Hearst, also, went as close to the enemy as McKinley would let him.
How could I talk economics with any prospect of success at such a time?
Loathing the war, foreseeing many of the evil consequences that it has brought upon us, I quit the active agitation of Populism, and shut myself up in my library to write books. But if any soldier of the Southern Confederacy carried away from Appomattox a heavier heart than I took with me into my enforced retirement, it would have been a merciful dispensation of Providence had the Eternal Sleep taken that soldier into her cold, white arms.
What I suffered during those awful years is known to none but the wife who shared my lot and the God who gave me strength to endure it.
***
To continue a hopeless fight with a broken-down organization was not the part of wisdom. The thing to do was to wait, educate the people, let events demonstrate that we had been right, and let the Spirit of Populism enter into and inspire the leaders of other parties.
I knew that OUR PRINCIPLES would finally triumph—as to THE PARTY, that was a secondary consideration.
In taking leave of my comrades in 1898, before quitting the field to go back into the court-house to earn money to pay pressing debts, here is what my letter said to them:
“Let no man believe that I despair of your principles, for I do not. You stand for the yearning, upward-tendency, of the middle and lower classes. You stand where the reformer has always stood; for improvement, for beneficial changes, for recognition of human brotherhood in its highest sense, for equality before the law, and for an industrial system which is not based upon the right of the strong to pillage the weak. You stand as sworn foes of monopoly—not monopoly in the narrow sense of the word—but monopoly of power, of place, of privilege, of wealth, of progress.
“You stand knocking at the closed door of privilege, as the reformer has ever done, and saying to those within, ‘Open wide the doors! Let all who are worthy, enter. Let all who deserve, enjoy. Form no conspiracy against the unborn. Shut out no generations that are to be. God made it all for all. Put no barrier around the good things of life, around the high places of church or state. Make no laws which foster inequality. Establish no Caste. Legalize no robbery under the name of taxes. Give to no person natural or artificial sovereign powers over his fellow men. Open, open wide the doors! Keep the avenues of honor free. Close no entrance to the poorest, the weakest, the humblest. Say to ambition everywhere, the field is clear, the contest fair, come and win your share if you can!’