16 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



Davis, Horace Greeley, Lyman Trumbull, and B. 

 Gratz Brown. From these men, as a result of 

 manipulation, the convention unhappily selected 

 the one least suited to lead the party to victory 

 Horace Greeley. The only hope of success for the 

 movement was in cooperation with that very Demo- 

 cratic party whose principles, policies, and leaders, 

 Greeley in his editorials had unsparingly condemned 

 for years. His extreme protectionism repelled not 

 only the Democrats but the tariff reformers who 

 had played an important part in the organization 

 of the Liberal Republican party. Conservatives 

 of both parties distrusted him as a man with a dan- 

 gerous propensity to advocate "isms," a theoreti- 

 cal politician more objectionable than the practical 

 man of machine politics, and far more likely to dis- 

 turb the existing state of affairs and to overturn the 

 business of the country in his efforts at reform. As 

 the Nation expressed it, "Greeley appears to be 

 'boiled crow ' to more of his fellow citizens than any 

 other candidate for office in this or any other age of 

 which we have record." 



The regular Republican convention renominated 

 Grant, and the Democrats, as the only chance of 

 victory, swallowed the candidate and the platform 

 of the Liberals. Doubtless Greeley 's opposition to 





