ALTGELD, JOHN PETER (1847-1902), American poli tician, was born in Nieder Selters, Prussia, Germany, on Dec. 3o, 1847. In infancy he was brought to the United States by his parents who settled near Mansfield, Ohio. In 1864 he entered the Union army and served for one hundred days as a private. For a time he was a school teacher, subsequently he studied law, and in 1869 he was admitted to the bar. From 1886 to 1891 he was a judge of the superior court in Chicago and from 1893 to 1897 he was governor of Illinois. His pardon, while governor, of the Chi cago anarchists, imprisoned for participation in the Haymarket riot caused very extensive comment. He was a convincing pub lic speaker and effectively promoted the cause of prison reform. Espousing the financial doctrine of free silver, he became one of its leading advocates, and, in the presidential campaigns of 1896 and 1900, vigorously supported the candidacy of William Jen nings Bryan. He published Our Penal Machinery and Its Victims (1890) and Live Questions (1890). He died in Joliet, Ill., on March 12, 1902.
See W. R. Browne, Altgeld of Illinois (1924) ; Edgar Lee Masters, "John Peter Altgeld" in American Mercury, vol. iv., pp. 161-174