from the horde of illiterate, 
 cheap, and crafty officials who had become lodged 
 in the various branches of the city government. 
 The Rev. L. M. S. Haynes, D.D., pastor of the 
 First Baptist Church, characterized Robert Ross 
 as a martyr as follows, — 
 
 "Thirty-two years ago the ninth day of August 
 next, I was standing at the head of my battery on 
 a little hillock facing Cedar Mountain in the State 
 of Virginia. By my side stood a brave boy of 
 nineteen summers in charge of one of the guns. 
 Without a moment's warning, in the height of the 
 battle, a shell from the enemy's side struck the 
 lad on the side of the head, tearing it nearly off, 
 and he fell at my feet a martyr for the cause of 
 human liberty ; and I declare to-night to you that 
 
90 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Robert Ross, a brave, Christian, industrious, be- 
 nevolent young man, was just as much a martyr 
 as Nelson Phillips." 
 
 With equal clearness it was discerned and 
 asserted that Shea was a representative man, — 
 the representative of corruption in politics, of 
 bossism and brutality, of the completed products 
 of the saloon. The ruling politician of the city 
 for a decade and a half has been Edward Murphy, 
 Jr., now Junior U. S. Senator of the State of 
 New York. He was alderman of Troy in 1865, 
 fire commissioner from 1874 to 1879, mayor from 
 1875 to 1882. He has been a brewer since 1867, 
 his establishment containing all the modern in- 
 ventions and conveniences for malting and brew- 
 ing ale and porter. His business has induce 1 
 him to foster the multiplication of saloons, to 
 increase the sale of liquors, to be identified with 
 the wholesale and retail liquor traffic. In politics, 
 he has pressed the button, and the saloon and the 
 police have done the rest. This will explain why 
 the Rev. Eben Halley, D.D., spoke as follows, — 
 
 "I have lived in Troy eight years, and I have 
 had young women come to me who were turned 
 out of their places as school-teachers ; and they 
 
COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY. 9 1 
 
 1 have said, ' Dr. Halley, what can you do for me ? ' 
 and I have said, ' I can do nothing.' They have 
 gone to the school commissioners, and they could 
 do nothing ; but the school commissioners have 
 said, 'You must go to the brewery;' and so we 
 have found men who had influence at the brewery, 
 and those teachers were retained in their positions. 
 I have lived in this city, and I have seen it roll up 
 a fraudulent majority. I have seen it roll up a 
 fraudulent vote of three thousand five hundred, 
 and you all know how that vote was secured." 
 
 At the conclusion of this meeting, a Committee 
 of One Hundred for Public Safety was appointed. 
 It was composed of representatives of the reli- 
 gion, the culture, the business, the enterprise, of 
 the city, and of opposing faiths in religion and 
 politics. Hence it was non-partisan. Partisan- 
 ship under such conditions as then prevailed is 
 treason. 
 
 The Rev. Theophilus P. Sawin, pastor of the 
 First Presbyterian Church, in addressing the 
 meeting of the ladies in Music Hall, where 
 the "Robert Ross Monument Association" ori- 
 ginated, said, " On this issue (legal and pure 
 elections) all honest men are Catholic in their 
 desire for universal right, and all are Protestant 
 in their warfare against wrong." 
 
92 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Senator Murphy was not appointed on the 
 committee, but his parish priest, the Rev. Peter 
 Havermans, was appointed. Father Haver.mans 
 is to the Roman Catholicism of Troy what Hon. 
 Martin I. Townsend has been to its civic life. 
 He is nearly ninety years of age. He was the 
 second Roman Catholic priest in the United 
 States to manifest his own loyalty and that of his 
 parishioners, in 1861, by hoisting a United States 
 flag on the steeple of St. Mary's Church, and he 
 kept it floating there until the close of the war. 
 He has freely fraternized with Protestants. 
 
 Ex-Director of the Rensselaer Polytechnic In- 
 stitute, David M. Greene, Civil Engineer, has 
 been the chairman of the committee. Its meet- 
 ings have been secret and its proceedings con- 
 fidential. Its work, in part, has consisted in 
 aiding the legal prosecution of the murderer of 
 Robert Ross, associating itself with the muni- 
 cipal reform movement throughout the State and 
 the nation through the Municipal and Lyceum 
 Leagues, the City and Civic and Good Govern- 
 ment Clubs. The committee was represented in 
 the national organization that was formed in New 
 York City, May 28 and 29. A large delegation 
 
COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY. 93 
 
 of the committee visited New York, April 18, by 
 special invitation, and two of its legal members, 
 Seymour Van Santvoord and George B. Welling- 
 ton, addressed the City and Good Government 
 Clubs. Attorney Wellington spoke as follows of 
 election methods in Troy : — 
 
 " For fifteen years, at least, there has not been an 
 honest election in the city of Troy — city, county, 
 State, or national. Within a circle, of which Troy 
 might be considered a centre, with a radius of nine 
 miles, there has been a number of elections in 
 which enough fraudulent votes were cast to change 
 the election of a president of the United States, 
 and State officials in every department of our State 
 service, not excluding the judiciary. The nature 
 of the crimes committed you know, but I will enu- 
 merate them : Voting on names of persons not 
 electors within the district ; repeating, i.e., voting 
 on the names of electors a number of times ; stuff- 
 ing ballot boxes ; stealing ballot boxes and substi- 
 tuting others with ballots therein not cast ; false 
 counting ; falsifying the returns ; and bribery. 
 Repeating, technically so-called, is of compara- 
 tively recent origin, . . . that is, voting twice, 
 thrice, four times on a single name. ... In some 
 districts last fall the votes of repeaters, demonstra- 
 bly such, were equal to at least twenty-five per 
 cent of the lawful vote cast. . . . Every attempt 
 to correct the evil has met with vigorous opposi- 
 
94 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 tion. There is an organization in Troy which sup- 
 ports with its influence and its money this evil. 
 . . . Repeaters are given names to vote on and 
 are told the residences they are to claim. Who 
 instructs them ? There is a common aim among a 
 miserable lot of criminals of low intellectual order, 
 scattered through a city strange to many of them, 
 to violate the law, which they do without hin- 
 drance. They are paid for their work. They 
 have their guides and instructors. The guides 
 act with a common design. ... It is the guilt 
 of bribery that has made cowards of many of our 
 citizens and has made criminally inefficient many 
 of our officials. 
 
 " The power which has ruled us has controlled 
 absolutely every department of our city and county 
 government. During all the years that have been 
 filled with open, boastful crimes against our liber- 
 ties, not a single conviction was ever had in our 
 county for an offence against the ballot until this 
 spring, when one man pleaded guilty to an in- 
 dictment for false voting, and was sent to the 
 penitentiary. During that period not a single 
 indictment was ever found for election crimes 
 until this spring, when two indictments were found 
 out of over thirty cases, which were in every re- 
 spect complete. Indeed, it became impossible to 
 get a grand jury drawn according to the statute." 
 
 The charge of bribery is serious enough ; but it 
 is not the most serious charge that has been made 
 
COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY. 95 
 
 against "the powers that be" in Troy, and of 
 whom it can hardly be said with truth, that they 
 are ordained of God. During the trial of the mur- 
 derer of Robert Ross, the charge of conspiracy 
 was made by the prosecution, conspiracy between 
 politicians and roughs, against the lives of the 
 watchers of the polls in the 13th ward on election 
 day. 
 
 Mrs. Thomas A. Titus testified that on that day 
 she stood near a barn on Douw Street, not far 
 from the polling-place, and heard a conversation 
 while she stood there. 
 
 Six persons were together in a group, one man 
 standing against the barn and the other five sur- 
 rounded him. Mrs. Titus testified as follows : — 
 
 " I stood six feet away from them with my back 
 turned. Two of the six men were Shea and Mc- 
 Gough. I heard the men say, 'We'll slug them.' 
 ' Kill them, and twenty-five dollars is yours ! ' 
 
 " Then I heard a man say, ' Well, slug them and 
 kill them if you can, and twenty-five dollars is 
 yours.' I heard one of the men say, 'How do I 
 know I'll get my money ?' To this the man who 
 stood against the barn answered, ' Your money 
 will be waiting for you when the work is done.' 
 The men then went over in the direction of the 
 polling- place." 
 
g6 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 The deliberation with which Shea shot Ross was 
 terrible ; but here is evidence that seems to be 
 proof, that he did it for a price, and a small one. 
 The assistant-district attorney compared him to 
 Judas, who not only betrayed Jesus, but did it for 
 thirty pieces of silver. 
 
 The Committee of Public Safety prepared a bill 
 which was passed by the State legislature, that 
 legislated out of office the entire Troy police force 
 — commissioners, chief, captains, sergeants, detec- 
 tives, and patrolmen ! No person who had not been 
 a citizen of the United States five years was to be 
 eligible to appointment on the force, or who had 
 ever been convicted of crime, or who could not read 
 and write the English language understandingly. 
 A clause provided that it should be the duty of 
 every member of the force to arrest repeaters 
 on election day without a warrant, and that at 
 least five days prior to every election the super- 
 intendent should issue an order so instructing the 
 officers. 
 
 While it was in charge of Governor Flower, for 
 his signature or veto, the committee delivered to 
 him, Monday, April 23, a communication, urging 
 him to sign it, on the ground of the inefficiency of 
 
Judge Williams, who sentenced the Murderer ot Robert Ross. 
 
 Published in the Troy Times. Reproduced by permission. 
 
COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY. 
 
 97 
 
 the police and the insecurity of life and property 
 under their charge. 
 
 The following illustrations of inefficiency and 
 insecurity were given, inclusive of direct reference 
 to issues and conditions resulting from the death 
 of Robert Ross : — 
 
 "(i.) On April 19, about four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, m a place of business on Fourth Street 
 within two blocks of police headquarters, near* 
 the heart of the city, a reputable merchant was 
 shot down m his office by two thieves, who en- 
 tered and attempted to rob the safe. After the 
 shooting the thieves passed into the street and 
 escaped In their flight through the city they 
 traversed a distance of over a mile, and were pur- 
 sued by a large concourse of people ; but not a 
 policeman was seen in the entire course of the 
 flight The thieves were armed, and at intervals 
 fired at their pursuers. Their victim died the 
 following morning, but the criminals have not vet 
 been arrested. y 
 
 "(2.) On the r6th of the month a man named 
 L,ee, employed m a collar manufactory on River 
 Street, the main thoroughfare of Troy, was stand- 
 ing m the doorway of the factory, in broad day- 
 light He was fired at by two men, who, after 
 shooting drove away. The intended victim was 
 not hit, but the bullet lodged near him in the cas- 
 ing of the door. No arrests have been made 
 
o8 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Mr. Lee was a witness against Shea at the Ross 
 
 inquest. . . 
 
 "(3.) On Wednesday evening of this week, 
 about half -past nine, a woman was assaulted on 
 Pawling Avenue, one of the principal suburban 
 streets. She was thrown down and her clothing 
 was torn, but her assailant was driven away by a 
 citizen who was passing. No arrest has been 
 made in this case. 
 
 " (4.) A few days ago a respectable citizen of 
 the thirteenth ward, passing to his home late in 
 the evening, was intercepted and pursued by ruf- 
 fians, and was obliged to take refuge in the house 
 of a neighbor, and remained there all night. This 
 gentleman was also a witness against Shea at the 
 Ross inquest. 
 
 "The above occurrences have all taken place 
 within ten days, in the most populous and fre- 
 quented sections of the city. All the criminals 
 are at large." 
 
 Governor Flower vetoed the bill, partly on ac- 
 count of his own " supposition" that the bill was 
 not wanted by a majority of the people of Troy. 
 An interesting cartoon relating to himself and 
 Senator Murphy was published in Judge, March 
 24, and an equally suggestive one relating to 
 the Senator and Shea in Frank Leslie's Illustrated 
 Weekly, March 22, entitled "Victim, Culprit, 
 Criminal." 
 
UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES. 
 
 99 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES. 
 
 CIVE times the name of Ross has been promi- 
 A nent in the history of this nation. First 
 came Mrs. John Ross, familiarly known as 
 -Betsy," who, with the co-operation of Gen. 
 George Washington, made the first American 
 flag ; next Colonel George Ross, who signed the 
 Declaration of Independence ; then in the War of 
 1812, General Robert Ross; then Charlie Ross, 
 the lost boy; and then Robert Ross of Troy, the 
 Martyr ! Attention was called to the facts at the 
 funeral of Robert Ross, by the Rev. Wm. H. 
 Sybrandt. Three times out of the five the name 
 has appeared conspicuously as the name of pa- 
 triots—colonial, national, and municipal patriots. 
 "Betsy" Ross contributed her skill, her inge- 
 nuity, her superior taste, her poetic and vocal 
 powers, her loyal enthusiasm, to the welfare of 
 the country. She was the most artistic uphol- 
 steress in the land in the period covered by the 
 
OO A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 struggle for American Independence, using the 
 best° quality of silks and satins, and originating 
 designs that were proofs of the possession of 
 artistic taste and ability. She was a Friend, or 
 Quaker, residing in Philadelphia, a city conspicu- 
 ous in the entire history of the period. She made 
 and partially designed the stars and stripes, the 
 first star-spangled banner that ever floated on 
 the breeze. The house in which she did the 
 work is still standing, No. 239 Arch Street, a 
 little two-story attic tenement, first occupied by 
 Mrs. Ross after she became a widow. 
 
