Justics v. Chaos

           Justice v. Chaos

             “Extra! Extra!” The newsies would call as they peddled their papers along Pennsylvania’s streets. They had a large headline that day- June 21, 1877: the infamous Molly Maguires were to be hung. The Molly Maguires were thought by many in the anthracite regions in Pennsylvania as murderous scoundrels, vagabonds and ruffians. But there were others, of Irish decent, who considered the Mollies freedom fighters. The story of the Molly Maguires, a.k.a Buckshots, or the Ancient Order of Hibernians, as they were sometimes known, is not a well known part of American history. But there was more to the Mollies’ behavior than random violence or revengeful strikes, for which they were known. They epitomized a problem that many new immigrants to America faced. Intense frustration accompanied discrimination against new immigrants, particularly Irish immigrants. Ethnic favoritism was a real and active practice in 1860-80. It was disheartening to a hard working Irish man to see signs reading, “No Irish Need Apply.” When he had a family to feed and cloth, how was he to survive? This was America- land of the free! The streets were paved with gold and a man was to have opportunity for employment regardless of his ethnic background. Sadly, these were not the ideal conditions that met immigrant, particularly the Irish in the anthracite regions. The Molly Maguires were born out of a desperate need for opportunity, livelihood and justice for the Irish community; acting according to those needs the Mollies used violence in the absence of any alternative measure.

            The best place to begin a recital of the Molly Maguires, like most stories, is at the beginning with the Irish origins in the United States. Between 1840 and 1860, a great influx of Irish emigrants flooded the United States. Ireland outnumbered all other countries per year at the peak of the Irish emigration to the U.S. There were two main reasons the Irish emigrated in such huge numbers to America in the 1850s. The first reason was the Great Famine, or the Potato Famine, which occurred between 1840-50. The famine was a result of a widespread failure of the potato crop which was one of the main sources of food for the Irish. The famine ravaged the countryside and thousands of Irishmen had no food, no shelter, and no hope in their home country. For those that could afford it, passage to America could be bought. The lucky Irishman would be shipped off to the mythical land of America, which flowed with milk and honey. The second reason for mass Irish emigration was the oppressive society which faced many Irish Catholics and other non-Catholic groups. In Protestant Ireland, those who cleaved to the Catholic faith were distained by the elite of society for their nonconformity; America was a golden opportunity for these outcasts of society to find freedom of religion. Other groups of non-Catholics and Protestants were driven to America because of the feudal system of land ownership that existed in Ireland at that time. Landlords were often excessively cruel and could evict a tenant for a single late rent payment regardless of the tenant’s inability to pay due to crop or other economical failure. For these destitute groups, America offered land at a fair price and good opportunity for employment. But regardless of religion or social standing, the Irish came to America for a fresh start. They sheltered high hopes of bettering themselves.    

            Regardless of how he got there, once the Irishman was in America he was usually swept away from the crowded city of New York to other areas. The anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania in particular were a prospering business and workers were in great demand. As historian J Walter Colman put it, “Irishmen were brought to the coal regions in great numbers by the operators…the employers followed the policy of keeping the new group impoverished, thereby insuring their inability to bargain for better wages by refusal of work” (20). Once brought into the anthracite region, an Irishman was almost certain of finding work, housing and food. Most coal companies providing housing for the immigrants that arrived to work. But these houses were usually one story shacks that had little to no furniture. There were often cracks in the walls that let the wind and snow in during the winter. The company store provided staples and supplies to the coal workers, deducting the cost of the food stuff from his wages as well as his rent. The already poor immigrants were kept in their impoverished conditions and thus forced into a sort of slavery. Although only a percentage of the total Irish immigration came to Pennsylvania’s anthracite regions, those that did come were often met with conditions little better than those they had left in Ireland.

            Once settled into the region, the men would take up work in the mines. There were basically two positions that most men filled in the mines. The first, and more preferable, was the position of a miner. The miner actually followed the veins of coal and extracted it from the ground. The second position was that of a laborer. The laborer was the one who actually brought the extracted coal out of the mines and shoveled it into waiting train-cars.

