Chicago communists: "an agreed case before Judge Barnard, one of the Chicago circuit judges, who now decides against the law . . . He declares it to be unconstitutional and that all men who please may arm themselves….”

The Ottawa Free Trader, “The provision was mainly directed against the Chicago communists and agrarians, who were known to be secretly organizing into military companies and drilling and arming themselves preparatory, it was feared, to some signal communistic outbreak, like the great riots of 1877. . . . naturally encountered the fiercest opposition of those organizations, and contending that it was in contravention of the great constitutional right of all citizens to bear arms. . . . an agreed case before Judge Barnard, one of the Chicago circuit judges, who now decides against the law, or at least that portion of it which we have quoted. He declares it to be unconstitutional and that all men who please may arm themselves….”, Sept. 6, 1879