Source: Reports of the Criminal Cases tried in the Municipal Court of the City of Boston before Peter Oxenbridge Thacher (Boston: 1845)

October Term, 1840
Commonwealth v. John Hunt, Patrick Hayes, Daniel O’Neal, Supplier Woods, Michael O’Connor, Edward Farrington, John Odiorne, and others unknown.

“The question is not, whether the society have used their power to the extent of mischief of which it is capable, but rather, whether they have not assumed a power not derived from the law, but repugnant to it which in the hands of irresponsible persons, is liable to great abuse. . . .

There is no doubt that these defendants and their brother craftsmen may assemble in societies, and discuss the value of their work, and the wages to which they are reasonably entitled for al heir skill and labor. So long as they shall not assume to restrain the liberty and rights of others, no offence will be done. Let them use their liberty freely, but carefully abstain from infringing the liberty of others.

I am of the opinion . . . as a matter of law, that this society of journeymen bootmakers, thus organized for the purposed described in the indictment, is an unlawful conspiracy against the laws of the commonwealth. It is a new power in the state, unknown to its constitution and laws, and subversive of its equal spirit.