The work of a miner was considerably more easy then that of a laborer. As one Irish laborer described it:

The miner and laborer go to work at seven o’clock in the morning and probably the miner will cut enough coal by ten or twelve o’clock. Then he will go out leaving the poor laborer up to his waist in water and he will have to pile the lumps and fill three or four cars with coal after the gentleman has left…between five and six, the laborer, poor thing, arrives home wet as a fish (qtd in Kenny 62).

Because most mine bosses were either Welsh, English or American, the men of the same nationality who worked for them were far more likely to receive promotion from laborer to miner. Rarely did an Irishman become a miner, even if he was more than qualified for the job. The position would go to a Welsh, English or American because of his race. Discrimination was readily practiced against Irishmen from their first arrival in America. As historian Kevin Kenny put it: “There was a well-established apprenticeship system through which Welsh, British and American mine workers could rise up to the best, skilled jobs. The problem was that large numbers of Irish were not considered eligible for such promotions…many of whom worked as laborers for years with no hope of becoming miners” (62). Not only was the work harder for laborers, their wages were also considerably less then what miners received. However, the Irish worked these positions for it was all that was available to them to etch out a living.

            Although the Irish in Pennsylvania’s anthracite regions were particularly defined as a discriminated class, the plight of the Irish spread far beyond Pennsylvania’s borders. There were two main reasons for which the Irish were particularly discriminated.  The first reason was that people in general though of the Irish as lazy drunkards who were thieves and scumbags. These prejudices were mostly brought over by other immigrants that had deep history with the Irish. English and Welshmen especially cultivated this dislike of Irish. The three ethnic groups had lived next to each other for hundreds of years and had squabbles that dated back long before the birth of America. When they came to the new world they brought their old feuds with them. The Molly Maguires often engaged in a sort of gang warfare with the Welsh of Schuylkill County in Pennsylvania. “Indirectly, they engaged in a species of gang warfare with Welsh miners that makes sense only in terms of the ethnic discrimination that reserved the best jobs for the British and the worst for the Irish” (Kenny 57). The press that the Molly Maguires received during their years of activity reflects the same attitudes. Editor of the Miners’ Journal in Schuylkill county, Benjamin Bannan, was vicious towards the Mollies and would regularly slander them as “Bloodthirsty…Obdurate and fiendish…Unfit for freedom…(and they represented to Bannan)…Turbulent, bloodthirsty lawlessness” (qtd in Kenny 248). The general idea that all Irish were lazy and lawless generally prevailed until several years after the Mollies’ demise.

            The second reason the Irish were generally disliked was because of the fact that almost all of them were Roman Catholic. America was predominately Protestant throughout the mid to late 1800s, due in part to the religious beliefs the country was founded on, and partly to the beliefs of the deluge of immigrants that flooded the country at that time. The Roman Catholic church was a huge part of most Irish lives. It created the third peg in the in the Irish three-legged stool. The other two important parts of the Irishman’s life were the tavern and his membership in the Ancient order of Hibernians. The priests of the Irish community usually had great affect upon their parishioners and were an active part of the Irish lifestyle. When the violence of the Mollies began in the 1860s, it was the Roman Catholic priests who first admonished them against the use of violence and secret societies. And for a while their warnings and pleadings were enough to hold back the full force of the Molly Maguire violence. The action the Mollies took, or did not take, because the priests’ admonitions spoke volumes about how much the Mollies respected their priests and the church. But unfortunately that respect was not enough to stave off the restlessness in the Irish community forever. When the Mollies returned in 1875, the rhetoric of the Roman Catholic Church was not enough to stop their vengeful desires. The Church eventually excommunicated the entire society of the Mollies, but lifted the band when Mollies were caught, tried and hung as an act of forgiveness towards the repentant men. But despite the fractions between the Church and the Mollies, Irishmen were still loyal affiliates of Catholicism.  

