The Populist Party And The Panic Of 1896

The period between 1870 and 1900 was a time to change politics. The country was for once free from war and was united as one nation. However, as these decades passed by, the American farmer found it harder to live comfortably. Crops such as cotton and wheat, once the cash crop of agriculture, were selling at prices so low that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit. Improvements in transportation allowed larger competitors to sell more easily and more cheaply, making it harder for American yeoman farmers to sell their crops. Finally, years of drought in the Midwest and the fall of business in the 1890s devastated the farming community. Most notably, the Populist Party arose to fight what farmers saw as the issues affecting

The Omaha Platform was established because Southern and Midwestern farmers believed they were treated unfairly by the Democrats and the Republicans. The populists proposed a national currency, coinage of silver to gold at a ratio of sixteen to one, federal loans to farmers, graduated income tax, abolish national banks, government ownership of railroads, telephone and telegraph systems, prohibition of alien land ownership, a secret ballot system, civil service reform, immigration restriction, an eight-hour day, abolition of the Pinkerton system, the right of initiative and referendum, one term for the office of the President and Vice-President, and direct election of Senators.

The Coinage Act of 1873 was one of the major reasons why the Populist movement started and began forming. There were no real instant effects of the Coinage Act, and not many citizens in America used silver anyway (Friedman). Long term however, the United States would never be the same economically thanks to this monumental legislation. Officially accepting the Gold Standard, the American economy raised the demand for gold immensely, and as a result many gold deposits within America became depleted (Friedman). Consequently, the dollar and employees of America at the time became connected and tied to gold (Friedman). This was not a beneficial relationship, and the United States had become dependent on gold. Add in the fact that gold was being depleted rapidly and the demand for it was growing exponentially

The Populist Movement ultimately failed to survive because of their desire for inflation and the support for the coinage of silver, as well as the fact that they merged with the Democratic Party to combat the Republicans. The 1896 election undermined agrarian insurgency, and a period of rapidly rising farm prices helped to bring about the dissolution of the Populist Party. Another important factor in the failure of the party was its inability to affect a genuine urban-rural coalition; its program had little appeal for wage earners of the industrial east. Although the populists were not outright socialists, many conservative interests saw the Populists as a threat to the basic economic system of the United States. The Populists’ agenda was

1896, gave the south permission to discriminate on the basis of color in public places

In 1873, the government passed the Coinage Act and put the U.S. on a gold standard, angering the proponents of monetary silver. Those who backed silver argued that using silver would inflate the money supply and mean more cash for everyone, which they equated with prosperity. The gold advocates countered that silver would permanently depress the economy, but that sound money produced by a gold standard would restore prosperity. "Free Silver" was demanded by William Jennings Bryan who took over leadership of the Democratic Party in 1896, as well as the Populist Party. The Republican Party nominated William McKinley on a platform supporting the gold standard which was favored by financial interests on the East Coast. A faction of Republicans from silver mining regions in the West known as the Silver Republicans endorsed Bryan. The McKinley campaign, however, was effective at persuading voters that poor economic progress and unemployment would be exacerbated by adoption of the Bryan

Populists believed that the GOVERNMENT should own railroads and telegraph lines, instead of private businesses. They also wanted a free silver currency, instead of the gold based currency that was used then. They wanted the unlimited production of silver coins so that farmers would have more money to pay the bills. The Populist Party's main goal was to appeal to the common people.

Due to “…falling agricultural prices and growing economic dependency” (Foner 636) in the mid-nineteenth century, farmers in the South began to face inevitable economic uncertainty. Farmers, both white and black alike, were thrown into poverty due to sharecropping and the fall of the price of cotton, and many faced the fear of losing everything they had due the inability to pay bank loans. Believing that their situation was caused by “…high freight rates…excessive interest rates for loans…and the fiscal policies of the government” (Foner 636), disgruntled farmers hoped to better their lives and conditions through the founding of the Farmers’ Alliance in the 1870s. However, by the 1890s, the Alliance transformed into what became known as the Populist Party. Keeping their roots in mind, the Populists sought to end what they considered political corruption and economic inequality that arose during the Reconstruction. In order to do so, they proposed “…the direct election of U.S. senators, government control of currency, a graduated income tax, a system of low-class public financing…the right of workers to form labor unions…[and a] public ownership of the railroads” (Foner 638). In addition to their propositions, the Populists were considered radical due to their embracement of science and technology, their belief that the

