nce to the
presidential election of 1896. Both old parties were inoculated with the
free-silver virus; silver men could have passed a free coinage bill in
both houses of Congress at any moment but were restrained chiefly by the
knowledge that such a measure would be vetoed by President Cleveland.
The free coinage of silver, which was the chief demand of Populism,
was also the ardent desire of a majority of the people west of the
Alleghanies, irrespective of their political affiliations. Nothing
seemed more logical, then, than the union of all silver men to enforce
the adoption of their program. There was great diversity of opinion,
however, as to the best means of accomplishing this union. General
Weaver started a movement to add the forces of the American Bimetallic
League and the silver Democrats to the ranks of the People's Party. But
the silver Democrats, believing that they comprised a majority of the
party, proceeded to organize themselves for the purpose of controlling
that party at its coming national conventions; and most of the Populist
leaders felt that, should this movement be victorious, the greatest
prospect of success for their program lay in a fusion of the two
parties. Some there were, indeed, who opposed fusion under any
conditions, foreseeing that it would mean the eventual extinction of
the People's Party.. Prominent among these were Ignatius Donnelly of
Minnesota, "General" J. S. Coxey of Ohio, and Senator Peffer of Kansas.
In the South the "middle-of-the-road" element, as the opponents of
fusion were called, was especially strong, for there the Populists had
been cooperating with the Republicans since 1892, and not even agreement
on the silver issue could break down the barrier of antagonism between
them and the old-line Democrats.

It remained, then, for the political events of 1896 to decide which
way the current of Populism would flow--whether it would maintain an
independent course, receiving tributaries from every political source,
eventually becoming a mighty river, and, like the Republican party of
1856 and 1860, sweeping away an older party; or whether it would
turn aside and mingle with the stream of Democracy, there to lose its
identity forever.

CHAPTER XII. THE BATTLE OF THE STANDARDS

When the Republicans met in convention at St. Louis in the middle of
June, 1896, the monetary issue had already dwarfed all other political
questions. It was indeed the rock on which the party migh