            The Molly Maguires’ origins, like their Catholic faith, took their roots from Ireland, particularly Donegal County. Though it was rumored that the name ‘Molly Maguire’ came from a mythical Irish woman who fought against a vindictive landlord who oppressed his tenants; more than likely, the name came from a habit of Irish rebels wherein they dressed as women during their unsanctioned activities in order to escape detection. More specifically than the name, however, the Mollies copied themselves after the several Irish rebel groups, specifically the Ribbonmen and Whiteboys. Both of these groups were considered Irish rebels by their society; they tried to enforce a certain form of justice upon those who oppressed them. “The Molly Maguires appear(ed) to have done much the same thing. Disguised as women when they went out at night, they dedicated themselves to a mythical woman who symbolized their struggle against injustice, whether sectarian, nationalist, or economic” (Kenny 22).The secret society of the Mollies did not start up as an active part of Irish immigrant culture, it must be made clear. The Mollies only arose during great times of hardship for the Irish. When other means of justice were available, the Mollies were non-existent.

A society that did come across the Atlantic with the Irish and did immediately become an active part of Irish culture was the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH). The AOH was a peaceful organization that acted as a sort of exclusive club for the Irish. It was a legitimate society with its own charter which was to promote friendship, charity and good Christian faith. Because the Mollies were members, some with high levels of authority, the AOH was simultaneously used with the term Molly Maguires during the showcase trials of the late 1870’s. The AOH itself was not a violent society and publicly renounced any and all ties with the Molly Maguires and cannot be held responsible for the desperate actions of some of its members.

            Initiation into the Molly Maguires was apparently a simple thing. Because almost all members were already a part of the AOH, it was a simple matter to pull men into a separate society that gratified their hunger for immediate justice. All that was required to join the Ancient Order of Hibernians was that the man must be Irish-born and Catholic. Other than that, there was little inquiry to the prospect’s past or character. Most of the members of the Mollies were simple coal mining men. But those who were generally agreed to be the leaders were mostly tavern owners, people of some means and standing. John (Jack) Kehoe, the alleged kingpin of the Molly Maguires, owned and operated a tavern out of Girardville in Schuylkill County. Kehoe had worked as a laborer in the mines when he had first come to America and could relate on a deep level with the working men who came into this establishment. Other important Molly figures included Alexander Campbell and James Carroll, both owned taverns and held higher positions of authority in their respected divisions of the AOH. The Mollies were very loosely organized and survived basically on the secrecy of their organization. A man who was educated or held some sort of position of betterment was generally looked up to by other members. Exactly what kind of authority levels existed inside of the Mollies’ circles is unclear. But the basic understanding is that in order to scare, beat, harm or otherwise endanger a person who offended a Molly, the action had to be sanctioned by some sort of person in authority and planned so that no one would get in trouble. The targets selected by the Mollies were usually mining officials of some sort. The mining bosses were almost always non-Irish and thus were often discriminated against their Irish employees. If a Molly was so slighted by either pay-withholding or physical abuse from the mining boss, retribution was readily planned and executed. Sometimes it would be a ‘coffin notice’ meant to simply scare the official, other times the Mollies took more direct action such as beatings and, eventually, murder. The old adage, “desperate times calls for desperate measures” could be used to describe the Mollies’ actions. Though those at the head of the society were literate and had a mind of their own, they could not see a solution to their situation beyond the method of terrorizing their nemesis into submission.

            The term ‘Molly Maguires’ was first used in October 1857 by Benjamin Bannan, editor of the Miners’ Journal in Pottsville, Schuylkill County. Bannan was a very vocal political activist for the Whig party; he resented the Irish because their democrat vote swayed elections against his choice party. When he first coined the term in 1857, Bannan accused the Mollies of political corruption, not the violence that later became associated with them. “During the American Civil War, Irish violence in the anthracite region took on a collective character for the first time, and the term Molly Maguires assumed its more familiar meaning of a murderous conspiratorial society. In this respect, the Civil War was a major turning point” (Kenny 81). There were two main happenings that turned the Mollies into violence during the Civil War. The first was the inequitable habits in drafting policy; the second was a general economic depression in the anthracite regions followed by sudden growth.

