View source for John Peter Altgeld

{{Short description|Governor of Illinois from 1893 to 1897}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=October 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = John Peter Altgeld
| image               = John Peter Altgeld 1893.webp
| caption             = Altgeld {{circa}} 1893
| order               = 20th
| office              = Governor of Illinois
| term_start          = January 10, 1893
| term_end            = January 11, 1897
| lieutenant          = [[Joseph B. Gill]]
| predecessor         = [[Joseph W. Fifer]]
| successor           = [[John Riley Tanner|John R. Tanner]]
| office1             = Judge of the<br />[[Superior Court of Cook County]]
| term_start1         = December 6, 1886
| term_end1           = August 1, 1891
| predecessor1        = [[Rollin S. Williamson]]
| successor1          = Jonas Hutchinson
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1847|12|30}}
| birth_place         = [[Selters, Rhineland-Palatinate|Selters]], [[Duchy of Nassau]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1902|3|12|1847|12|30}}
| death_place         = [[Joliet, Illinois]], U.S.
| party               = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Emma Ford|1877}}
| profession          = [[Judge]], [[lawyer]]
| allegiance          = {{country|United States}}
| branch              = {{army|United States}}
| serviceyears        = 1863–1865
| rank                = [[Private (rank)|Private]]
| unit                = [[164th Ohio Infantry]]
| battles             = [[American Civil War]]
| signature           = John P. Altgeld signature.jpg
}}

'''John Peter Altgeld''' (December 30, 1847 – March 12, 1902) was an American politician and the [[List of governors of Illinois|20th governor]] of [[Illinois]], serving from 1893 until 1897. He was the first [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]] to govern that state since the 1850s, and would remain the only one to do so until the 1920s. A leading figure of the [[Progressive Era|Progressive movement]], Altgeld signed [[Occupational safety and health|workplace safety]] and [[child labor]] laws, pardoned three of the men convicted in the [[Haymarket Affair]], and rejected calls in 1894 to break up the [[Pullman strike]] by force.  In 1896 he was a leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, opposing President [[Grover Cleveland]] and the conservative [[Bourbon Democrats]]. He was defeated for reelection in 1896 in an intensely fought, bitter campaign.

Born in the [[Duchy of Nassau]], Germany, Altgeld grew up on a farm in the American [[Midwest]]. After a short time in the [[Union Army]] as a youth, he studied law in Missouri, while working as a manual laborer, and became involved in progressive politics. He eventually opened a law practice in Chicago, becoming a real estate developer, and local judge before being elected governor. After his term as governor, he worked in the law office of [[Clarence Darrow]] but, often in poor health throughout his life, died at the age of 54.

==Early life==
Altgeld was born in the town of [[Selters, Rhineland-Palatinate|Selters]] in the [[Germany|German]] [[Westerwald]], the first son of John P. and Mary Altgeld. His parents left Germany when he was three months old, bringing their infant son with them.{{sfn|Browne|1924|pp=279–}} They settled on a farm near [[Mansfield, Ohio|Mansfield]], Ohio. He left home at age 16 to join the [[Union Army]]; lying about his age, he enlisted in the 164th Ohio (National Guard) Infantry. Altgeld's regiment served in Virginia as a reserve unit, doing labor and reconnaissance, participating in only one skirmish. Altgeld himself nearly died of fever.{{sfn|Browne|1924|pp=7–8}} He then worked on his father's farm, studied in the library of a neighbor and at a private school in [[Lexington, Ohio|Lexington]], Ohio, and for two years taught school.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Alumni Record of the University of Illinois at Urbana| date=1906| publisher=University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign campus)| page=[https://archive.org/details/alumnirecorduni00unkngoog/page/n617 573]| url=https://archive.org/details/alumnirecorduni00unkngoog| quote=John Peter Altgeld Lexington Ohio.|access-date=25 May 2017}}</ref>

