Abstract:
Part one of a three part article examining the early life and political career of Populist leader Marion Butler up to his election to the US Senate in 1895. Particular attention is given to Butler's differences from Georgia Populist Tom Watson in Butler's service to the Farmer's Alliance, his persistence as a Democrat, and as a fusionist. Butler's life has been seen as influential not only because he was president of the Alliance and a Senator, but because his life demonstrates the path to political reform taken by thousands of farmers during the 1980s.