The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-12-05

ty was a boiling faction of the repub-
Hcans, who were in alliance with the
democracy in 1872 through the accept
ance of their tlcket-Horace Greedy, of
New York, and B. Gratz Brown, of Ms
souli-by the latter party. After the
election of 1872 about third or a fourth
of the liberal republicans remained with
the democracy, and the rest of them
drifted back to the republican party.
The national democrats, who nominated
Palmer and Buckner, were the conssrv>
alive element of their party, but were
put in the category of bolterS by the
circumstance that the radicals were
largely in the majority, and selected a
ticket and a platform which the nationals
refused to support. In the state cleo
tfons of 1897, however, many of the
national democrats began to do what the
liberal republicans did IN 1873 and 1874
swing back to their old party. This
probabilities are that in 1900, whatever
the platform of the element now in con-
troll of the machinery of the democracy
may be, there will be only one party in
the field having the democratic name.
The prohibition organization has par
ticipated in more than twice as many
presidential csnWasses as the Longest Tv-
ed of the other 'thfrd'' PARTIES. Making
dts appearance on the national stage I'm
1872 1t has nominated a pres Dental tick
eft I'm every canvass of the past quarter
of a century, beginning with that year
In 1896 the descriptive forces which split
the two gerat parties divided the profit
bitdonfsts, but the element which chung
to the' name, the mach. merry and the ira
diions of the party polled the barger vote
Thus the prohibition party has partici-
pated in seven presidential canvaSses
The greenback party, which took part In
three, ranks NEXT to the prohibition par
ty in the scale of longevity among the
minor organ cations From the begin
ninfy of ito al Ono tbo,xa
was steady increase in thep rohibitiom
vote, but in that year TT was only about
two-thirds as great as 1t was in 1892.
The other minor parties-gree nback
labor and populist-were, in their general
features, of the same political type. All
of them, but the labor and the populist
particularly, aimed at the enlarge ment
of the functions OF the government for
the protection of labor. All of them
for the greenback party i'm 1880 did this
declared for the free coinage of silver.
All of them wanted currency to be issued
directly by the government and to de-
prive banks of this function, and all of
them desired the abolition of the national
banking system. This government cur
rency (greenback) principle gave the
name to the first of these three parties.
1t called itself the national or the indie
pendent national party, but the green
back was its popular designation. The
greenback party participated In the pres
idential elections of 1876, 1880 and 1884, Its
presidential candidates in these years,
respectively, being Peter Cooper, James
B. Weaver and Benjamin F. Butler.
Coopsrs vote was, in round figures, 3d.
900, Weaver's 307 900 and Buffers 900.
The unton labor party, which was, i'm a
certain sense, the successor of the green
back party. figured in the canvass of
1888, its presidential candidate being
Alanson ]. Streetew, whose vote was 49,
900. Nedther the greenback nor the labor
party ever received an electoral vote. A
united labor party (singletax) was i'm the
field TN 1888. but 1T polled only 81, 900 votes.
Greater than either of its two predeces-
sors in numbers and influence was the
populiSt party which entered the nation
al arena in 1892. Its presidential candi-
date in that year. James b. Weaver,
was the gveenback standard bearer of
1880, but in the canvass of 1892 he re-
cedyed over three times as many votes
as in the earlier year, 1,041,02S He car
Tied Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and Ne
vada, and obtained one electoral vote
in North Dakota, and one in Oregon, or
twentyItwo in all. The populist popu-
lar vote was the largest ever polled by
any third party in the country's history,
and its electoral vote was the create
ever obtained by minor party excerpt
by the constitutional unionis,t in 1860. In
1896 the populist party fused with the
democracy, accepting the Chicago ticket,
but framing a platform of its own One
faction, however, rejected the Chicago
nominee for vice-presddent and put up