cratic supremacy was imperiled, if
the new party continued its amazing growth.

The politicians, Republican and Democratic, set out to win the
insurgents. Some shrewd political manipulators, scenting future profit
for themselves, had joined the new movement and were willing to trade.
During 1893, 1894, and 1895 the Republicans were generally successful.
In many States there was more or less cooperation in state and county
tickets, in spite of the disfavor with which the Republican party had
been regarded in the South. In North Carolina J.C. Pritchard, a regular
Republican, was elected to the United States Senate, to fill the
unexpired term of Senator Vance, but the Populist state chairman, Marion
Butler, cool, calculating, and shrewd, took the full term to succeed
Senator Ransom. The Democratic party had maintained control for twenty
years, and it was held responsible for all the ills from which the
farmer suffered. Then, too, some of the leaders of the new party felt
that they would have greater opportunities for preferment by cooeperating
with a party in which the number of white voters was small.

The doctrine of free silver had been making converts among the
Democrats, however, and early in 1896 it was clear that a majority of the
Southern delegates to the national convention would favor a silver plank.
The action of the convention in nominating Bryan and Sewall is told in
another volume.[1] Bryan was also endorsed by the Populist convention, but
that convention refused to endorse Sewall and nominated Thomas E. Watson
for Vice-President. A majority of the Populist convention favored a strict
party fight, but the managers were shrewd, and the occasion manifestly
offered great opportunities for trading. In twenty-six States the electoral
tickets were divided between Democrats and Populists. Among these States
were Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and North Carolina. But cooeperation
with Republicans on local legislative and state tickets often occurred. In
North Carolina, a fusion legislature was elected, and a Republican was
chosen governor by the aid of Populist votes, though one faction of the
Populists nominated a separate ticket. The judicial and congressional
nominations were divided. The apparent inconsistency of voting for Bryan
for President and at the same time supporting Republicans who might be
expected to oppose him in Congress was accepted without flinching.
According to the bargain made two years before,