As time gave perspective, however, the opinion
grew that 1892 had yielded all that could possibly
have been hoped. The lessons of the campaign may
have been hard, but they had been learned, and,
withal, a stinging barb had been thrust into the side
of the Republican party, the organization which,
in the minds of most crusaders, was principally re-
sponsible for the creation and nurture of their ills.
It was generally determined that in the next cam-
paign Populism should stand upon its own feet;
Democratic and Republican votes should be won
by conversion of individuals to the cause rather
than by hybrid amalgamation of parties and pre-
election agreements for dividing the spoils. But it
was just this fusion which blinded the eyes of the
old party leaders to the significance of the Populist
returns. Democrats, with a clear majority of elec-
toral votes, were not inclined to worry about local
losses or to value incidental gains; and Republicans
felt that the menace of the third party was much
less portentous than it might have been as an
independent movement.

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