 Colonel George Ross, her brother-in-law, a mem- 
 ber of the Continental Congress and a signer 
 of the Declaration of Independence, was a mem- 
 ber of a Congressional committee that in June, 
 1776, accompanied by General George Washing- 
 ton, called upon her, and engaged her to make the 
 flag from a rough drawing, which, according to 
 her suggestions, was redrawn by Washington 
 with pen and pencil, then and there, in her mod- 
 est back parlor. The flag as there designed was 
 adopted by Congress. Mrs. Ross became flag- 
 maker for the government, and continued the 
 work for more than fifty-five years. There is 
 
UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES 
 
 IOI 
 
 on record an order on the treasury department 
 "to pay Betsy Ross fourteen pounds twelve shil- 
 lings and threepence for flags for the fleet in the 
 Delaware River." 
 
 Her daughters succeeded to the work, and be- 
 came known as the most patriotic ladies in the 
 land. Our country had no name until she marked 
 upon her flags, -The United States of America" 
 Quaker as she was, she refused to be silent, and 
 she exclaimed, -My voice shall be devoted to 
 God and my country, and whenever the Spirit 
 moves me, I'll sing and shout for liberty." She 
 sang to the volunteers her own « War Song for 
 Independence." 
 
 The red stripes in the design for The Fla- 
 were emblematic of fervency and zeal; the white 
 of integrity and purity; the blue field, with stars, 
 of unity, power, and glory. They might be con- 
 strued as typical of the patriotic record and per- 
 sonal character of those members of the Ross 
 family that have lived, suffered, or died for their 
 country. The beauty and sentiment of the artis- 
 tic woman, inwrought into the design and colors 
 of the flag, have been a vital power in inspiring 
 patriotic sentiment from the very origin of Amer- 
 ican Independence until now. 
 
102 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Colonel George Ross, born in Delaware, served 
 without pay in the colonial legislature of Penn- 
 sylvania, eo-operated with William Penn in behalf 
 of the Indians, was a member of Congress and 
 a signer of the Declaration of Independence. 
 One historian says that in every leading measure 
 in favor of freedom he was a leading man. 
 
 At Bladenburg, Md., in 1S14, General Robert 
 Ross, commanding four thousand veterans of 
 the British army, encountered Gen. William H. 
 Winder. He landed his troops below the city, 
 and commenced marching on it, while the British 
 fleet prepared for the bombardment of Fort Mc- 
 Henry. From the fort a little vessel came glid- 
 ing down the bay, bearing a flag of truce, and 
 heading for the flagship of the British squadron. 
 It was guided by Francis Scott Key, going to 
 intercede for a friend who had been taken pris- 
 oner. He was detained, saw the bombardment of 
 the fort, September 13, 14; and when he saw the 
 flag survive the bombardment, was impelled to 
 write what proved to be a national song, " The 
 Star Spangled Banner." 
 
 What's in a name? What a contrast between 
 the British Robert Ross, the soldier of 18 14, and 
 
UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES. 103 
 
 the young American Robert Ross, the civilian 
 of 1894, exactly threescore years later ! The one 
 fired on the American flag, and if possible would 
 have been shot on the spot. The other appropri- 
 ated it as the dearest symbol of love of country, 
 with which his heart was full. 
 
 There is no need of mentioning further the 
 name of Charlie Ross, except to note that he 
 too was a Philadelphian, like his ancestral name- 
 sakes and remote relatives, a child of the very 
 home of early patriotism, next to the capital of 
 the nation. 
 
 Robert Ross had ordered several dozens of 
 the national flag, to be used by himself and his 
 associate watchers on election day ; but these 
 unfortunately did not arrive until after he was 
 shot, or he would have died decorated with the 
 national colors. His solitary act recalls the early 
 days of the war, when, because the flag had been 
 hauled down at Sumter, it went up in North- 
 ern cities, towns, and villages, and women wore 
 miniature banners on their bonnets, and men 
 carried emblems in breastpins and countless other 
 devices. 
 
 The martyrdom itself, and the nobly sentimen- 
 
104 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 tal use and inspiration of " Old Glory," quickly 
 induced Presbyterian pastors and Sabbath-schools 
 in Troy to decorate their Sabbath-school rooms 
 permanently with the national colors. Before 
 the month of March was concluded, two flags 
 were presented to the Westminster Presbyterian 
 Sabbath-school in Troy, as permanent ornamen- 
 tal features of the school, and as an inspiration 
 to youthful religious patriotism. The pastor of 
 the church, Rev. George Fairlee, had suggested 
 such a general movement in a sermon, and his 
 own people adopted it within two weeks. 
 
 Similar events occurred in the Woodside Presby- 
 terian Church and Sabbath-school in South Troy, 
 of which the Rev. Arthur Allen is pastor. It is 
 located at the opposite extreme of the city from 
 the Oakwood or Westminster churches. In an 
 editorial on the local situation, the Troy Times of 
 March 26, 1894, said, — 
 
 " The American flag should be in every Sunday- 
 school in the United States, and wave over every 
 schoolhouse." 
 
 The Kingdom, a Congregational weekly, pub- 
 lished in Minneapolis, accepted the suggestion, 
 
&£%„ , 
 
UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES. 105 
 
 and in its issue for May 1 1 added the following 
 comment : — 
 
 " In these days, when new emphasis is being 
 placed upon the duties of citizenship, it is well 
 that the religious instruction of the young should 
 have incorporated with it teaching along these 
 lines. There is no more suggestive symbol than 
 the flag of our country/' 
 
 Robert Ross will not lack for local memorials, 
 and there is no disposition anywhere to force his 
 name upon the country. But his death and its 
 significance were commented upon by the press 
 in all sections of the land. The local papers re- 
 published extracts daily for weeks in succession, 
 taken from the dailies and weeklies, the secular 
 and religious press. Therefore national attention 
 was arrested. What national memorial of the 
 martyr could there be more fitting than a per- 
 ennial education in patriotism under the folds of 
 the flag of our Union and the inspirations of 
 Ross's noble life and heroic death ? The flag is 
 becoming more and more familiar in the public 
 schools. Why not in the Sabbath-schools ? If 
 an ideal inspiration and origin were to be sought 
 for to initiate a movement for the universal use in 
 
106 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Sabbath-school rooms and services of the flag of 
 the United States, could a better one be conceived 
 or found than such a death of such a youth ? 
 
 It is not proposed that there be the simultane- 
 ous observance of a given day in this connection. 
 The movement simply proposes a method which 
 will give rise to multiplied occasions for awak- 
 ening love of country. If adopted, it will be a 
 parallel movement with the one which honors the 
 flag in the day-school. It will keep our national 
 colors "flying" before thousands, even millions, 
 of children seven days in the week and three 
 hundred and sixty-five days in the year. If 
 sentiment is worth anything, the chronic expres- 
 sion of it is worth everything. If youth is ideal- 
 istic, the idealizing of our country and our flag 
 cannot fail to be wholesome and abiding. Local 
 patriotism, broadening into a love of home, of 
 native or adopted city, of native or adopted state 
 and country, is precisely the species of patriotism 
 desired. 
 
 How shall the movement be inaugurated ? 
 Spontaneously, as it was in Troy, in Westminster 
 Presbyterian Church and Sabbath-school. Parents 
 can easily stimulate it. Let generous individuals 
 
UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES. IC>7 
 
 and alert officials foster it. Youth themselves 
 can promote it, for a creditable silk flag is not very 
 expensive. When the flag is available, hail its 
 advent with brief and pointed addresses on such 
 themes as patriotism, obedience, fidelity, loyalty, 
 courage, and Christian warfare, and with a rich 
 programme of patriotic hymns. The story of the 
 life and death of Robert Ross on such occasions 
 will be worthy of narration and repetition. The 
 117th anniversary of the adoption of the Stars 
 and Stripes, June 14, 1894, occurred while the 
 Court of Oyer and Terminer, Justice Pardon C. 
 Williams presiding, was engaged in securing a 
 jury for the trial of his indicted murderer. The 
 day occurs close to June 17, which is a legal 
 holiday in Boston, observed in commemoration 
 of the Battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 The family of George Ross have been grateful 
 for the honors paid to their deceased member. 
 Their grief has had a modicum of joy that they 
 were not called upon to bury more than one of 
 their number ; for three of the sons and brothers 
 were fired at. William was shot behind the right 
 ear, and the ball, taking a downward course, lodged 
 in the neck, where it remains. 
 
I08 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 In consequence of the wound, his hearing on 
 that side is somewhat impaired. Adam Ross, 2d, 
 narrowly escaped. John was exposed to the in- 
 discriminate firing. While confined to his sick- 
 room on the day after Robert's funeral, William 
 was interviewed by a reporter of TJie Troy Times> 
 and informed that a monument to Robert had 
 been proposed. His noble reply was, " The only 
 monument we desire for our brother is the prom- 
 ise of a pure ballot in Troy." The words came 
 slowly and earnestly, and were spoken from the 
 brave man's heart. 
 
 The sentence is worthy of inscription on the 
 monument to be erected. 
 
FRIENDS AND FOES TO AMERICA. IO9 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FRIENDS AND FOES TO AMERICA. 
 
 THE biography of Robert Ross, from begin- 
 ning to end, deals with two groups of young 
 men. Both groups are typical. Both reveal the 
 well-known yet insufficiently emphasized fact, that 
 mankind are saved and rescued, or lost and ruined, 
 within the first third of the allotted threescore 
 years and ten. The records of church member- 
 ship and of the State prison are in evidence on 
 this point. There are exceptions ; but they are 
 not so numerous nor significant as to disprove 
 the rule. William Ross is the eldest of the four 
 brothers, and he is thirty-seven years of age ; 
 John Ross is thirty-three ; Adam Ross, 2d, is 
 thirty ; Robert was twenty-five years and six 
 months old at the time of his death. 
 
 Bartholomew Shea is twenty-three years of 
 age ; John McGough, who is under indictment for 
 the shooting of William Ross, is twenty-three ; 
 Stanley O'Keefe, one of the principal witnesses 
 
110 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 for the defence, is twenty-two ; Michael Delaney, 
 another witness for the defence, is twenty-five. 
 
 The evidence given in court by their opponents 
 themselves disclosed a heritage, a class of lives, 
 and an environment directly opposed to the same 
 species of facts in the lives of the assailed, 
 wounded, and murdered Rosses. If the Rosses 
 deserve to be commended, their opponents, of 
 necessity, must be condemned, yet not without 
 an expression of pity for them, and of hope for 
 their social improvement and moral reform, in 
 prison or out of it. They are human ; they are 
 neighbors in the Biblical and Christian sense ; 
 they are to be visited, wherever they are, if they 
 receive their dues, by representatives of Christ 
 and the church. But their own testimony, pub- 
 licly and legally given, has been that they have 
 led the lives of idlers and thieves ; that they have 
 made the saloon, not the home nor the church, 
 the centre of their career; and that they have 
 been convicted of crimes. John McGough, while 
 giving his testimony, was profane, and was re- 
 buked by the examining counsel for the defence. 
 He had been in the Reformatory, Elmira, N.Y., 
 thirteen months, sentenced for burglary under a 
 
FRIENDS AND FOES TO AMERICA. Ill 
 
 plea of guilt. Stanley O'Keefe admitted that, 
 from October, 1893, until June, 1894, his occupa- 
 tion had been roaming around, and his headquar- 
 ters had been on the streets ; that from March 6, 
 until June 30, 1894, or from the day of the elec- 
 tion murder until the day of his testimony in 
 court, there had been " about six days " in which 
 he had not visited a particular saloon ; and that 
 within that period one of his companions had 
 worked only twelve or fifteen days. He himself 
 had served a sentence for three months in the 
 Albany penitentiary. Michael Delaney admitted 
 that he was a visitor at a given saloon six days 
 out of seven, and that he had lied to the jailer, in 
 order to secure an interview with his associate, 
 the murderer of Robert Ross. He was character- 
 ized by the counsel for the prosecution as "the 
 very opposite, in every respect, of the members 
 of the Committee for Public Safety." A majority 
 of this gang of roughs confessed that they were 
 accustomed to carry revolvers, buying or borrow- 
 ing, to suit their necessities and convenience. 
 Shea's revolver was admitted in evidence, show- 
 ing three discharged and three loaded cartridges. 
 Shea visited two saloons on election morning be- 
 
112 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY 
 
 fore the strife occurred at the polls. He acknowl- 
 edged that he had lied to the superintendent of 
 police, to avoid incriminating himself, and that 
 he had assaulted a citizen in a street fight. At- 
 torney George Raines, in summing up for the 
 prosecution, before the jury, said, — 
 
 "They are persons upon whose honor you 
 would not stake five dollars as a loan ; you would 
 not accept their word for the price of a ham ; you 
 would not leave your pocketbook in a saloon or 
 grocery store in the presence o\ any of them and 
 go away from it. You would not walk the streets 
 of Troy in company with any one of them. You 
 would not leave them in your house 'unattended 
 with valuables exposed. . . . Not one of this 
 gang, either from sentiment or human pity or 
 from curiosity, gathered to the side of the dead 
 man on the dump across the street." 
 
