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Why did the derailment of a U.S. mail train make the Pullman Strike a federal issue?

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shantytown in Chicago — Pullman Strike A shantytown on the lakefront in Chicago during the Pullman Strike and general economic downturn of 1893–94.

The derailment of a locomotive at the head of a U.S. mail train during the Pullman Strike transformed the labor dispute into a federal issue because it directly obstructed the U.S. postal service, a core responsibility of the national government.1

President Grover Cleveland viewed the disruption of mail delivery as an intolerable interference with federal authority. Consequently, he and U.S. Attorney General Richard Olney utilized this obstruction to justify federal intervention. The government secured a sweeping injunction against the American Railway Union (ARU) based on the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Act, which prohibited the union from interfering with interstate commerce and the transportation of the mail. This legal action provided the pretext for President Cleveland to deploy federal troops to Chicago to forcibly ensure that trains—and the mail—continued to move, effectively breaking the strike.12