ar unrest was given in August by a strike of
the switchmen in the Buffalo railway yards, which paralyzed traffic
until several thousand state troops were put on guard. About the same
time, there were outbreaks in the Tennessee coal districts in protest
against the employment of convict labor in the mines. Bands of strikers
seized the mines, and in some places turned loose the convicts and
in other places escorted them back to prison. As a result of this
disturbance, during 1892 state troops were permanently stationed in the
mining districts, and eventually the convicts were put back at labor in
the mines.

Such occurrences infused bitterness into the campaign of 1892 and
strongly affected the election returns. Weaver carried Colorado, Idaho,
Kansas, and Nevada, and he got one electoral vote in Oregon and in
North Dakota; but even if these twenty-two electoral votes had gone to
Harrison, he would still have been far behind Cleveland, who received
277 electoral votes out of a total of 444. Harrison ran only about
381,000 behind Cleveland in the popular vote, but in four States, the
Democrats had nominated no electors and their votes had contributed to
the poll of over a million for Weaver. The Democratic victory was so
sweeping that it gained the Senate as well as the House, and now for the
first time a Democratic President was in accord with both branches of
Congress. It was soon to appear, however, that this party accord was
merely nominal.

CHAPTER IX. THE FREE SILVER REVOLT

The avenging consequences of the Silver Purchase Act moved so rapidly
that when John Griffin Carlisle took office as Secretary of the Treasury
in 1893, the gold reserve had fallen to $100,982,410--only $982,410
above the limit indicated by the Act of 1882--and the public credit was
shaken by the fact that it was an open question whether the government
obligation to pay a dollar was worth so much or only one half so much.
The latter interpretation, indeed, seemed impending. The new Secretary's
first step was to adopt the makeshift expedient of his predecessors. He
appealed to the banks for gold and backed up by patriotic exhortation
from the press, he did obtain almost twenty-five millions in gold in
exchange for notes. But as even more notes drawing out the gold
were presented for redemption, the Secretary's efforts were no more
successful than carrying water in a sieve.

Of the notes presented for redemption during March and April, nearly