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Daniel Raymond was the first important political economist to appear in the United States. He authored Thoughts on Political Economy (1820) and The Elements of Political Economy(1823).

He theorized that "labor creates wealth," which may have been an improvement based on the thinking of Adam Smith of Europe. Daniel Raymond thought that the economy of England was actually the economy of the higher-ranking members of that society, and not the economy of the entire nation. He held that wealth is not an aggregation of exchange values, as Adam Smith had conceived it. Daniel Raymond held that wealth is the capacity or opportunity to acquire the necessaries and conveniences of life by labor.

His writings affected the political developments that shaped the United States. States Rights Democrats appeared in the United States Congress for the first time when James Hamilton Jr. of South Carolina was elected in 1822. Congressman Hamilton was a staunch Pro-Slavery advocate of nullification, as was Robert Y. Hayne, the first Pro-Slavery Democrat to be elected to the United States Senate, in 1823.

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-'''''Daniel Raymond''''' was the first important political economist to appear in the [[United States]].
+'''Daniel Raymond''' was the first important political economist to appear in the [[United States]].
 He authored ''Thoughts on Political Economy'' (1820) and ''The Elements of Political Economy''(1823).
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 His writings affected the political developments that shaped the [[United States]].  States Rights Democrats appeared in the United States [[Congress]] for the first time when [[James Hamilton Jr.]] of [[South Carolina]] was elected in [[1822]].  Congressman Hamilton was a staunch Pro-Slavery advocate of nullification, as was [[Robert Y. Hayne]], the first Pro-Slavery Democrat to be elected to the [[United States]] [[Senate]], in 1823.
-Americans became more dependent on "labor" for wealth-building, and relied less on [[God]] for the providing of wealth.  "Labor" became an honorable thing.  Pro-Slavery Democrats grew into the leading political party in the [[United States]].  The colonization of [[free Negroes]] to [[Liberia]] by the [[American Colonization Society]] or the ''National Colonization Society of America'' fell out of favor.  Laborers were needed in the [[United states]] because "labor" created wealth.
-In his [[Emancipation Proclamation]] of 1863, U.S. President [[Abraham Lincoln]] advised the [[slaves]] whom he was manumitting to "labor" for employers so that they could earn money and take care of themselves.
-==Emigrants==
-The first law on immigration was designed to attract laborers from [[Europe]].  In [[Congress]], a special Committee on Immigration was formed on [[16 December]] [[1863]].  A bill to encourage immigration (H. R. 411) was read a third time on April 16th, 1864, and passed.   ''"An Act to encourage Immigration"'' (S. 125)  was approved on July 4, [[1864]].  It created the ''United States Emigrant Office'' in [[New York City]] with a small staff of employees.   In [[1866]], a  proposed amendment to the law called for an expansion to other cities, but it was unsuccessful.  Some citizens  remonstrated against the giving of pecuniary aid to immigrants.  The law of [[1864]] expired on [[30 March]] [[1868]].
-Promptly thereafter, two new bills were introduced in [[Congress]] on June 1st, [[1868]].  They called for the establishment of ''unpaid emigrant agencies'' in [[Europe]]  where emigrants could arrange for transportation to  [[North America]] while away from the close scrutiny that existed in the [[United States]].  In the [[House of Representatives]],  emigrants were called a "great source of national wealth"  (in H.R. 1139);  the second bill  (H.R. 1145),  called for the establishment of an ''unpaid emigrant agency'' at [[Liverpool]].
-Motions were made in congress in [[1870]] (H.R. 964 and H.R. 1663) to create laws that assisted immigrants  in moving westwards into unoccupied territories where workers were needed to improve the lands.
-==Labor developments==
-Turmoil in [[Germany]] in [[1848]] caused many educated [[German people|Germans]] to emigrate to the [[United States]].  Some of those immigrants promoted [[socialism]] in the [[United States]], but [[socialism]] was rebuffed by many citizens of the [[United States]] because it attacked religion and the marriage of men and women.
-The [[International Workingmen's Association]] adopted the 8-hour work day in its first Congress at  [[Geneva]] in [[1866]].  The realization that productivity did not suffer with the installation of the 8-hour work day was only slowly grasped by employers.  Observations of munitions workers made during the world-wide war of [[1914]]-[[1918]] convinced many leaders in [[England]] that the 8-hour work day did not cause a drop in productivity.
-In general, after [[1895]], in various nations, a tendency to limit the 8-hour work day and minimum wage laws to women and children existed.  The Australian colony of [[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]] established boards with the authority to fix minimum wage laws in [[1896]],  which led to a great deal of interest in minimum wage laws in the [[United States]] and [[England]] after [[1905]].  Many new laws soon appeared in the various jurisdictions of those two nations.
-A significant event in regard to the 8-hour work day  took place in [[1923]] when the steel industry of the  [[United States]] abandoned the two-shift system  based on two 12-hour shifts in favor of the three-shift system based on three 8-hour shifts.
-===Trade unions===
