USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina since 1860, Volume III > Part 18
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At this period of the state's history agriculture was still entirely dominant. Conditions affecting that industry de- termined the prosperity of the population or the reverse. In the period following 1870 conditions were far from good but there was steadily increasing prosperity. Beginning about 1886 or 1887 depression set in. Cotton prices in spite of fluc- tuations from year to year had steadily fallen, the average price from 1880 to 1887 being 9 cents. It was 11 cents in 1890, 9 in 1891 and about 61/2 in 1892. Grain was similarly affected by the tremendous expansion of the grain fields of the north- west and the enormous crops which were produced. Wheat, which had averaged $1.07 from 1880 to 1887 was 86 cents in 1887 and still falling. Corn, averaging 46 cents for the same period, had dropped to 34 cents in 1888, to 28 in 1889. In 1890 it rose to 37 cents. Tobacco was beginning to show the
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effect of consolidation of manufacturers by which the price was controlled.
Conditions were indicated in another way. The mortgage burden of the state was heavy. During the decade from 1880 to 1890 it amounted to $55,832,062 and in 1890 it was $21,- 471,428 and steadily increasing. Nearly 18 per cent of the taxed acres were under mortgage and on the average every taxed acre bore a mortgage burden of 53 cents. The aver- age value of the farm acre was $8.12. The per capita mort- gage debt was $13, but this was low, only South Carolina of all the states having a lower rate.
A hopeful sign was the steady increase in the number of farms and the decreasing size, tending to intensive agricul- ture and a wider spread of opportunity.
Returning to the causes of discontent, labor as well as low prices caused trouble. Of course there were no strikes but the negroes in many quarters were unsettled and restless and the exodus to Arkansas and Nebraska produced a serious shortage of labor in some parts of the state.
The effects of the war and of Reconstruction were still clearly visible in the state and the farmers largely living from hand to mouth, were without an adequate reserve to carry them over a lean year, much less to bear the burden of a suc- cession of them. They thus felt keenly the effects of the pro- gressive impoverishment of their class. To all this was added the pressure of high railway rates, poor service and discrim- ination. Attempts to secure a remedy for railroad oppres- sion, which was, it is fair to say, highly magnified, for the railroads themselves were not over-prosperous, were uni- formly and successfully thwarted by the railroad interests which, in one way or another dominated the legislature of the state. It was no wonder that to many observers condi- tions seemed hopelessly bad and that discontent was wide- spread. .
As is so often the case the action of government was held entirely responsible for these conditions. The protective tariff was at first the object of attack but in a short time the monetary system of the country and the banking system were regarded as the real basis of the evil, with trusts and
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railroads in close competition for the second position among the causes of distress. With feeling of this sort dominant political activity in time was a certainty. And in politics, no less, the time and conditions were ripe for revolt.
During the period following the redemption of the state in 1876, a steady process of crystallization had gone on in politics. Redemption from governmental corruption, extrava- gance and misrule had been accomplished through the efforts and leadership of a body of men who were, in the main, young, and considering everything, fairly progressive, and who were able to unite the majority of white men in the state and hold them in the democratic party because of the fear amounting almost to certainty that the restoration of the republicans meant the return of the evil government of Reconstruction. The real basis of democratic organization became in a sense, then, opposition to the negro in government and politics. For this reason the republican party was chiefly distrusted and every protestation by republican leaders of devotion to white supremacy was heavily discounted with the constant answer that republican success, under the existing organization of the party, meant, in spite of what a few leaders might desire, the return of the negro and misgovernment. But as time passed, the task of holding the democratic majority together became increasingly difficult. The memory of Reconstruction became more indistinct, particularly to younger members of the party. Signs of revolt were not wanting even in the early ' eighties, as witnessed by the liberal movement of 1882.
Many things contributed in preparing the way for revolu- tion. As always there was a considerable element of disap- pointed politicians-self-seekers-who looked to personal ad- vantage and advancement. A large and growing number of able, honest, and influential democrats were sick at heart over election methods, particularly in the East but not confined to that section. The disfranchisement of the negro by force, intimidation, bribery, or fraud, begun to rescue the state from ruin, had continued. Undoubtedly it saved the state, but like all evils of its kind, it was progressive and it had grown until in many quarters of the state fraud in elections was looked upon by both parties, not only as something to be expected,
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but as something entirely justifiable when committed for the benefit of one's own party. It was a far cry from the politi- cal purity of the ante-bellum period, and the legacy of the apostles of "Northern Civilization," the carpet-baggers, bore heavily upon forward-looking people. Thinking men began to see the logical end of this-caught a vision of the proba- ble political ideals of their children and grandchildren if such a system were perpetuated, and, fearful, sought a way out. And there was none in sight. Of hope there was likewise none so long as unrestricted negro suffrage continued.
