%503.  The National Labor-Reform Party.%—­From about 1829, when the establishment of manufactures, the building of turnpikes and canals, the growth of population, the rise of great cities, and the arrival of emigrants from Europe led to the appearance of a great laboring class, the workingman had been in politics.  But it was not till the close of the war that labor questions assumed national importance.  In 1865 the first National Labor Congress was held at Louisville in Kentucky.  In 1866 a second met at Baltimore; a third at Chicago in 1867; and a fourth at New York in 1868, to which came woman suffragists and labor-reform agitators.  The next met at Philadelphia in 1869 and called for a great National Labor Congress which met at Cincinnati in 1870 and demanded

1.  Lower interest on government bonds.

2.  Repeal of the law establishing the national banks.

3.  Withdrawal of national bank notes.

4.  Issue of paper money “based on the faith and resources of the nation,” to be legal tender for all debts.

5.  An eight-hour law.

6.  Exclusion of the Chinese.

7.  No land grants to corporations.

8.  Formation of a “National Labor-Reform Party.”

The idea of a new party with such principles was so heartily approved, that a national convention met at Columbus, O., in 1872, denounced Chinese labor, demanded taxation of government bonds, and nominated David Davis and Joel Parker.  When they declined, O’Conor was nominated.

%504.  Anti-Chinese Movement.%—­The demand in the Labor platform for the exclusion of Chinese makes it necessary to say a word concerning “Mongolian labor.”

Chinamen were attracted to our shore by the discovery of gold in California, but received little attention till 1852, when the governor in a message reminded the legislature that the Chinese came not as freemen, but were sent by foreign capitalists under contract; that they were the absolute slaves of these masters; that the gold they dug out of our soil was sent to China; that they could not become citizens; and that they worked for wages so low that no American could compete with them.

The legislature promptly acted, and repeatedly attempted to stop their immigration by taxing them.  But the Supreme Court declared such taxation illegal, whereupon, the state having gone as far as it could, an appeal was made to Congress.  That body was deaf to all entreaties; but the President through Anson Burlingame in 1868 secured some new articles to the old Chinese treaty of 1858.  Henceforth it was to be a penal offense to take Chinamen to the United States without their free consent.  This was not enough, and in order to force Congress to act, the question was made a political issue.