Editing James B. Weaver (section)

==Office-seeker and party promoter==
After the election Weaver returned to the [[lame-duck session]] of Congress and proposed an unsuccessful [[constitutional amendment]] that would have provided for the [[Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|direct election of Senators]].{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|pp=115–116}}{{efn|Before the passage of the [[Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] in 1913 Senators were chosen by their states' legislatures.}} After his term expired in March, he resumed his speaking tour, promoting the Greenback Party across the nation.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|pp=117–120}} He and [[Edward H. Gillette]], another Iowa Greenback Congressman, bought the ''Iowa Tribune'' in 1882 to help spread the Greenback message.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=122}} That same year, Weaver ran for his old 6th district seat in the House against the incumbent Republican, [[Marsena E. Cutts]].{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=121}} This time the Democrats and Greenbackers ran separate candidates, and Weaver finished a distant second.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=121}} Cutts died before taking office, and the Republicans offered to let Weaver run unopposed in the special election if he rejoined their party; he declined, and [[John C. Cook]], a Democrat, won the seat.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=121}}

In 1883, Weaver was the Greenback nominee for governor of Iowa.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=122}} Again, the Democrats ran a separate candidate and the incumbent Republican, [[Buren R. Sherman]], was re-elected with a plurality.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=122}} Weaver was a delegate to the [[1884 Greenback National Convention]] in Indianapolis and supported the eventual nominee, [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]] of Massachusetts.{{sfn|Haynes|1919|pp=215–216}} Back in Iowa, Weaver again ran for the House, this time with the Democrats' support. Greenback fortunes declined nationally, as Butler received just over half as many votes for president as Weaver had four years earlier.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=124}} Weaver's House race bucked the trend: he defeated Republican [[Frank T. Campbell]] by just 67 votes.{{sfn|Mitchell|2008|p=124}}