In January 1890, the Shell Manifesto was released by the Farmers' Association and it denounced the current Conservative Democratic state government while calling for a convention to be held in March.

The Farmers' Association convened in Columbia on March 27 and immediately a call was made by W. Jasper Talbert to vote on proceeding with nominations for the statewide ticket.

Furthermore, the News and Courier conducted a straw poll of over a thousand residents in the state and released the results showing that John Calhoun Sheppard was the most favored candidate for governor, followed by Johnson Hagood and in third was Ben Tillman.

Politics remained out of the public discourse at the conference, but discussions were ongoing in private to determine and select the man best to oppose Tillman for governor at the Democratic convention.

The lack of unity on the part of the Conservatives was troubling as they were facing a formidable opponent in Tillman, who had unified most of the farmers behind his candidacy and was steadily gaining strength in the state.

Aware that Tillman was winning control of the Democratic party organization, the Conservatives pressed for a primary election to select delegates to the state nominating convention.