THE GREENBACK INTERLUDE 85 



accepted unconditionally but took no active part 

 in the campaign. 



The Greenback movement at first made but slow 

 progress in the various States. In Indiana and 

 Illinois the existing independent organizations be- 

 came component parts of the new party, although 

 in Illinois, at least, quite a number of the former 

 leaders returned to the old parties. In the other 

 Western States, however, the third parties of the 

 Granger period had gone to pieces or had been ab- 

 sorbed by means of fusion, and new organizations 

 had to be created. In Indiana the Independent 

 party developed sufficient strength to scare the 

 Republican leaders and to cause one of them to 

 write to Hayes: "A bloody-shirt campaign, with 

 money, and Indiana is safe; a financial campaign 

 and no money and we are beaten." 



The Independents do not appear to have made 

 a very vigorous campaign in 1876. The coffers of 

 the party were as empty as the pockets of the farm- 

 ers who were soon to swell its ranks; and this made 

 a campaign of the usual sort impossible. One big 

 meeting was held in Chicago in August, with Sam- 

 uel Fo Cary, the nominee for Vice-President, as 

 the principal attraction; and this was followed 

 by a torchlight procession. A number of papers 