-An emphasis on insurance, on exclusion, and conservative methods were characteristics of the [[trade union]]s that had developed in [[England]] in the 18th century.  The first trade union of record to appear in the [[United States]] was the ''New York Society of Journeymen Shipwrights'', which was incorporated in [[1803]].  In [[1864]], the [[International Workingmen's Association]] began the trade-union movement on continental [[Europe]].
-===Non-trade organizations===
-In [[England]], trade unions proved to be unsuitable for the large work forces that the [[industrial revolution]] had required.  Broadly-based organizations were created following the repeal of the ''Combination Acts'' in [[1824]].
-In the [[United States]], in [[1829]], a workingman's ticket was placed in nomination in [[New York]] and one delegate to the State Assembly was elected.  In general, trade unions amalgamated to form less-restrictive organizations.  In [[1832]], the ''[[New England]] Association of Farmers, Mechanics, and Workingmen'' was organized at [[Boston]].
-The trend towards the inclusion of many different types of workers continued; progressing to include diverse types such as women and unskilled laborers.  [[Socialist]]s were attracted to the movements.  The abolition of slavery, women's rights, and land nationalization were advocated.  In [[1845]], [[Robert Owen]] addressed the initial meeting of the ''New England Workingmen's Association''.  Albert Brisbane, "the father of socialism in [[United States|America]]", also spoke.  Americans rejected the policies that the socialists were promoting, and organisms that embraced [[socialism]] failed.  Founded in [[London]] in [[1864]], the [[International Workingmen's Association]] moved its headquarters to [[New York]] in [[1872]] where it failed under the domination of [[Karl Marx]].
-Organized at [[Philadelphia]] in [[1869]], the [[Knights of Labor]] was a highly successful labor organization.  At first, its political aims were kept a secret.  In [[1882]], it became known that the organization advocated the unlimited coinage of silver, compulsory arbitration, equal rights for both sexes, the ownership by the government of [[telegraph]]s, [[telephone]]s, and [[railroad]]s, and the common ownership of land.  The organization had waned by [[1916]], the year that [[Congress]] passed the ''Adamson Eight Hour Law'' or [[Adamson Act]] which specified that in contracts for labor and service "eight hours...be deemed a day's work" after January 1st, [[1917]].
-===Radical organizations===
-In June, [[1905]], the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] held its first convention at [[Chicago]], and adopted a platform opposed to those of the conservative [[trade union]]s.  The IWW advocated the abolition of the wage system, and the abolition of employers, too.  Its membership never exceeded 150,000.
-''Guild Socialism'' appeared in [[England]] about [[1905]].  The movement was chiefly intellectual.  It advocated the abolition of the wage system and the establishment by the workers of self-government in industry.  As for the relations between the guilds and the community there were many conflicting theories.
-The name of ''National Guilds' League'' was adopted on [[Easter]], [[1915]], even though  British trade unionists were rather unresponsive to guild ideas.  The ''National Guilds' League'' published ''The Guild Socialist'' from March, [[1919]] to May, [[1923]], then merged with the ''National Guilds' Council''.
-The guild idea exerted some influence in [[France]], [[Germany]], [[Russia]], [[Hungary]], [[Italy]], the [[United States]], [[Canada]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], [[Japan]], and [[South Africa]].  Some of the more important guildsmen wrote books on ''Guild Socialism''.
-[[Sinn Fein]] ("we ourselves") was an [[Ireland|Irish]] Society founded in 1905 to develop nationalism and to promote home industries.
-==The American Federation of Labor==
-On August 2nd, [[1881]], at [[Terre Haute]], [[Indiana]], a preliminary convention was held by the ''Knights of Industry'' and the ''Amalgamated Labor Union''.  In November of that year, the adoption of the name ''Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the [[United States]] and [[Canada]]'' took place at [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]].  At [[Columbus, Ohio|Columbus]], [[Ohio]], on December 8th, [[1886]], a merger with an independent [[trade union]] occurred, and the name [[American Federation of Labor]] was adopted.
-[[Socialist]]ic elements within the [[American Federation of Labor]] failed to gain control of the organization.  They withdrew and formed the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] in [[1905]].  Another faction departed in [[1938]] and formed the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]].
-The [[American Federation of Labor]] is regarded as being the most successful labor organization in the history of the [[United States]].
-==Minimum wage laws==
-The [[Australia]]n colony of [[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]] passed a law in [[1896]] that authorized [[minimum wage]]s in six trades.  By [[1915]], it covered 141 trades, employing over 150,000 workmen.  After [[1905]], [[Great Britain]] and the [[United States]] passed many varied [[minimum wage]] laws.  The earliest [[minimum wage]] laws in the [[United States]] applied only to women and minors.  In [[1912]], [[Massachusetts]] passed the first American [[minimum wage]] law that applied to men.  The law was not mandatory and depended for its enforcement on public sentiment.  [[Sweatshop]]s and [[child labor]] did not affect men.  Occupations that employed men demanded strong physicalities which women and children did not possess.  Men earned much higher wages than those required by the minimum wage laws.  No ''mandatory'' minimum wage law that  included men existed in the [[United States]] in [[1923]].
-==External links==
-[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/ Library of Congress]
 [[Category:Enlightenment philosophers|Raymond, Daniel]]