ABSTRACT
The American labor movement, founded in the spirit that regarded America as a refuge from oppression and free for individual development according to conscience and ability, grew and expanded in America, basing itself frankly upon the American assumption. The true significance of slavery in the United States to the whole social development of America, lay in the ultimate relation of slaves to democracy. Great railway systems began to be consolidated, and through them population drifted to the cities. It became more uneasy on account of the land distribution to the railroads, the high and discriminatory railroad rates, the whole money situation, and the taxation. Finance and industry, therefore, after the war, while it looked forward confidently to tremendous industrial development, was wary. There can be no doubt that Abraham Lincoln never would have accepted the Black Codes. He began by looking backward and then turned with this forward-looking word.
