But his tariff views were very much those of the revenue reformers on the Democratic side of the aisle. As a farmer with experience in paying exorbitant prices on what he bought and getting low world-market prices for what he sold, Weller had special reasons for offering a bill to remove the duty on barbed wire. Contrary to his public image, Weller did not war on all banks, or even on the national banking system itself. He limited his objection to those banks' power to issue currency of their own, and this, too, was a position which many Democrats had long shared, and which found favor among prominent economists far from the radical camp, including Professor William Graham Sumner at Yale University. Weller also favored a bill that would allow the trade-dollar to be redeemed at the vault as bullion and to be recoined "into the dollar of the daddies." Critics pointed out that such a measure was superfluous. As presently constituted, trade-dollars already could be melted down into bullion by anyone desiring to do so, and then, under the Bland-Allison Act, converted into silver dollars. Weller soon found himself depicted as a blatherskite and upbraided for a series of quotations, some of which were taken out of context from his remarks, and some of which he had never said. Republican editors described him as the enemy of all banks and corporations, and when he charged that a cattle inspection bill had been written "in the interest of the cattle ring," was accused of having called for changes in the law to make it be exactly that. In fact, Weller had tried to amend the bill in favor of farmers and small shippers, and ultimately voted for the bill in hopes that the Senate would amend it for the better. Weller sought re-election in 1884 and had faithful support from Democrats, and though he was defeated by Republican nominee William E. Fuller, failed by barely two hundred votes. No more mainstream Democratic contender would do as well for the next six years. In all, Weller served in Congress from March 4, 1883 to March 3, 1885. After leaving Congress, he was the proprietor and editor of the "Farmers’ Advocate", a weekly paper in Independence, Iowa. Weller served as a delegate to the People’s Party national committee from 1890 to 1914, and served as president of the Chosen Farmers of America. Joining this Populist Party, he resisted any coalition with the Democrats and strongly opposed the party's endorsement of William Jennings Bryan for president in 1896.