But at this critical moment, the Illinois Legislature was not in session, and Governor Altgeld refused to call for aid.

For a time, it therefore seemed that the strikers were masters of the situation and that law and order were powerless before the mob.
There was an unusual feeling of relief throughout the country when word came from Washington on the 1st of July that President Cleveland had called out the regular troops.

Governor Altgeld sent a long telegram protesting against sending federal troops into Illinois without any request from the authority of the State.

But President Cleveland replied briefly that the troops were not sent to interfere with state authority but to enforce the laws of the United States, upon the demand of the Post Office Department that obstruction to the mails be removed, and upon the representations of judicial officers of the United States that processes of federal courts could not be executed through the ordinary means.

In the face of what was regarded as federal interference, riot for the moment blazed out more fiercely than ever, but the firm stand taken by the President soon had its effect.