After a brief stint in an Ohio seminary, he walked to [[Missouri]] and studied to become a lawyer while working on itinerant railroad construction crews. Becoming ill from the climate and the labor, Altgeld wandered to Kansas and Iowa before settling as a teacher and farmhand near [[Savannah, Missouri]]. There, he began to read law at a private law firm and was admitted to the [[Andrew County, Missouri|Andrew County]] bar in 1871. He was not educated at any university. The university law school at which he would have studied was not even founded until 1872, one year before Altgeld was admitted to the bar.{{sfn|Browne|1924|pp=13–16}} In Savannah, Altgeld first became involved in politics. He served as city attorney and was elected [[state's attorney]], resigning after one year of a two-year term.{{sfn|Browne|1924|pp=16–18}}

In 1875, Altgeld moved to Chicago hoping to continue his legal career there. He frequently visited his home in Ohio. He was married to Emma Ford, the daughter of John Ford and Ruth Smith, in 1877 in [[Richland County, Ohio]]. Their marriage was a happy one by all accounts but produced no children.{{sfn|Browne|1924|pp=19–20}}

Altgeld's practice of law began to show success and he was managing an independent legal practice by 1880. He became wealthy, however, from a series of real estate dealings and development projects, including residential and office properties in Chicago and a [[streetcar]] line in [[Newark, Ohio]].{{sfn|Browne|1924|pp=33–34}} His most notable project was the [[Unity Building (Chicago)|Unity Building]] (1891), the 16-story office building that was at that time Chicago's tallest building. In January 1890, Altgeld bought a lot at what is now 127 North Dearborn Street in downtown Chicago, and he established the Unity Company to build and manage the future Unity Building. He indiscriminately contributed his own fortune toward the endeavor, and for a while the construction was moving more quickly than expected. However, this led to a $100,000 mistake and much of the framework of the building had to be rebuilt. Altgeld also made an error by trying to borrow $400,000 from John R. Walsh, president of the Jennings Trust Company and of the Chicago National Bank. Technicalities in the contract caused many problems for Altgeld. Eventually, a new contract was signed, but Altgeld was able to borrow only $300,000 from Walsh. He ended up raising the rest of the money himself, and the construction of the Unity Building was completed. In 1893, he declared that the Unity Building had given him the most personal satisfaction of all his achievements.{{sfn|Browne|1924|pp=36–39}}

Altgeld became a millionaire, and would, by the time he ran for governor, own six buildings in Chicago.<ref name="gambler"/>

==Early political career==
Altgeld's name, according to historian [[Philip Dray]], "is synonymous with the dawn of the Progressive era."{{cn|date=October 2024}} His first public post was city attorney in [[Savannah, Missouri]], in which capacity he rewrote a code of ordinances. In Missouri Altgeld became involved in the [[The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry|Granger movement]] and the Democratic Party and was elected to be [[state's attorney]] for the county in 1874. As Altgeld later wrote, he quickly became disillusioned with the criminal justice system and resigned after just one year.{{sfn|Browne|1924|pp=16–18}}

Altgeld decided to run for Congress in 1884 against incumbent [[George E. Adams|George Adams]] of [[Illinois's 4th congressional district]]. That year, he published an essay on penal reform entitled, ''Our Penal Machinery and Its Victims.'' His essay argued that rather than reform criminals, incarceration produced hardened criminals.{{sfn|Dray|2010}}{{page needed|date=October 2024}} Although this district was heavily Republican, Adams defeated him by just 8 points (54–46%), a better showing than well-known Democrat [[Lambert Tree]] had made two years earlier. As a Republican leader recalled, "He (Altgeld) was not elected, but our executive committee was pretty badly frightened by the strong canvass he made."<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.germanheritage.com/biographies/atol/altgeld.html|department=German American Corner |title=Altgeld, John Peter (1847–1902) |website=germanheritage.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330170300/http://www.germanheritage.com/biographies/atol/altgeld.html |archive-date=2019-03-30}}</ref>