            When President Lincoln called for a draft of 300,000 men in 1862 the states were left to make their own draft procedure. The head of the Schuylkill draft committee was Benjamin Bannan. Using his newly acquired power seat, Bannan was free to impose conscripts on those who he deemed deserving and it cannot be said that Bannan’s personal feelings of animosity towards the Irish community did not influence the draft list. He most likely saw the draft as a way to purge out what he considered to be the vagabonds of society. When the list of conscripts were first published in Schuylkill the inhabitants of Cass Township, where there was an unusually large draft, broke out in violence. “A large crowd gathered in Cass Township, traveling through the mine patches and bringing out the men from colliery after colliery. They soon numbered about one thousand. At the town of Tremont, a few miles west of Cass, they stopped a train transporting draftees from Schuylkill County to Harrisburg” (Kenny 87). A scared Governor Curtin called in national troops and the riots were quickly suppressed. In light of these riots, the extreme drafts upon the Irish were slightly lifted, but it did little to pacify the situation. The typical Irishman had little to no hope at evading the draft. At the time, if the draftee did not wish to go to war, he would be allowed to pay a sum of money instead. Because the so said amount was far beyond the means of any Irishman, he found it impossible to dodge. Thus the Irishman would feel a grudge against the wealthier English, Welsh and Americans who could afford to skip the draft and live on in safety. The Irish were poor and many, made prime, but unwilling, draftees for the war.

            The second reason for an up rise in Molly Maguire activity was the economical state of the anthracite region before, during and after the Civil war. Before the war, coal production in Schuylkill was run by small scale companies running usually two or three mine shafts. Coal was used chiefly as a source of heat and the demand was minimum. The beginning years of the Civil War brought a depression upon the anthracite lands. The demand for coal was decreasing because of the expenses of the war. Coal was a luxury most people simply could not afford. The coal miners and laborers then left to fight in the war, for the army promised food and pay, both of which the miners were lacking during the depression. However, when the coal burning steam engine came into full use during the latter years of the Civil War, the demand for coal skyrocketed. The anthracite cities came alive and demanded a huge number of workers for the mines. Immigrants once again poured into the coal counties to work the mines. But when the Civil War ended and the previous mine workers came home, they found their jobs being held by other men. With no immediate work, the returning workers grew restless and irritated. Most of these men either moved westward, or settled down to any type of job that they could find. But even though the war was over, the demand for coal remained the same and even increased with the growing industry of the day. But for the Irishmen who came home to find themselves without a livelihood, resentments against the mine operators for not giving them their jobs back grew and festered.

            The first violence attributed to the Molly Maguires was the murder of one Frank W. Langdon, a mine foreman. The murder occurred June 4, 1862. Although what Langdon did to provoke the murder is unclear, the Mollies were not associated with it until the showcase trials in 1876-8. Violence broke out again in 1862 in December when a mob attacked the Phoenix colliery near Forestville and beat many of the workers.

The events at Forestville were strikingly reminiscent of the pattern of activity engaged in by crowds and secret societies in the Irish countryside…the intruders forced the mining engineers to extinguish the furnaces and shut down the mine; they then took control of the colliery store, and before they left, they warned that if the store were reopened or the furnaces at the mine relit, ‘they would make a volcano of the entire works and kill every man about the place’ (Kenny 89).

Riots and beatings continued into 1863 and peaked again in the summer with the second draft. Because Cass Township had so few volunteers, an unusually large conscription was placed upon the region. Riots ensued and the government was forced to send troops in order to maintain order. The enforced tranquility did little to calm the agitated nerves of Cass’ citizens and the draft proceeded as planned. Only one murder was committed during the Civil War, other than that of Frank W Langdon, and the target was George K Smith. Smith was murdered, apparently, for discharging a large number of Irishmen from his mines. Four more murders occurred after the Civil War. They were mainly related to miscreants who harbored resentment against certain drafting officials and executed their own type of justice upon them. However, the violence in the anthracite lands came to an almost complete end in 1868 with the rise of the Union. 

