John
Peter Altgeld, the first immigrant to be elected Governor of Illinois, sacrificed
his political career to right an injustice. In 1893 he pardoned 3 immigrant labor
activists who had been sentenced to death without a fair and impartial trial and
without any real and substantial evidence. He did this knowing that the public
had already concluded the immigrants were guilty and that his career would be
over. Indeed, this brought him into the national spotlight, and overwhelming criticism
from the national press which called him an 'anarchist,' 'socialist,' and 'murderer.'
