AN ADDRESS. THE STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PEOPLES' PARTY MEETS AND ISSUES AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF ARKANSAS

[np, 1894. Broadside, 5-7/8" x 10," printed in two columns separated by a rule. Uniformly toned, Very Good plus.

After a successful career as a mining company owner, investor, and landowner, Fletcher became politically prominent, first as a Whig and then as a Democrat. Fletcher was "an original Greenbacker, and believed in the people's money." When President Cleveland and the Democrats opposed Greenback policies, Fletcher "found a home with the People's party. . . and served three terms as its chairman" [Fletcher's online obituary at the Arkansas Democrat, 22 February 1900].
This Address, which Fletcher and Secretary J.W. Dollison sign at the end in type, asserts that with the decline of farm prices and wages, "There is no hope of relief save through the triumph of the measures proposed by the People's party." The 1894 elections resulted in a Democratic Governor; the People's Party candidate got just under 20% of the vote. Denouncing Republican and Democratic frauds, Fletcher urges exposure and prosecution of "all violations of the election laws." People's Party clubs and Industrial Legions should "be organized in every county in the state," to assure success in 1896- - "the permanent freedom of the workingman from a condition of industrial and debt slavery."
Not located on OCLC or the online AAS site as of April 2023.