page_title: Barzillai J. Chambers
section_title: 1880 election
hierarchical_section_title: Barzillai J. Chambers / 1880 election
caption_attribution_description: English: An 1880 Greenback Labor jugate ribbon, supporting Weaver and Chambers.
context_page_description: Barzillai Jefferson Chambers was an American surveyor, lawyer, and politician of the Gilded Age. Born in Kentucky, he moved to Texas to join its war for independence against Mexico. Chambers stayed in Texas after its independence and annexation by the United States, earning a living as a surveyor and farmer in Johnson County. In the American Civil War, he served briefly in the Confederate army, then returned to his farming and business interests, becoming part-owner of a bank in his hometown of Cleburne. In the 1870s, Chambers became concerned with farming and monetary issues in politics, eventually joining the nascent Greenback Party in 1877. He ran unsuccessfully for Vice President on the Greenback ticket with presidential nominee James B. Weaver of Iowa in 1880. The Greenback nominees finished in a distant third place, receiving only 3.3% of the popular vote and no electoral votes. After the election, Chambers remained active in Greenback politics in Texas until the party's demise in the late 1880s. He died at his home in Cleburne in 1895.
context_section_description: By 1879, the Greenback coalition had splintered, and Chambers became affiliated with the faction most prominent in the South and West, called the "Union Greenback Labor Party," led by Marcus M. "Brick" Pomeroy. Pomeroy's faction was more radical and emphasized its independence, suggesting that Eastern Greenbackers were likely to "sell out the party at any time to the Democrats." Chambers was chosen as a delegate to the Pomeroy faction's 1880 national convention in St. Louis. The 212 delegates nominated Stephen D. Dillaye of New York for President and Chambers for Vice President.  Accepting the nomination, Chambers called for unity between the Greenback factions and restated his belief in the party's goals, and attacked bankers as "Huns and Vandals." To further promote his views, he purchased a small newspaper, the Cleburne Avalanche, and spoke at the state convention in Texas in May 1880.
  The more Eastern-oriented faction of the Greenbacks, called the "National Greenback Party," held its convention in Chicago that June, and Chambers attended along with others from the Pomeroy faction, hoping to heal the party split. The two factions resolved their differences and wrote a joint platform. The Greenbackers also agreed to admit forty-four delegates of the Socialist Labor Party. Dillaye stepped aside to allow the nomination of James B. Weaver of Iowa, a Civil War general and Congressman. Chambers was proposed for Vice President by the reunited party, as was Absolom M. West of Mississippi; Chambers was victorious on the first ballot, by 403 votes to 311. West moved that the nomination be made unanimous, which it was.
  Chambers gave speeches on his way back to Texas, castigating the banks and defending the admission of socialists to the convention as "simply a body of men enlisted in the cause of human rights." In his official acceptance letter, he called for expansion of the currency, immigration restriction to help workingmen compete "with Chinese serf labor," and the forfeiture of all unfulfilled railroad grants. On July 8, before reaching home, Chambers fell as he exited his train in Kosse, Texas, and broke two ribs. He was confined to bed for several weeks and considered withdrawing from the race, but decided against it. His efforts, however, were limited by his injuries, and his only contribution to the campaign was to publish his newspaper, renamed the Cleburne Greenbacker. Greenbackers had high hopes for the 1880 election, but were disappointed with the result: Weaver and Chambers won just over 300,000 votes (3.3% of the popular vote) and did not carry a single state in the electoral college.
caption: Greenback campaign ribbon from 1880
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