 Representatives of the "gang" were constantly 
 in attendance as spectators in the court-room. 
 
 Their presence was observed by Judge Williams. 
 He called up the clerk for issuing subpoenas with- 
 out authority, allowing his own friends to get into 
 court. The judge censured the coroner for quib- 
 bling about identifying property that had passed 
 through his hands. He reproved Attorney Hitt, 
 
FRIENDS AND FOES TO AMERICA. I 1 3 
 
 of the defence, for being too severe with a wit- 
 ness, — and all this in one afternoon. 
 
 The photographs of Bartholomew Shea and 
 John McGough, in contrast with those of the 
 Ross brothers, tell their own story of heredity 
 and viciousness ; but we do not care to present 
 them. 
 
 The saloon, therefore, on the testimony of such 
 witnesses, is their congenial haunt. 
 
 In a sermon delivered by the Rev. S. L. M. 
 Haynes of Troy, on the first Sabbath in June, 
 1894, in recognition of the semi-centennial of the 
 Y. M. C. A., he estimated that there were six 
 thousand young men in the city between fifteen 
 and thirty years of age. He said, — 
 
 "There are fifty churches in this city ; and if the 
 number of young men is the same in the other 
 churches as the number who attend this church, 
 we will have 1,000 young men in church and 5,000 
 not attending church. There are 800 saloons in 
 Troy, and about 8,000 men are in these saloons 
 every night." 
 
 Edward Murphy, Jr., brewer, makes his living, 
 secures his income, in cooperation with saloons, 
 aside from other sources of income and more 
 
114 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 legitimate investments. The sale of the products 
 of the brewery is his principal business. He 
 and his find common ground in the saloon. The 
 saloon becomes a political institution, a political 
 retreat, a political centre, a political power for 
 base men and bad politics. Nothing good comes 
 from it, in the interests of the home or the church. 
 But this is not the point now emphasized. Noth- 
 ing good issues from it, to promote the welfare of 
 the citizen, the voter, the municipality, the State, 
 the nation. Immorality and vice dwell in it. 
 Crimes against persons and property, against God 
 and man and the State, originate in it. It abides 
 as headquarters for criminals. Confessed crimi- 
 nals certify to the general facts, who are to be be- 
 lieved in this line of testimony, when they are 
 not to be believed in any other. The whole truth 
 was known before they testified. It had been a 
 moral certainty. But it was legally proved. No 
 attempt was made to prove the connection between 
 the chief politician and his tools. But that there 
 is a direct connection between the set of politi- 
 cians who will buy and force their way into office, 
 for the sake of further political advancement and 
 a partnership in the (financial) spoils, is not to be 
 
FRIENDS AND FOES TO AMERICA, 115 
 
 doubted. Editor John A. Sleicher, of the New 
 York Mail and Express, is a former Trojan, who 
 has had a varied editorial experience in Troy, as 
 well as in Albany and New York. While the 
 trial of Shea, the man-slayer, was in progress, Mr. 
 Sleicher made an address in New York, in which 
 he evidently drew upon his knowledge gained 
 as an editor in the cities named. He said 
 that, — 
 
 " Boss rule means the seizure of municipal con- 
 trol by selfish and illiterate men, whose main sup- 
 port comes from the saloons, the gamblers and the 
 haunts of vice. These latter find a profit in the 
 partnership with politics ; and a part of the profit 
 is the protection this partnership assures. It 
 means the promotion of the ignorant and vicious, 
 or of their servile tools, to places of power, to pre- 
 side in our courts, to manage our public institu- 
 tions, to clean our streets, conduct our schools, 
 supervise our charities, and guard our peace. It 
 means the sudden accumulation of enormous for- 
 tunes by men who look upon official station as a 
 personal perquisite and on public office as a private 
 snap. 
 
 " Three conditions are needed to secure muni- 
 cipal reform : First, honest elections ; secondly, 
 a general awakening of civic pride among the 
 masses ; and thirdly, united effort on the part of 
 all good citizens." 
 
Il6 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 The situation in Troy may be discerned in the 
 light of a contrasting situation. Within a few- 
 days after the publication of the article in The 
 Golden Rule, on the martyrdom of Robert Ross, 
 by his present biographer, a letter was received 
 from Grinnell, Iowa, in which the writer of it said 
 that political bosses were unknown there, as they 
 exist in Chicago, New York, and similar cities. 
 Likewise stuffing of the ballot-boxes and repeat- 
 ing were unknown. 
 
 " No man here," said the correspondent, " black 
 or white, rich or poor, ignorant or otherwise, is 
 hindered in the least from going to the polls on 
 election day, and quietly casting his ballot for 
 whom he pleases, if by the law of the State he is 
 entitled to a vote." 
 
 He referred to Grinnell, which is one of the 
 oldest towns in Central Iowa, a college town that 
 has never known the presence of a saloon, " a 
 typical, if indeed not a model, temperance town." 
 But he added : — 
 
 " I have never heard of any of these base prac- 
 tices before spoken of, in our inland temperance 
 State capital, Des Moines, which is only seventy 
 miles from here. I have been there, and have 
 
FRIENDS AND FOES TO AMERICA. WJ 
 
 friends living there also. Des Moines has been a 
 prohibition town at least for the last eight years, 
 during which time the outrages and frauds and 
 crimes have been holding sway in other places on 
 election days." 
 
 Iowa is in the main an agricultural State. The 
 situation in New York State, in the smaller cities 
 and in the rural districts, is a great contrast 
 to the condition in New York City, and in the 
 cities of mixed nationalities like Brooklyn, Troy, 
 and Buffalo. The license system, as related to 
 the saloon, prevails in the State. The system is 
 low in morals, even when it is high in law. The 
 boss is not universal, although the few great 
 bosses are all controlling. Nevertheless, it is 
 easy to see that Robert Ross in his boyhood, 
 in rural and prohibitory Iowa, prohibitory in sen- 
 timent before prohibitory in law, had seen a state 
 of things which in his young manhood made the 
 election conditions in Troy unendurable. He 
 must antagonize it in all possible ways, and he 
 did. 
 
 It is apparent that the political boss might "go " 
 and political corruption remain. Not until the 
 saloon is prohibited by law, and the law is en- 
 
A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 forced, will municipal reform be complete, even if 
 much progress is made through " an awakening of 
 civic pride," and "united effort on the part of all 
 good citizens." The principle of prohibition is to 
 be maintained, in the slow process of educating 
 and uneducating the people ; for they need not 
 only to advance to a discernment and assertion 
 of absolute righteousness in a matter of right and 
 wrong, but they need to outgrow and abandon 
 the policies and the so-called science of alcoholic 
 liquors, which have prevailed in this land from its 
 origin until now, and in the Old World from time 
 immemorial. There is a new science, and a bet- 
 ter, because a truer one, which affirms that alcohol 
 is a poison, not a food. This is the science now 
 written in the text-books of the public schools, 
 whether taught by the teacher or not. It has the 
 indorsement of public, legal adoption. There is a 
 new legal procedure against the liquor traffic, 
 "not yet fifty years old," which in State Constitu- 
 tions, and in the statutes of States and cities, 
 prohibits the wholesale and retail traffic. The 
 historic attitude of the world and of this country 
 is to be changed and reversed. Biblical prophecy 
 predicts that the time will come when nations 
 
FRIENDS AND FOES TO AMERICA. I 19 
 
 will be born " at once." The signs of those times 
 do not appear as yet, the signs of immediate reli- 
 gious or moral regeneration. Unless the end 
 shall come suddenly, without foreshadowings, 
 they are far off, they are not at hand. But evi- 
 dence is here presented that a determined few, a 
 small minority, a Gideon's band, may accomplish 
 much to secure a pure and honest ballot in the 
 cast and in the count, or to advance any reform. 
 One may chase a thousand, and two put ten thou- 
 sand to flight. When the unexpected happens, 
 and a modern Cain slays a modern Abel, the 
 event is providentially permitted, so as to give an 
 emphasis not to be given in any other way to 
 the truth that the blood of the martyr is the seed 
 of the church. " He, being dead, yet speaketh." 
 The name of Robert Ross is the name to conjure 
 with in Troy to-day, in opposing the saloons, in 
 seeking a better observance of the Sabbath, in 
 the instruction of the young in the home and in 
 the schools, in issuing warnings against evil, and 
 the institutions that generate evil. His monu- 
 ment will speak "For God and Our Country" 
 through coming generations. The same vicious 
 elements that fought and shot him have threat- 
 
120 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 ened to prevent the erection of the monument, and 
 to disfigure or destroy it if erected. But the threats 
 are made in a cowardly way, " anonymously," and 
 they are not feared nor overestimated. Hence- 
 forth, some laws against law-breakers will be en- 
 forced in Troy, the processes of law being initiated 
 and forwarded by the Committee of One Hundred 
 for Public Safety. Counsellor Raines, in his able, 
 eloquent, and scholarly address to the jury that 
 convicted the murderer, said, — 
 
 " To-morrow will be the anniversary of the sign- 
 ing of the Declaration of Independence. And 
 you, gentlemen, will be engaged in deciding anew 
 the great principles which that day exemplifies ; 
 in deciding whether or not republican institutions 
 shall stand, and whether government of organized 
 society shall continue to exist. The grand right 
 of a free people is the ballot. It was in the de- 
 fence of that right that the young man who sleeps 
 under yonder hillside lost his life ; and it was in 
 opposition to this right that the power of organ- 
 ized evil strode into the place of the election to 
 eradicate whatever of security had been walled 
 up about the ballot, by the use of deadly weapons, 
 to accomplish a result not in accordance with the 
 majority in that district. . . . The question to 
 be decided at this bar of justice is not a ques- 
 tion between the prosecution and defendant ; it is 
 
Hon. George Raines. 
 
 J 3 7iblished in the Troy Times. Reproduced by permission. 
 
FRIENDS AND FOES TO AMERICA. 121 
 
 the question between organized society and its 
 enemy. . . . You must decide whether or not 
 the assizes of the people for a trial by jury shall 
 be interrupted and dismissed by the crack of a 
 revolver. ... The American people are to-day 
 centering their attention upon the ballot — its 
 defence and protection. ... If assassination is 
 to take its place in the politics of the American 
 people, and an American jury is to palliate such 
 an offence, a long stride will be taken in the direc- 
 tion of breaking down American institutions 
 These Trojans represented the culmination of the 
 character, manhood, and patriotism of our Ameri- 
 can people. ... As to this matter of repeating, 
 I will say it is not a matter of one party or 
 another. You know these men are the hired 
 thugs of either party, or, I may say, of any party 
 who desires to hire them. With them it is a 
 matter of total indifference as to who is success- 
 ful; they go to the polls for pay, and they are for 
 whomsoever they can get to pay. They are a 
 menace to good citizenship ; and when the good 
 citizen stands in defence of the ballot-box, he 
 should be protected. It is a worthy cause to 
 engage in. So it was with Robert Ross. He 
 simply stood there as one protecting the honesty 
 and purity of the ballot, and he fought manfully 
 for the cause of right and good citizenship. Had 
 he gone away, had he fled, Robert Ross to-day 
 would still be walking the earth, a joy and com- 
 fort to his family and friends, but to himself 
 simply six feet three of undeserved and worthless 
 
I2 2 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 humanity to his mind and the dignity of his young 
 manhood. But he had a high duty which he re- 
 garded, and which had to be performed. He 
 stood fast at his post. . . . Realize that it was 
 at the doorway of the sanctuary of American 
 liberty that this man fell; and, as you see him 
 fall, realize that it devolves upon you, to protect 
 each polling-place in the city of Troy and m the 
 State of New York and in the United States from 
 a repetition of that offence by which this fellow 
 lost his life." 
 
A. P. A. IN CONTROVERSY AND IN COURT. 1 23 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A. P. A. IN CONTROVERSY AND IN COURT. 
 
