FREEDOM IN THE GILDED AGE ★^637of the nineteenth century— a “negative” definition of freedom as limited gov-
ernment and an unrestrained free market. Central to this social vision was the
idea of contract. “The laws of contract,” wrote one reformer, “are the foundation
of civilization.” Labor contracts reconciled freedom and authority in the work-
place. So long as labor relations were governed by contracts freely arrived at
by independent individuals, neither the government nor unions had a right to
interfere with working conditions, and Americans had no grounds to complain
of a loss of freedom.
Demands by workers that the government enforce an eight- hour day, pro-
vide relief to the unemployed, or in other ways intervene in the economy struck
liberals as an example of how the misuse of political power posed a threat to
liberty. “The right of each man to labor as much or as little as he chooses, and
to enjoy his own earnings, is the very foundation stone of... freedom,” wrote
Chicago newspaper editor Horace White. The principle of free labor, which
originated as a celebration of the independent small producer in a society of
broad equality and social harmony, was transformed into a defense of the unre-
strained operations of the capitalist marketplace.
The Ironworkers’ Noontime, painted in 1880–1881 by Thomas Anshutz, an artist born in West
Virginia, whose family owned iron factories. Unlike artists who depicted factories and work-
ers earlier in the century, Anshutz does not try to reconcile nature and industry (there are no
reminders of the natural environment). Nor does he emphasize the dignity of labor. The work-
ers seem dwarfed by the factory, and some seem exhausted.
How did the economic development of the Gilded Age affect American freedom?