Chapter XCV: Part I: The Middle Border Rises

I. The Plight of the Farmer 259

I. Democratic Reactions to Plutocracy: The Middle Border
suffers. Two moods: Buoyancy, depression--the farmer
deflated. The economic problem 259

II. The Farmer Considers Politics: His intellectual
equipment--homespun theories derided by the schools. The
movement of organization: The Grange, The Alliance,
Populism. The flare-up of the nineties--the doctrine of
more corn and less hell 263

III. The Greenback Movement: The _laissez-faire_ theory
abandoned by English economists. American spokesmen: John
Sherman, David A. Wells, Eleazar Lord. Diverse theories
of money--the intrinsic-value theory and the quantitative
theory. The money question a heritage of the Civil War--a
debtor class and an appreciating standard of value 266

IV. Greenbackism and Peter Cooper 276

V. [Bi-metallism: A heritage of Jacksonian democracy: Ignatius
Donnelly, “Coin” Harvey]

II. The Democracy of the Age of Innocence 283

I. Capitalistic Encroachments: Due to inadequate democratic
machinery. The movement to democratize government.
Plutocracy content with the machine which it controlled;
hence radical proposals must issue from the
discontented. After 1870, with few exceptions, popular
democratic thinking done west of the Allegheny Mountains 283

II. Third-party Movements. A summary of democratic proposals
of previous movements 285

III. [The Populistic Program: Income tax; the initiative and
referendum; the recall; direct primary; Australian ballot;
popular election of Senators; sub-treasuries; proportional
representation]

IV. [William Jennings Bryan and the Last Battle]

III. Literature and the Middle Border 288

I. [Edward Eggleston and Frontier Realism]

II. [Whitcomb Riley and Folk Romance]

III. Hamlin Garland and the Middle Border. Joseph Kirkland,
Harold Frederic 288