 A SECRET society, which was characterized in 
 the trial of the murderer of Robert Ross 
 as the American Protective Association, the 
 American Protestant Association, and the Amer- 
 ican Proscriptive Association, figured promi- 
 nently in his personal history during January and 
 February, 1894, and in the subsequent history of 
 his murderer. It has become known to the public 
 as the " A. P. A." Neither Robert Ross nor his 
 father nor any of his brothers were members of 
 it ; yet persistent attempts have been made to 
 identify them with it, and for the purpose of fast- 
 ening upon them a charge of bigotry and intoler- 
 ance. 
 
 January 14, F. Cops, a member of the Esek 
 Bussey Steam and Fire Engine Company No. 8, 
 published a list of fourteen names of members of 
 that company as belonging to the "A. P. A." 
 Among them were the names of Adam Ross, 2d, 
 and John and Robert Ross. 
 
124 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 The company held a special meeting February 5, 
 and expelled the offending member, after he had 
 admitted before the whole company that he had 
 published the names out of spite, because he was 
 a defeated candidate for office. 
 
 As soon as Robert Ross had been shot, and pub- 
 lic indignation asserted itself, the prisoners ar- 
 rested and confined for his murder and for shooting 
 William, undertook to account for the tragedy by 
 attributing it not to political but religious feeling. 
 They issued a statement, March 10, which was 
 published in one of the local papers March 11, al- 
 leging that the thirteenth ward was " a hotbed of 
 bigotry and evil ; " and that those in that ward 
 wha claimed to be loyal Americans were " not loyal 
 Americans, but loyal A. P. A's., in heart, if not in 
 organization." Such was their excuse or defence 
 for carrying and using firearms, resorting to 
 personal violence, murdering and attempting to 
 murder. Their pronunciamento scarcely needs 
 serious attention ; for even if all that they alleged 
 was true, it could not be legitimately offered in 
 court or in morals as a defence for depriving 
 American citizens and voters of " life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness." When the trial came, 
 
A. P. A. IN CONTROVERSY AND IN COURT. 
 
 125 
 
 their counsel used all the resources of law to pre- 
 vent confessed members of the "A. P. A." from 
 being on the jury, on the ground of alleged preju- 
 dice against a " Roman Catholic " who was to be 
 tried for his life. No member of the jury was a 
 member of the "A. P. A." The last man ac- 
 cepted, Matthew Book, a farmer, was an avowed 
 Catholic ; and he voted to convict, because the 
 jury was unanimous as required by law, and the 
 verdict was speedily reached after submission. 
 The counsel for the defence, in his address to the 
 jury, shifted the case from the religious to the 
 political extreme, affirming that "it was conceived 
 in politics, nurtured in politics, and politics had 
 entered into it at every step." 
 
 "Did you not form any opinion as to whether 
 any repeating was being perpetrated in the thir- 
 teenth ward ? " was a question asked of a juror by 
 the counsel for the prosecution. 
 
 " I thought there was some political squabbling 
 going on." 
 
 "Do you call shooting with pistols political 
 squabbling?" inquired the attorney, with thunder 
 in his voice ; and then, as the juror hesitated, con- 
 tinued, "Do you call killing men political squab- 
 bling ? Is that fair game in Troy ? " 
 
j 2 6 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 unex 
 
 The witness was decidedly discomfited at this 
 ..expected question, and tried to recede from the 
 answer he had given. He finally said that he con- 
 sidered it murder. 
 
 Undoubtedly the issues were political, in the 
 best sense of the word. The people were strug- 
 gling for securing and maintaining their rights, 
 and "demanding a fair legal vote and an honest 
 count Party and partisanship had been sacrificed 
 for the sake of obtaining a pure and uncorrupted 
 ballot All the Rosses were Republicans, but they 
 were all working for the election of a Democratic 
 mayor ; they were Scotch, yet were working for 
 the election of an Irish Roman Catholic mayor. 
 Such was their species of bigotry, or of race pre- 
 judice ! The issue hinged on the election of a 
 mayor. Both nominees were Democrats and 
 Catholics. Republicans made no nomination. 
 " Durino- the process of selecting the jury, some 
 legal decisions were re-affirmed relating to all 
 secret societies; and some dialogues occurred 
 between jurymen and counsel, of great interest 
 alike to those who are and those who are not 
 
 i t «•>,<, <<A P A" The Court ex- 
 
 members of the A. t. .fo- 
 cused those who refused to say whether they 
 
A. P. A. IN CONTROVERSY AND IN COURT. 127 
 
 did or did not belong to the organization in 
 question, whether designated in full or by initial 
 letters; not because they were disqualified by 
 actual membership in it, but for reasons of ex- 
 pediency. 
 
 "This is an anti-Catholic organization, is it 
 not ? " asked the counsel for the defence. 
 
 The witness. — " Somewhat." 
 
 " Do you take an oath or oaths ? " 
 
 The witness. — " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Do you take those on the Bible, a crucifix, or 
 with uplifted hand ? " 
 
 The witness. — " I won't answer that question. 
 This is a secret order." 
 
 The defence wished to show that these oaths 
 were taken with great solemnity on the crucifix. 
 
 The court said: "I should be very reluctant 
 to force a man to reveal anything of this kind. 
 I assume you don't want the juror, and I think he 
 had better not sit." 
 
 The counsel for the defence then asked the 
 juror if he had taken certain oaths, reading the 
 form of such oaths from a newspaper. The wit- 
 ness declined to answer, and was not compelled to. 
 He was challenged, and was excused by the court. 
 
128 
 
 A MARTYR OF TO-PAY 
 
 Another juror refused to give the name of the 
 order to which he belonged, presumptively the 
 
 •• A. P. A." 
 
 ••What reason can you give, juror, why you 
 should not state the name of the order?" asked 
 
 the Court. 
 
 " I am obligated not to tell." 
 
 -I understood you to say." said the counsel for 
 the prosecution, "that you did not object to stat- 
 ing the principles of the order. Now, will you 
 tell me what those principles are ? " 
 
 ■< There are two principles. One is to support 
 the national government, and the other is to cast a 
 vote but once, and to have that vote counted as 
 
 cast." 
 
 The Court. — « Those principles are very 
 
 proper. There is certainly nothing to object to 
 
 in either." 
 ' The juror said that there were no other princi- 
 ples generally sustained by the organization The 
 two he had mentioned were the vital principles on 
 which the order was founded. 
 
 Th e following dialogue occurred between a 
 juror and the counsel for the defence, — 
 
 •• Did you take an oath to oppose all Catholics? 
 
A. P. A. IN CONTROVERSY AXD IN COURT. 1 29 
 
 "I did not." 
 
 " Did you take an oath not to employ Catholics 
 when you could secure Protestants ? " 
 
 "I did not." 
 
 " You took no such oath ? " 
 
 "There are two kinds of Catholics, — Holy 
 Catholics and Roman Catholics." 
 
 " And you are opposed to the Roman ? " 
 
 " Well, I must say I am." 
 
 " Have you taken an oath to oppose them ? " 
 
 " I don't remember." 
 
 " What was in the oath you took ? " 
 
 " I decline to answer the question." 
 
 The attempt to classify Robert Ross as a bigot 
 was a failure. He was a Protestant and a Presby- 
 terian, and therefore not a Roman Catholic. He 
 believed in an absolute separation of church and 
 state, in a free church, a free press, free schools. 
 He did not favor the appropriation of public funds 
 for sectariai institutions ; nor would he counte- 
 nance a division of the school funds between Prot- 
 estants and Romanists. These are American 
 principles. Inasmuch as he and the remainder of 
 the male members of the family were not con- 
 nected with the secret society in question, neither 
 
j 3 o A MARTYR OF TO-DAY 
 
 he nor they ean be justly accused of any dements 
 attributed to it. The society is not a part of his 
 personal or family history, except as abortive 
 attempts were made to make it appear so. It 
 exists in Troy, and has members in the thirteenth 
 ward. A sufficient proportion of jurymen ac- 
 knowledged membership in it to create the im- 
 pression that it is numerically strong in that city 
 and in Rensselaer County. 
 
Y. P. S. C. E. VERSUS MUNICIPAL MISRULE. 131 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 v. p. s. c. e. versus municipal misrule. 
 
 '""THE Twelfth International Convention of the 
 1 Young People's Society of Christian En- 
 deavor was held in Montreal, July, 1893. It 
 represented 26,284 societies and 1,577,040 mem- 
 bers distributed over the globe. Rev. F. E 
 Clark, D.D., the founder of the original society! 
 and the President of the United Society, pre- 
 sided over the Convention, and delivered his 
 annual address. He advocated not political par- 
 tisanship, but a larger and more intelligent spirit 
 of patriotism and good citizenship. The Mon- 
 treal Convention was attended by about seven- 
 teen thousand delegates; and President Clark's 
 message to them was : — 
 
 " G ° t0 the Primaries of your party, and take 
 your Christian Endeavor pledge with you Go to 
 the caucus ; get into the legislature ; stand for 
 Congress or for Parliament ; but, when you get 
 there for God and the church and your country 
 do what He would like to have you do " 
 
1 32 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 At the time that this address was delivered 
 Robert Ross was not a member of an Endeavor 
 Society. None existed in the church to which 
 he belonged. But he was a member of all the 
 leading spiritual organizations of young people 
 that did exist in the church and in the city. 
 Those organizations maintained and executed, 
 separately, one or more of the principles of the 
 Christian Endeavor Society. The Young Peo- 
 ple's Unions and the Y. M. C. A. and the 
 Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip stood for 
 denominational loyalty, inter-denom.national fel- 
 lowship, and systematic committee work The 
 A and P Brotherhood stood for definite, pledged 
 service In spirit, therefore, Robert was an En- 
 deavorer before a society was formed in Oakwood 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 He did not need such advice as President Clark 
 gave. He was accustomed to go to the caucus, 
 the primary meeting. He did not seek office 
 The advice of President Clark was not intended 
 to provoke offensive office-seeking. But he did 
 seek, at all hazards, even at the 'risk and sacrifice 
 of his life, a pure ballot. He was a self-sacnfic.ng 
 patriot He was in Scranton, Penn., during the 
 
Y. P. S. C. E. VEXSUS MUNICIPAL MISRULE. 
 
 '33 
 
 week previous to the election in Troy, but he 
 came home expressly to vote and to protect the 
 polls from repeaters. His creed, the creed of all 
 good citizens, was well expressed in the notice 
 that was posted, March 9, on the doors of William 
 H. Frear's Bazaar : — 
 
 "Every man should have the right to vote 
 peaceably once, and have it counted fairly !and 
 honestly The bazaar will be closed from two to 
 PW ;M ' t0 - da y m honor of the memory of Robert 
 
 If he had not suffered martyrdom, the Society 
 of Christian Endeavor of the Oakwood Church 
 at the close of the year would have had some- 
 thing definite to report at its own meeting, and 
 to the Thirteenth Annual Convention of World- 
 wide Christian Endeavor, Cleveland, 0., July 11- 
 15- After his death one of his associates in the 
 Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip said, "He was 
 worth any six of us, and he was worth any six of 
 us at the polls." 
 
 As has already been noted, an Endeavor Society 
 was organized in Oakwood Church, exactly mid- 
 way between the International Montreal Conven- 
 tion and the local March election where Ross's 
 
I 34 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 life ended. These facts explain why a mass- 
 meeting of the Young People's Societies of Chris- 
 tian Endeavor, of Troy and vicinity, was held 
 Sunday, March 1 8, in the same Presbyterian and 
 Baptist churches that had held the citizens' meet- 
 ings on Thursday evening, March 8, and the 
 mourners at the funeral, March 9. Four great 
 audiences assembled within that one month to 
 honor the memory and perpetuate the influence 
 of Robert Ross. They had distinguishing and 
 unique characteristics. The audience of Thurs- 
 day evening was an audience of men ; the audi- 
 ence of Friday was an audience of kindred, 
 friends, societies, and city officials ; the audience 
 of Sunday, March 18, was an audience of young 
 people, that met at their respective churches and 
 proceeded to the union meeting in a body ; the 
 audience in Music Hall, Monday afternoon, March 
 26, when the Memorial Association was formed, 
 was an audience of ladies. 
 
 The Endeavor mass-meeting was opened with 
 a song service led by Joseph Knight, after which 
 Harvey S. McLeod, who presided, welcomed the 
 societies in behalf of the Young People's Chris- 
 tian Union of the Second Presbyterian Church, 
 in whose edifice they were assembled. 
 
V. P. S. C. E. VERSUS MUNICIPAL MISRULE. 135 
 
 The principal address of the occasion was de- 
 livered by the Rev. Herbert C. Hinds, pastor of 
 Adam Ross, 2d, and John C. Ross, two of the 
 four brothers who defended the rights of Ameri- 
 can citizens so bravely. The wonder is that they 
 escaped wounds and death when the fifteen or 
 twenty shots were fired promiscuously in the 
 encounter that occurred. Their membership is 
 in the Ninth Presbyterian Church; and they 
 had long been accustomed to good preaching of 
 patriotism and Christian citizenship from the 
 Rev. N. B. Remick, D.D., who was pastor of that 
 church from 1869 to 1891, a period of twenty-two 
 years, that covered and paralleled nearly the whole 
 life of Robert Ross. 
 