            “The rise of the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association inaugurated a new era in the history of labor relations in the anthracite region. For the first time, the mine workers were represented by a single, powerful organization extending across the region and industry as a whole” (Kenny 117). The Workingmen’s Benevolent Association (WBA) was founded by John Siney late in 1868. From the very beginning, Siney loudly advocated the union’s distain of violence and would not tolerate such members in their organization. The WBA was a huge success in it’s early years and completely succeeded in uniting the miners in the anthracite regions of Schuylkill, Carbon, Columbia, Luzerne and Northumberland Counties. The union was successful in bringing about better wages and working conditions for its members. It did everything peaceably that the Molly Maguires had tried to accomplish with violence.

 Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association is the extent to which it overcame the differences of craft and national origin that were a fact of life in the anthracite region. The absence of Molly Maguire violence after 1868 is a powerful testament to the success of this effort; so, too, is the resurgence of Molly Maguire violence after the defeat and collapse of the union in 1875 (Kenny 127).

Life was peaceable and good during the years of the union; but with the entrance of Franklin B. Gowen, that peace came to an end.

             Franklin B. Gowen was president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. He was a very ambitious man and had a stinking dislike of both competition and organized labor. Gowen’s ultimate ambition was to have complete control over the coal production of the anthracite regions in and around Schuylkill. In order to accomplish this, Gowen needed to rid himself of three problems; the first was competition in the railroad business, the second was independent mine operators and the third was the labor union. Gowen’s first move against the anthracite region was to complete a monopoly on all railroad transportation to and from the coal fields. Through sneaky business dealings, Gowen managed to get the charter for a secondary railroad company passed through the state legislature. With this secondary company, Gowen bought out all other operators in the to the coal fields. In appearances, Gowen did not possess a monopoly on transportation because the companies had different names, but underneath Gowen ran them both. With complete control of coal transportation in his hand, Gowen bided his time before acting. His goal was to drive the independent mine owners out of business and take over coal production. But Gowen opted to let the WBA and the mine owners to battle it out for a while before he stepped in to take control.

             The WBA presented a unique problem for Gowen. The organization was outstandingly non-violent and could not be indicted as such. However, Gowen manipulated the media’s prejudice of Irish and labor unions to his advantage. Rumors started up again about the Molly Maguires and how the WBA was just a cover-up name for the murderous organization. The press called for an investigation of the WBA in 1871 and despite the vocal protest of John Siney, the union was painted as a devious group of conspirators because of Gowen’s skillful manipulation of the entire affair.

Abiding his time, Gowen allowed the situation between the WBA and the mine operators to simmer. When the two groups came to an agreement of wages in late 1871, it became clear that Gowen was the real one with the power. Raising the price charged to haul one ton of coal to astronomically new highs, Gowen effectively began to drive the miners out of business. Because shipping and labor cost so much, the mine owners could no longer make a profit or barely break even. The owner’s predicament redounded upon the laborers because they could no longer be employed. As the mine operators began selling out, Gowen swooped in and bought them up. By 1873 Gowen practically owned all mines in the anthracite region, but he still faced the problem of the WBA.  

            To begin his conquest of the WBA, Gowen hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to send two undercover men into the region. One was to infiltrate the union, and one was to infiltrate the Molly Maguires. The man sent to the WBA found that the organization was indeed benign and non-violent and his investigation was quickly terminated. On the other hand, James McParlan infiltrated the Molly Maguires, was raised to the position of secretary in the organization (probably because he was one of the few Irish who could read), and continued undercover for two years.

