and in almost every instance the employers had acceded to the demands of their men.

As trade unionism again came to occupy the foreground and greenbackism receded to the background, the national trade unions grew estranged from the National Labor Union. This expressed itself most conspicuously in the changes in leadership. Sylvis, who combined in himself the business unionist and the social reformer, was dead. The older leaders remaining, like Trevellick, Hinchcliffe, and Cameron, had become primarily political agitators, and their places at the head of the aggressive trade union movement were taken by men like Foran, of the coopers, Saffin, of the moulders, and Siney, of the miners. These men, although professing faith in cooperation and greenbackism as a concession to the spirit of the time, were yet primarily trade unionists. The Bricklayers' International Union,38 by its strike in 1868 for the eight-hour day in New York, had been among the first to show the returning reliance upon strikes. At its national convention in 1870, it passed a resolution calling upon President O'Keefe to correspond with the other presidents of national trade unions with the object of establishing a national labour federation to consist of national trade unions only.

The breach was made still wider by the fact that the National Labor Union had finally reached the logical end of its political evolution and had become a national labour party. The cigar makers, in special session in October, 1870, decided to have no further connection with the National Labor Union, because it had become "an entirely political institution." The list of delegates to the National Labor Union in 1871 contained not a single representative of a national trade union. The workingmen's assembly of New York received from Jessup

an interesting, and at times highly amusing account of his experience at the National Labor Congress," held in Cincinnati in 1870.39 As a result, the assembly sent no delegate to the congress held in St. Louis in 1871.

A notable exception among the national trade unions was the Order of the Knights of St. Crispin. Co-operation kept

38 At its Washington convention in 1869, delegates from 62 unions represented a constituency of 10,000 members.

39 Chicago Workingman's Advocate, Feb. 18, 1871.

alive the interest of the Crispins in the financial question and made them more amenable to the political influence of the National Labor Union than the other national labour organisations. As already stated, the Crispins were the main support of the political movement in Massachusetts, and their leaders, McLaughlin and Cummings, remained true to the labour reform party as long as it existed.

POLITICS AND DISSOLUTION

The history of the National Labor Union after 1870 deserves but scant treatment. The large labour organisations having seceded, its convention continued to be attended only by a handful of leaders, like Trevellick, Cameron, Hinchcliffe, and several others. These had come forward at a time when the trend of the movement had been predominantly legislative and political, and now continued to travel in the same direction. As the bona fide labor representatives dropped out, a number of intellectual and semintellectual reformers came into the National Labor Union. Their presence did more to discredit. the organisation before the labour unions than did its persistent political programme. Most prominent among this element was Horace H. Day, of Brooklyn, a wealthy man and doubtless an aspirant for the presidential nomination of the labour party, 40

In pursuance of the resolution adopted by the convention of 1870, President Trevellick appointed a committee to make plans for the formation of a labour party. This committee met in Washington in January, 1871, and fixed the rate of representation in the political convention. Each State was to be entitled to one delegate for each member of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, and one delegate was to be allowed the District of Columbia and each territory. The convention was set for the third Wednesday of October, 1871, in Columbus, Ohio, for the purpose of nominating candidates for president and vice-president of the United States. Meanwhile, the time arrived for the regular convention, which met August 19, 1871, in St. Louis. The delegates present repre

40 Ibid., May 11, 1872.

sented for the most part "labour unions," i.e., local political clubs organised by and affiliated with the National Labor Union. The genuine labour representatives of reputation were Cameron, Siney, Trevellick, and Ben F. Sylvis-the brother of William H. Sylvis. The remaining dozen delegates were either new in the movement or such non-labour reformers as Horace H. Day, of New York, who represented the financial reform association of that city. This convention adopted the suggestion which Cummings of the Crispins had made in 1870, that of forming a double organisation, one industrial and one political, entirely distinct from each other, and holding two conventions, one political and one industrial. The special nominating convention, which had been set for October, 1871, was thus made the regular convention of the "political" National Labor Union and the date of its meeting was changed to February 21, 1872.

It met in Columbus on the appointed day. Among the delegates who had attended preceding conventions were Troup, now of Connecticut; Campbell, Cameron, and Hinchcliffe, of Illinois; Cameron, of Kansas; Chamberlain and Cummings, of Massachusetts; Trevellick and Field, of Michigan; Day, of New York; Davis, Fehrenbatch, Lucker, and Sheldon, of Ohio; Siney and J. C. Sylvis, of Pennsylvania. Other States represented were Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, and New Jersey. Charges were made that control of the convention had been sought in order to influence the nominations of the Republican and Democratic parties, and that the full delegation from Pennsylvania was able to attend "through the courtesy of Thomas Scott," of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. It was voted that the delegation from each State should cast the full electoral vote of each State, on the ground that Pennsylvania and Ohio had full delegations, while others had not had the facilities or means of travel. John Siney was elected temporary chairman, and Edwin M. Chamberlin, of Massachusetts, permanent chairman. The platform of preceding years was adopted. Resolutions were offered by John T. Elliott of New York, favouring government ownership and the referendum, but were voted down. On the first formal ballot for nomination for president of the United States, the votes were: Judge David Davis, of Illinois,

