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Reform Unionism: The National Labor Union
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2011
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The National Labor Union represented the first attempt to organize a national federation of labor in the United States. The germ of the idea for such a national federation of labor had been planted at the beginning of the Civil War, but it was not until 1866 that plans were set in motion to organize such a body. In February of that year William Harding, the president of the Coachmakers' International Union, met with Willam H. Sylvis, president of the Iron Moulders' International Union. A preliminary meeting called by these two leaders led to the convening of a national labor convention in Baltimore on August 20, 1866. From this modest beginning the National Labor Union quickly rose to a prominent position. The Chicago Tribune in 1869 estimated its membership at 800,000, and Sylvis himself put the figure at 600,000. Both estimates are undoubtedly exaggerated, but it is quite apparent that the organization represented a large proportion of the nation's laboring force and perhaps at its peak strength numbered between 200,000 and 400,000. The decline of the union was almost as spectacular as its rise, and by 1872 it was totally defunct.
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References
1 During the Civil War the International Union of Machinists and Blacksmiths adopted a resolution calling for the formation of a committee “to request the appointment of a similar committee from other national or grand bodies (of Trade Unions) to meet them, fully empowered to form a National Trades Assembly, to facilitate the advancement of the interests of labor.”—International Union of , Machinists and , Blacksmiths, Proceedings, 11 1861 (1863): reprinted inGoogle ScholarJohn, R. Commons and others, eds., A Documentary Hittory of American Industrial Society (10 vols.; Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1910–1911), IX, 117;Google Scholar hereinafter cited as Commons, Documentary History.
2 William H. Sylvis was the most prominent and successful labor leader of his generation. It was due to his efforts that the Iron Moulders' International Union was founded in 1859. In 1863 he was elected to the presidency of this organization and built it into one of the most successful labor unions in the country. Sylvis was also very active in the National Labor Union and was responsible for a good part of its success. In 1868 he was elected to the presidency of this organization. Unfortunately Sylvis died on July 27, 1869, at the age of forty-one. His death seriously affected the National Labor Union, which disappeared three yean later. The best study of Sylvis is Sylvis, Jonathan Grossman's William. Pioneer of American Labor (New York: Columbia University Press, 1945).Google Scholar There is also much information not obtainable elsewhere in Sylvis, James C., The Life, Speeches, Labors and Essays of William H. Sylvis (Philadelphia, 1872).Google ScholarTodes, Charlotte, William H. Sylvis and the National Labor Union (New York: International Publishers, 1942), calls attention to some neglected aspects of Sylvis' lifeGoogle Scholar.
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11 In 1863 Fincher had founded Fincher's Trades' Review, probably the finest labor journal in the country at that time. Between 1863 and 1871 he started four independent labor newspapers. He always opposed independent political action by labor and advocated a form of pure and simple trade-unionism. See Fincher's Trades' Review, October 10, 1863, April I, 1865, April 22, 1865, and July I, 1865.
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