State v. Stewart
| Decision Date | 27 May 1887 |
| Citation | 9 A. 559,59 Vt. 273 |
| Parties | STATE v. CHARLES C. STEWART AND OTHERS. [*] |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
INDICTMENT for a conspiracy to hinder and prevent the Ryegate Granite Works, a corporation doing business at Ryegate, from employing certain granite cutters, and for hindering and deterring certain laborers from working for the said corporation. Heard, June Term, 1885, ROSS, J., presiding upon the respondents' demurrer and motion to quash the indictment. The demurrer was overruled pro forma, and the motion to quash denied; to which the respondents excepted.
Indictment "Be it remembered, that at the County Court begun and holden at St. Johnsbury, the grand jurors, etc., present that James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill, all of Ryegate in the county of Caledonia, with divers evil disposed persons, to the said grand jurors unknown, on the 13th day of April, A. D. 1885, at Ryegate, in the county of Caledonia, did unlawfully combine, conspire, confederate and agree together to prevent, hinder and deter by violence, threats and intimidation, the Ryegate Granite Works, a corporation then and there being and existing by law, from retaining and taking into its employment James O'Rourke, William Goodfellow and other persons, to the said grand jurors unknown, then and there being as laborers in the labor and occupation of granite cutting to the great damage of the said Ryegate Granite Works, and the said James O'Rourke and William Goodfellow and other persons, to the said grand jurors unknown, then and there being as laborers in the labor and occupation of granite cutting to the great damage of the said Ryegate Granite Works, and the said James O'Rourke and William Goodfellow and others and to the evil example of all men and against the peace and dignity of the State.
And the grand jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid further present that the said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill, all of Ryegate, in the county of Caledonia, with other evil disposed persons, to the said grand jurors unknown, at Ryegate aforesaid, on the 13th day of April, A. D. 1885, maliciously intending to control, injure, terrify and impoverish the Ryegate Granite Works, a corporation then and there being and existing by law, and by violence, threats and intimidation, to force and compel said corporation to conform to the rules, regulations, by-laws and decrees of a branch of the National Stone Cutter's Union, an organization then and there existing, and to deprive said corporation of all the workmen and laborers then and there by it employed in its works and shops there situate, unlawfully did conspire, combine, confederate and agree to terrify, frighten, alarm, intimidate and drive away by threats and intimidation, James O'Rourke, Hugh J. O'Rourke, William Goodfellow and others, to the said grand jurors unknown, who were then and there workmen and laborers of the said Ryegate Granite Works, to the evil example of all men and against the peace and dignity of the State.
And the grand jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid further present that the said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill, being granite cutters by occupation and not being content to allow other granite cutters to pursue their avocation and employment wherever they wished and upon whatever terms might be agreed upon between said other granite cutters and their employers, but contriving and unjustly intending to destroy the effect of free competition in the price and value of labor, to coerce and constrain said other granite cutters and their employers and to compel said other granite cutters to desist from labor and to deprive the employers thereof of all their laborers and apprentices and thereby to ruin and destroy their business, did, on the 13th day of April, A. D. 1885, at Ryegate aforesaid, with force and arms combine, conspire, confederate and unlawfully agree together and did enter into an organization and compact whereby it was, among other things, provided that none of the parties to said compact and organization should labor or cut granite for any person or persons or corporation whose shop or works had been by the parties to said compact and organization disapproved of and adjudged to be "scab shops" or works, and that no other granite cutters should be allowed to work or cut granite for or in such "scab shops" or works, and that all other granite cutters in this country should be notified that the shops or works so adjudged to be "scab" were "scab" and that work therein by granite cutters was forbidden by said organization and that all granite cutters who disregarded said prohibition and worked or cut granite in such "scab" shop or works should be called "scabs" and their names should be published as "scabs" in a certain newspaper called the Granite Cutters' Journal, a newspaper of wide circulation among granite cutters in this country, and that all granite cutters in this country should thereby be notified not to associate or work in the same shop with any of the parties so published as "scabs." And the said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill, in pursuance of the said unlawful conspiracy, combination and compact with the intent to prevent the prosecution of work in the shops and works of said Ryegate Granite Works next hereinafter mentioned, did then and there threaten and say to James O'Rourke, Hugh J. O'Rourke, William Goodfellow and others who were then and there laborers, workmen and apprentices as granite cutters in the shops and works there situate of the Ryegate Granite Works, a corporation then and there being and existing by law and there carrying on the business of cutting granite and manufacturing granite work, that said shops and works of the said Ryegate Granite Works were "scab" shops and "scab" works and that no granite cutters were allowed to work therein and that the said James O'Rourke, Hugh J. O'Rourke, William Goodfellow and others would be "scabs" if they worked in said last named shops or works and that their names would be published as "scabs" in said Granite Cutters' Journal if they worked in said last named shops or works and that they would be disgraced in the eyes of all granite cutters and would be avoided and shunned by all granite cutters, and that all other granite cutters would refuse to work or associate with them, if they worked in said last named shops or works, and were published as "scabs" as aforesaid; and by means of the said sayings and threats, the said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill did then and there affright, drive away and prevent the said James O'Rourke, Hugh J. O'Rourke, William Goodfellow and others from accepting, undertaking and prosecuting their said employment in said shops and works of the said Ryegate Granite Works, with the intent of them, the said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill last aforesaid.
And so the said grand jurors say on their oath aforesaid that the said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill did then and there in manner aforesaid, by threats, intimidation and the unlawful and grievous conspiracy aforesaid, carried into execution as aforesaid, affright, drive away and prevent the said James O'Rourke, Hugh J. O'Rourke, William Goodfellow and others from accepting, undertaking and prosecuting the employment and work of stone cutting in said shops and works of said Ryegate Granite Works, with the lawful intent of them, the said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill, thereby to prevent the prosecution of work in said Ryegate Granite Works, said shops and works, contrary to the form and effect of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State.
And the said grand jurors, upon their oath aforesaid, further present that said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill, all of Ryegate aforesaid, with the unlawful intent and purpose to prevent the prosecution of work which was then and there carried on by the Ryegate Granite Works, a corporation then and there existing under the laws of the State of Vermont, in the manufactory of the Ryegate Granite Works aforesaid, then and there situate, did then and there threaten the said James O'Rourke, Hugh J. O'Rourke, William Goodfellow and others, to the said grand jurors unknown, who were then and there at work in said manufactory, that they, the said James O'Rourke, Hugh J. O'Rourke, William Goodfellow and others, would be "scabs" and be called and advertised as "scabs" and that they, the said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill, would cause the names of the said James O'Rourke, Hugh J. O'Rourke, William Goodfellow and others to be published in the "scab" list in the Granite Cutters' Journal, a paper of wide and extended circulation among granite cutters in the United States, if they, the said James O'Rourke, Hugh J. O'Rourke, William Goodfellow and others, continued work in the said manufactory, and the said term "scab" as so threatened to be used by said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole and Lewis Hill, is an opprobrious and disgraceful epithet, the use of which, in the manner threatened by the said James D. Grant, Charles C. Stewart, Orrin E. Clay, John McGeough, Edward O'Toole ...
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