A March to Remember

by Anna Loan-Wilsey

  “And Sir Arthur?” I glanced in his direction. He stood next to the First Lady.

  “What do you think we were talking about this morning? He too put in a word with the President and Monsignor, confirming everything this afternoon.”

  And Sir Arthur gets what Sir Arthur wants, I thought, never so happy for him to be obliged.

  “You don’t mind, do you? All of this, now? I couldn’t bear waiting one more day. But I had no idea what kind of day this would turn out to be.”

  “Mind? Walter, this is the most . . .” I couldn’t find the words to express my joy.

  As Monsignor Lee spoke, his words washing over me, I tried to imagine what Walter had said to change Sir Arthur’s mind. I tried to conceive how Walter conjured up the elaborate idea of convincing Mrs. Cleveland to allow us to be wed in the Blue Room of the White House. I tried to comprehend how Monsignor Lee would have been persuaded to perform the ceremony. But it didn’t matter. Walter had done it, and he had done it for me.

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “You don’t need to thank me. Just say ‘I do.’ ”

  I glanced about. Monsignor Lee, and everyone else in the room, was waiting for me to speak.

  “Oh,” I said, embarrassed. Walter squeezed my hand reassuringly.

  “I will say it again, child,” Monsignor Lee said patiently. “Will you, Hattie Maria Davish, take Walter Kenneth Grice to be your husband? Do you promise to be true to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love him and honor him all the days of your life?”

  I looked into Walter’s eyes, knowing that the peace, love, and happiness that overflowed in my heart at that moment, regardless of what the future held, would ever be found there.

  “I do.”

  AUTHOR’ S NOTE

  This book is a work of fiction. However, the story is centered around the very real, often overlooked, first-ever protest “march” on Washington.

  Inspired to help those suffering from The Panic of 1893, considered by many to be the worst economic depression in U.S. history excluding only “the Great Depression” of the 1930s, businessman Jacob Coxey, partnering with eccentric showman Carl Browne, led a group of several hundred unemployed men from Massillon, Ohio, on March 25, 1894, toward Washington, D.C. Ahead of their time, their intent was to present a “petition in boots” for government-financed jobs and roadway improvements, all of which would one day become part of the New Deal. With journalists following the group outnumbering the members of “Coxey’s Army,” it was one of the most publicized events in American history. Every day new accounts would appear in the nation’s newspapers. Readers were able to follow the “Army,” or, as they called themselves, the “Commonweal of Christ’s” progression, and the melodrama that ensued, in detail, every step of the way. When the men finally arrived in Washington on May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, the government was prepared for an invading army and for bloodshed. As nothing like it had been attempted before, there was no precedent to guide the government’s reaction to it. Anything could happen. Luckily, the marchers arrived in peace and the only bloodshed was caused by the police melee described in the story. Jacob Coxey was denied permission to give his address. He and Carl Browne were arrested and sentenced to time in jail for trespassing on the grass of the Capitol grounds. Others, inspired by Coxey’s message, attempted to follow, including a then unknown Jack London. Groups from as far away as California and Oregon set out to join Coxey’s men in Washington, some even hijacking trains in the attempt, but few made it so far and none in time to see Coxey escorted by police off the Capitol steps. Although the “march” was all but forgotten and his compatriots spread across the country, Coxey never forgot his mission or his message. He tried to influence the government’s policies for decades to come, with varying success. And on May 1, 1944, Jacob Coxey finally read his original speech from the Capitol steps from which he had been denied exactly fifty years before.

  While incorporating this historic event into Hattie’s fictional adventure, I have endeavored to be as historically accurate as possible. Luckily, this was not in any way difficult. I was able to read firsthand accounts, newspaper articles from the exact day or time I was researching, and speeches given by a particular character in the real story, including Coxey’s original address. Photographs of the real-life players, their camps, their journey east, and more were readily available. I also relied on scholarly works published in the years after the event, particularly Benjamin Alexander’s Coxey’s Army: Popular Protest in the Gilded Age and Carlos Schwantes’s Coxey’s Army: An American Odyssey. I highly recommend both if you are interested in reading further about this first-ever protest march.

  In trying to be as accurate and authentic as possible, I have, with very few exceptions, used only known quotes of a real, historical person when giving that character spoken dialogue. For example, all of the outrageous words spouting from Carl Browne in the story are true, word for word. Only in the timing of the trial have I consciously changed the facts to fit the story. All other major errors or inconsistencies were unintentional.

  I thoroughly enjoyed bringing to life a forgotten moment in our nation’s history, as seen through Hattie’s eyes. I hope you enjoy it too.