88 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



United States Senate. This vote, it is interesting 

 to note, kept Davis from serving on the electoral 

 commission and thus probably prevented Tilden 

 from becoming President. 



But the Greenback movement was to find fresh 

 impetus in 1877, a year of exceptional unrest and 

 discontent throughout the Union. The agricul- 

 tural depression was even greater than in preced- 

 ing years, while the great railroad strikes were evi- 

 dence of the distress of the workingmen. This situ- 

 ation was reflected in politics by the rapid growth 

 of the Greenback party and the reappearance of 

 labor parties with Greenback planks. 1 



In the following year the new party had an ex- 

 cellent opportunity to demonstrate its strength 

 wherever it existed. In February, 1878, a confer- 

 ence was held at Toledo for the purpose of welding 

 the various political organizations of workingmen 



1 In state elections from Massachusetts to Kansas the Greenback 

 and labor candidates polled from 5 to 15 per cent of the total vote, and 

 in most cases the Greenback vote would probably have been much 

 greater had not one or the other, and in some cases both, of the old 

 parties incorporated part of the Greenback demands in their platforms. 

 In Wisconsin, for example, there was little difference between Demo- 

 crats and Greenbackers on the currency question, and even the Re- 

 publicans in their platform leaned toward inflation, although the 

 candidates declared against it. No general elections were held in 

 1877 in some of the States where the Greenback sentiment was most 

 pronounced. 



