So loud, indeed, was the cry that justice had been thwarted that juries
were doubtless influenced by it. Two cases came up soon after the
tailors' case, the Hudson, New York, shoemakers' in June and the
Philadelphia plasterers' in July 1836. In both the juries found a
verdict of not guilty. Of all journeymen indicted during this period the
Hudson shoemakers had been the most audacious ones in enforcing the
closed shop. They not only refused to work for employers who hired
non-society men, but fined them as well; yet they were acquitted.
Finally six years later, in 1842, long after the offending trade
societies had gone out of existence under the stress of unemployment
and depression, came the famous decision in the Massachusetts case of
Commonwealth _v._ Hunt.
This was a shoemakers' case and arose out of a strike. The decision in
the lower court was adverse to the defendants. However, it was reversed
by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. The decision, written by
Chief Justice Shaw, is notable in that it holds trade unions to be legal
organizations. In the earlier cases it was never in so many words held
that trade unions were unlawful, but in all of them there were
suggestions to this effect.
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