Altgeld assumed the office of Judge of the Superior Court of Cook County on December 6, 1886.succeeding Judge Rollin S. Williamson.<ref name="1895 Jud Dept"/><ref>{{cite news|title=The Retirement of a Judge: Judge Williamson Gives Place to Judge Altgeld|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=December 7, 1886|page=12|id={{ProQuest| }} }}</ref> He resigned in August 1891 to pursue private business interests.<ref>{{cite news|title=Gleanings in Local Fields: Judge Altgeld Retires from the Bench|date=August 1, 1891|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|page=3|id={{ProQuest| }} }}</ref> He was succeeded as a judge by Jonas Hutchinson.<ref name="1895 Jud Dept">{{cite book|editor-last=Pickering|editor-first=J. L.|title=Directory of the Illinois Legislature of 1895|chapter=Judicial Department|publisher=Press of the Illinois State Journal|location=[[Springfield, Illinois]]|page=84|access-date=February 4, 2025|url=https://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/bb/id/45987/rec/19}}</ref>

==Illinois governorship==
[[File:AltgeldJohn.PNG|thumb|John P. Altgeld, 1895<ref>{{cite news| last=Donovan| first=Henry| work=[[Chicago Eagle]] |url=http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=CHE18950119&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------#| date=January 19, 1895| access-date=26 June 2015| title=Hon. John P. Altgeld}}</ref>]]

[[1891 United States Senate election in Illinois|In 1891]], he unsuccessfully challenged [[John M. Palmer (politician)|John M. Palmer]] in seeking to have the [[Illinois General Assembly]] appoint him to the [[United States Senate]].<ref name="gambler">{{cite book |last1=Lindberg |first1=Richard C. |title=The Gambler King of Clark Street: Michael C. McDonald and the Rise of Chicago's Democratic Machine |date=2009 |publisher=SIU Press |isbn=978-0-8093-8654-3 |pages=196–202 |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=IUgbMFn6nCYC |access-date=19 May 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

===1892 gubernatorial election===
[[File:Altgeld.JPG|thumb|Altgeld Monument by [[Gutzon Borglum]], erected by the Illinois Legislature in [[Lincoln Park]], Chicago (on Labor Day, 1915)<ref>{{cite web| title=John Peter Altgeld Monument| url=http://chicagopublicart.blogspot.com/2013/09/john-peter-altgeld-monument.html| author=Koenig-Badowski| date=September 9, 2013}}</ref>]]

He was [[Draft (politics)|drafted]] by the Democrats to run for [[1892 Illinois gubernatorial election|Governor of Illinois]].

One of the obstacles in the way of Altgeld receiving the Democratic nomination was Palmer, still bitter over Altgeld challenging him for Senate in 1891.<ref name="gambler"/> Viewed as an elder statesman of the party, Palmer's opposition to Altgeld would have carried weight.<ref name="gambler"/> Altgeld supporter [[Michael C. McDonald]] made an empty promise to Palmer that, in turn for not opposing Altgeld's candidacy, Cook County Democrats would support him for the party's presidential nomination in [[1892 United States presidential election|the same year's presidential election]].<ref name="gambler"/>

Altgeld was popular among his fellow German Americans.<ref name="gambler"/>

The only Chicago newspaper that provided positive coverage of Altgeld was the ''[[Chicago Globe]]'', which was run by Michael C. McDonald.<ref name="gambler"/> Elsewhere in the Chicago press, Altgeld received vilification for his political association with Michael C. McDonald, his liberal sympathies towards the men convicted in the [[Haymarket Affair]], and his alliance with Chicago's Iroquois Club.<ref name="gambler"/> He was painted as a hazardous radical and a dangerous threat to the state's business and commercial concerns.<ref name="gambler"/> However, many downstate newspapers provided positive coverage to Altgeld.<ref name="gambler"/>

