THE FARMERS' ALLIANCE 115 



regular State Alliance resigned, and the whole order 

 seemed on the verge of disruption. At this point 

 there appeared on the stage the man who was des- 

 tined not only to save the Alliance in Texas but also 

 to take the lead in making it a national organiza- 

 tion C. W. Macune, the chairman of the execu- 

 tive committee. Assuming the position of acting 

 president, Macune called a special session of the 

 State Alliance to meet in January, 1887. At this 

 meeting the constitution was amended to include 

 a declaration that it was the purpose of the order 

 "to labor for the education of the agricultural 

 classes in the science of economical government, in 

 a strictly nonpartisan spirit"; and attention was 

 then directed to a plan for "the organization of the 

 cotton belt of America." The first step in this 

 direction was taken in the same month when 

 the Texas Alliance joined with the Farmers' Union 

 of Louisiana and formed the National Farmers' 

 Alliance and Cooperative Union of America. * 

 Macune, who was elected president of the 



1 The Farmers' Union was the outgrowth of an open farmers' club 

 organized in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, in 1880. In 1885 this was 

 transformed into a secret society with a ritual modeled after that of 

 the Grange and with a constitution adapted from the constitution 

 used by the Texas alliances. Before the year was over the order 

 spread into the adjoining parishes and a state union was established. 



