ize the prospect of a satisfactory settlement by turning his department over to an inexperienced man. Troublesome enough in themselves, these questions had been rendered more than usually serious by the outspoken sympathy for the Canadians in their insurrections from 1837 to 1840. There were French Canadian uprisings and Republican uprisings, both aimed at the overthrow of British rule. Before the United States government could bring to bear sufficient force to guarantee its neutrality, Americans along the border had participated in the disturbances. Out of this situation developed the Caroline affair. In 1837 military forces fitted out in New York stationed themselves on Navy Island, in American waters near Niagara. Their supplies came from the United States, by the steamer Caroline. In December, 1837, a detachment of Canadian militia crossed the river, set fire to the Caroline, and turned her adrift over the falls. In the course of this enterprise one American was killed. In 1840 one Alexander McLeod, under the influence of liquor, made the boast that he had killed the man. He was arrested, and tried for murder. The British government demanded his release on the ground that whatever he had done had been in the course of carrying out military orders. McLeod was being tried in a New York court, and the federal government had no authority to interfere. Such was the situation when Webster became Secretary of State. Webster was finally able to secure McLeod's release, thanks to a fortunate, though perhaps fictitious, alibi. Then, to guard against the recurrence of such a complication, he was instrumental in getting a law through Congress providing that a subject of a foreign power on trial in a state court might be transferred to a federal court, and dismissed, if the latter court approved. A more important controversy had grown out of the uncertainty regarding the location of the boundary line between Maine and New Brunswick. The treaty of 1783 had been anything but definite on that point and the citizens of Maine and of New Brunswick had gone almost to the point of war. The Webster-Asburton treaty of 1842 compromised the dispute. The territory in question was divided, in such a way that Maine got the Aroostook valley, and a part of the valley of the upper St. John. The United States got about seven thousand square miles, and Great Britain about five thousand. It is possible that the general disapproval, on both sides, with which the PRESIDENT TYLER 377 treaty was received is a tribute to its fairness and justice. Other questions, regarding the slave trade, were finally regulated to the satisfaction of both countries. If the history of political parties, and, at times, of the presidential administrations, seems almost devoid of matters of real importance, the times themselves were full of interest. Between 1830 and 1860 the United States was growing up, so to speak, and the steps in that growth need to be examined with care. Furthermore, new problems were arising, problems of slavery and expansion, both destined to test the endurance of the country to the very utmost. Because of the peculiar significance of these matters the chapters immediately following will be concerned little if any with politics, and very much with the new issues. CHAPTER XXXV CHANGING SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC After 1830 conditions and forces which had been coming to the surface during the preceding period began to produce definite results. The nation was growing, unmistakably, in a variety of directions, and the conditions of American life were undergoing significant changes. Eastern industrialism, struggling for existence in 1815, dominated its section by 1850, while slavery, which seemed to be on the decline, at least before 1810, became so important that it threatened to divide the union. At the same time the West was fulfilling its early promise, and more. Along with the growth national consolidation in the North and West was proceeding rapidly, fostered by the continually improving transportation facilities, and by a steadily widening market. In the East, both in New England and in the Middle Atlantic states, perhaps the outstanding characteristic was the wide variety of economic interests. Diversified farming, commerce, and the fisheries were still important, not yet overshadowed by the rapidly increasing industrial system. In manufacturing, both hardware and textile, new industries were appearing, and new methods were being introduced, all of which resulted in more profitable returns on investments. New spinning and weaving machinery, and the sewing machine reduced costs, and so increased sales. Because of the better means of transportation, for business purposes the size of the country was greatly reduced, or, perhaps more accurately, the manufacturer's market underwent remarkable expansion. Business operations could take in the whole country. Because the greater opportunities demanded more capital and a more efficient organization, corporations began to take the place of individuals and partnerships. Had it not been for the overshadowing gloom of the slavery problem, this tendency toward industrial and commercial concentration would have attracted wide attention. As it was, the country did not awake to the possible consequences of the change until after the Civil War. The story of this industrial expansion LABOR TROUBLES 379 can be read in statistical tables showing the increasing number of spindles in operation, and in the census reports, which reveal the steady relative increase of the town population. LABOR TROUBLES Aspects of the same story, and especially some of the consequences of the change can be seen in the new American problem of the industrial laborer. During the colonial period, in fact down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, the only labor problem had been to find enough of it. Labor shortage had long been a chronic complaint. With the establishment of the factory system, and with the heavy influx of immigrants during the middle of the century, this condition began to change. Workmen especially were imported from abroad to run the new machines, and to teach others to run them. As the size of a given plant increased, the owner found himself separated more and more completely from his employees. With the new conditions brought about by the railroads, he found it more profitable to devote himself to matters of management and selling than, as formerly, to work with his men. As a result the workers began to realize that they were being set off by themselves, as a more or less distinct class. The first laborers to realize this process clearly enough to act with reference to it were the shoemakers, the tailors, and the printers. The inevitable result was organization, for the purpose of improving their situation, that is, getting shorter hours, higher wages, or better conditions in the shops. The first real "strike," concerning which there is satisfactory evidence, was that of the Philadelphia shoemakers in 1805. They demanded higher wages, and in trying to get them they adopted the most approved modern methods. Every journeyman who came to Philadelphia was supposed to join the union, the few who refused to join in the strike were subjected to unpleasant pressure, and the employer was threatened with violence. After 1825 labor agitation became more important. The "societies" or unions were demanding a standardized working day of ten hours, instead of the traditional day of from sunrise to sunset. In 1827 hundreds of Philadelphia carpenters struck for the ten hour day. As the various trades established their organizations, they naturally turned to politics to get what they wanted; workingmen's parties began to appear. These movements, however, brought few if any results, because the workingmen could not compete to advantage with the professional politicians. Beginning with the great era of speculation which started around 1830, the laborers laid less emphasis upon the ten hour day, and more upon increased wages. Some advance, they felt, was essential to offset the steady rise in commodity prices. Between 1833 and 1837 one hundred fifty trade "societies" were in existence in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. In 1834 these unions had a membership of twenty-five thousand. During these same few years the country was given the opportunity to watch no less than one hundred sixty-eight strikes, most of which were for higher wages. These strikes were well distributed among all the organized trades. Factory workers too began to strike, even those at Lowell, in protest against a reduction in wages. The Panic of 1837 brought widespread unemployment, thereby making both unions and strikes ineffective. With all business at a standstill, people generally became more interested in the task of keeping themselves alive than in shorter hours or increased wages. During this time of calamity, immigrants from Europe began to circulate the various theories of communism and primitive socialism which were then beginning to attract attention in Europe. Under their influence schemes of coöperative manufacturing and selling were tried out, without any appreciable success. After 1850, the industrial sections became more generally like those of the early part of the present century. The founders of the factories had ceased to take any active part in business, and the ownership was distributed among stockholders, whose primary aim was profit. At the same time the personnel of the operatives underwent a change. The first operatives had been drawn from the American farming population; the newer ones were immigrants from Europe. Then too, work was becoming much harder, as the machines were speeded up. Formerly fairly well off as compared with the skilled workers in the various trades, the factory workers found conditions of life and of work becoming more uncomfortable. Even in Lowell, where Charles Dickens had found conditions so eminently satisfactory, after 1850 the mill operatives had ample cause to complain. Working ten hours a day, in the midst of unhygienic surroundings, under the imperious demands of power-driven machines, the lot of the industrial laborer was in some respects not so good as that of slaves on the southern |