the good sense of
the people.... What is most ridiculous about this party is, that in many
places where the greatest noise is made about it, the most indolent and
most worthless persons, men of no trade or useful occupation have taken
the lead. We cannot of course answer for the character for industry of
many places where this party is agitated: but we believe the great body
of our own community, embracing every class and profession, may justly
be called workingmen: nor do we believe enough can be found who are not
such, to make even a decent party of drones."

In the early thirties many towns and cities in Massachusetts, Vermont,
Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island elected workingmen's candidates to
local offices, usually with the help of small tradespeople. In 1833 and
1834 the workingmen of Massachusetts put a state ticket in the field
which polled about 2000 votes, and in Boston a workingman's party was
organized, but it did not gather much momentum and soon disappeared.

These local and desultory attempts at forming a separate labor party
failed as partisan movements. The labor leader proved an inefficient
amateur when matched against the shrewd and experienced party
manipulator; nor was there a sufficient class homogeneity to keep the
labor vote together; and, even if it had so been united, there were not
enough labor votes to make a majority. So the labor candidate had to
rely on the good will of other classes in order to win his election.
And this support was not forthcoming. Americans have, thus far, always
looked with suspicion upon a party that represented primarily the
interests of only one class. This tendency shows a healthy instinct
founded upon the fundamental conception of society as a great unity
whose life and progress depend upon the freedom of all its diverse
parts.

It is not necessary to assume, as some observers have done, that these
petty political excursions wrecked the labor movement of that day.
It was perfectly natural that the laborer, when he awoke to the
possibilities of organization and found himself possessed of unlimited
political rights, should seek a speedy salvation in the ballot box. He
took, by impulse, the partisan shortcut and soon found himself lost
in the slough of party intrigue. On the other hand, it should not be
concluded that these intermittent attempts to form labor parties were
without political significance. The politician is usually blind to every
need except the