THE POPULIST BOMBSHELL OF 1892 149 



into insignificance beside the glowing pictures of pros- 

 perity promised by the average Populist orator to 

 those who support Weaver. 



The Pensacola Address of the Populist nominees 

 on September 17, 1892, which served as a joint let- 

 ter of acceptance, was evidently issued at that 

 place and time partly for the purpose of influencing 

 such voters as might be won over by emphasizing 

 the unquestioned economic distress of most South- 

 ern farmers. If the new party could substantiate 

 the charges that both old parties were the tools of 

 monopoly and Wall Street, it might insert the 

 wedge which would eventually split the "solid 

 South." Even before the Pensacola Address, the 

 state elections in Alabama and Arkansas demon- 

 strated that cooperation of Republicans with Popu- 

 lists was not an idle dream- But, although fusion 

 was effected on state tickets in several States in the 

 November elections, the outcome was the choice of 

 Cleveland electors throughout the South. 



As the Populists tried in the South to win over 

 the Republicans, so in the North and more espe- 

 cially the West they sought to control the Demo- 

 cratic vote either by fusion or absorption. The 

 effort was so successful that in Colorado, Idaho, 

 Kansas, Nevada, and North Dakota, the new party 



