THE POPULIST BOMBSHELL OF 1892 153 



As time gave perspective, however, the opinion 

 grew that 1892 had yielded all that could possibly 

 have been hoped. The lessons of the campaign may 

 have been hard, but they had been learned, and, 

 withal, a stinging barb had been thrust into the side 

 of the Republican party, the organization which, 

 in the minds of most crusaders, was principally re- 

 sponsible for the creation and nurture of their ills. 

 It was generally determined that in the next cam- 

 paign Populism should stand upon its own feet; 

 Democratic and Republican votes should be won 

 by conversion of individuals to the cause rather 

 than by hybrid amalgamation of parties and pre- 

 election agreements for dividing the spoils. But it 

 was just this fusion which blinded the eyes of the 

 old party leaders to the significance of the Populist 

 returns. Democrats, with a clear majority of elec- 

 toral votes, were not inclined to worry about local 

 losses or to \ alue incidental gains; and Republicans 

 felt that the menace of the third party was much 

 less portentous than it might have been as an 

 independent movement. 



