1. Do Now 8-23 What was the Sherman Silver Purchasing Act?
What was the Interstate Commerce Act?
Who won the 1896 election?
Who won the 1892 election?
Riddle: Two men are in a desert. One is alive, and one is dead.They both have packs on. One has his pack open, and the other doesn’t. What is the pack?

2. Populism
The People’s Party?

3. Agrarian Discontent and Radicalism 1865-1900
Revolt of the Rednecks
Agrarian Discontent and Radicalism

4. ECONOMIC DISTRESS HITS FARMERS
Between 1867 and 1887 the price of a bushel of wheat fell from $2.00 to 68 cents
Railroads conspired to keep transport costs artificially high
Farmers got caught in a cycle of debt

5. Granger Movement
1867 Oliver Kelley and Patrons of Husbandry aka Granger Movement
Social Organization
Some of first farm co-op’s; buy & sell collectively

6. By 1870, the Grange spent most of their time fighting the railroads
Petitioned for State RR Rate Regulation
Midwestern States enacted so called Granger laws:
Munn v. Illinois (1881)
Then reversed in
Wabash (1886) Decision
Led to ICC(1887)
Granger Movement

7. Farmers’ Alliances –Charles W. McCune
Northern Alliance
mostly a lobby/political organization
public ownership of railroads, tax reform, and printing money
Southern Alliance
in addition to its political interests acted as a social organization; more radical advocated subsidies
Colored Alliance –
established because African Americans had been banned from the Southern Alliance

8. 1890 Farmer’s Alliances National Convention (Ocala)
Ocala Platform
Dared Either party
to enact it
Threatened to form
a Third party
“It’s not a revolt, it’s a
revolution!”

9. Ocala Demands abolition of national banks.
sub-treasury scheme [HEART of POPULISM]
$50 per capita in circulation and the free and unlimited coinage of silver.
lower tariff
graduated tax on incomes
state and national government regulation of the means of public communication and transportation, and if this control and supervision does not remove the abuse now existing, we demand the government ownership of such means of communication and transportation.
an amendment to the Constitution providing for the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people of each state.

10. 1890 Congressional Elections
Some Alliance men elected and introduced Ocala Demands
“Sockless” Jerry Simpson- KN
Tom Watson -GA

11. “Farmers should raise less corn and more hell.”
People’s (Populist) Party- formed to relieve economic pressure on agriculture, but also to restore democracy by eliminating what the Populists saw as the corrupt and corrupting alliance between business and government.
Platform: Omaha 1892
SUBTREASURY SCHEME
Support Labor Unions
Wealth belongs to those who make it
Government ownership of Railroads, telephone and telegraph.
Free Silver
Graduated Income Tax
Secret Ballot
Shorten work hours.
Initiative and Referendum
Direct election of Senators
Restriction of Immigration
“Farmers should raise less corn and more hell.”
Mary Elizabeth Lease

12. James B. Weaver Former Union General Former Greenback-Labor Candidate
VP Ex-Confederate
General James Field

13. Race and Populism
Farmers nationwide are “all in the same ditch” regardless of race
Liberal minded reformers like Tom Watson urged unified efforts at reforming the system.

14. Political Impact
The Populists made a strong showing in & a significant splash in state and local governments during the mid term elections of 1894, their made them a force to be reckoned with in 1896
Controlled several state governments in Colorado and Kansas
Southern Populists “counted out”

15. Panic of 1893 & Cleveland’s Conservatism
Treatment of Coxey’s Army
Opposition to Income Tax
Gold Bond Sales and JP Morgan
Alienated Agrarian Democrats by stubborn attachment to Gold Standard

16. The Money Question Inflation or Deflation?
Business owners and bankers (creditors) of the Northeast were Republicans
Farmers and laborers (debtors) of the agrarian South and West were Democrats and Republicans

17. What metal the nation’s currency system should be based on
Bimetallism – A monetary system in which the government would give citizens either gold or silver in exchange for paper currency
Because silver was more plentiful than gold, backing currency with both metals would make more currency available (Inflation)
Gold Standard – Economic policy in which dollars would be backed solely with gold
Retaining the gold standard would provide a more stable, but expensive, currency (deflation)

18. William Jennings Bryan: Free Silver Took Over DP

19. Who Swallows Who?

20. Democratic Duplicity? “Free and Unlimited Coinage of Silver at 16:1”
Lower Tariff
Income tax
Kept their VP Arthur Sewall, industrialist & banker
No Subtreasury

21. Soured Populism Hopes of Racial Co-operation Destroyed
Southern Agrarians returned to the Democratic Party
Scapegoated Blacks and became virulent racist demagogues

22. Republican William McKinley
Friend of Business
McKinley Tariff
Campaign Manager Marcus Hanna
“Goldbug Platform”