Coopers organize a national union. A serious business depression begins, slowing the U.S. economy until 1879. Furniture workers and locomotive firemen organize national unions. Gompers has friends in both camps. The Sovereigns of Labor, a mutual aid society based in New England, organizes.
Horseshoers organize a national union.
E.W. Clark and George Miller are jailed in Thomaston, Me. In 1890, the AFL lobbies for a presidential pardon and keeps up the campaign until 1903 when Clark is pardoned. Miller, however, dies in jail in 1894. 1876 Iron and steel workers organize a national union. The New York German section is more politically active, and disputes between the two groups soon erupt.