and honorable adjustment has been abandoned." It issued a
cautious and carefully phrased Address to the Workmen throughout
the Country, urging them to organize and assuring them that "the
first thing to be accomplished before we can hope for any great
results is the thorough organization of all the departments of
labor."

The National Labor Union which resulted from this convention held
seven Annual Congresses, and its proceedings show a statesmanlike
conservatism and avoid extreme radicalism. This organization,
which at its high tide represented a membership of 640,000, in
its brief existence was influential in three important matters:
first, it pointed the way to national amalgamation and was thus a
forerunner of more lasting efforts in this direction; secondly,
it had a powerful influence in the eight-hour movement; and,
thirdly, it was largely instrumental in establishing labor
bureaus and in gathering statistics for the scientific study of
labor questions. But the National Labor Union unfortunately went
into politics; and politics proved its undoing. Upon affiliating
with the Labor Reform party it dwindled rapidly, and after 1871
it disappeared entirely.

One of the typical organizations of the time was the Order of the
Knights of St. Crispin, so named after the patron saint of the
shoemakers, and accessible only to members of that craft. It was
first conceived in 1864 by Newell Daniels, a shoemaker in
Milford, Massachusetts, but no organization was effected until
1867, when the founder had moved to Milwaukee. The ritual and
constitution he had prepared was accepted then by a group of
seven shoemakers, and in four years this insignificant mustard