            As for the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association and the labor needed to work the mines, Gowen brought a proposition before them. Under Gowen’s authority, the miners would work for even less than they had for the independent operators. The WBA refused this proposition and went on strike against Gowen. The “Long Strike” from January to June 1875 was the last ultimatum between the WBA and Gowen. Disunity and arguments had sprung up within the WBA with growing frequency since 1873 when the association with Molly Maguires began and the organization came under attack. Gowen was content to wait out the strike. All through the winter, he stayed in his warm Philadelphian home and ate well, while the poor striking worker shivered and starved. The strike was the last desperate act of the union. The WBA simply wanted working men to earn a decent wage for the work they did; but the union was not strong enough to stand this final blow. And on June 14, 1875 the WBA admitted defeat. Miners went back to work for incredibly low wages, desperate just for a little food and shelter. Gowen had won. He now had complete control over all aspects of coal mining. “The era of free labor and small-scale enterprise in the lower anthracite region had come to an end” (Kenny 182).

            Immediately following the WBA’s demise, the Mollies returned. Six assassinations were committed in the four months following the “Long Strike”. However, these particular assassinations did not resonate of the justice that was desired in the 1860’s; these lethal dealings reeked of personal grievances and not the fight of justice for all Irish.

Although it was castigated as mindless barbarity by the contemporaries, much of the Molly Maguire violence of the 1870’s involved the enforcement of a specific type of retributive justice. The victims varied from Welsh gang members to miners, mine superintendents and public officials. But the strategy of revenge employed in each case was much the same: direct, violent, and lethal (Kenny 185).

There was a vacuum of power left by the collapse of the WBA and the Molly Maguires tried to fill it. The workingman was frustrated and angry at the powers that had forced them into their current position. To the Mollies, the world was against them, refusing to let them etch out a living in the coal fields; so they turned to the only means of retribution that they knew: lethal violence. Throughout the following months after the WBA’s collapse, the local press of the anthracite region had a field day with an almost continuous flow of stories about violence breaking out in saloons and in the streets. These incidents were attributed to the Molly Maguires but it is hardly conceivable that the organization could continually stir up trouble. The miners in general were not content, they were working horrendous hours for small pay; and when they turned to the saloons for comfort it is easy to see how fights broke out between a disgruntle laborer and a smirking skilled miner. The Mollies’ actions were a reflection upon what a percentage of the miners felt.

            On September 3, 1875 the Molly Maguire violence came to an abrupt and forceful end; John P. Jones, a mining superintendent, was assassinated. The assailants, Jimmy Kerrigan, Michael J. Doyle and Edward Kelly were arrested in the nearby woods shortly after the murder took place. They were indicted for the crime and Doyle was first to trial. Shortly before he was convicted Kerrigan suddenly turned informer. Kerrigan told the authorities of all the other Molly Maguire killings and indicted many other men including John Kehoe, the alleged Molly Maguire king-pin. James McParlan, who had been undercover amidst the Mollies for the past two years, came forward to back Kerrigan’s accusations. Through the trials of 1875-8, fifty people were indicted with the charge of being Molly Maguires or lying to protect a Molly, almost all were either hung or sent to prison, and very few received a pardon.

               Throughout the showcase trials of the late 1870’s, the press followed every aspect of the trial; in their eyes, the Mollies were guilty before they stood trial. In addition to the press’ bias and affect on the public, there were two major grievances that existed during the trials. The first was that the juries were made up almost completely of Germans who could barely speak or understand English. Catholics and Irishmen were excluded from the juries as a matter of principle. The state official were very careful to make sure that the trial went the way they wanted. The second shady dealing in the trial was the testimony by which the defendants were convicted. Kerrigan was known to be a liar to those that knew him and his stories conveniently indicted everyone but himself. McParlan’s testimony is not so much in doubt, but his investigative techniques were extremely questionable. McParlan admitted that he knew about the Jones assassination a full day before it was committed, yet he did nothing to try to prevent it. “The testimony of James McParlan was very extensive, and detailed…McParlan’s testimony was essentially a corroboration of that of Kerrigan, and it was in the nature of a deliberate denunciation of the Molly Maguires” (Coleman 126-7). It is important to note here, that Franklin B. Gowen led the prosecuting team for most of the trials. Gowen was a licensed lawyer and took the main credit for bring the Mollies to justice. The world watched with unabated interest at the showcase trials of the Molly Maguires.

