After serving as a major general for the Union Army, a member of Congress, and governor of Ohio – Rutherford B. Hayes accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for president in 1876, promising to serve only one term if elected. 

At the time, the U.S. was in the midst of an economic depression that had been triggered by a number of factors including a speculative boom in railroad construction. During a five-year period after the Civil War, more than 30,000 miles of new track had been laid across the country.   

When the Panic of 1873 occurred, thousands of American businesses failed and unemployment reached 14%, while new rail construction plummeted along with the production of iron and steel. The 364 railroads in the U.S., the second-largest employer after agriculture, were especially hard hit by the reduced demand for freight service. Nearly one-quarter of them landed into bankruptcy.  

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 

Over a three-year period starting in 1874, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad started cutting wages until workers were earning not much more than half of their pre-Panic salaries. In July 1877, the railroad president announced that since the depression was “seriously affecting the usual earnings of railway companies” another 10% cut was needed so the company could continue to pay the same dividends to its shareholders.  

Within days, the railroad’s workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland went out on strike, stopping the movement of all trains. Local citizens joined in the protests. (Railroads engendered a great deal of hostility at the time for numerous reasons, including their monopolistic practices and safety records.) After police and state militia were called in, the strike turned violent. 

In Maryland, protestors threw stones at militia troops, who responded by firing into the crowd and killing eleven people. Protesters then torched buildings and trains, and distributed manifestos that stated “Be it understood, if the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company does not meet the demands of its employees at an early date, the officials will hazard their lives and endanger their property, for we shall run their trains, and locomotives into the river; we shall blow up their bridges; we shall tear up their railroads; we shall consume their shops with fire and ravage their hotels with desperation.” 

 The engraving, below, shows the blockade of trains at Martinsburg, West Virginia,  

The strikes spread, leading to America’s first nationwide uprising of workers. 

Pennsylvania Railroad workers in Pittsburgh stopped trains, but local law enforcement refused to intervene. So, the governor sent in National Guard troops who were taunted by the protestors. The troops then charged the crowd with bayonets and after getting hit by stones, opened fire, killing more than 20 people including a woman and three small children. The crowd then burnt down company property and blocked fire fighters from responding. Nearly 40 buildings, more than 100 engines, and 1,200 freight cars went up in flames. 

The burning of Union Depot in Pittsburgh as shown in the engraving, below. 

Over the course of a few weeks, strikes and protesters occurred in other parts of the country including New York, Maryland, Illinois, Missouri. The strikes grew organically because few workers were part of any formal union.  

A combination of city and state law enforcement, the National Guard, and private militias organized by the railroads, all fought against the workers. Over the course of the strikes, more 100,000 people are estimated to have participated, nearly 1,000 people were jailed and about 100 were killed. The strike slowed down or stopped over half of the nation’s railroad freight traffic. 

The president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, business owners, and overwhelmed governors, urged President Hayes to use federal troops to suppress the strike.  

President Hayes had no sympathy for the violence. On July 18, 1877, four days after the strike began in West Virginia, he issued a proclamation that warned Americans “against aiding, countenancing, abetting or taking part in unlawful proceedings” and to “retire peaceably to their respective abodes on or before” the next afternoon. 

He understood the workers’ frustration, but he was not a union sympathizer. 

In his diary, Hayes wrote, “Can’t something [be] done by education of the strikers, by judicious control of the capitalists, by wise general policy to end or diminish the evil? The railroad strikers, as a rule, are good men, sober, intelligent, and industrious.” He wrote the mischiefs are the strikers who prevent men from working and seizing property and “every man has a right to refuse to work, but no man has a right to prevent others from working.”

Even though federal troops had never before been deployed in states during a labor dispute, President Hayes ordered troops sent to Maryland, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh, and by early August — with the help of federal troops — all the strikes were over and the trains were running again. The president made clear that he sent troops to preserve order not to side with the railroad’s management. 

 After the Strike 

The strikes, protests, and civil disruption did not lead to any gains for the workers. Most of them returned to their jobs without a pay increase while many of the strike leaders were fired and blacklisted for their roles. 

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 had long-term ramifications, though. 

Workers became better organized and enlightened. As the Digital History Reader writes, “In 1877, America’s working class lashed out in response to the wage cuts that had brought many workers to the brink of starvation and protested against the excesses of the new industrial order — long hours, economic instability, brutal exploitation, and the feeling that they served as little more than cogs in a giant machine.” 

But government officials at both the state and federal level took steps to limit the power of unions. Many states decided to strengthen their police forces and the National Guard. According to the Miller Center “even though Hayes’ clear intent was to preserve order, and not to break the strike, he ended up setting a strong precedent for using federal soldiers to intervene on the side of business during mass strikes—a precedent that Gilded Age Presidents would invoke consistently over the next two decades.” 

Workers Rights Came Much Later 

Nearly 50 years later, the first federal law to guarantee collective bargaining rights to a group of workers was enacted. Under the 1926 Railway Labor Act, unions would negotiate agreements with railroads to determine employment terms including pay, benefits, hours, and leave. 

This legislation sought to avoid future labor strikes because of the railroads’ importance to the American economy. The resolution process would include mediation by an independent federal agency and presidential action to facilitate agreement. Strikes would only be permitted for major disputes and only after the union exhausts the negotiation and mediation procedures outlined in the law.  

Imposing Structures Still Standing 

Cities across the U.S. still bear the physical legacy of the 1877 railroad strike. To quell social unrest, many states and cities — with financial support from wealthy business owners — constructed armories resembling medieval castles to house National Guard units and suppress labor movements.” 

 Below is an old photograph of an armory in Portland, Oregon that was completed in 1888. It is now an arts center. 

The Boston armory, pictured below, was built in the 1890s. It is now used for weddings and other events. 

The New York State armory in Newburgh, pictured below, was constructed in 1880. It now houses local government offices.