Evening star., 1896-07-18

40 tne amaxement OF the old parties. the
Farmers Alliance elected two members Of
the United States Senate and fourteen
members Of the House of Representatives.
These were Senator PETER Of Kansas and
sentatives Moses. Livingstone and Everett
OF Georgia, Clover. Otis, Baker. Davis and
Simpson Of Kansas. Halvorsen Of Mime
sofa, Kyle and Beeman Of Mississippi. Nc.
keighan and KEN Of Nebraska and Shell
| Of South Carolina.
This representation in the national legfsla-
ture gave the Farmers Alliance more
strength and greater influence. 1t was recog-
nlzed from that time as serious factor In
the political situation in Kansas and Ne
braska and throughout the south. As q
matter Of fact, 1t has lost some of its fol-
lowing in the west, but 1t has gained
strength in the south, and has obtained a
hold In every state in the Union.
A mere alliance Of farmers, though, prom
ised nothing outside agricultural communi-
ties. So convention was called at Gin
clnnati May 10. 1891. and there the repre-
sentatives CT all the smaller organizations
composed Of mechanics and laborers got
together and united with the alliances to
form the peoples party. The meeting In
dorsed the Ocala platform and appointed
national committee with representatives
in each state to take up the work of or
ganizing and preparing for the campaign
for the presidency in 1892.
The first national convention Of the peo-
Pies party for the purpose of nominating
candidate for the presidency was held at
Z,
meet on that day, so that the candidate
could be named on the 4th of July. There
was much more interest in the action Of
the convention than there had been in the
work OF any other third party convention
since the telegraph made communication
easy. There was grave fear that the pop
uiists would name some candidate among
the disaffected members of the other par
ties, and that the vote its candidate would
rec Give would throw the election of a Pres
ident into the House of Representatives.
Gen. Weaver Nominated.
In facs overtures were made to Gen.
Walter Q. Gresham. then classed a rcpub-
lican, afterward a member of President
Cleveland's cabinet until his death. Cen.
Gresham was known to feel very bitter
about the denomination of President Har-
rison. who was his personal enemy, and
he had expressed on many occasions SYM
pathy with some of the principles of the
popuists. But Gen. Gresham refused to
become the popuist standard bearer. and
SO an original Farmers Alliance man and
a one time greenbacker of prominence.
Gen. j. Il. Weaver of Iowa was named.
Mr.. Weaver received 9.l5 votes in the con-
vention on the first ballot to 2t5 cast for
Senator Kyle of South Dakota / for Mann
Paige of Virginia. l for Senator Stanford
of California and l for a Mr.. Norton.
For the vice presidency James G. Field
of Virginia received 1913 votes and 3enja-
min s. Terrell of Texas 554. So Weaver
and Field were put in the fight as the rep
resentatives of the new party.
In the election Mr.. Cleveland received a
popular vote numbering 5.551 i3: Mr.. Ear-
risons vote 5.1TS.5SI Mr. Weaver's
was 1.025, 1877; Mr.. BidwelI, the prohibition
candidate. received 211.650 votes. Weaver
and Field had y; votes in the electoral COL
lege. not enough to throw the election into
the House.
In this election Colorado went populist
by 1896. the democrats having fused with
ltCtC In .tnn NJ t1,a
democrats did rot fuse with the populsts
but they voted for the popuiist electors,
giving the populst ticket .:Si:, majority in
against the candidates of both republican
and democratic parties. the populist ticket
won by $3.50 votes. In Louisiana there
were five Harrison and three Weaver elec-
tors on the ticket, and the Weaver men
ran ahead of their associates, but the dem
ocratS wen.
The Populist Vote.
New York in this contest gave Weaver
only 6,429 votes against .2f4, ,2lS for Har-
rison and Cleveland. In New Jersey he
populist vote was only 800: In Vermont it
Was AZ and in Delaware IL. But in no
states In the Union were the populists with
cut support. and they had made a show
ing which gave them encourag cement to
persist in their work of organization and
enrolment. The result of this work is seen
in the result of the elections in the states
and territories given below which. with
the exception of the Iowa and Virginia
elections held in 1893, were held in 1894: