He argued that banks and financiers had too much political influence, and proposed regulating railroad rates. Seeking to further cement his position among white farmers, he campaigned against the federal Lodge Bill, which would have provided protections for voting rights for blacks in the South. On election day, he won easily, capturing 113,549 votes to 76,081 votes for the Republican candidate, Lewis Baxter, and 11,082 votes for the Prohibition candidate, David Cato Kelley. After his inauguration in early 1891, Buchanan, working with a coalition of Hayseed Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature, enacted several measures aimed at helping farmers and labor, including laws regulating fertilizer products and recognizing Labor Day, restrictions on foreign companies doing business in Tennessee, and a law establishing a state commissioner of labor. For the latter office, he appointed Knights of Labor activist George Ford. He also signed a law standardizing the state's public school curriculum, and enacted a measure providing pensions for Confederate veterans. Buchanan strengthened the state's poll tax, and enacted several voting restrictions aimed at suppressing the African-American vote. In July 1891, an open insurrection, known as the Coal Creek War, erupted in East Tennessee when the Tennessee Coal Mining Company (TCMC) attempted to replace striking miners at its Briceville mine with convicts leased from the state. The striking miners had rounded up the convicts and had sent them to Knoxville via train, and the TCMC demanded Buchanan call up the state guard and put down the insurrection. This presented a difficult dilemma for Buchanan, who had campaigned on labor rights, but as governor was obligated to enforce the law. Furthermore, while the Farmers' Alliance sought to end convict leasing, Buchanan supported it, arguing it saved the state hundreds of thousands of dollars. On July 16, Buchanan, at the head of three state guard companies, personally escorted the convicts from Knoxville back to the stockades in the Coal Creek Valley. He met with the leaders of the striking miners near Briceville, and assured them that while he was a friend of labor, he had no choice but to uphold the law. One of the strike leaders, a blacklisted miner named Eugene Merrell, rejected Buchanan's statements. He argued that if Buchanan were intent on enforcing the law, he would also uphold laws requiring independent checkweighmen (who weighed the coal for which the miners were paid) and payment in legal tender (as opposed to scrip), which the TCMC had consistently ignored. The governor returned to Nashville the following day, leaving the valley's stockades under the protection of 107 guardsmen.