 Pastor Hinds asked and answered the ques- 
 tion : — 
 
 "What can the Young People's Societies do for 
 municipal reform ? " 
 He said in part : 
 
 "I would rather stand before you on this plat- 
 form, on this occasion, than before any number 
 of crowned heads of Europe on a state occasion. 
 ... To be content simply to denounce a wrong 
 and to stop there will be of little practical service. 
 
136 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 We must prosecute the cases against criminals 
 in high and low places to the bitter end, and leave 
 nothing undone which will bring the guilty before 
 the bar of justice and behind the bars of the 
 prison. . . . When I see the church smiling 
 complacently and comparatively inactive in the 
 presence of perils compared with which the Goths 
 and Vandals who threatened ancient Rome are 
 not to be mentioned ; when I know that Christian 
 pastors beseech in vain for their prosperous mem- 
 bers to do anything adequate for the purging of 
 our municipal affairs ; when I see men whose for- 
 tunes are measured by the miles, and whose gifts 
 for worthy objects are computed in inches ; when 
 I see the sink-holes of corruption into which our 
 young men and women are dropping by hundreds 
 and thousands, and remember that we find it im- 
 possible to open an adequate number of reading- 
 rooms and coffee-rooms where the temptations 
 are the mightiest and deadliest, then I must believe 
 that hiring a pew in a church, saying our prayers 
 morning and evening, or hearing a sermon on the 
 Sabbath, is not the whole duty of a good citizen 
 and a Christian man, whether young or old. 
 
 " It has often been said that the Sunday-school 
 movement is the most important organization in 
 Christian history ; but after a careful reflection I 
 regard the rise, the marvellous growth, of the 
 Young People's Christian Unions, the Young Peo- 
 ple's Baptist Unions, the Epworth Leagues, and 
 the Christian Endeavor Societies, as the most 
 important events in the annals of the church. 
 
Y. P. S. C. E. VERSUS MUNICIPAL MISRULE. I 37 
 
 Young friends, you represent organizations which 
 can completely overthrow vice and crime within 
 the boundaries of this Empire State, and drive the 
 arch-conspirators into retirement and disgrace. 
 . . . Teach young children to hate the saloons. 
 We must not allow any shadow to obscure the 
 resplendent scene of freedom on God's holy day. 
 We will not permit in these days of triumph any 
 influence to desecrate the Christian Sabbath. 
 Worse than our great liquor traffic, worse than 
 our political corruption, worse than the menace 
 of our criminal population, is the lethargy of the 
 best classes of our people, of the American born 
 and bred citizens of our land. The soldiers of 
 the Grand Army of the Republic, more than a 
 quarter of a century ago, shouldered muskets and 
 drew swords in behalf of our country. And now 
 Post Griswold, G. A. R., re-enlists as a regiment 
 in the grand army of righteousness. . . . And as 
 long as the Hudson shall flow or the Atlantic roll, 
 so long as the violet shall speak of modesty, or 
 the rose tell of love, so long as there shall be the 
 appreciation of the manly, the lovely and divine 
 in human action, so long will the influence of our 
 hero's life be felt on the heart for the purity of 
 the ballot." 
 
 While efforts were making to secure a jury for 
 the trial of Shea, curiously enough the name of 
 Lawrence Sheary, brewer, was called, just as 
 Doring's band came marching past the Court 
 
I38 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 House, playing " Onward, Christian Soldiers," 
 the favorite rallying and marching hymn of the 
 Endeavor Society. The juxtaposition of the 
 brewer, the hymn, and the society may serve 
 to note that the society is opposed to the brewery. 
 However Robert's life is viewed, it seems to 
 touch the annals and memorials of patriotism. 
 He went to Cleveland, O., immediately after the 
 revolver caucus in February. In that city is 
 the splendid monument to Garfield, with whom 
 as a martyr to bad politics he has been compared. 
 Likewise he has been compared with Lovejoy, 
 Lincoln, and Ellsworth, of kindred history. The 
 business letters that he wrote from Cleveland, 
 February 9 and 10, contained allusions to the 
 then recent revolver caucus. A disturbance occa- 
 sioned by a drunken "drummer" reminded him 
 of it. In referring to a motor that he had put 
 in the First Baptist Church of Cleveland, he 
 wrote : " She went off at ' the drop of the hat.' " 
 He had acquired the expression from some Ro- 
 man Catholic priest. It means " instantly " or 
 " quickly." It refers to the signal used between 
 the parties in a contest. When the hat drops the 
 struggle begins at once. 
 
Y. P. S. C. E. VERSUS MUNICIPAL MISRULE. 1 39 
 
 How little he realized then that his native city 
 during: the next month would be kindled into 
 admiration and mourning for him, and into fury 
 against his murderer and the impelling forces in- 
 ducing it ; and that within less than six months 
 the city where he then was would be honoring 
 his memory, sounding his praises, and planning to 
 perpetuate his influence through the representa- 
 tives of more than two million Endeavorers in all 
 lands on the globe. 
 
 President Clark, unable to attend the Cleveland 
 Endeavor Convention, sent to it and to the writer 
 a message in recognition of Robert as the first 
 martyr of the Endeavor Society. Secretary Baer, 
 in his annual report, expressed the history and 
 the prospect as follows : — 
 
 "Our good-citizenship campaign has cultivated 
 a greater and more intelligent spirit of patriotism 
 and Christian citizenship everywhere, and has 
 been fearlessly waged, even to the sacrifice of the 
 life of one of our own comrades. But Bat Shea's 
 victim, Robert Ross of Troy, cruelly murdered at 
 the voting-booth, doing his duty, still lives ; and we 
 press on over his body to catch his spirit, deter- 
 mined in the right to put to flight Bat Sheas 
 everywhere, whether it be in Troy, Boston, Chi- 
 
140 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 cago, New York, or in the remotest hamlet over 
 which the Stars and Stripes or the Union Jack 
 swing their peaceful folds. God save America ! 
 God save England ! God save the world ! " 
 
 At the session on Friday morning, July 13, an 
 Open Parliament was held for answers to the 
 question, "What has your Society done to pro- 
 mote good citizenship?" It was conducted by 
 Edwin D. Wheelock of Chicago, 111. There was 
 also a presentation to societies of diplomas 
 awarded by the United Society for best work 
 reported in promoting good citizenship. 
 
 The Golden Rule, in reporting the proceedings 
 of this session, said: — 
 
 "In snappy sentences the year's glorious work 
 is shouted out, — saloons put down, Sunday laws 
 enforced, gambling suppressed, the poor aided, 
 good-citizenship rallies, pledges of better citizen- 
 ship, unions organized, elections carried, anti- 
 tobacco laws passed, and, alas! one Christian 
 Endeavor martyr to the cause of good-citizenship, 
 Robert Ross of Troy, N.Y., shot at the polls." 
 
 The Rev. W. R. Taylor, D.D., of Rochester, 
 N.Y., in presenting the diplomas, referred in fit- 
 ting terms to the reasons why one was awarded to 
 
V. P. S. C. E. VERSUS MUNICIPAL MISRULE. 141 
 
 the society in Oakwood Avenue Church in Troy. 
 The President of that society, F. Bunce, and 
 Leroy Collins, President of the Local Union, were 
 requested to rise and receive the Chautauqua 
 salute. The great tent, seating ten thousand peo- 
 ple, rang with applause. The Rev. Graham Taylor, 
 D.D., of Chicago, proposed that Robert Ross Good 
 Citizenship Committees should be organized. 
 
 The Rev. Rufus W. Miller of Hummelstown, 
 Penn., the founder of the Andrew and Philip 
 Brotherhood, attended the Endeavor Convention, 
 and at a fraternal meeting in the Y. M. C. A. build- 
 ing referred to Robert in suitable terms. Three 
 organizations were represented, directly or indi- 
 rectly, in the service, and Robert was a member 
 of all of them, — the Endeavor Society, the 
 Brotherhood, and the Y. M. C. A. 
 
 Christian citizenship was one of several lead- 
 ing themes of the Cleveland Convention. The 
 Rev. Smith Baker, D.D., of East Boston, Mass., 
 in one of the addresses said : " Any intimida- 
 tion at the polls is a crime against democracy." 
 If this be true, what shall be said of foul, brutal 
 murder, and attempts at murder, at the polls ? 
 Dr. Baker enumerated five conditions of Chris- 
 
142 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 tian citizenship, all of which prevailed in the 
 life of Robert Ross, — "Intelligence, impartial- 
 ity, righteousness, independence, and conscien- 
 tiousness." 
 
 The Rev. H. B. Grose of Chicago, in a similar 
 vein, said : — 
 
 " Election bribery and ballot-box stuffing must 
 stop in order that free government may go on." 
 
 Frank Leslie s Weekly, which discussed repeat- 
 edly the murder of Robert Ross, in its issue for 
 July 26 published an editorial on " Religion and 
 Good Citizenship," in the conclusion of which, 
 after detailing the facts in an Endeavor crusade 
 against the saloon in a city suburban to New 
 York, said: "This is citizenship at its best, and 
 the organization which nourishes such a spirit, 
 incarnating itself in positive acts in political as 
 well as moral relations, must rank as a foremost 
 force in our modern life." 
 
OFFICIALS AS SPOILSMEN. 1 43 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 OFFICIALS AS SPOILSMEN AND FREEBOOTERS. 
 
 THE evidence is cumulative that the one-man 
 power in Troy has been injurious and perva- 
 sive. It has debased many, if not all, depart- 
 ments of the city government. It has been 
 exerted for a decade and a half. 
 
 This volume is patriotic as distinct from par- 
 tisan. Robert Ross was more patriotic than 
 partisan. 
 
 " The Right shall live, while Faction dies! 
 All traitors draw a fleeting breath; 
 But patriots drink from God's own eyes 
 Truth's light that conquers Death! " 
 
 The bench is supposed to be non-partisan. 
 Judge Lewis E. Griffith, a resident of Troy, 
 and Judge of the County Court and Court of 
 Sessions, was formerly District Attorney. Politi- 
 cally he has been an ally of Senator Murphy. 
 In charging the grand jury, May 12, 1894, he 
 said : — 
 
144 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 " You will be called upon to inquire of crimes 
 committed in this county which have done more 
 harm and positive injury to the city of Troy and 
 its interests than if scourged with pestilence or 
 afflicted with famine — crimes which strike a death- 
 blow to the vital principles of free government ; 
 which set at naught the will of a sovereign people, 
 and allow the damnable, wicked, lawless actions of 
 a mob to voice the sentiments of an outraged 
 public. . . . 
 
 " Both of the great political parties are charge- 
 able with a dereliction of duty in failing to prose- 
 cute offenders against election laws." 
 
 Judge Griffith gave a list of particulars in proof 
 of his statement, and added : — 
 
 " Upon examining the records of the United 
 States District Court, I find that not five per cent 
 of the persons arraigned by the commissioners 
 for offences against the election laws have been 
 indicted and tried. . . . 
 
 " There has been a disregard of duty by grand 
 jurors and public officers in dealing with this 
 species of crime. There has been no sincere 
 effort made by either of the great political parties 
 to suppress it, or punish offenders. There seems 
 to have been a tacit understanding between both 
 parties that offenders against the ballot would 
 not be considered criminal ; yet occasionally some 
 offender would be indicted in the federal courts, 
 where a fine of a few dollars would be imposed, 
 
OFFICIALS AS SPOILSMEN. 1 45 
 
 upon a plea of guilty, while others would pass 
 through the ordeal of waiting about the court- 
 room for a jury to pronounce them guiltless." 
 
 This is the language of confession and accusa- 
 tion. It is non-partisan to the extent that it 
 excuses neither of the two leading parties, and 
 accuses both. It is not our purpose to arbitrate 
 and decide which of the two parties is the more 
 guilty in violating election laws and in failing to 
 prosecute offenders. The city officials for years 
 have been chiefly, if not exclusively, Democrats. 
 The county officials have been Democrats and 
 Republicans. The charge, as quoted, is a part of 
 the history, and, as such, it is reproduced. 
 
 Officials are accustomed to use more than a 
 reasonable discretion what laws they will enforce. 
 They are legally liable for the violation of some 
 laws that are explicit, mandatory, and prohibitory. 
 District Attorney Kelly is to be tried in October 
 for alleged inefficiency, before a commission ap- 
 pointed by Governor Flower. 
 
 While the trial of " Bat " Shea was in progress, 
 Judge Williams said : — 
 
 " When I came here, I found that of all the 
 court officers appointed by the sheriff, not one 
 
I46 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 was a constable as provided by the statute. ... I 
 find it has been the custom to appoint any one, 
 whether he be a constable or not. It is about 
 time that the sheriff understood the statute. . . . 
 I have been warned from a variety of sources that 
 trustworthy court officers are difficult to obtain in 
 this county." 
 
