Working Men's Party (New York)

For other organizations with a similar name, see Workingmen's Party (disambiguation).

The Workingmens' Party or Working Men's Party was founded in 1829 in New York City, inspired by the political views of editor of New York City's Free Enquirer Robert Dale Owen.

Background

In the late 1820s, corruption was rampant in the municipal administration of New York City. Public services like street lighting, were rendered by friends of the politicians who got monopolies for almost no payment to the city. "Charter dealers", among them Samuel B. Romaine, bribed assemblymen in Albany to get a large number of banks chartered. These banks issued their own currency with which working men were paid but which was not well accepted by the commerce, and devaluated quickly. Contractors built houses, but did not pay the workers after delivering the house, without consequences.

Convention

The party held a convention at Military Hall in New York City on October 19, 1829, and adopted resolutions against private and exclusive possession of the soil and hereditary transmission of wealth, against exclusive privileges, monopolies and exemptions. They denounced bankers as "the greatest knaves, impostors and paupers of the age." The party nominated a full ticket for the state and city elections in November.

Elections

Ebenezer Ford, the President of the Journeymen Carpenters Society, was elected to the New York State Assembly on the Workingmen ticket. Besides, the splitting of the votes among the several parties led to the election of many candidates opposed to Tammany Hall, mainly National Republicans. At the municipal election the Workingmen received about 6,000 votes, Tammany Hall about 11,000. The result was the failure of Tammany to secure a majority in the Common Council. Mayor Walter Bowne (Grand Sachem of the Tammany Society in 1820 and 1831) stood for re-election. Fourteen Aldermen and Assistants were opposed to Bowne, and thirteen favored him. Bowne, who was not a member but as Mayor presided over the Council, said that the constitution permitted him to vote for the office of Mayor which led seven Alderman to walk out, leaving the Council without quorum on December 29, 1829. They returned on January 6, 1830, and Bowne was elected by a majority of one vote. How this vote was obtained was a mystery. Fourteen members declared under oath that they had voted for Thomas R. Smith, Bowne’s opponent.

Achievements

Threatened by the new party’s strength, Tammany fought back by adopting partly the reform measures demanded by the Workingmen. In January 1830, a bill for the better security of mechanics and other laborers of New York City was introduced in the State Assembly by Silas M. Stilwell. The Tammany men immediately took it up as if it were their own, voted for it, and secured the credit of its adoption, when it became a law. Among other things, it required, under penalties, the owner of a building to retain from the contractor the amount to be paid to the workers.

Decline

On April 16, 1830, the Workingmen's Party held a state convention at Albany and nominated Erastus Root for Governor. Root declined the nomination, and the Party later nominated Ezekiel Williams from Cayuga County to run. He polled only 2332 votes.

Due to the adoption of some of the reforms by Tammany, and the beginning of political struggles inside the party, the movement broke up. At the municipal election in 1830 there appeared three separate tickets each of which purported to be the regular representation of the Party: the "Clay Workingmen" (with partisans of Henry Clay, and big stock-holders among the candidates, polling about 7,000 votes), the rump "Workingmen's Party" led by Robert D. Owen (polling about 2,200), and the "Agrarian Party" (polling 116 votes). With the majority absorbed into mainstream politics, and no radicals elected, the party ceased to exist.

Sources

• [1] The Workingmen's Party of New York City: 1829-1831 by Frank T. Carlton, in Political Science Quarterly (Vol. 22, No. 3 [Sep. 1907], pp. 401–415) (subscription required)
• [2] Advocating The Man - Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840 by Joshua R. Greenberg (Chapter 6 on the Working Men's Party) (on-line version)
• History of the Labor Movement in the United States: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Federation of Labor by Philip Sheldon Foner (International Publishers Co, 1979, ISBN 0-7178-0376-7, ISBN 978-0-7178-0376-7 ; pages 133f)