Nor were party conditions promising. In addition to the inseparable alliance of the republican party with the negro and the resulting social stigma, it was dominated and con- trolled by Federal office-holders who quarreled and squab- bled over the spoils of office and who in the main saw politics from the angle of place. Many of them wanted the party to remain in the minority that the number entitled to spoils might not be increased. Some few leaders were of a differ- ent stripe and in the rank and file of the party, particularly in the West, were good men, but in the party as a party there was, at the time, small hope for the future. In addition, it was a fact unchangeable that unaided by democratic revolt it could not win.
The democratic party of the late eighties could scarcely be called progressive. The instinct of political leadership of the older day spent itself now in preventing negro equality in politics and had little energy for other tasks. It was chiefly interested in keeping in power and maintained with truth that only by its success could good government be maintained. But it was uninterested in questions of social reform, it was in- different to progress in public education, it sought at all costs to avoid spending money and, failing utterly to distinguish between extravagance and proper investment for the future, it capitalized the habit of poverty which had always charac- terized the state. Its control was in the hands of elderly men who, naturally conservative, looked pityingly and scornfully upon progressive and ambitious youth and if unable to en- force a somewhat reverential acceptance and support of their ideas, methods, and rule, were able to combine very success-
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fully to stifle opposition. Their argument was chiefly the negro and Reconstruction. One too young for service then had small chance for promotion from them or even for an in- terested hearing whatever might be his object and however great might be the eloquence and logic of his argument, if it differed from the accepted dogmas of the party faith. Their faces were turned to the past and the only question was how long they could maintain control and preserve the status quo.
The same situation existed in other Southern states, but the white republicans were too few to be important. When the revolt came in those states, it was merely a shifting of supremacy within the party. In North Carolina it meant a complete overturn of the party in power.
As has been said the revolt found its beginnings in agri- cultural conditions. The generation then at maturity had an inheritance hard to overcome in the defeat of its fathers in war, a destroyed labor system, the constant threat of social and political anarchy, and the grinding poverty which beset it. Unrest was natural and found expression in the founding of local farmers' associations of one sort and another. The first of these was the Grange. The first Grange in North Car- olina was organized early in 1873; by the middle of May there were 20, and by October, 110. A year later there were 430, and in January, 1875, the highwater mark was reached with 477, with a membership of more than 10,000. The following year decline commenced. It was never very important in the state, although a few co-operative stores and Granger schools were established. It took no part in politics and its chief importance lay in its accustoming the farmers to the idea of agricultural organization and so preparing the way for the Farmers' Alliance.
In February, 1887, a farmers' convention met in Raleigh, perfected a plan of organization, and elected Elias Carr presi- dent. To its influence and activity was due, to a considerable extent, the foundation of the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege and the withdrawal of the landscrip fund from the Uni- versity. It is probable that it was called chiefly for that pur- pose. Its success indicated that the time was ripe for a more complete organization which speedily followed.
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The Farmers' Alliance was first organized in North Caro- lina in October, 1887, and was at the time composed of 132 subordinate alliances situated in eight counties. The first local sub-alliance had been organized in April. It spread rap- idly and by the following summer had 1,018 local branches in sixty-two counties of the state and a membership of more than 42,000. It had not reached the mountains and was strongest in Wake, Chatham, Sampson, Robeson, Moore, Union, and Cumberland. The membership increased to 72,- 000 in 1889 and the sub-alliances to more than 1,600. In 1891, organized in every county of the state, there were 2,221 sub- alliances with a membership of more than 100,000, after which the decline began, almost coincident with the rise of Populism.
Syndenham B. Alexander of Mecklenburg was the first state president. Elias Carr succeeded him in 1890, and in 1891 Marion Butler was elected. He served two years and then was elected first vice president of the National Alliance, becoming president in 1894. He was succeeded in the state presidency by Dr. Cyrus Thompson. The most influential person in the organization, however, was L. L. Polk, formerly state commissioner of agriculture and editor of the Progres- sive Farmer who became its first secretary, and first vice president of the National Alliance.
In its inception in North Carolina there was no conscious political purpose in the mass of the members, whatever may have been the aims of the leaders, but it had certain practical aims which made political activity inevitable, and the foundation of a new party, in the event of failure to con- trol the old ones, almost a certainty. These aims were all in the direction of correcting outstanding abuses. Because of railway discrimination and high rates, they advocated state control of freight rates, and later demanded the public owner- ship of railways and telegraph lines. To enable them to hold agricultural products, the sub-treasury scheme was devised by Harry Skinner, a North Carolinian, by which the Federal Government would undertake the warehousing of such prod- ucts and the issuance of receipts therefor which would cir- culate as currency. Along with this they demanded a larger per capita circulation of legal tender notes. For very obvi-
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ous reasons they opposed the growth of trusts and demanded that the Government undertake their destruction. These were farmers' demands, and lawyers, merchants and bankers were at first excluded from the organization. Along with these practical purposes, the Alliance was intended to furnish so-
COL. L. L. POLK
cial light and recreation to the farming population. This was a most important factor in the rapid spread of the organiza- tion for the life of the average North Carolina farmer was dreary enough and the Alliance brought the light and stimu- lus of social intercourse to many depressed and weary women, hard-driven and hopeless men, and joyless young people, de- prived of the pleasures of youth. It is no wonder that for a time the Alliance was almost a religion, offering as it did
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comfort and joy in the present and the promise of happiness and salvation to come.