Also initially seeking the Democratic nomination was [[John C. Black]].<ref name="gambler"/> Other potential candidates were dissuaded from running. For instance, State Representative [[James Cockrell]] was convinced by [[Clarence Darrow]] to abandon his plans of running.<ref name="gambler"/> However, by February 23, it was reported that Black had withdrawn from the race, leaving Altgeld as the only candidate seeking the Democratic nomination.<ref name="gambler"/> Altgeld won the Democratic nomination on the first ballot at the state convention in [[Springfield, Illinois|Springfield]].<ref name="gambler"/>

Altgeld's supporters dubbed him, "the poor man's friend".<ref name="gambler"/>

In the general election he faced popular incumbent Republican governor [[Joseph W. Fifer]].<ref name="gambler"/>

Altgeld traveled across the state to campaign on a vigorous speaking tour.<ref name="gambler"/> He attacked Fifer's use of [[prison labor]] for state projects, and attacked his school reform record.<ref name="gambler"/> Fifer did not refute Altgeld's allegations against his record, which helped make them stick in the minds of voters.<ref name="gambler"/>

To dampen the negative impact that his association with Altgeld would have on Altgeld's electability, particularly among rural downstate voters, Michael C. McDonald temporarily resigned his role on the [[Cook County Central Committee]] a month before the election.<ref name="gambler"/>

Altgeld narrowly defeated Fifer. He was the first Democrat to have been elected governor of Illinois since 1856, the first time a [[Foreign born|foreign-born]] citizen had been elected, and the first time a Chicago resident had been elected.<ref name="gambler"/><ref>{{cite web| url=http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/altgeld.html| title=1896: John Peter Altgeld|access-date=24 October 2014}}</ref>

===Transition===
Altgeld suffered a nervous breakdown shortly after his victory, and nearly died of a concomitant fever. He managed to appear at his inauguration, but was only able to deliver a brief portion of his speech. Although the General Assembly hall was so warm as to cause several men to faint, Altgeld, clad in a heavy topcoat, was pale and visibly shivering. The clerk of the Assembly delivered the remainder of his speech.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

===Tenure===
As governor, Altgeld spearheaded the nation's most progressive [[child labor]] and [[occupational safety]] laws, appointed women to important positions in the state government, and vastly increased state funding for education.

====Pullman Strike====
In 1894, the [[Pullman Strike|Pullman Rail Strike]], led by [[Eugene V. Debs]], took place. Altgeld, however, refused to authorize President [[Grover Cleveland]] to send in Federal troops to quell the disturbances.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-06-22 |title=In 1894 Pullman strike, Illinois’ governor fought president’s decision to send in troops |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/22/in-1894-pullman-strike-illinois-governor-fought-presidents-decision-to-bring-in-national-guard/ |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=Chicago Tribune |language=en-US}}</ref> Altgeld wrote to President Cleveland indicating that reports of strike-related violence had been exaggerated and warned that real violence would begin only as a result of sending soldiers. Nevertheless, a federal injunction was issued against the strike, with disruption of [[United States Postal Service|U.S. Mail]] deliveries, a [[Federal government of the United States|Federal]] concern, cited as a justification. However, the superintendent of mails, L. L. Troy, stated that no mail had been disrupted.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stone |first1=Irving |author-link1=Irving Stone |title=Clarence Darrow for the Defense |date=1941 |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday, Doran & Company]] |location=Garden City, New York |page=4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Madison |first1=Charles |title=Critics & Crusaders: A Century of American Protest |url=https://archive.org/details/criticscrusaders006619mbp |date=1947 |publisher=[[Henry Holt and Company]] |location=New York}}</ref> Citing Article IV of the Constitution, which permits federal troops to enter a state only if a condition of insurrection exists, Altgeld argued that there was no legal bearing to a decision to send the military to quell the strike. Finally, he took the occasion to criticize the attorney general's misuse of court injunctions under the [[Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890|Sherman Act]], writing: "This decision marks a turning point in our history for it establishes a new form of government never before heard of among men; that is government by injunction. ... Under this new order of things a federal judge becomes at once a legislator, court and executioner."{{sfn|Dray|2010}}{{page needed|date=October 2024}} However, on July 4, 1894, Cleveland went ahead and sent several thousand troops to Chicago without Altgeld's approval, an action later upheld by the [[U.S. Supreme Court]]. Altgeld's opposition was seen as a highly unusual stance for a state governor at that time.<ref>{{cite book |first=Chris |last=Wallace |title=Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage |location=New York |publisher=Rugged Land |isbn=159071038X}}{{Page needed|date=December 2020}}</ref> Altgeld may have opposed the use of federal troops but he wielded the state militia to rein in the strike. He sent the militia to eight areas during the strike, including to Mount Olive, where the miners blocked the Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis railroad from shipping coal. Once there the Governor issued General Order No. 8, which prohibited them from being used "as custodians or guards of private property."<ref>{{cite book| last=Almont| first=Lindsey| title=The Pullman Strike: The Story of a Unique Experiment and of a Great Labor Upheaval| publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press: Chicago| year=1942| pages=14–15| isbn=978-0226483832| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oaWamk_kwfQC&q=altgeld}}</ref>