 The bearing of these facts on the trial of Shea 
 was that his conviction for a capital offence by a 
 jury in charge of unqualified and disqualified court 
 officers would have been valueless in law. 
 
 During the trial, some prisoners escaped from 
 the Troy jail, a not infrequent occurrence. Shea 
 was conveyed to Clinton Prison, Dannemora, Fri- 
 day, July 13. The chances of his escape from 
 prison were thereby reduced. 
 
 During the first week in July, a committee of 
 the State Senate instituted an investigation into 
 the police department of Troy. The Committee 
 of One Hundred for Public Safety had employed 
 a detective of the New York Society for the Pre- 
 vention of Crime, of which the Rev. Charles H. 
 Parkhurst, D.D., is the famous and efficient presi' 
 dent. The testimony showed not merely mutual 
 confidence and co-operation between the New 
 York society and the Troy committee, but proof 
 
''' 
 
OFFICIALS AS SPOILSMEN. HJ 
 
 of kindred crimes by the New York and Troy 
 police. Reliable testimony and sufficient evidence 
 were furnished to demonstrate that the police are 
 accustomed to coerce disorderly houses as to 
 their purchases of furniture, liquors, and cigars ■ 
 to furn.sh such houses protection for a financial 
 consideration amounting to a regular tax and 
 license ; to borrow money from the keepers with 
 no expectation of or demand for repayment ; to 
 use these houses as refuges when intoxicated ; to 
 retain the money of persons arrested or held as 
 witnesses ; and to exact subscriptions for gifts 
 
 The clerk of the board of excise testified as 
 tollows : — 
 
 "The money collected [from disorderly houses! 
 was pa,d over to the charity board. I made su ch 
 collections because it was a custom established 
 by my predecessors. Molloy, Magill, and O'Neil 
 were the commissioners. [The Commissioner 
 Molloy referred to ,s the present Mayor of Trov 
 a cousin of Senator Murphy.] They did not 
 direct me to make such collections ; but Wy knew 
 that I did so, as the entries were made in the 
 books. In these cases no licenses were issued, as 
 the law would not allow the issuing of licenses to 
 disreputab e houses. The board regarded these 
 houses as disreputable houses. A previous board 
 
14$ A MARTYR OF TO-DAY 
 
 of some years back had refused to grant licenses 
 to such houses. 
 
 "These collecti ns were paid to the chamber- 
 lain for the support of the poo-. As Long as they 
 s ling liquor." said the witness. " they ought 
 : as much as some poor widow down 
 
 town." 
 
 ••Don't you know." asked Attorney Frank S. 
 Black, " that they had no right to sell liquor ? " 
 
 '• I don't suppose that they had any right to 
 sell," replied the witness. 
 
 •• Do you know of any law that allows you to 
 receive money from those people ? " asked Mr. 
 Black. 
 
 •• I do not." replied the witness. " I knew in 
 receiving money that they intended to sell liquor." 
 
 " You knew that you were receiving this money 
 in violation of law. aid you not ? " asked Mr. 
 Black. 
 
 "No, I did not," replied the witness. 
 
 "What else was this money you received except 
 hush money ' 
 
 '• I don't kn s u'd call it hush money." 
 
 " Do you know of : er purpose for which 
 
 the monev was received except to violate the 
 law 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 One of the witnesses before the investigating 
 committee was John Ross, who, by request of a 
 representative of Senator Murphy, called at his 
 
OFFICIALS AS SPOILSMEX. 1 49 
 
 brewery, March 5, the day preceding the death 
 of Robert. William Ross accompanied John, and 
 during the trial of McGough testified to the facts 
 of the interview as follows : — 
 
 "At the brewery we met Senator Murphy and 
 Police Commissioner Molloy, who was a candidate 
 for mayor. . . . John told how he had been as- 
 saulted at the caucus, and showed where he had 
 been struck in the face with a revolver, and told 
 Murphy how Shea, Cleary, Owen Judge, and other 
 Democrats of the thirteenth ward, had broken up 
 our caucus. We asked Murphy and Molloy to 
 send us policemen on election day, who would not 
 assist repeaters to vote. . . . We also told Murphy 
 how a policeman had thrown our brother Robert 
 out of the polling-place in the third district of the 
 thirteenth ward at the fall election. . . . Murphy 
 said, 'There will not be a repeater in the city to- 
 morrow;' and we thought that he and Molloy could 
 give us the protection we wanted." 
 
 Senator Murphy, it will be seen, tacitly assumed 
 that he could control the presence or absence of 
 repeaters. If he had used his restraining power, 
 and kept his word, the fatality of election day 
 would not have occurred, and William Ross, his 
 caller of March 5, would not have suffered deaf- 
 ness for life from a pistol shot and a bullet wound 
 
150 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 in the neck. The very things occurred against 
 which John and William Ross tried to guard, 
 because they had occurred before; viz., repeaters 
 were present, armed with firearms, and policemen 
 who knew and aided them. Senator Murphy is a 
 monarch without legal standing or accountability 
 as a political manager. 
 
 In opening for the defence, in the trial of 
 McGough, Attorney Norton located a part of the 
 responsibility for the situation when he addressed 
 the jury as follows : — 
 
 "I have heard of repeating in this city ever 
 since I was a boy. For more than fifteen years 
 the most flagrant outrages on the rights of 
 citizens on election day have been permitted to 
 go unpunished. At every election these offences 
 against the sacredness of the ballot-box have been 
 countenanced. Repeaters have operated, and 
 ballot-boxes have been stuffed. We know, the 
 prosecution knows, and you can guess, where 
 the blame lies ; and if the prosecution does not 
 desire to place the blame where it belongs, and to 
 place the responsibility for all these outrages, I 
 shall assert, gentlemen, that it is not honest to 
 try to place it all upon poor McGough and poor 
 Shea. Crime upon crime against a fair ballot has 
 been perpetrated in this city for years ; but I 
 never heard of an effort to put an end to these 
 
OFFICIALS AS SPOILSMEN. 151 
 
 crimes until the blood of brave Robert Ross 
 aroused the authorities to the necessity of making 
 some sort of a front. They are not honest, I tell 
 you, in this prosecution, nor in the effort to prose- 
 cute Shea. ... It is the prosecuting officers of 
 this city and county who should bear this fearful 
 responsibility, and not Shea, not McGough. I 
 protest against this effort to make them the sole 
 responsible parties. If they were engaged in 
 repeating, it was not as principals, but as tools of 
 others high and prominent in position." 
 
 We have said that the evidence is cumulative, 
 as bearing upon the evil doings of "the powers 
 that be," and of the supreme power behind all the 
 thrones in the government of Troy that asserts 
 itself in the county also, and in the State and in 
 the nation. The testimony before the Senate 
 Committee and in the trial of McGough, relating 
 to the police, was confirmatory of that given at 
 the trial of Shea; for during the trial an inspector 
 of elections, James H. Crutchley, gave a graphic 
 account of the manner in which a crowd of fifteen 
 or twenty repeaters, inclusive of Shea and Mc- 
 Gough, crowded into the door of the polling-place, 
 ignoring the regular line of voters, and voted,- 
 swearing in their votes because challenged. They 
 
152 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 held in sight the slips given them, containing the 
 
 gistered names on which they were to vote, 
 withdrew for fifteen or twenty minutes, 
 then came back and voted a second time, giving 
 different names. Again they crowded in ahead 
 of the regular line. Police officer Patrick Cahill 
 had charge of the regular line of voters. Cahill 
 pushed the regular line back, so as to let the 
 crowd of unregistered strangers in to get their 
 ballots. The officer told the regular voters, said 
 the witness, that he would "break some of their 
 heads if they didn't keep still." 
 
 "What position did this man hold — patrol- 
 man?" asked Justice Williams. 
 
 ''Yes, sir," replied the witness. 
 
 "Is he still on the force?" 
 
 "I believe he is." 
 
 The inquiry of Justice Williams was the inquiry 
 of surprise and astonishment. No other interpre- 
 tation of it reasonably can be made. 
 
 Jeremiah Clean* took voters from the regular 
 line by seizing them by the collar and pulling 
 them off the steps leading to the polling-place. 
 Shea and his gang voted early and often in differ- 
 ent districts for half of election day, and appar- 
 
tAL AS SPOIL: ML I : : 
 
 jntly would have vote and :::;-:. ;. sc tilled 
 
 out the ;. 
 
 collision of fore es \ resulted in murder, and 
 narrowly escaped resulting id a plurality :: mur- 
 iers. Arthur E. Bartlett, a Prohibitionist watcher, 
 testified as : — 
 
 " I heard one of the men give my name and 
 residence, and I challenged him, but re his 
 
 vote in. I called the attention of the ins 
 to the fact that I was t oly person of the : 
 living at the number given. I was 
 quainted with two of the inspectors. Crutchley 
 and Thomas Bohan. When the gang had 
 went out to follow the stranger who voted on my 
 name. He went direct ss the street to 
 
 McClure's saloon. I continued to watch this 
 stranger ten or fifteen minutes. 
 
 This testimony is exactly similar to that of Mr. 
 Armstrong which has already been quoted. Mr. 
 Bartlett, when the stranger voted on his name, 
 called upon an officer to arrest the offender ; but 
 the officer refused. 
 
 Likewise, in the trial of McGough for shooting 
 William Ross, Ernest V. Perry, an inspector of 
 elections on the day of the shooting, testified that 
 he had known times in the thirteenth ward when 
 
154 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 sixty illegal votes had been received by the in- 
 spectors. "Why, last fall," said the witness, 
 "twenty-five illegal votes were cast in the third 
 district alone. Duncan C. Kaye challenged every 
 one of them, too, and the inspectors paid no at- 
 tention to him, other than to administer what they 
 called an oath before receiving the ballots." 
 
 "Did you ever make complaint to the District 
 Attorney about this?" asked Mr. Hitt, counsel for 
 the defence. 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 "When I was called before the grand jury." 
 
 How much security and safety there will be on 
 election days, or by night throughout the year, 
 under the so-called protection of the police, we 
 leave our readers to infer. 
 
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM IMPERATIVE. I 55 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CIVIL SERVICE REFORM IMPERATIVE. 
 
 IN the July, 1894, number of the Century Maga- 
 zine, an unsigned article was published under 
 the heading "Topics of the Time," entitled "A 
 Martyr of To-day." Robert Ross was the martyr 
 meant. The writer, a member of the Century 
 staff of editors, left no doubt of the bearing, in 
 his judgment, of the two sides of the history of 
 this sad case, the bad side and the good. He 
 summarized both in the following paragraph : — 
 
 " The death of Ross in the discharge of the 
 highest duty of citizenship has revealed to the 
 American people an example of civic devotion and 
 of self-sacrifice which should inspirit decent citi- 
 zens everywhere, while it should startle the indif- 
 ferent into a realization of the desperate and 
 dangerous character of the new generation of 
 political spoilsmen. 
 
 " Robert Ross was in an eminent sense a mar- 
 tyr to liberty. No man that fell at Lexington or 
 Sumter gave his life to his country with more 
 willingness or for a better principle." 
 
156 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 This paragraph recalls the fact that when 
 Robert was leaving home on election morning, 
 his mother expressed apprehension of trouble du- 
 ring the day ; and he answered that some one 
 must take a stand for the rights of the people. 
 This sentiment was wrought into floral emblems 
 at his funeral. 
 
 Likewise, the editor discerned and appropriately 
 characterized the true nature of the two antago- 
 nisms in Troy and in many other cities. The col- 
 lision is not between the representatives of two or 
 more political parties that differ, however radi- 
 cally, about the principles and policies of general 
 or local self-government. There is a problem in 
 such conditions, but not a menace. The very 
 genius of our government and institutions pro- 
 vides for such honorable and honest contention, 
 and confides securely in the outcome. 
 
 But the hostility that is dangerous is that which 
 issues from the vicious and the criminal, who not 
 only do the illegal, but the controlling thing, and 
 determine the result of the election. 
 
 Assistant District Attorney Fagan, in his open- 
 ing address to the jury, in the trial of McGough 
 for shooting William Ross, said : — 
 
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM IMPERATIVE. 1 57 
 
 " Murder involves the taking of human life 
 through malice ; but in this case there is some- 
 thing dearer than a single life — it is the question 
 of American citizenship, a question which comes 
 home to us all, Democrats and Republicans, rich 
 and poor. The question is whether it is the good 
 citizen with the ballot, or the thug with his revol- 
 ver, who shall control our nation." 
 
 It was only by one chance in ten thousand that 
 McGough was not tried on a charge of murder. 
 A slight variation in the course of the bullet and 
 it would have penetrated the brain. 
 