The first state meeting of the Alliance passed resolutions denouncing the Cotton Bagging Trust, demanding the repeal of the tax on tobacco, the revision of the tariff in such a way as to lighten the burden on necessities and increase it on luxuries, the establishment of a state railroad commission, the prohibition of the use of railway passes by public officials, and revision of the laws which would reduce the cost of minor litigation; and protesting against the state's giving away the labor of convicts.
About the same time criticism of legislators and the politi- cal parties became common. In discussing the reasons why the farmers had suffered so, the Progressive Farmer gave the following explanation: "It is because the great mass of the American people, blinded by party spirit and bowing to the mandates of self-constituted partisan bosses, have sur- rendered their manhood and are victims of designing corrupt men."
Even before the union of the various state alliances into a national organization the political influence of the North Carolina Alliance was important. S. B. Alexander was a far- mers' candidate for the democratic nomination for governor in 1888 and received and declined the nomination for lieuten- ant-governor. In county affairs some influence was exerted but the local groups of officers, the "court-house rings," as Alliance men began to call them, were too firmly established for anything short of a political revolution to overturn them. With the members of the legislature it was different as there was a firmly established precedent for frequent changes, and so the legislature of 1889, elected in 1888, contained a larger proportion of farmers than any other since the war. In the House they were strong enough to force the election of Leazer, an Alliance leader, to the speakership. In the Senate they were not so powerful, however, and the Railroad Commission Bill, which had passed the Senate in 1887, only to meet defeat in the House, was now defeated in the Senate after fairly easy passage through the House. Governor Scales had urged its passage in his message and it could not be said to be entirely
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a farmer's question although it was the measure in which they were chiefly interested. In this legislature appeared the beginning of the attacks upon the national banks and also of the demand for a more abundant currency, veiled, how- ever, in the form of a demand for state banks of issue.
The Alliance men lacked leadership and as the old conser- vative democratic leaders were experienced and not yet dis- trusted, the session saw little attempted for the relief of the agricultural interests. As a result dissatisfaction was in- creased and the way prepared for independent party action. The republican leaders saw this clearly and fostered care- fully the spirit of discontent.
Polk was rapidly extending his influence and in 1889 he was chosen head of the National Farmers' Alliance and de- voted all his energies to pressing its demands. S. B. Alex- ander was still at the head of the state organization and asso- ciated with him were men like Dr. Cyrus Thompson, Maj. William A. Graham, Elias Carr, and Marion Butler, the last mentioned being editor of the Caucasian, an influential coun- try paper in Sampson County where he was very strong.
Most of the members of the Alliance were democrats and they were able largely to control the party. In 1890 they openly denied support to those who would not pledge them- selves to support their demands. Upon candidates for Con- gress they imposed the pledge to support the abolition of national banks, the prohibition of dealing in future in agri- cultural products, the free coinage of silver, the prohibition of alien ownership of land, the abolition of special taxation, and the issue of fractional paper currency. In state affairs they still made their former demands, adding a declaration in favor of better schools and for the higher education of women.
In the campaign the Alliance continued to champion in- dependent thought and action by members in the interest of reform. As yet there was little thought of a new party, the aim being not to break either the democratic or republican party but to reform and dominate them, taking their direc- tion and control out of the hands of "bosses."
Their tactics were very effective as concerned the candi- dates for Congress. ,Two candidates for the democratic nomi-
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nation, one a sitting member and the other a former member, were forced to withdraw in favor of farmers' candidates. An- other sitting member found it necessary to sever his connec- tion with a national bank to have any hope of success and failed after all. Of the nine nominees, four were members of the Alliance and only two were in open opposition to it. The same methods were no less effective in dictating the nominees for the legislature and determining the policy of the party. When the democratic convention met, a majority of the dele- gates were members of the Alliance and the platform in sub- stance was simply a restatement of the demands of the or- ganization. The democrats nominated A. S. Merrimon and Walter Clark to succeed themselves as chief justice and asso- ciate justice respectively. They were full of uneasiness at Alliance activity but since the members were chiefly demo- crats they felt fairly confident that the trouble would soon blow over.
