Other strikes underscored the lessons of Homestead and undercut the Republicans’ appeal to labor. Silver miners in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, coal miners at Coal Creek, Tennessee, railroad workers in Buffalo, New York, all walked out. Three governors had to call out their state militias. Harrison could not stay above the fray; he sent federal troops to Idaho, where the miners had considerable local support, to enforce federal injunctions and to ensure the free passage of the U.S. mail. Democrats took advantage of the growing class divisions, fishing for workers’ votes.57 The 1892 Presidential
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