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VOLUME 45 THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA SERIES ALLEN JOHNSON, EDITOR

THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE, A CHRONICLE OF THE FARMER IN POLITICS
BY SOLON J. BUCK

PREFACE
Rapid growth accompanied by a somewhat painful readjustment has been one of the leading characteristics of the history of the United States during the last half century. In the West the change has been so swift and spectacular as to approach a complete metamorphosis. With the passing of the frontier has gone something of the old freedom and the old opportunity; and the inevitable change has brought forth inevitable protest, particularly from the agricultural class. Simple farming communities have wakened to find themselves complex industrial regions in which the farmers have frequently lost their former preferred position. The result has been a series of radical agitations on the part of farmers determined to better their lot. These movements have manifested different degrees of coherence and intelligence, but all have had something of the same purpose and spirit, and all may justly be considered as stages of the still unfinished agrarian crusade. This book is an attempt to sketch the course and to reproduce the spirit of that crusade from its inception with the Granger movement, through the Greenback and populist phases, to a climax in the battle for free silver.
In the preparation of the chapters dealing with Populism I received invaluable assistance from my colleague, Professor Lester B. Shippee of the University of Minnesota; and I am indebted to my wife for aid at every stage of the work, especially in the revision of the manuscript.
Solon J. Buck.
Minnesota Historical Society. St. Paul.
CONTENTS
I. THE INCEPTION OF THE GRANGE
II. THE RISING SPIRIT OF UNREST
III. THE GRANGER MOVEMENT AT FLOOD TIDE
IV. CURBING THE RAILROADS
V. THE COLLAPSE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT
VI. THE GREENBACK INTERLUDE
VII. THE PLIGHT OF THE FARMER
VIII. THE FARMERS' ALLIANCE
IX. THE PEOPLE'S PARTY LAUNCHED
X. THE POPULIST BOMBSHELL OF 1892
XI. THE SILVER ISSUE
XII. THE BATTLE OF THE STANDARDS
XIII. THE LEAVEN OF RADICALISM
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE

CHAPTER I.
THE INCEPTION OF THE GRANGE
When President Johnson authorized the Commissioner of Agriculture, in 1866, to send a clerk in his bureau on a trip through the Southern States to procure "statistical and other information from those States," he could scarcely have foreseen that this trip would lead to a movement among the farmers, which, in varying forms, would affect the political and economic life of