 It has been asserted in the progress of this nar- 
 rative that the normal and legal results of elec- 
 tions have not only been changed, but nullified 
 and reversed. The case is " Shea versus Ross," 
 "The Criminal versus the Citizen," "Fraud and 
 Violence versus Honesty and Self-Defence." If 
 it be decided, partly or wholly, in favor of the pis- 
 tol politician, then danger has already become 
 disaster. The writer in The Century, said : — 
 
 "The danger of the ascendancy of the criminal 
 element in politics is a danger to men of all par- 
 ties, and there is hardly a city of the United 
 States where there is not need of a non-partisan 
 body of picked men whose duty it shall be to 
 exalt the sanctity of the now degraded suffrage ; 
 
tS A MARTYR OF TO-DAY 
 
 to agitate for the most perfect election laws, and 
 for more severe penalties for their violation ; to 
 bring the force of public opinion to bear on the 
 selection of registry and election boards ; to scan 
 and purify the lists of voters ; to study the rights 
 of citizens at elections, and to defend them at the 
 polls ; to become familiar with the personnel of 
 the districts in which they are to serve as watch- 
 ers, and to exert the whole power of the law on 
 election day to insure the free casting and faithful 
 counting of the vote. An appropriate name for 
 such a body would be * The Robert Ross Asso- 
 ciation.' . . . 
 
 "The imprisonment of twenty-nine offenders 
 against the election law in New York City was 
 accomplished by exactly the sort of work which 
 might be undertaken by these associations. Bear- 
 ing the name of Robert Ross, they would at once 
 be a challenge to evil-doers, and a solemn procla- 
 mation of the serious nature of their mission." 
 
 Civil service reform is too large a question to 
 be discussed in the brief limits of this chapter or 
 biography. But the bearings of it in this case 
 may be shown after the Century writer has been 
 allowed to express himself as to the necessity for 
 it: — 
 
 ''The Spoils System is a deadlv upas-tree 
 which the nation has long been nourishing; its 
 leaves are dropping upon us as never before ; here 
 
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM IMPERATIVE. 1 59 
 
 and there we have broken a twig or lopped off a 
 branch; but the time has come to root it im 
 entirely. To do this in nation, state, city, and 
 village, is a purpose to which every good citizen 
 should devote himself. The death of Robert 
 Ross will not have been in vain if it shall lead 
 his countrymen to ponder the fundamental prin- 
 ciple for which he died." F 
 
 Evidently there are, to say the least, two 
 departments of city government which have 
 figured in the preceding narrative that ought to 
 be divorced absolutely from politics, — the school 
 and the police departments. It is revolting that 
 a school-teacher or the friend of a school-teacher 
 should need to consult or depend upon a profes- 
 sional politician for his or her position ; and in 
 Troy that the teacher should suffer the humilia- 
 tion of consultation with and dependence upon a 
 brewer boss. He or she thereby becomes the 
 subject, not of Republican and Democratic govern- 
 ment, not of an aristocracy, as government by the 
 best or the few, but of a monarchy, the govern- 
 ment of one, and the one, we repeat and empha- 
 size, a generator of saloons! 
 
 It is even more revolting that the policeman 
 should owe his office to personal and offensive, if 
 
160 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 not corrupt, politics and politicians ; that he should 
 be the appointee and tool of one or a few rather 
 than the impartial, incorruptible representative 
 and defender of all; that he should account for 
 himself to the politician, not to the public. The 
 policeman who does not protect the polls and 
 good citizens ; who does not terrorize, and, when 
 the conditions require, arrest the political assassin 
 and repeater, is himself a criminal, and one of the 
 worst conceivable. He is comparable only to the 
 father who dishonors and slays his daughter; he 
 ranks with the anarchist who would destroy 
 society, and perpetuate disorder, brutality, and 
 civil war; with the marauder and brigand who 
 makes a child his victim. He should be rail- 
 roaded out of office and power into prison. 
 
 The police of Troy were efficient and shrewd 
 enough to arrest and imprison an innocent man 
 for the murder of Robert Ross, John H. Boland, 
 and to keep him in jail until the coroner's inquest 
 was completed. 
 
 When he was released, a group of fifty promi- 
 nent citizens escorted him from the jail to his 
 home, displaying profusely the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 Rev. E. B. Olmstead, of Delevan, N.Y., has 
 
Hon. Galen R. Hitt. 
 
 Published in the Troy Times. Reproduced by perviission. 
 
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM IMPERATIVE. l6l 
 
 invented an automatic ballot cabinet, the use of 
 which has been made optional by the State legis- 
 lature for towns and villages. Efforts will be 
 put forth to make its use compulsory. It provides 
 a private gallery about four feet square, that shuts 
 in the voter from observers. As he enters, a 
 guard or inspector's clerk furnishes him with a 
 ball, which he drops into an orifice of "ballot dis- 
 tributers " plainly marked " Democrat," "Repub- 
 lican," " Prohibition." If he cannot read, he sees 
 party emblems, — an "eagle," a "flag," a "white 
 ribbon," a "sheaf of grain," etc., one of which, he 
 has been instructed, indicates his party. 
 
 He then pulls a knob, and a ticket or set of 
 tickets is automatically thrust out of the machine. 
 He passes through an exit door, and deposits 
 a straight ticket in the ballot-box, or enters a 
 booth to change his ticket. Straight ticket vot- 
 ing will be so rapid that very many less voting 
 precincts will be needed. More than one thou- 
 sand votes may be cast in a day. 
 
 In each of the party ballot distributers there is 
 a numbering device, so that every vote is regis- 
 tered as a tick i c set of tickets is delivered ; and 
 the moment the ioiob is pulled out the unlock- 
 
1 62 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 ing ball rolls out through the machine to the 
 guard. 
 
 The closing of the doors of the respective ticket 
 cases in the ballot distributers shuts from view the 
 registers ; and on opening these doors at the close 
 of the election the result thereof is shown by the 
 automatic count. The law provides that in case 
 the inspectors find in the ballot-boxes at the close 
 of the election more tickets of either party than 
 are indicated by the party register, they shall be 
 rejected. 
 
 The invention secures secrecy of the ballot, 
 registers the straight ticket vote of each party, 
 prevents an erroneous canvass of the votes cast, 
 and does away with electioneering by ticket ped- 
 dling. Each voter can get only one ballot or set 
 of ballots. 
 
 On the wall of the private cabinet is a kodac 
 or snapshot device which watchers may operate 
 so as to make it a " Repeater Catcher." We 
 might call it in derision of him a substitute for 
 the Trojan policeman; and in praise, a substitute 
 for Robert Ross. 
 
REDEMPTION OF THE CITY. 1 63 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 REDEMPTION OF THE CITY THE GOAL OF CIVIC 
 LIFE. 
 
 THE life of Robert Ross has been considered 
 in itself and in its public relations. It is now 
 practically concluded. This is not a history of 
 Troy, except in part. Otherwise a very different 
 story might be told, which has been suggested in- 
 cidentally and occasionally. The history covers 
 more than a century, and down to the close of 
 the Civil War, or 1865-70, it is a history of which 
 any city in the land might be proud ; a history of 
 enterprise, of industrial energy and success, of an 
 educational centre, inclusive of a commercial col- 
 lege, an academy, a female seminary, a theological 
 seminary, a school for civil engineers, and a popu- 
 lar debating society and library. It is a history 
 of pioneer work, of public spirit, and private 
 beneficence. The change has come, and the 
 changed reputation, within a score of years. But 
 
64 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 the change, great as it is, is not complete. 
 Through public appropriations and private gifts, 
 since 1880, a monument has been raised (in co- 
 operation with the county) to the soldiers and 
 sailors of the war of 1861-65 ; a Young Woman's 
 Home has been founded; a Railroad Y. M. C. A. 
 has been organized ; a Memorial Chapel, with 
 incinerating apparatus of the most approved con- 
 struction, has been erected in Oakwood Ceme- 
 tery ; the centennial of the city (1889) has been 
 worthily observed, and a new life given on the 
 same site to the Troy Female Seminary, long 
 famous under the management of Madame Emma 
 Willard. New churches have been organized, 
 and many of the older edifices reconstructed 
 and refurnished. A new and splendid orphan 
 asylum is soon to be entered, a new high school, 
 a new public library. It would be a pleasure to 
 give details, inclusive of the names of donors, but 
 our limits will not permit. The history of Troy 
 as a Pergamum, a Sardis, a Laodicea, is confined 
 to about two decades, so far as there is justi- 
 fication for so considering it ; and its reputation 
 as such, in spite of the record made herein, is 
 worse than its character. Its politics, elective 
 
REDEMPTION OF THE CITY. 1 65 
 
 and appointive, affecting all departments of mu- 
 nicipal affairs, the enactment and execution of 
 municipal law, and the administration of justice 
 and local government, have been the prime causes 
 of the revolution that has occurred. The condi- 
 tions created by indiscriminate, unrestricted im- 
 migration, easy naturalization, and the licensed 
 saloon have given the professional politician, the 
 boss politician, and the briber, silver and goldc?i 
 opportunities, of which they have been quick to 
 avail themselves. 
 
 Troy is a typical American city, in most re- 
 spects, in its history during the last generation. 
 It is a crucial city now, and will remain so for a 
 long term, in its tested capacity for municipal re- 
 forms. It represents alike the cities of the first and 
 second rank, — New York, Philadelphia, Boston, 
 Chicago, and Brooklyn on the one hand ; and on 
 the other, Buffalo, Albany, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, 
 and similar cities. In it is every problem that 
 faces the American people, calling for the dif- 
 fusion of religion, morality, intelligence, education, 
 honesty, truthfulness, and kindred virtues ; and 
 the abolition of irreligion, immorality, ignorance, 
 race prejudice, caste, and sectarianism ; the eradi- 
 
1 66 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 cation of the criminal by penal and reformatory 
 agencies. The problems exist in Troy in a radical, 
 aggravated, intrenched form ; but in some form 
 and degree they are distributed through all, or 
 nearly all, American cities. The largest cities are 
 worse than Troy and the cities of the second rank, 
 in the extent of their slums and the social degra- 
 dation of their tenements and " foreign " quarters. 
 The antagonisms between Protestants and Ro- 
 man Catholics in Troy, as elsewhere, disclose two 
 schools of Protestants and two wings of Catholi- 
 cism. There is a self-styled liberal school of 
 Protestants that believes it finds its affinity in 
 a similar school of Catholics ; and these two 
 trust each other, co-operate in emergencies and in 
 things common, such as antagonism to the saloon, 
 the preservation of a quiet Sabbath, and the en- 
 forcement of law. There is a school of Protes- 
 tants and a school of Catholics that represent 
 the survival and continuance, not the cessation, of 
 hereditary historical bias and antagonisms. The 
 collision has been transferred from the Old World 
 to the New. It is the facts, the history, the con- 
 ditions, with which we are dealing, not their 
 equities. 
 
REDEMPTION- OF THE CITY. 1 67 
 
 A distinction is to be made between a problem 
 and a peril. A problem may be perpetuated with- 
 out becoming a peril. Even a disease of the 
 heart may not be organic, but functional. A man, 
 William Ross for example, may be wounded, and 
 his life tremble in the balance, yet he may survive 
 the emergency, and carry the ball, not yielding to 
 death, nor to more serious chronic invalidism than 
 deafness. Likewise a city, a State, a nation. 
 American cities have become deteriorated by 
 social ills, demanding acute treatment, drastic 
 remedies, civic and moral surgery ; but these 
 cities and evils are more problematic than perilous. 
 Sober study of the lessons of history, and close 
 observation of the recuperative tendencies of 
 recent years, and of the ultimate power of choice 
 remnants of population, American and adopted, 
 are the reasons for our civic creed. Counsellor 
 Raines, addressing the jury in the trial of 
 McGough, and referring to the election misdeeds 
 in Troy, said : — 
 
 " There is a power and a whip in almost every 
 city of the country which suppresses these trans- 
 actions." 
 
1 68 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 We would change his statement from the pres- 
 ent into the future tense. In the conclusion of 
 that trial, when applause was awarded to the 
 counsel for the defence by friends of the prisoner, 
 Justice Williams suppressed it, and uttered re- 
 formatory sentiment when he said : — 
 
 " You may carry on, in the sort of courts you 
 have been in the habit of visiting, but you cannot 
 do it in this court." 
 
 Likewise Counsellor Raines commended the cit- 
 izens who assembled at the polls in the third pre- 
 cinct of the thirteenth ward of Troy, March 6, 
 and said : — 
 
 " There stood seventy-five as good men as live in 
 Rensselaer or any other county." 
 
 The seventy-five in that precinct, and the Com- 
 mittee of One Hundred appointed seventy-two 
 hours later, were representative, typical. Their 
 testimony and their deeds have not only convicted 
 Shea, but McGough, who has been sentenced to 
 the State prison for nineteen years and six months, 
 whose sentence may be reduced by good behavior 
 to less than twelve years. They have cornered 
 
REDEMPTION OF THE CITY. 
 
