"
Elections at this time lasted three days. On the first day there
was genuine alarm at the large vote cast for "the Infidels."
Thoughtful citizens were importuned to go to the polls, and on
the second and third days they responded in sufficient numbers to
compass the defeat of the entire ticket, excepting only one
candidate for the legislature.
The Workingman's party contained too many zealots to hold
together. After the election of 1829 a meeting was called to
revise the party platform. The more conservative element
prevailed and omitted the agrarian portions of the platform.
Skidmore, who was present, attempted to protest, but his voice
was drowned by the clamor of the audience. He then started a
party of his own, which he called the Original Workingman's party
but which became known as the Agrarian party. The majority
endeavored to rectify their position in the community by an
address to the people. "We take this opportunity," they said, "to
aver, whatever may be said to the contrary by ignorant or
designing individuals or biased presses, that we have no desire
or intention of disturbing the rights of property in individuals
or the public." In the meantime Robert Dale Owen and Fanny Wright
organized a party of their own, endorsing an extreme form of
state paternalism over children. This State Guardianship Plan, as
it was called, aimed to "regenerate America in a generation" and
to "make but one class out of the many that now envy and despise
each other.
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