In 1831 Maine’s first labor party, the Working-Men’s Institution, based in Portland, was born. Maine workers joined workers throughout the young nation sharing common concerns about the growing disparities in income, power and wealth and the threat they posed to their Revolutionary heritage of independence, freedom and equality.

Between 1828 and 1834, worker protest gave rise to workingmen’s parties in 61 towns and cities in at least 12 states. No fewer than 68 newspapers heralded the movement, including a few in Maine.

The era marked the first expression of collective consciousness and action by Maine’s workers. Numerous worker grievances addressed the rising tide of disparity in income, wealth and power.

Chief among them was the demand for free, universal public education on the grounds that education was necessary to secure the new republic, generate a more positive view of themselves, narrow the social distance between the classes and foster “the social feeling of republican equality.” Among its other demands was a call for “a system of laws to regulate charted corporations that will secure to the mechanic and laborer a fair and just compensation for his service, so that the wages of the laborer shall rise in proportion as the profits of the Corporation increase.”

The Working Men of Cumberland County convened in Gray on July 4, 1831, for the purpose of crafting a workingmen’s political ticket. There was no mistaking that convention. “Call on the Spirit of ’76!” clearly drew upon the Revolutionary heritage of freedom and equality.

Charles Scontras

Cape Elizabeth

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