The campaign, for several reasons, was of considerable interest for an off year, due to several causes. In republi- can politics, the chief event was the meeting in Raleigh a few days before the state convention of a negro conference which discussed very freely and fully the treatment of the negro by the republican party. Declaring the negroes in North Caro- lina the true republican party since they cast nine-tenths of the votes, they passed resolutions demanding better educa- tional facilities, a new election law, the repeal of the existing laws relating to county government, and a share of the of- fices. When the republican convention met the feeling of the colored element again manifested itself, but was quieted and the convention closed in apparent harmony. Charles Price was nominated for chief justice and W. T. Faircloth for as- sociate justice. It was clear that the proposed Force Bill had the approval of the delegates, but all mention of it was omitted from the platform. Not all republicans felt this way, however. H. G. Ewart, a member of Congress, in June made a strong speech in the House against it, declaring elections in the state to be generally fair, and adding in explanation of Southern feeling towards the republican party: "The state governments fell into the hands of the most disreputable gang
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of thieves and plunderers that ever disgraced a nation, and the very name of Republicanism became a stench in the nos- trils of all honest men." But such sentiments were rare among the Federal office-holders who as usual dominated the convention.
During the course of the campaign, on account of the grow- ing demands of the negroes and the issue of the Force Bill a number of prominent republicans left the party. Notable among these were Francis D. Winston, William A. Guthrie, and Neill Mckay.
One of the most interesting questions of the whole cam- paign was one injected into democratic politics by the radical members of the Alliance. Early in 1890 the Progressive Farmer, after some preliminary criticism of Vance, openly opposed his re-election to the Senate. Vance was so strongly entrenched in the affections of his party that the matter was treated lightly at first. But it soon appeared that the atti- tude of the Alliance organ was in fact representative of a considerable element of Alliance opinion, though of how great, could not be ascertained. The reason for the opposition was Vance's failure to press and support the sub-treasury bill which at the request of Polk he had introduced into the Senate and managed to have referred to a rather friendly committee, telling Polk that he could not promise any personal support for it. In June, Vance wrote Elias Carr, as president of the Alliance, that he was unable to support it in the form in which it had been presented, believing that it was unconstitutional. He at the same time urged moderation on the members of the Alliance, begging them not to make of it a new party and thus lose what they were otherwise certain to gain. In spite of the feeling against him, it was soon certain that he could not be defeated. But he took no chances. He was very active in the campaign and just before election he felt compelled to say that if any decision of the Supreme Court was found which would show the sub-treasury bill to be constitutional, he would vote for it. Even the result of the election did not reassure him and when on November 20th, Elias Carr wrote him to ask if he would obey instructions from the legislature, he replied
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that he accepted the doctrine of instructions and would obey or resign.
The election resulted in a clean democratic victory, the majorities being far larger than in 1888 and one more seat in Congress being gained. The explanation of the gain is to be found in the prominence of the Force Bill which the demo-
SENATOR ZEBULON B. VANCE
crats used very skillfully, and the emphasis upon the negro which while less apparent was very real.
The legislative session showed the farmers better organ- ized and more aggressive. It developed that they had all the democratic members and more than half of the republicans pledged to their demands. They had also pledged eight of the nine members of Congress chosen. As soon as the session began the question of Vance's election dwarfed all other mat-
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ters as was always the case in North Carolina with senatorial elections until the advent of the primary. Just before the time of election, the democratic caucus adopted for presenta- tion to the legislature a resolution of instruction to vote for the sub-treasury scheme. When Vance saw it, he declared that he would not accept an election under such instructions. There was much discussion in the party and a good deal of anger, but in the end the resolution was changed so as to in- struct him to vote to secure the objects of the financial reform contemplated in the Ocala platform. Vance was willing to agree to this and accepted the election to which he received a unanimous caucus nomination, but he did not alter his oppo- sition to the sub-treasury scheme.
The legislature was marked by a more progressive spirit than its predecessor. Ten thousand dollars was appropri- ated for a geological survey and J. A. Holmes was made state geologist. Twenty-five thousand dollars was appropriated for an exhibit at the World's Fair. The school tax was in- creased, a normal and industrial school for women, the pres- ent Normal College, a new school for the deaf and dumb, an agricultural and mechanical college for negroes, and a normal school for negroes were established, and increased assistance given the University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Raleigh.
In spite of bitter opposition from all the railroad interests, a railroad commission was established amid mournful fore- casts of the dire results to the prosperity of the state. A committee was appointed to look into a proposition of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad to pay $20,000 as an annual tax and receive in return certain valuable privileges, includ- ing the renewal of the expiring charter of the Petersburg road which the Wilmington road was operating. The committee reported favorably, but the legislature was firm in its deter- mination to secure in time at least the full right of taxation, and so the charter was renewed for two years only and an act passed forbidding the construction of a parallel line. With the same purpose a bill was proposed designed to force the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad to pay taxes. There was no
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