Judge David Davis of Illinois, then a
member of the United States Supreme Court, was nominated for
President and Governor Joel Parker of New Jersey for
Vice-President. Both declined, however, and Charles O'Conor of
New York, the candidate of "the Straight-Out Democrats," was
named for President, but no nomination was made for
Vice-President. Considering the subsequent phenomenal growth of
the labor vote, it is worth noting in passing that O'Conor
received only 29,489 votes and that these embraced both the labor
and the so-called "straight" Democratic strength.
* It is interesting to note that in this first National Labor
Party Convention a motion favoring government ownership and the
referendum was voted down.
For some years the political labor movement lost its independent
character and was absorbed by the Greenback party which offered
a meeting-ground for discontented farmers and restless
workingmen. In 1876 the party nominated for President the
venerable Peter Cooper, who received about eighty thousand
votes--most of them probably cast by farmers. During this time
the leaders of the labor movement were serving a political
apprenticeship and were learning the value of cooperation. On
February 22, 1878, a conference held at Toledo, Ohio, including
eight hundred delegates from twenty-eight States, perfected an
alliance between the Labor Reform and Greenback parties and
invited all "patriotic citizens to unite in an effort to secure
financial reform and industrial emancipation.
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