The idea began to grow up that any one living in a town was necessarily an enemy to the farmer.

The prevalent agricultural point of view came to be that only the farmer was a wealth producer, and that all others were parasites who sat in the shade while he worked in the sun and who lived upon the products of his labor.

This bitterness the farmer extended to the old political leaders whom he had regarded with veneration in the past.

These old Confederate soldiers, he believed, had allowed him to be robbed.
The state Democratic Convention of Georgia in 1890 pledged all candidates for office to support the demands of the Farmers' Alliance, including the sub-treasury "or some better system." Senator John B.
Gordon, however, refused to pledge himself and was reelected nevertheless.

The leader of the Alliance was nominated and elected governor.