THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



we are now relating than to recall the fact 

 that by 1892 the pious allegiance of the typi- 

 cal North Dakotan to the Republican party 

 was broken, and broken solely because of the 

 sense of wrong under which the farmers 

 labored. The Farmers' Alliance, of historic 

 fame, was an almost spontaneous uprising 

 that swept the West from its political moor- 

 ings. The outraged American had turned 

 to his natural first weapon. He had organ- 

 ized a political party to right by legislation 

 the injustices that oppressed him. Reorgan- 

 ized into the People's party (quickly changed 

 in common speech into the Populists) this 

 movement once attained to six or seven 

 Senators and a score of Representatives in 

 Congress. In the presidential election of 

 1892 it achieved what no other third party 

 had done since 18GO. It won for its candidate 

 for President electoral votes in six states and 

 caused many a shrewd political observer to 

 stare and mutter. The hopes that it aroused 

 among the farmers were soon disappointed; 

 the absorption of the People's party into 

 the Democratic party in 1896 brought this 

 chapter of our political history to an untimely 

 end; and nothing was left to the complain- 

 ing farmer but some acrid memories and a 

 lesson. 



This was not new, but pertinent. It was to 

 the effect that in this country little can be 



96 



