Guiding Questions

• What was the Populist Movement?• Who did it appeal to and why?• How was it a response to the Gilded Age?• Why wasn’t it successful?• What was its legacy on shifting size and scope (extent it deals with) of the national government?

Story of Populism begins with Story of Agriculture after the Civil War….

Problems Facing Farmers 1865-1900

High Tariff

Drought

Debt and Foreclosure

What are Farmer’s Complaints? What is Their World-View?

Farmers Begin to Organize• Many farmers, subscribe

to the agrarian myth• Try to form organizations

with the goal of bringing back this lifestyle to America

• See businesses “organized” in the form of trusts, workers organized in the form of unions, and decide that they too will organize.

• Important to note: Farmers view themselves as indispensible, “we feed you all,” yet by the 1880s are only 3% of the working population.

Farmers Alliance Movement

• Throughout the United States farmers were organizing together into small farmers’ clubs These groups were called alliances and they usually were based on region and race. – You might have the Northwest

Farmers’ Alliance or the Colored Farmers National Alliance.

• In 1890, farmers’ alliance members helped get 5 US senators, 6 governors, and 46 congressmen elected.

Populist Party 1892

• Encouraged by this electoral success, farmers again set their sights on a national coalition.

• The three major farmers’ alliance held a convention in Omaha, Nebraska in 1892 and drew up a platform for a national political party, The Populist Party (The People’s Party).

What Did the Populists Believe?

• Platform:– Graduated income tax– Direct election of senators– 8 hour work day– Nationalization of railroads, telegraphs,

and telephones – Free coinage of silver

• Based on this platform, what did the Populist party believe?

What’s Up With Silver?

• In 1893 United States had a paper money currency, just like we have today. Those dollar bills had value or worth, because they were backed by gold.

• To oversimplify, each dollar bill that was floating around the economy could in theory be cashed in exchange for its value in gold. • Farmers believed, however, that by linking money to the rare gold, rather than the more abundant silver, prices were being kept artificially high.

What’s Up With Silver?

• Indebted farmers believed that the addition of an immense amount of silver money, not paper money, would inflate the currency leading to higher prices and easier debt payment.

What’s Up With Silver

• Belief among the Populists, is that the government’s decision to withhold silver is a prominent example of the way in which the government sets fiscal policies that benefit urban capitalists.

• Prices of goods and loans are being kept artificially high simply because the government is refusing to release this silver into circulation.

• Big Business is winning and the common man is losing.

Populist Party and the Election of 1892

Panic of 1893

• Collapse of the stock market plunged the economy into a severe four-year depression.

Causes:– Economic slowdown abroad which cased British banks to

call some of their American loans draining gold from US– Declining farm prices– Overly rapid expansion of railroad construction – 491 banks failed – 15,000 businesses failed– Unemployment 15%

Populists Gain Support: Panic of 1893

• With the economic depression, different investors in US currency were cashing in their money for gold bars.

• This threatened to completely wipe out the gold reserves the United States had.

• If the US ran out of gold, the nation’s remaining currency would be rendered valueless. There would be nothing to back it up.

• To prevent this from happening, the government asked J.P. Morgan and his bank for a loan of $65 million in gold.

• Panic of 1893, begins to call into question the gold standard.

Election of 1896• In 1896 there is

another political election and the big issue is the gold/silver debate

• The Democrats put up a man named William Jennings Bryan.

William Jennings Bryan• 1860-1925• Ran for President 3 times (1896,

1900, 1908)• Was the U.S. Secretary of State

under Wilson from 1913 to 1915.

• Was a devout Christian, silverite, supporter of popular democracy, a peace advocate, a prohibition, and an opponent of Darwinism.

• He was one of the best known orators an lecturers of time.

• Called “The Great Commoner.” • Represented the State of

Tennessee in the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1920

Cross of Gold Speech• At the democratic convention Bryan made what is perhaps the most famous Democratic convention speech ever. • “If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and

all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

• Audio Rerecording: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/

Cross of Gold Speech

• Significance of speech:

Despite his defeat, Bryan’s speech is considered one of the most famous political addresses in American history. Uncompromising in his beliefs and appealing to laborers, miners, and farmers, Bryan’s speech would solidify these voters in the Democratic Party and inspire subsequent politicians—including Huey Long, whose “Every Man a King” speech which was modeled after Bryan’s, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt whose New Deal program advocated government welfare for the masses.

Populists Put Up Bryan Too!• The populists are so

impressed with Bryan and the fact that he is endorsing silver, that they also nominate Bryan for president.

• The populists saw Bryan and his belief that money should be backed by silver as their ticket out of debt.

Election of 1896

Election of 1896: Significance

It ushers in a new era in American politics.

Bryan’s loss is synonymous with the farmer’s loss. Bryan’s defeat marked the last serious effort to win the

White House with mostly agrarian votes.

Big business, big cities, the middle-class, and financial conservatism

they are the real winners in this election.

To win future elections you have to appeal to

these groups.

Significance of Populism?• Why wasn’t it successful?• What was its legacy on shifting size

and scope of the national government?

Legacy of Populism

• Some historians see the populists as forward-looking liberal reformers.

• Others view them as reactionaries trying to recapture an idyllic and utopian past.

• For some they are radicals out to restructure American life.

• For others they are economically hard-pressed agrarians seeking government relief.