            On Black Thursday, June 21, 1877 the first hangings took place. Ten men were killed that day, four in Mauch Chunk and six in Pottsville. “The executions of the Molly Maguires consisted of powerful intimidatory rituals. The heyday of public executions had ended before the Molly Maguires were hanged, but the hangings were public spectacles nonetheless” (Kenny 244). The executions took place inside the prison yard, but government officials let a privileged few enter the yard to see the spectacle. In Mauch Chunk the sentenced men were Alexander Campbell and John Donahue for the murder of one Morgan Powell, and Michael J. Doyle and Edward Kelly for the murder of John P. Jones. In Pottsville the condemned men were: James Boyle, James Carroll, Thomas Duffy, James Roarity and Hugh McGehan for the murder of Benjamin Yost, a policeman; and finally Thomas Munley for the murder of Thomas Sanger and William Uren. The Sanger-Uren murder was never fully understood, for there seemed to be no motive involved; Thomas Munley was convicted on the testimony of James Kerrigan. As the men were led onto the scaffold, they held crucifixes and priests prayed over them. In their final moments before death some confessed their guilt; others stated their innocence and the innocence of friends who were currently undergoing trial. Hoods were placed over the men’s heads and nooses around their necks. Then, the trapdoors opened and the reign of the Molly Maguires ended.

            Ten more hangings took place before the issue of Molly Maguireism was laid to rest. The final hanging took place in 1879 and almost no one paid attention. The press’ fixation with the Molly Maguires quickly ended after the mass hangings on June 21. Over time, a new union rose, the Miners’ and Laborers’ Amalgamated Association which was modeled after the WBA. This union was successful and greatly bettered the situation of the laborer in the anthracite region. The union’s success was due, in part, to the absence of Franklin B. Gowen, who lost control of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company shortly after the trials of 1876. On December 13, 1889, Gowen purchased a pistol and committed suicide in his hotel room in Washington D.C. Though some critics speculated that he was murdered by the very Molly Maguires he had destroyed, the act was clearly suicide, not murder. James McParlan rose to the senior ranks of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, but his fall came in Idaho in 1907. McParlan tried to use the same investigative techniques in a case that he had used on the Molly Maguires. The judge ruling over the case handed it to the defendant because of McParlan’s underhanded tactics. McParlan never tried it again. Finally, the Ancient Order of Hibernians managed to fully separate itself from any reference to the Molly Maguires after many painstaking changes to their charter. As time widened the gap between the Mollies and the AOH current position, it became easier and easier for them to deny every being a part of such a violent society. 

            Now, nearly a hundred and fifty years later, it is important to evaluate the Molly Maguires with a level eye. Where they vicious murders? Or were they simply victims of society? It cannot be said that the Mollies did not have a choice in their actions. It also cannot be said that society did nothing to spur them on. It is incredibly clear that when a better means to justice was available (the WBA) the Mollies laid aside their violence. When the WBA collapsed, the Mollies returned. Irish culture had always been despised and looked down on by the elite of Europe. Irish were considered cheep labor, and that was their primary value both in Europe and America. When the Irish came to America hoping to escape the oppression of their homeland, they instead found a society much like what they had left behind. Being so downtrodden, the Irish reacted the way that was most natural to them: violence. But that is not to say that they did not have a choice in the matter. There is always a choice for every action; but it is possible that the Mollies were so filled with despair and hopeless rage that they failed to see the choice.  The Molly Maguires were born out of a desperate need for opportunity, livelihood and justice for the Irish community; acting according to those needs the Mollies used violence in the absence of any alternative measure.

                                                            Works Cited

Coleman, J. Walter. The Molly Maguire Riots: Industrial Conflict in the Pennsylvania <O></O >

            Coal Region. Garret and Massie; Richmond. 1936.

Kenny, Kevin. Making Sense of the Molly Maguires. Oxford UP; New York. 1998. <O></O >

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