14 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



This dissatisfaction with the Administration on 

 the part of Republicans and independents came to 

 a head in 1872 in the Liberal-Republican move- 

 ment. As early as 1870 a group of Republicans in 

 Missouri, disgusted by the excesses of the radicals 

 in that State in the proscription of former Con- 

 federate sympathizers, had led a bolt from the 

 party, had nominated B. Gratz Brown for governor, 

 and, with the assistance of the Democrats, had won 

 the election. The real leader of this movement 

 was Senator Carl Schurz, under whose influence 

 the new party in Missouri declared not only for the 

 removal of political disabilities but also for tariff 

 revision and civil service reform and manifested 

 opposition to the alienation of the public domain 

 to private corporations and to all schemes for the 

 repudiation of any part of the national debt. Simi- 

 lar splits in the Republican party took place soon 

 afterwards in other States, and in 1872 the Missouri 

 Liberals called a convention to meet at Cincinnati 

 for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the 

 presidency. 



The new party was a coalition of rather diverse 

 elements. Prominent tariff reformers, members of 

 the Free Trade League, such as David A. Wells and 

 Edward L. Godkin of the Nation, advocates of civil 



