Talk:John Peter Altgeld

NPOV
"Altgeld's final years were sad"

"after enduring perhaps the greatest firestorm of negative press ever encountered by an American politician, he was defeated for reelection in 1896 by John R. Tanner."

These are just two statements, at a cursory glance that are definite POV. Discuss A mcmurray 04:11, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes. let's fix it. Wachholder0 03:15, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Headings
I changed the headings to more closely reflect the subject matter of the particular sections. Birth, Marriage, Congress, Governor and Death did not seem to fully reflect the material in any of those sections. -- DS1953 talk 04:38, 9 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Excellent. I am wondering if anyone knows more about Altgeld. What of this firestrom of press? Anyone, anyone, Bueller? A mcmurray 10:13, 17 October 2006 (UTC) I also think this article could use the expand tag. Altgeld's involvement with the Harmarket Rioters notwithstanding, he was also one of the staunchest proponents of education around during the time period. A mcmurray 10:15, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

From German Altgelt, El Paso, Texas
I am a distant relative of JPA, and I can't say I am a little biased towards his life's accomplishments. JPA has written a couple of books re-edited in some ocassions, like the one called "Our Penal Machinery and its Victims", an early essay about how we were treating petty criminals, sending them to prison, and returning them back to society after learning how to be much worse criminals. Written in 1884, it is still showing us today that we haven't learned a thing. It was republished in "Live Questions" in 1890 and JPA used it as campaign tool. Live Questions was republished in 1973 by AMS Press Inc., just a photocopy of the original. He also wrote an intersting essay about the science of speaking in public, of which we were told he was a master: "Oratory", written in 1901 and published posthumoumosly in 1915. An interesting side subject also approached by this statesman was "The cost of something for nothing", precursor to "there is not such a thing as a free lunch" and published by his lifetime friend, the big masses lawyer Clarence Darrow in 1904, after JPA's death.

JPA's life are well reflected in an interesting novel, by Howard Fast, "The American", published in the year of my own birth, 1946. The important research by Harry Barnard, "Eagle Forgotten", subtitled The Life of John Peter Altgeld, had its first edition in 1938. Even JFK has written a short essay about him in "Profiles in Courage" (perhaps ghost written for JFK)

An excellent essay about the anarchists is in "The Chicago Haymarket Riot: Anarchy on Trial", edited by Bernard Kogan and published in 1959.

I own a copy of each of these books, and I can copy/scan anything you may be interested about JPA, within reason.

You can also transfer this info to the main page if you find it relevant --70.120.225.195 18:44, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

Birth place
Altgeld was born in Selters, Germany, but there are more than one of them (see de:Selters), none of which was Prussian in 1847. Selters/Taunus and Selters/Westerwald, however, became Prussian in 1866, after the annexion of Nassau. While some American sources quote "Nieder Selters" as Altgeld's birthplace (they probably mean Niederselters, now part of Selters/Taunus), it follows from the birth register of the church in Selters/Westerwald that J.P. Altgeld was rather born there as has been noted by the authors of the "Steinener Buergerbuch" (see Westerwald Wiki, in German). Some indirect evidence (not meant to be WP:OR) comes from the fact that there is a John-Peter-Altgeld-Platz in Selters/Westerwald. Furthermore, as can be verified using the German online phone register (click "English", then "Region finder"), there are currently 38 phone lines registered on the name Altgeld within a radius of 25km around Selters/Westerwald, none within the same radius around Selters/Taunus. Cheers, --84.188.212.87 17:44, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Architecture section
I'm sure somebody put a lot of work into this section, but really -- Altgeld was a politician, not an architect. The section is WAY out of proportion to the rest of the article, and needs to be trimmed by at least half, if not two-thirds. I suppose it could be split off into a separate article in the Architecture category, with a link from this article. Cgingold 07:42, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Probably could move the architecture information to three separate articles on the three different Altgeld Halls. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shdamberger (talk • contribs) 16:53, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 07:07, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

SIDE BAR TO GOV. ALTGELD.
A INTERESTING SIDE BAR OF THIS STORY IS THE HAYMARKET RIOT PLOT LOCATED IN CHICAGO'S  FOREST HOME CEMETERY  LOCATED IN FOREST PARK, IL. GO THOUGH THE MAIN GATE TO THE RIGHT.

I BEEN THERE MANY TIMES AND LOOKS VERY NICE. GLAD THE GOVERNOR LET THEM( "THE TROUBLEMAKERS") OFF THE HOOK. IT WAS NOT EVEN KNOWN HOW THIS BEGAN BUT A UNKNOWN GUN FIRE AT THE PROTEST AT DESPLAINES AVE. IN CHICAGO.

POSSIBLE IT WAS DONE BY THE PULLMAN FOLKS TO START A RIOT TO GET RID OFF THE STRIKERS. GOV. ALTGELD WAS BRAVE ENOUGHT TO GO AGAINST PRES. CLEVLAND'S WISHED TO UNION BUST BUT FAILED HE EVEN FILED A PROTEST TO WASHINGTON.

IN ALL, I FEEL THAT GOV. ALTGELD IS A BRAVE AND A PERSON WHO PUTS THE COUNTRY FIRST. NOT WORRY OF HOW THIS MAY LOOK TO THE PUBLIC AND THUS ENDING HIS GOVERNORSHIP IN 1898. SOMETHING TODAYS OFFICIALS WILL NOT BOTHER TO DO.

WITH RESPECT,

ROBERT JONES HISTORY MAJOR —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.142.123.202 (talk) 23:41, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

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Discrepancy
Just came from the list of last words, where it says: "How do you do, Cushing? I am glad to see you." had been John Peter Altgeld's last words, greeting a visitor, did he do that in an aside while holding a speech, I wonder? 158.181.81.54 (talk) 23:42, 25 April 2024 (UTC)