====Pardons and clemency====
Historically, Altgeld is remembered chiefly for pardoning the three surviving men convicted in the 1886 [[Haymarket affair|Haymarket bombing]] (four others had already been executed, one committed suicide in prison). After reviewing their cases, Altgeld concluded that the trial had taken place in such an atmosphere of prejudice that the convictions were not credible. Although he came under intense attack for pardoning the remaining defendants, subsequent scholars have concluded that there had been a serious miscarriage of justice in their prosecutions.

Some argue that in addition to his findings that there had been a miscarriage of justice, Altgeld was also motivated by revenge in his Haymarket pardon. The judge that prosecuted the men, [[Joseph E. Gary]], had upheld a ruling that found Altgeld in [[Contempt of court|contempt]] of the Cook County Superior Court.<ref name="gambler"/> Altgeld was known to hold strong grudges.<ref name="gambler"/>

By the end of 1895, he freed eighty-one prisoners, leading newspapers to dub him John "Pardon" Altgeld.<ref name="gambler"/>

In May 1895, mob violence erupted after one of Altgeld's pardons, with farmers [[lynching]] two accused [[Rape|rapists]] in [[Danville, Illinois|Danville]].<ref name="gambler"/>

On his last day in office, he released twenty-six offenders convicted of serious crimes, including seven [[murder]]ers.<ref name="gambler"/>

In total, he pardoned or commuted sentences of:
* 75 people convicted of [[forgery]], [[embezzlement]], [[manslaughter]], [[burglary]], or [[larceny]]<ref name="gambler"/>
* 19 people convicted of murder<ref name="gambler"/>
* 8 people convicted of [[rape]], [[sexual assault|assault]], or [[incest]]<ref name="gambler"/>
* 5 people convicted or [[armed robbery]] or [[arson]]<ref name="gambler"/>

===Unsuccessful 1896 reelection campaign===
The Pullman incident and the Haymarket pardons were used against Altgeld by his conservative enemies. Altgeld was ineligible to run for president (since he was born in Germany), but he led the fight against the Cleveland forces in 1896. Altgeld publicly broke from Cleveland and his conservative supporters. Altgeld helped split the Democratic Party during the 1896 presidential election into [[Free Silver]] and [[Bourbon Democrats]]. He ran for re-election on the same ticket with Democratic presidential nominee [[William Jennings Bryan]]. Altgeld had not supported Bryan for the nomination and hesitated to support the "Free Silver" plank that was central to Bryan's campaign.{{sfn|Browne|1924|pp=279–280}} ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' warned that Bryan would be a puppet of Altgeld, whom it referred to as "the ambitious and unscrupulous Illinois communist." However, Bryan, who was being hurt by Republican charges that he was a stooge for Altgeld, avoided the governor and did not endorse him.{{sfn|Browne|1924|p=286}}

