Political campaign songs were a central part of the raucous, participatory world of late nineteenth-century elections. As part of their “campaign of education,” Farmers Alliance and labor activists often circulated populist lyrics to familiar tunes. This song appeared during the Kansas People’s Party campaign in 1890, in a local Populist newspaper. It quickly gained popularity and was probably sung at many rallies and campaign events. It circulated later in Populist newspapers and campaign songbooks.
Sung to the tune of the revival hymn, “To Save a Poor Sinner Like Me”
I once was a tool of oppression,
As green as a sucker could be
And monopolies banded together
To beat a poor hayseed like me.
The railroads and old party bosses
Together did sweetly agree;
And they thought there would be little trouble
In working a hayseed like me.
But now I’ve roused up a little,
And their greed and corruption I see,
And the ticket we vote next November
Will be made up of hayseeds like me.
Source: Arthur L. Kellogg, “A Hayseed Like Me” song lyrics, 1890.
Evaluating the Evidence