Item: i87610

Authentic Set of:

United States of America – Worcester, Massachusettes
Boston Tea Party – American Mechanics Exposition of 1892
1892 White Metal Token 34mm (18.39 grams)
BOSTON TEA PARTY DEC. 16, 1773, Ship carrying tea, with barrels being overthrown.
ORDER OF AMERICAN MECHANICS. EXPOSITION. WORCESTER, MASS. H I S * MAR. 21-29, 1898 *, Masonic square and compass symbol used by the Order.

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The Order of United American Mechanics was an anti-Catholic American Nativist organization of the mid-19th century. It was founded in Philadelphia amid the anti-alien riots of 1844-45. It originally was called the Union of Workers. Members were required to undertake efforts to publicize and campaign against the hiring of cheap foreign labor and to patronize only “American” businesses.

Foundation and early growth

The Order grew out of the resentment many native born American workers in Philadelphia felt toward foreigners during the depression of the mid 1840s. As many American workers were laid off poor German immigrants were allegedly taking their jobs at lower wages. In late 1844 a group of workers met in a series of conferences and decided to use their influence to secure the employment of American born workers and make purchases from Americans, rather than immigrants. Among this group were Luther Chapin, George Tucker, James Lane, Richard Howell, Ethan Briggs and John Smulling. Seeing the benefits of organization, on July 4, 1845 these men and others held a meeting at #134 North Second Street in a room about Edward K. Tyrons rifle factory. The result of this confence was a subscription to rent out Jefferson Temperance Hall on July 8 for a convention to organize a secret society of workingmen. The initial conference opened with an attendance of nearly sixty, but when the object of forming a secret society became apparent, the majority of the original attendees left and the conference was left with twenty five delegates, which included the six mentioned above.

A further conference was held on July 15, which adopted resolutions on the purposes of the order and named it the American Mechanical Union. The group was renamed Order of United American Mechanics on July 22, adopted a constitution on July 29 and adopted it ritual on August 4. The group grew, chartering its second local lodge, called a council, in September. A State Council was organized for Pennsylvania on November 13, 1845 and a National Council on July 3, 1846. Luther Chapin was president of both the Pennsylvania State Council and the National Council.

National organization

Unlike other Nativist societies that sprang up in the 1840s and 1850, the OAUM was able to survive the Civil War. By 1896 there were State Councils in twenty one states and the order had 60,000 members. The Order offered sick and death benefits, along the lines offered by contemporary groups like the Oddfellows and Red Men, from October 1845. By 1896 the group was paying out funeral benefits of $300, supervised by the local Councils. The insurance department was under the control of the National Council and an Advisory Board and paid out up to $1000. Both programs were paid out on an assessment of those wished to avail themselves of this aspect of membership. Despite its name, the group never acted as a trade union or took a part in labor disputes. Indeed, its membership became less working class as it attracted people from diverse social and economic backgrounds.

Auxiliary orders

 In 1853 it created the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, as a youth auxiliary. This group would eventually become more popular than the OUAM itself and became an independent adult organization in 1885.

A female auxiliary, the Daughters of Liberty, began as a local club to assist members of the Columbia Council in Meriden, Connecticut in January 1875. Other local Councils sprang up across Connecticut, as well as New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. By 1896 there were 30,000 members of the Daughters of Liberty. Membership was restricted to native born, white American women aged sixteen or over, and to male members of the Order of United American Mechanics.

In 1887 the Order created the Loyal Legion of the Order of United American Mechanics as a “uniformed division” which participated in drill and sword exercises and had a ritual of its own which was said to be derived from similar groups within the Oddfellows, Knights of Pythias and Foresters, themselves supposedly derived from the Masonic Knights Templar.

Decline

Over time, the OUAM abandoned its Nativist politics and became a standard insurance society, even dropping the word “Order” from its name to become just the “United American Mechanics”. It was eventually absorbed by its former youth affiliate, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.

Ritual

The ritual and symbology of the group was said to be heavily influenced by that of the Freemasons. Of the twenty five original founders, four were Freemasons and four other delegates were eventually raised to the Craft. The emblem of the Order incorporated the square and compasses with an arm and hammer in the middle.

Beliefs

We, the undersigned American born citizens, having for years, and more particularly of late, felt the peculiar disadvantages under which we are placed from foreign competition and foreign combinations, and believing, from past experience and present appearances of the future, that instead of the evil abating, there is a strong probability, if not a certainty, of its increasing, therefore we feel ourselves bound, by the duty we owe to God, our country, our families, and ourselves, to provide for our own protection by forming ourselves into an association to advance such objects and carry out such principles as shall best promote the interest, elevate the character and secure the happiness of the body of American born citizens. Coupled with these laudable endeavors to secure to posterity the privileges we enjoy, is the ennobling and praiseworthy duty of aiding our fellow man in distress; then when laid upon a bed of sickness, the friendly and, we trust, timely aid of this Order may be manifest in providing for our necessities. In the silent watches of the night, a friend will ever be ready to administer to our wants, and if Death lays his cold hand upon us, we shall depart with the assurance that our widowed consorts will be the recipients of the imperishable friendship of our Order, and if needs be, that pecuniary assistance which will soften the asperity of their desolate condition.

The paternal guardianship of this Order will ever bring our fatherless children within their watchful care, and especially will the orphans be protected from the snares of a cold and heartless world, and placed in the path that leads them to honor and usefulness here and to a blessed rest hereafter.

Therefore, for the purpose of advancing such objects and principles, we hereby pledge ourselves as Americans, to use every fair and honorable means consistent with our duty as citizens and our social duties to the human family, and agree to be governed by the following Constitution.

–Preamble to Constitution

In 1903 the rules used by one Doylestown, Pennsylvania group stated that membership was open to “white male citizens, born in the United States”. The objects of the order were employment assistance, supporting member’s businesses, assisting ill members, and providing funeral and survivor benefits. Meeting were each Wednesday evening. Dues were 15 cents a week. There were disability benefits of $5 for first 13 weeks, $4 next 13 weeks, and $3 onwards. Funeral benefits were $100, or for a spouse $50. Donations to distressed families were limited to a maximum of $2. The funds were invested in “good real estate securities”.

The Boston Tea Party was a political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts. American Patriots strongly opposed the taxes in the Townshend Act as a violation of their rights. Demonstrators, some disguised as Native Americans, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company.

They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. The Tea Party became an iconic event of American history, and since then other political protests such as the Tea Party movement have referred to themselves as historical successors to the Boston protest of 1773.

The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed that it violated their rights as Englishmen to “no taxation without representation”, that is, to be taxed only by their own elected representatives and not by a British parliament in which they were not represented. In addition, the well-connected East India Company had been granted competitive advantages over colonial tea importers, who resented the move and feared additional infringement on their business. Protesters had successfully prevented the unloading of tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain.

The Boston Tea Party was a significant event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Intolerable Acts, or Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston’s commerce. Colonists up and down the Thirteen Colonies in turn responded to the Intolerable Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km²), the United States is the world’s third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe’s 3.9 million square miles (10.1 million km²). With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital’s federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries.

Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery. By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968 outlaws discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U.S. Moon landing. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world’s sole superpower.

The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), and other international organizations. The United States is a highly developed country, with the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP. The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world’s largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U.S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country.

Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank very high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, and worker productivity. The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.