Republicans in Illinois focused their attacks on Altgeld. [[Theodore Roosevelt]], before an audience of 13,000 cheering partisans in Chicago, said Altgeld was "one who would connive at wholesale murder," who "condones and encourages the most infamous of murders," and who "would substitute for the government of Washington and Lincoln a red welter of lawlessness and dishonesty as fantastic and vicious as the Paris Commune."{{sfn|Browne|1924|p=287}} Altgeld campaigned energetically despite his failing health, but was defeated by [[John R. Tanner]]; Altgeld outpolled his party's presidential candidate, Bryan, by 10,000 votes in Illinois.

==Chicago mayoral candidacies==
===1899===
{{main|1899 Chicago mayoral election}}

Altgeld was a political opponent of [[Carter H. Harrison, Jr.]] (1860–1953), who had been elected Mayor of Chicago in 1897.<ref name=TellsAim>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12903708/tells_aim_or_altgeld_william_prentiss/ |title=Tells Aim of Altgeld: William Prentiss Explains the Opposition to Harrison |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=January 5, 1899 |page=10}}</ref> Altgeld believed that Harrison aimed to spearhead conservative forces in the Democratic Party at the national level and that if Harrison were re-elected as mayor he would have the power to handpick conservative delegates to the 1900 Democratic National Convention.<ref name=TellsAim /> Finding Harrison's prospective opponent, a "Free Silver" Republican, a less offensive option, Altgeld decided to himself run for Mayor – having faint hope of victory himself, but seeking to split away the progressive Democratic vote and thereby send Harrison to defeat.<ref name=TellsAim />

Altgeld charged that Harrison was building a political machine and that his administration was corrupt, publicly claiming in March 1899 that Harrison's administration was complicit in the theft of city funds by political allies in connection with city public works projects.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12904260/fraud_in_pay_rolls_altgeld_exposes/ |title=Fraud in Pay Rolls: Altgeld Exposes Steals of Harrison Administration |work=[[Chicago Inter Ocean]] |date=March 21, 1899 |page=5}}</ref>

In his final campaign, Altgeld ran for mayor of Chicago as the candidate of the Municipal Ownership Party. He finished third, garnering more than 15 percent of the vote, but was unable to achieve his ulterior motive, the defeat of Mayor Carter Harrison.

===1901===
{{main|1901 Chicago mayoral election#Democratic}}

In 1901, Altgeld made a quixotic effort to challenge Harrison for the Democratic nomination for mayor.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morton |first1=Richard Allen |title=Roger C. Sullivan and the Making of the Chicago Democratic Machine, 1881–1908 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xA7MDAAAQBAJ |publisher=McFarland |access-date=11 May 2020 |page=133 |language=en |isbn = 978-1476623788 |year=2016}}</ref>

==Post-gubernatorial years==
Sickly since his brush with death in the Civil War, Altgeld had suffered from [[Tabes dorsalis|locomotor ataxia]] while governor, impairing his ability to walk. He lost all of his property except his heavily mortgaged personal residence, and only the intervention of his friend and former protégé, [[Clarence Darrow]], saved him from complete financial ruin.

==Death and legacy==
[[Image:2004-06-20 2000x2000 chicago graceland altgeld.jpg|thumb|left|The reverse of Altgeld's grave marker in [[Graceland Cemetery]], [[Uptown, Chicago]]]]

Altgeld was working as a lawyer in Darrow's law firm when he suffered a [[cerebral hemorrhage]] while delivering a speech on behalf of the [[Boers]] in [[Joliet, Illinois|Joliet]], Illinois, in March 1902. He was 54 years old when he died. Thousands filed past his body as it lay in state in the lobby of the [[Chicago Cultural Center|Chicago Public Library]], and he was eulogized by Darrow and by [[Hull House]] founder [[Jane Addams]]. Poet [[Vachel Lindsay]] wrote a poem, "The Eagle That Is Forgotten," in memory of Altgeld.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Eagle That Is Forgotten |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50872/the-eagle-that-is-forgotten}}</ref>

Altgeld is buried in [[Graceland Cemetery]] in [[Uptown, Chicago]].

