70 AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



movement to carry out every reform necessary. We have the two great 

 principles and conceptions of the genius of our institutions, as contended 

 for by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, as a basis for a division into two 

 great political parties ; that should suffice : let every one carry his ideas of 

 reform to the party, to which he belongs from principle. And as the agricul- 

 turists comprise a large majority of all the voters, they will necessarily com- 

 prise a majority in each party. But their greatest influence in politics can 

 be brought to bear, not at the hustings, but in the halls of legislation, by 

 the proper and judicious exercise of the right of petition. There they step 

 forward as Alliance men strong and united, and demand that the government 

 redress wrongs committed by it ; but in partisan politics the members of our 

 order should participate, not as Alliance men, but as citizens, because politics 

 is for the citizen. 



" Let the Alliance be a business organization for business purposes, and 

 as such, necessarily secret, and as secret, necessarily strictly non-political. 

 This is somewhat of a digression, but is made in order to show the ideas 

 that were entertained at the time this national association was launched forth 

 on the sea of experiment as a business organization of the farmers of the 

 cotton belt. The plan on which organization has been effected is to some 

 extent new ; and while it perhaps contains nothing original, it is experimental, 

 in that it combines the features of several different systems. Being a secret 

 organization, it is necessarily to some extent like the father of all secret 

 organizations, monarchical in form ; but being a chartered association, under 

 the law of our country, for business purposes, and being composed of a people 

 who are familiar with, and devoted to, a republican form of government, its 

 written law is in conformity to that system. You will, therefore, find in the 

 construction of a code of statutory law that you must provide for a member- 

 ship who occupy a dual relation to the order ; that is, the constitution is the 

 written organic law, and outlines a republican form of government. The 

 secret work is the unwritten organic law, and is co-ordinate with the written, 

 and outlines a limited monarchy. By keeping these ideas in view, you will 

 avoid confusion, and will find questions of law much easier of solution. 



" It is a great pleasure to be able to congratulate you on the rapid exten- 

 sion of the work under the plan outlined. There are now State organizations 

 in eight States, and in many States the work is progressing in a very satisfac- 

 tory manner, as the report of the secretary will show. The plan of organiza- 

 tion seems to meet the necessities, with perhaps a few modifications. There 

 appear to be no prominent defects in the plan as a national enterprise, and as 

 complete jurisdiction is surrendered to the State Alliances when organized, 

 it rests with them to make laws to meet local conditions. There is a feature 

 of the Alliance that is very important, and has always been a part of the 

 unwritten work, that it might perhaps be well to introduce some laws and 

 regulations in the written work, in order that it may be more universally 

 understood. That is the trade system, and the co-operative efforts being 

 made to act in harmony in the sale of products and purchase of commodities. 

 On the success of this feature much of the prosperity of the order depends ; 



