A LIBEL ON THE COMMUNITY

This new party which commenced in the city of New York about a year since, has spread to many other places in that State, and to some cities and villages in New England. The only places in this Commonwealth in which we recollect to have noticed an organization of this party, are at Boston and Northampton. The avowed objects generally seem to be, to abolish imprisonment for debt; the abolishment of litigation, and in lieu thereof, the settlement of disputes by reference to neighbors; to establish some more equal and universal system of public education; to diminish the salaries and extravagance of public officers; to support no men for offices of public trust, but farmers, mechanics and what the party call "working men;" and to elevate the character of this class by mutual instruction and mental improvement, so as to qualify them for distinction in society. Much is said against the wealth and aristocracy of the land, their influence, and the undue influence of lawyers and other professional men.

The most of these objects, as avowed, appear very well on paper, and we believe they are already sustained by the good sense of the people. We have not been able to see the pretended magnitude of the evils complained of by the "working men" (although professing to be of that class,) at least in this part of the country, or the necessity of correcting them by the organization of an express party. And we can think no better of the objects and motives of some who agitate this party, than we do of the anti-masonic party. 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 working men; nor do we believe enough can be found who are not such, to make even a decent party of drones. The very pretension to the necessity of such a party, is a libel on the community . . . .

Boston Courier, Sept. 17, 1830, from the Springfield (Mass.) Republican (J. R. Commons et al., A Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. 5: The Labor Movement [1910])