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Unwilling to permit catastrophic civil obedience, President Cleveland sought and received a federal court injunction against the strike on July 2nd, which ordered Debs and the other union members “absolutely to desist and refrain from in any way or manner interfering with, hindering, obstructing, or stopping, any of the business of any of the railroads as common carriers of passengers and freight between or among a number of states…” When the strikers failed to obey the injunction, Cleveland not only authorized Attorney General Olney (a former railroad lawyer) to appoint a special counsel, Edwin Walker, to assist the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, but also dispatched 3,600 special deputies, funded by the General Manager’s Union (GMA), to the Chicago area, to operate railroads under federal government control. The President’s decision was made in spite of Governor Altgeld’s protests that local authorities could handle the disruption of mail service.
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Jeffrey K. Smith (Grover Cleveland: The Last Conservative Democratic President)