88; Wendell Phillips, 52; Governor John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, 45; Horace H. Day, of New York, 8; Governor J. Parker, of New Jersey, 7; George W. Julian, 7. On the third ballot Davis was nominated. The nominee for vice-president was Governor Parker. The platform of the National Labor Union was adopted as the platform of the National Labor and Reform party. Judge Davis gave a qualified acceptance, but, after the Democratic convention he declined, explaining his action as follows: "Having regarded that movement as the initiation of a policy and purpose to unite the various political elements in a compact opposition, I consented to the use of my name before the Cincinnati (Democratic) convention, where a distinguished citizen of New York (Horace Greeley) was nominated." A meeting of the executive committee at Columbus in August decided it was too late to renominate candidates.*1 This unfortunate experiment practically ended the existence of the National Labor Union.42 The Industrial Congress, which was to be the economic branch of the National Labor Union, met at Cleveland, September 16, with only seven persons present, Trevellick, Cameron, Foran, J. C. Sylvis, Sheldon, Fay, and Manly.

42 A discussion in the columns of the Chicago Workingman's Advocate in February, 1873, throws light upon the relations between the national trade unions and the National Labor Union. H. J. Walls, a national officer of the iron molders' union, stated in an open letter to Cameron that the cause of the withdrawal of the national trade unions was the fact that the National Labor Union had become, after the Cincinnati convention, a political organisation. Cameron replied in the next issue that it had been a political organisation from the first Baltimore con

vention and that it had nevertheless had the warm adherence of men as prominent in their respective national trade unions as Sylvis and his opponent, Walls himself, of the molders, Kirby and Browning, of the bricklayers, Trevellick, of the ship carpenters and caulkers, Jessup, of the New York State Workingmen's Assembly, Siney, of the miners, and a score of other prominent trade union leaders. Cameron

was undoubtedly right, because the National Labor Union, while composed, up to 1870, of industrial organisations, had never been an industrial organisation itself. It was legislative and political.

CHAPTER V

DISINTEGRATION, 1873-1877

Industrial Congress and Industrial Brotherhood, 1873-1875. Fresh impulse towards national federation, 157. Joint call by the national unions, 157. Guarantee against politics, 158. The circular, 158. The Cleveland Congress, 159. Representation, 159. The trade union nature of the proceedings, 159. The constitution, 160. Attitude towards co-operation, 161. Attitude towards politics, 161. Effect of the financial panic on the new federation, 161. The Congress in Rochester, 161. Representation and the secret orders, 162. Debate on the constitution, 162. The minority recommendation of secret organisation, 163. Defeat of secrecy, 163. The Industrial Brotherhood, 163. The Preamble, 164. Robert Schilling, 164. The money question, 164. Arbitration, 165. Other demands, 165. Politics, 165. The Congress in Indianapolis, 166. The dropping out of the national trade unions, 166. The new constitution with organisation by States as its basis, 167. End of the Industrial Brotherhood, 167.

Greenback Party, 1874-1877. Patrons of Husbandry, 168. The antimonopoly political movement, 168. The Indianapolis convention, 168. Cleveland convention of farmers and mechanics, 169. "Independent" or

Greenback party, 169. Anti-monopoly convention, 169. National conference in Cincinnati, 169. Fusion with the Greenback party, 169. The nominating convention of 1876, 170. The representation, 170. Greenbackism -a remedy against depression, 170. Peter Cooper's candidacy, 171. The campaign, 171. Results, 171.

Sovereigns of Industry. Co-operation, East and West, 171. William H. Earle, 172. Elimination of the middleman, 172. Constitution of the Sovereigns of Industry, 173. Membership, 1874-1877, 173. Activities, 174. Relation to trade unions, 174. Relation to the Industrial Congress, 175. Failure of the Sovereigns of Industry, 175.

National and Local Unions. Weak points in the trade unions of the sixties, 175. The depression, 175. Labour leaders and politics, 175. Westward migration, 176. Decrease in membership, 1873-1874, 176. The trades' assembly, 177. The cigar makers' strike against the tenement house system, 177. Strikes in the textile industry, 178. Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, 179. The trade agreement, 179. Bituminous coal miners' organisation, 179. John Siney, 179. Mark Hanna, 180. The trade agreement, 180. The umpire's decision in 1874, under the trade agreement, 180. Failure of the agreement, 180.

The Molly Maguires. Trade unionism versus violence, 181. Ancient Order of Hibernians, 182. Influence over local politics, 183. Crimes of the Mollies, 183. James McParlan, 184. The "long strike," 184. The wrecking of the union, 185. Growth of the influence of the Mollies, 185. Arrest and trial of the Mollies, 185.