AS A POLITICAL FORCE 109 



" within a few weeks it has menaced the political equilibrium 

 of the most steadfast states. It has upset the calculations of 

 veteran campaigners, and put professional office-seekers to 

 more embarrassment than even the Back Pay." 1 There was 

 considerable justification for this conception of the Grange in 

 the fact that large numbers undoubtedly did join it in the years 

 of its prestige with the idea of using the order for political ends; 

 but the principal reason for this misapprehension of the real 

 purposes of the order was probably the failure of a considerable 

 part of the press throughout the country, particularly in the 

 East, to distinguish clearly between the order of Patrons of 

 Husbandry and the openly political aspects of the general 

 farmers' movement, such as the farmers' clubs and the Indepen- 

 dent political parties of the western states. 



Despite considerable internal pressure to the contrary and 

 some transgression on the part of local granges, the National 

 Grange succeeded in maintaining the non-political position of 

 the order; and the " Declaration of Purposes" adopted at the 

 seventh annual session 2 in February, 1874, emphasized the 

 position of the order on this subject by the following assertion: 3 

 "We emphatically and sincerely assert the oft-repeated truth 

 taught in our organic law, that the Grange, National, State, or 

 Subordinate, is not a political or party organization. No Grange, 

 if true to its obligations, can discuss political or religious ques- 

 tions, nor call political conventions, nor nominate candidates, 

 nor even discuss their merits in its meetings." 



The idea of a secret society of farmers with political objects, 

 which the organization of the Grange had suggested, appears 

 to have been too enticing to let slip, and this declaration of the 

 Patrons was followed almost immediately by the organization 

 in New York of the " Order of Independent Grangers." 4 A few 

 years later, O. H. Kelley, the " Father of the Grange " evolved 



1 Quoted in Martin, Granger Movement, 415-418. 



2 This was the second session of the National Grange as a delegate body. The 

 first five sessions were merely meetings of the founders. See above, pp. 63-65. 



3 National Grange, Proceedings, vii. 56-60 (1874). 



4 Rural Carolinian, v. 372 (April, 1874); American Agriculturist, xxxiii. 125 

 (April, 1874). 