 Senator Murphy, testifying that he gave a guar- 
 anty for the action and absence of repeaters, the 
 value of which, in fact, proved to be the equivalent 
 of a promise to secure their presence. The re- 
 formatory work has begun, but it is by no means 
 ended. The initial steps have been taken which 
 propose to induce members of churches to take a 
 greater interest in Troy's primary meetings and 
 elections. The first meeting was held in the same 
 Presbyterian edifice as the funeral of Robert Ross. 
 Justice Williams, in sentencing McGough, said : — 
 
 " One lesson taught to the public is that what- 
 ever has been said or may be said about the city 
 of Troy or the county of Rensselaer, honest men 
 are yet strong enough to maintain the law. After 
 the result of these trials they can say, ' We are 
 still strong enough to take care of our own crimi- 
 nals.' " 
 
 The churches and minorities in cities should 
 abandon their indifference and lethargy, organize 
 on a non-partisan basis, devote time, labor, and 
 money to purifying, reformatory work ; and by so 
 doing they can and will arrest and nullify, if not 
 abolish, criminality at the polls and associate evils, 
 preliminary and subsequent. Attorney Raines, in 
 
170 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Rochester for twenty-five years, has been an at- 
 tendant at the opening and closing of the polls. 
 Multiply the one man by many and the system 
 of terrorizing will be reversed. The good citizen 
 will terrorize the bribers and repeaters and ballot- 
 box stuffers. 
 
 Rev. Charles Parkhurst, D.D., of New York, 
 after his unique and agonizing experience, says : 
 " I am absolutely confident in my convictions 
 that it is the Church of the living God that has 
 got to take up this matter (municipal reform) 
 and put it through." 
 
 Because New York is the Empire State, and 
 New York City is the Metropolis, not only of the 
 State but of the nation, the facts concerning the 
 cities of New York State are typical, and the cities 
 themselves are crucial for reform or a further 
 declension. 
 
 In 1846, forty-eight years ago, the population 
 of the State (hundreds omitted) was 2,604,000 ; 
 that of New York City was 371,000; while the 
 population of all the cities of the State was but 
 573,000, or about 22 per cent, a little over one- 
 fifth of the entire population of the State. Now 
 the population of the State, according to the last 
 
REDEMPTION OF THE CITY. \*]\ 
 
 State census, is 6,513,000; the population of New- 
 York City is 1,801,000; the population of Brook- 
 lyn is 995,000; and the population of all of the 
 cities of the State is 3,987,000, exceeding by 50 
 per cent the entire population of the State forty- 
 eight years ago, and constituting 61 per cent of 
 the present population of the State. 
 
 The proposed Greater New York will consist of 
 the present cities of New York, Brooklyn, Long 
 Island City, a considerable portion of Queens and 
 Westchester Counties, and all of Richmond County. 
 If the present cities of New York and Brooklyn, 
 and the adjacent territory proposed, are combined 
 in the Greater New York, that city will start with 
 a population of 3,000,000 ; and it is within the 
 limits of reasonable anticipation and forethought 
 that before 191 5 there will be 5,000,000 people 
 residing in that great city under a single muni- 
 cipal administration. New York will then be 
 another London. Outside of and beyond the 
 Metropolis are the great cities on the lakes, one, 
 according to the last State census, with 278,000, 
 and one with 144,000 population ; Albany with a 
 population of 97,000; the contiguous city of Troy 
 with a population of 64,000 ; Syracuse with about 
 
172 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 92,000 ; and twenty-eight smaller cities, all with 
 the warrantable expectation of continued develop- 
 ment and growth. 
 
 New York City has nearly one-third of the pop- 
 ulation of the State ; and the Greater New York, 
 if formed, will have nearly one-half the population 
 of the State. The cities larger than Troy consti- 
 tute more than half the population of the State, 
 and that preponderance is rapidly increasing. 
 One-half the population of the State is south of 
 the northerly boundary of Yonkers. That popu- 
 lation is rapidly increasing, and will ultimately be 
 a part of Greater New York. 
 
 The Committee on Cities of the Constitutional 
 Convention of New York, in session during the 
 summer of 1894, from whose report some of the 
 facts in this chapter are taken, reported that : — 
 
 " Never before in the history of the world have 
 such prodigious aggregations of people been gath- 
 ered in cities. Practically it is in this country 
 alone that the great problems they present are to 
 be solved by popular representative government 
 under a written constitution. . . . 
 
 " The government of great cities is no longer to 
 be secondary to matters of the State or the 
 nation." 
 
REDEMPTION OF THE CITY. 1 73 
 
 The problems of government, municipal, State, 
 and national, arise largely from the number and 
 quality of saloons ; the presence and massing of 
 foreigners who do not speak the English language, 
 and who confound freedom and license; the con- 
 gestion of population in tenements and slums ; the 
 degree of illiteracy, and corruption in politics. 
 
 In the city of New York there was, in 1893, one 
 liquor saloon to every 200 persons ; but in the slum 
 district, which lies between the business and 
 residential sections, there was one saloon to every 
 129 persons. The proportion of foreign-born 
 persons in the slums of American cities is very 
 largely in excess of the proportion of the whole 
 population. This excess is in New York 20.35 
 per cent. 
 
 In New York, also, the percentage of illiterates 
 is 1. 16 for the entire native-born population, and 
 14.06 for the foreign-born, the percentage for both 
 being 7.69; while for the slum population the per- 
 centage of native-born who are illiterates is 7.20, 
 and of the foreign-born, 57.69, the percentage for 
 both being 46.65. 
 
 Of the whole number of voters in New York 
 City, 49.93 per cent are foreign born, while 
 
174 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 in the slum district 62.44 per cent are foreign 
 born. 
 
 Our readers, in view of such awakening, if not 
 alarming facts, will do well to re-read " The 
 Introduction," by the Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D. 
 
 We have shown what the crimes against the 
 ballot in Troy have been, and the evident collusion 
 between the criminals and the police. Two crim- 
 inals have become convicts. The life of one, if 
 sentence is executed, will be taken. The greater 
 criminal in spirit received the less punishment, 
 because less criminal according to the letter of the 
 law. McGough held the brains of the band of re- 
 peaters that operated March 6 in the thirteenth 
 ward of Troy. Attorney Raines said that 90 per 
 cent of the blame belonged in reality to him, and 
 10 per cent to Shea. Justice Williams said to 
 McGough : — 
 
 " Your own conduct in these trials has not been 
 in your favor. You are not a good man ; your 
 record is very bad. ... It is no fault of yours 
 that William Ross does not lie to-day beside his 
 brother Robert in a grave on the hillside." 
 
 The officials accused and censured in court, 
 directly and by implication, by the presiding judge 
 
REDEMPTION OF THE CITY. 1 75 
 
 and by the attorneys, are impeached at the bar of 
 public opinion ; and self-respect should lead them 
 to demand an investigation or to resign. 
 
 Attorney Raines, in addressing the jury in the 
 trial of McGough, said : — 
 
 " A collection of bad officers is an example for 
 all times in all communities. The instant your 
 officials become prostituted, the gambling houses 
 and the houses of ill-fame are incorporated in the 
 official system. These evils accumulate, until 
 finally you have that multitudinous system of fraud 
 that was characterized by the Tweed regime. So 
 society, from its lowest strata, gradually sees built 
 from the foundation a monster which becomes an 
 incubus to society. And the outcome of all this 
 is what ? Revolution ! " 
 
 The kindred crimes at Gravesend in November, 
 1893, attracted national notice. The facts estab- 
 lished in the trial and conviction of the criminals, 
 were that Gravesend had a population, according 
 to the State census, of 8,418; its legitimate vote 
 could not exceed 1,600. The events of that elec- 
 tion were that sworn officers opened the ballot- 
 boxes and put 2,000 ballots into them. That 
 was done behind a cordon of policemen with club 
 and pistol, barring every one but the conspirators 
 
I76 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 from the polls, and in so doing defying and resist- 
 ing the officers of the law and the processes and 
 mandates of the supreme court. By such proceed- 
 ings there was returned and certified a total vote 
 of 3,672, in a total population of 8,418. A return 
 that 600,000 votes had been cast in New York 
 City, or $0,000 votes in Rochester, would be no 
 more absurd, and in principle no more dangerous 
 to the liberties and civil rights of the people. 
 
 In other cases, at many other polls of election, 
 wrongs to the elective franchise similar, though 
 less flagrant, have been committed. The Consti- 
 tutional Convention Committee on Cities, already 
 quoted, expressed the belief that the danger-point 
 in our system of government is at the ballot-box, 
 and that great frauds, exceeding those of stealth 
 and indirection, can never exist without the com- 
 plicity of the officers whose duty it is to preserve 
 order and make arrests ; and affirmed that any 
 failure of the police to protect the citizen in the 
 lawful exercise of the elective franchise, whereby 
 a correct vote is not secured in a given city, such 
 as Troy or Buffalo, affects not only Rochester, 
 but every city, every town, and every citizen of 
 the State. 
 
REDEMPTION OF THE CITY. 1 77 
 
 In the last analysis, therefore, the responsibility 
 for purity and reform is so divided and distributed 
 as to rest upon every citizen, every voter. When 
 it rests upon such citizens as Robert Ross, or his 
 father and brothers, its obligations are discharged, 
 the city and the country are rescued and redeemed. 
 They coveted no higher title than that which 
 belongs to good American citizens. They have 
 been abundantly vindicated in the courts. 
 
 In the feudal period of the Middle Ages, when 
 a young man was to be made a knight, the attend- 
 ants clothed him in a white tunic, a symbol of 
 purity ; in a red robe, the symbol of the blood 
 which he was bound to shed in the service of the 
 faith; in a toga, — a close black coat, — a symbol 
 of the death which awaited him as well as all 
 men. They put on his coat of mail, bound on 
 his spurs, and girded on his sword. With his 
 helmet on his brow, brandishing his lance, he 
 went forth to war in the contest of chivalry. 
 
 When Robert Ross went forth to do his sacred 
 and solemn duty on March 6, and, as the event 
 proved, to sacrifice his life, there was no halo 
 around his head, and he was not clothed in symbolic 
 robes. But, providentially, he had been ordained 
 
178 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 as a knight of the kingdom of God. As ever, he 
 was plainly but neatly dressed. He wore a dark 
 suit, a light brown overcoat, a Derby hat. The 
 hat was found in the gully in front of the polls 
 with a bullet-hole in the rim. After death his 
 clothes were covered with blood and dirt. There 
 was a bullet-hole in the breast of his overcoat and 
 coat. A bullet had passed through time-tables 
 and memoranda in his pockets, but not through 
 his vest. The exhibit of his clothes was made in 
 court, and it seemed as if his transfigured spirit 
 were present. It is abroad in the church, the 
 State, and the nation, enlisting volunteers in the 
 chivalric strife and patriotic warfare in which, 
 after reaching his majority, he lived and died. 
 We may recall how, in the history of Rome, a 
 wide cleft appeared in the city, dividing it. The 
 oracles were consulted; and the answer was that 
 what constituted the principal strength of the city 
 must be cast into the opening. Curtius, a young 
 knight, decided that manhood was what Rome 
 most revered ; and, after having arrayed himself in 
 full armor and mounted his horse, he plunged into 
 the chasm. The people threw after him their 
 offerings and quantities of the fruits of the earth, 
 
REDEMPTION OF THE CITY. 1 79 
 
 and the earth closed over him immediately. 
 Robert Ross, the young Trojan knight, in full 
 Christian armor, threw himself into Troy's abyss; 
 and we may believe that since the people at large 
 and the Committee for Safety have added their 
 gifts to his and to those of his father and brothers, 
 Troy's gap has closed. Men who will fill gaps, and 
 throw themselves into the chasms of cities, are the 
 men who in life and in death will redeem our cities 
 and enable us to reach the goal of our civic life. 
 
 The following poem, by the editor of The 
 Century Magazine, Richard Watson Gilder, kindly 
 furnished in advance of its publication in the 
 magazine, very appropriately closes the record of 
 these pages : 
 
 A HERO OF PEACE. 
 
 ROBERT ROSS: MURDERED AT THE POLLS, IN TROY, MARCH 6, 1 894. 
 
 No bugle on the blast 
 
 Calls warriors face to face. 
 Grim battle being forever past, 
 
 Gone is the hero-race. 
 
 Ah, no ! There is no peace ! 
 
 If liberty shall live, 
 Never may freemen dare to cease 
 
 Their love, their life, to give. 
 
l80 A MARTYR OF TO-DAY. 
 
 Unto the patriot's heart 
 
 The silent summons comes; 
 
 Not braver he who does his part 
 To the sound of beating drums. 
 
 And thou who gavest youth, 
 And life, and all most dear — 
 
 Sweet soul, impassionate of truth, 
 White on thy murdered bier ! 
 
 Thy deed, thy date, thy name, 
 
 Are wreathed with deathless flowers 
 
 Thy fate shall be the guiding flame 
 That lights to nobler hours. 
 
 Richard Watson Gilder. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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