Year: 1869

The National EabOr Convention


Large Attcndance---Repor of the


Executive Commit fcc---Specch of the


Acting President---Interc State.


mcrts, &c.


We have published tclegraphic report
of the opening proceedings of the National
Union Labor Convention, which assembled
in Philadelphia on Monday. There was q
large attendance from all sections of the
country, including many gentlemen of
ability and extensive practical experience.
As this Union Convention makes no dis
tinction MS to color, creed, or sex, there are
Il number of colored delegates present and
Il representative from the Saratoga Women's
Suffrage Convention. Since the death of
the late President of the Union the duties
Of that office have devolvcd upon the vice
president, Mr.. c. II. Luckcr, of New York.
The hall in which the Convention met was
appropriately decorate, with the national
colors.


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.


On this the third Congress of the Ma
tional Labor Union we meet, first, to con-
dole with each other on the departure from
this life of our well-beloycd President,
WiOSc "OTh anu NOitH uLC DGLutc uS IL SlU-
rious example which we all sec and feel it
our duty to emulate, and perscvere in the
work he so manfully defended and nobly
carried forward. Believing that his spirit
still lends its power to cheer us forward and
onward, we will not stop, and feel awed or
discouraged, but move forward, assured
that we have not only his approving smile,
but the help of God and the angels, from
whom in oil nature we see, feel, and know,
that labor is praise, and all humanity its
expression. ....,


I'VE meet to-day, friends, not rs new
party or organization, feeble and puerile !;
the few years of our existence as q party
does not measure the date of our existence,
nor can our number tell our strength.


We are here the living embodied element
Of national greatness. The same influence
which went forth at Bunker Hill and Con-
cord, at Lexington and Brandywine, speaks
out to-day in the same unmistakable ring
which there struck out for freedom; and
down with tyranny stands boldly forth to-
day to join heart and hand and swear
against bondage. I'D


In the National Labor Union arc the ,pco-
pie who have neither time, money, nor in
clination, to frit away the precious hours
in fashions giddy throng-following the
example of bondholders and bankers dane
ing and .tetiny-whcn thousands upon thou
sands whom we have sworn to protect are
struggling in the jaws of poverty, with GER
tain destruction at their doors nay, friends,
ours is not q gathering where tlunkcyism
and shoddy glistcn in the gaslight and daz-
zle in the sun. We care not to worship
gold. nor to bow in silence to that strategy
which has placed our idols safe, and her
millions out of the reach of the laboring
men.


We are here the solid men of our land ;
We meet knowing no sectional lines, no
party spirit, which would make u boundary
over which n great democracy may not travel
with safety men of the South, of the North,
of the East, of the West, come to-day with
one common interest and one common claim.
Nor do We come to lay the trophies of war
upon the altar of Mars, and boast our scpa-
rate claim to authority and to power. Ours
is no such meeting, and we trust that no one
present has in his heart n remnant OF that
fearful seed which allows one to say to an
other, "My State must have this or that fa-
voritism to the expense or exhaustion OF q
sister State or boundary"


Our friends, we have all seen enough OF
that we comc-a demand of the age, n
necessity, q peace necessity. We come to
represent and protect the people, to draw
closer together the lines which are so
steadily dividing capital and labor, to strike
a wcll-directed blow at the anarchy which
is so determinedly springing up in our land,
to reduce, and simplify, and equalize labor,
to keep our money out Of the hands OF
foreign capitalists, to compel Congress and
our representatives to remain true to the
one hope which gleamE out of the dark
ness-namely, the will of the people the
law of the land, to demand property pro
lection for the entire country, to destroy oil
monopoly which holds per force Of money
control of certain important lines OF trans
portation, to crush forever the spirit and
power which blocks up and compels the
great mass to pay tribute to the now ex-
hausted vampires of the East and the At
lantic. ........ .n.. ."L


We do not meet to congratulate and keep
in ignorance the masses our platform and
the articles therein stated are up to all their
demands; under their just measure and
broad positions our ranks are being tllled
but these remain immutable and un-
changed in all their substance and spirit.


We want no toadying politician to spread
a net with promised power as bait. Ut all
such, we say to our members, beware; Tor
he who is not with us in means, IN heart,
and in soul, is against us. r',:t ....


Our numbers are steadily increasing !;
there is now q large majority In the South
eager earnest men-ready to join us
urging US to come and aid them to orga-
nize and to show them how so great a
power rs we possess may bless them. The
great West, with all its vitality and vigor,
beckons us onward and forward-naught
remains but to accept the offer, and the num-
bers which are already knocking at our
doors for admittance assure us victory.


We demand hearing and recognition,
which has been asked again and AGAIN,
and now We have only to say we can ana
will take it.


There arc two echoes in the great gulf
which divides us-on the one side we hear
the nations promises to pay, honor ON
the other we hear reputation; and OF the
latter term, which seems to shock the par
lor patriots, let us say no more. 1t Is not
the voice Of the few who have grown dcspe-
rate and reckless. 1t is the sober second
thought of the old men of our time who look
out into the darkness about us, and know
in their souls there is no hope for the gene
ration who shall follow thcm-naught but
our sure gliding into decay and destruction.


This is not thing to pray for, nor a time
TO fold hands in silence and leave to thought
and hope that which action and deter
mined power should do. We join ourselves