Therefore the Democrats pushed for a more conservative presidential candidate -William Jennings Bryan with the Populist support. On the other hand, the Republicans comprising mostly of bankers and industrialists rallied for the gold standard because they wanted to keep the value of the dollar high to retain their monopolistic power. The gold standard would also be beneficial to the creditors because the amount of money they received from the debtors would be valued a lot more than that which they initially lent out. Thus the stage was set for the “battle of the standards” in the elections 1896 between the Populist and Democrat nominee William Jennings Bryan and the Republican candidate William McKinley. Baum writes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with the battle between the Republicans and the Populists as the main basis for its plot structure.

In the book “A Magnificent Catastrophe” the author, Edward J. Larson, writes about all of the little details that has occurred in the First Presidential Campaign in the 1800s. He begins his book with how the two parties, the Republicans (Jefferson) and Federalists (Adams), were going to compete in who will govern the United States now that it is a free country and no longer under Britain’s rule. Although they had at first been friends they soon became enemies because of how they believed the government should be. Jefferson believed that the government should be a populist government that trusted popular rule. While Adams believed that America should have a strong government and that al

People that were for this movement were mainly farmers that were in debt that lived in the west and south. These farmers and small business owners saw that if money was backed by silver and not gold, they might have an opportunity to be successful. It was during this time he wrote his most famous speech, The Cross of Gold Speech. Despite his hard work he was defeated, so he turned to journalism. He became the editor and chief for the Omaha World-Herald. By this time he was a very popular voice in political

Populist disagreed with how the economy was going because the big companies were a dominant force taking money away from the agriculture industry and the poor people. “They called for more rather than less government intervention in the economy, for only government was capable of expanding the money supply, counterbalancing the power of big business, and providing efficient national transportation networks to support the needs of agribusiness (Tindall, 668).” With the views that the party had, supporting more government intervention comes to no surprise because there wouldn’t be an easier way to defeat the big companies other than regulating them. If Bryan had won an election, the economy today could have been completely different depending on what he did with monopolies and agriculture. Bryan and the populists disagreed with the gold standard and wanted to implement the free coinage of silver to fix the bad economy caused from the gold standard. “I will not help to crucify mankind upon a cross of gold (Kazin, 47)”.

James Laurence Laughlin wrote an article “Causes of Agricultural Unrest” that was published in the Atlantic Monthly. He wrote, “the farmers, in all honesty, have attributed their misfortunes to the “constriction” in prices”, caused by lack of gold, not overproduction of their crops. He then went on to explain how that could not be possible, and we simply have produced too much wheat. Poet Vachel Lindsay wrote a poem concerning the subject, entitled, “BRYAN, BRYAN, BRYAN, BRYAN: The campaign of 1896 as viewed at the Time by a Sixteen Year Old, etc.” In it he mentioned the “Election at midnight; Boy Bryan’s defeat” which was when the Populists lost the election. He then wrote “Defeat of the wheat; victory of the letterfiles” and “Defeat…[of] the blue bells of the Rockies, and the blue bonnets of Texas, by the Pittsburgh alleys” He was simply saying that the city people had defeated them and would therefore get their way.

William McKinley was the Republican Candidate and he was racing against Willian Jennings Bryan who was a Democratic Candidate during the election of 1896. Even though there were several issues to be addressed in the 1896 election, the country’s monetary policy became one of the biggest issues to be discussed and debated between both candidates. Monetary policy was been an issue in the United States of America for decades but had become a priority subject to be solved since Grover Cleveland’s second administration when he accomplished his plans which resulted in splitting the Democratic Party over fiscal policy. This was a major event and was harshly taken by the Democrats. Some of the Democrats agreed with Grover’s idea regarding the gold standard

The first recession in American history triggered by the effects of capitalism, was The Panic of 1873. This crash was caused by some of the same reasons why our market continues to fail to this day. Issues such as the formation of financial bubbles, an imbalance in the regulation of currency and low interest rates all contribute to market failures such as these. In 1873, there was a severe problem with the control that the government had over money. Many people, including Jay Cooke and his investment firm, continued investing their money in railroad construction, gold, silver, stocks, and bonds, with the intention of the return being higher than the risk. Because of this, many factories and businesses had to shut down and unemployment skyrocketed.