Secrist—The Anti-Auction Movement of 1828. 163 
Of the subsequent history of the Workingmen’s Party it is 
unnecessary to speak in this connection, except to say that all 
antipathy to auctions per se was swallowed up in the struggle 
for common schools, mechanics’ lien law, abolishment of im¬ 
prisonment for debt, etc. 
To summarize, we find in New York Oity in the years 1828- 
1830 two distinct, though contemporaneous movements. The 
one was the dramatic incident of a movement extending as far 
back as 1815 in New York Oity and in a general way to all the 
cities of the Atlantic coast. It was a mercantile movement, led 
by mercantile men and was opposed to auctions, not because of 
any natural rights theory, or primarily because auctions were 
a monopoly, but because they were inimical to the trader’s in¬ 
terest, to his welfare as a business man. It took the forms it 
did in 1828, because of a variety of events previously enumer¬ 
ated, and though it seemed to have failed at the most propitious 
moment, still lived on until the evils complained of were re¬ 
moved. The other movement was industrial in its inception, 
and addressed itself to the questions which emphasized the dif¬ 
ference between rich and poor—bank, education,, auction, and 
land monopolies. It attacked auctions because they were 
monopolies, and the auctioneers connected with the banks; not 
because they were inimical to the trader, the jobber and the 
commission merchant. The merchant appealed to the mechan¬ 
ics’ interest because he had “fish to fry”; in the same way did 
the workingman appeal to the merchant. This appeal, however, 
is the only common grounds between the two movements. 
