The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 30, July 1926 - April, 1927 Page: 177
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Southwestern Historical Quarterly and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association.
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The Greenback Party in Texas
by a majority of the voters of the program which it advocated.
It protested against the Resumption Act, asserting (in Texas, at
least, with the support of the leading newspapers) that resumption
would be impossible for the next twenty-five years. Nevertheless,
resumption actually was accomplished without a great deal of in-
convenience, in spite of the declarations of the opponents of the
Act. Again, the Greenback leaders condemned the National Bank
Act, notwithstanding the fact that the banks were daily proving
themselves to be invaluable aids both to the government and to
private enterprise, and that the value of their assistance continued
to increase with the passage of time. In short, while some of the
demands of the Greenback party were given favorable consideration
by the old parties and by the government (both state and national)
the movement bore no fruit in so far as its fundamental principles
were concerned. The voters, realizing that they were accomplish-
Ing little as Greenbackers, were ready after a few years to become
Democrats or Republicans again-not that they repudiated the
principles of Greenbackism, but simply that they realized the
futility of their cause when urged as an independent political issue.
These several factors, then, contributed to the decline and fall
of the Greenback cause, in Texas and throughout the country at
large. It must not be supposed, however, that the farmers and
those who supported their cause were discouraged beyond all hope
by the failure of these first efforts in behalf of the debtor classes.
Indeed, repeated rebuffs apparently but gave them new heart, for
even with the death of Greenbackism, there was born a new and a
greater movement, a movement which pressed the cause of the
agrarian classes to such good purpose that the older parties were
constrained to make a campaign in 1896 on the issue made para-
mount by Populism. It was not until the spectacular debacle of
Bryan and free silver that the farmers were content to accept as
final the decision which had been returned against their cause in
election after election since reconstruction days.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 30, July 1926 - April, 1927, periodical, 1927; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117142/m1/197/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.