The governor influenced the design of [[Altgeld's castles|five castle-like structures]] at Illinois universities.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.videtteonline.com/many-campuses-throughout-illinois-have-castle-style-buildings/article_08481f2b-a8d1-5f0e-97f0-d687a941f0d2.html| title=Many campuses throughout Illinois have castle-style buildings| work=[[The Vidette]]| first=Chris| last=Davies| date=October 16, 2007}}</ref> One is [[Altgeld Hall]] at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]], which is on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. It is currently home to the Mathematics Department, and had previously housed the College of Law and the University Library.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.math.uiuc.edu/History/altgeld_history.html| title=History of Altgeld Hall| publisher=Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign| access-date=27 July 2017| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116190209/http://www.math.uiuc.edu/History/altgeld_history.html| archive-date=16 January 2017}}</ref> The other four are at [[Southern Illinois University Carbondale]] and [[Northern Illinois University]], as well as [[John W. Cook Hall]] at [[Illinois State University]] and Old Main at [[Eastern Illinois University]]. Chicago's [[Altgeld Gardens Homes (Chicago, Illinois)|Altgeld Gardens Homes]], one of the first housing projects in the United States, was named after the former governor as well as the street located at 2500 North in Chicago's grid system, Altgeld Street.
There is a statue of Altgeld in Lincoln Park in Chicago at 2045 Lincoln Park West; east of Lincoln Park West, south of Dickens St.
{{-}}

==See also==
* [[List of United States governors born outside the United States]]

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|26em}}

==Sources==
* {{Cite book |last=Barnard |first=Harry |title=Eagle Forgotten, the Life of John Peter Altgeld |publisher=Bobbs-Merrill |year=1938 |location=Indianapolis, IN}}
* {{Cite book |last=Browne |first=Waldo R. |title=Altgeld of Illinois: A Record of His Life and Labor |publisher=B.W. Huebsch |year=1924 |location=New York}}
* {{cite book| last=Dray| title=There is Power in a Union| year=2010| publisher=Doubleday| isbn=978-0-385-52629-6}}
* {{Cite book |last=Fast |first=Howard |title=The American: A Middle Western Legend |publisher=Duell, Sloan And Pearce |year=1946 |location=New York}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Wish |first=Harvey |date=December 1938b |title=Governor Altgeld Pardons the Anarchists |journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=424–448 |jstor=40187873}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Wish |first=Harvey |date=March 1938a |title=John Peter Altgeld and the Background of the Campaign of 1896 |journal=Mississippi Valley Historical Review |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=503–518 |doi=10.2307/1947044 |jstor=1947044}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Wish |first=Harvey |date=October 1937 |title=John Peter Altgeld and the Election of 1896 |journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=353–384 |jstor=40187483}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Altgeld, John Peter|year=1900 |short=x |notaref=x}}
* {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Altgeld, John Peter |volume= 1 |page= 99 |short=1}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Peter Altgeld}}
* {{Librivox author |id=9628}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[John M. Palmer (politician)|John M. Palmer]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[Governor of Illinois]]|years=[[1892 Illinois gubernatorial election|1892]], [[1896 Illinois gubernatorial election|1896]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Samuel Alschuler]]}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box | before = [[Joseph W. Fifer]] |title=[[List of governors of Illinois|Governor of Illinois]] | years = 1893–1897 | after = [[John Riley Tanner|John R. Tanner]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Governors of Illinois}}
{{Haymarket affair}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Altgeld, John Peter}}
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