AP U.S. History
Textbook Chapter 20
Politics in the 1890s
I. The Money Issue and Tariffs
Use space below
A. Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 (system of bimetallism)
for notes
1. Treasury would approximately double minimum amount of silver
purchased under the Bland-Allison Act (1873).
2. Western pro-silver advocates agreed to support a protective tariff
in return for eastern support for a silver bill.
a. Mining states hated limited silver purchasing under the BlandAllison Act.
b. Easterners were eager to increase tariffs and increase profits but
were concerned about inflation through increased silver purchases
c. Result: Not enough silver flooded the monetary system so
inflation did not occur significantly
B. McKinley Tariff Bill (1890)
1. Republicans’ reward for supporting the Sherman Silver Purchase
Act.
2. Raised tariffs to the highest peacetime level in U.S. history: 48%.
3. Reduced the budget surplus by giving a 2-cent subsidy to American
sugar producers, increased pensions to Civil War veterans and
reduced taxes on tobacco.
4. Raised tariffs on agricultural products.
a. Didn’t have much of an effect on U.S. farmers as Europeans could
not compete with American farmers anyway.
b. Some eastern manufacturers raised prices before the law went
into effect.
c. Democratic party used the tariff issue to attack the Republicans
5. Republicans lost the 1890 mid-term elections for Congress.
a. The new Congress included 9 members of the Farmers’ Alliances
b. Tariff issue was replaced by silver issue as the main issue in
1890s.
II. Political Rise of the Farmer
A. National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (The Grange)
organized in 1867
1. Provided farmers with social & educational activities (picnics,
music, lectures)
a. The initial purpose of the Grange was to help reduce the
isolation many farmers felt in sparsely-populated areas
b. By 1875, the Grange had about 800,000 members, mostly in the
Midwest & South
2. Eventually, the Grange established cooperatives for both consumers
and producers.
a. Grain elevators (to store excess grain), dairies to store & process
products, cooperative stores to purchase supplies (such as seed,
plows, fertilizer, etc.)
Textbook Chapter 20, Politics in the 1890s - Populism
b. Politically, the Grange sought to end monopolistic railroad
practices that hurt farmers with high freight rates
c. Its attempt to manufacture harvesting machinery failed
miserably.
3. Grangers were politically successful in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa,
and Minnesota.
a. Regulated railroad rates and storage fees charged by railroads
and operators of warehouses and grain elevators.
b. Granger Laws wanted gov't control over big business to
benefit the people.
c. Munn vs. Illinois (1877): The Supreme Court ruled that private
property was subject to gov't regulation when property was
devoted to the public interest.
d. Many Granger Laws were written badly and overturned by higher
courts who were influenced by wealthy business interests.
 Wabash case (1886): Individual states don’t have right to
regulate interstate commerce (effectively overturned Munn
decision)
 Supreme Court reverses, especially the Wabash case, reduced
Granger influence in state politics
B. Greenback Labor Party
1. Third party emerged in the 1870s that combined the inflationary
goals of earlier Greenback supporters with a program for
improving conditions for laborers.
 The money issue (soft vs. hard) was perhaps the biggest political
issue of the 1870s
2. In the election of 1878, the Greenback-Labor party earned over a
million votes and elected 14 members to Congress.
3. Election of 1880, Greenback Party nominated General James B.
Weaver, a Granger and Civil War veteran.
a. Weaver received only 3% of total popular vote.
b. He would become the candidate of the Populist party in 1892
C. Populism -- Rise of Populist Party
1. Farmers’ Alliances in the South (formed in 1877) and Midwest
(1880) increasingly voicing discontent; the Colored Alliance formed
in 1889
a. Like the Grangers, sponsored social events, political action,
cooperatives, and gov't regulation of railroads and
manufacturers.
b. The 3 Alliances met in 1889 and boasted over 3 million members
 Demanded free silver and a subtreasury plan for farmers
(would provide cash advances on a farmers’ future crop)
c. Many supported or joined Knights of Labor; saw similar goals.
d. Major demand of the Southern Alliance in 1880 was a subtreasury
plan
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Textbook Chapter 20, Politics in the 1890s - Populism
 Reason: farmers had poor cash flow during much of the year.
 Called for federal subtreasury offices alongside warehouses or
grain elevators.
 Farmers could store grain and the subtreasury would loan them
up to 80% of the value of the crop at modest interest and fees.
e. Defeat of the subtreasury scheme in Congress in 1890 led to the
Alliances taking political matters into their own hands and
forming a third party.
 Since the Civil War, Greenbackers, Workingmen’s and
Knights of Labor parties, and Farmers’ Alliances saw banking
interests and trusts—“the Eastern Establishment”-- as
monopolistic culprits who exploited workers and farmers
2. The People’s Party (Populist Party) emerged in the early 1890s
through the Farmer’s Alliances; party was born in Topeka, Kansas
a. Attracted recruits from Farmer’s Alliances & disenfranchised
southern whites.
b. Ignatius Donnelly was elected three times to Congress, and was a
major figure in the Populist movement
 He was formerly known as utopian author (like Henry George
& Edward Bellamy)
c. Mary E. Lease gave numerous speeches in 1890 denouncing the
Eastern Establishment in Wall Street
 Kansas should raise "less corn & more hell."
d. "Sockless" Jerry Simpson, along with Lease, traveled to the South
to get Southern Alliance support for Populist unity.
e. Tom Watson: elected to Congress in 1890, fought for the
subtreasury plan, and fought for Populist unity in 1892
 In 1896, became the Democratic party’s vice presidential
candidate alongside William Jennings Bryan
D. Disenfranchisement and anti-black violence
1. "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman and the beginning of
disenfranchisement of blacks
a. Tillman, a Democrat, used his Southern Alliance influence to
become governor of South Carolina and dominate the
Democratic party there.
b. Succeeded in disenfranchising blacks in the state constitution.
c. Widespread southern fears of blacks in Farmers’ Alliances led
to a major push for disenfranchisement in the 1890s & Jim Crow
laws
 Following South Carolina’s lead, southern states limited black
suffrage in their state constitutions.
d. Voting restrictions were essentially a ruling-class campaign
against lower-class voters in general, not just African Americans.
 Deliberate attempt by the New South’s elite, who were
threatened by the Populists, to destroy party opposition and
widespread political participation.
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Textbook Chapter 20, Politics in the 1890s - Populism
e. In 1890s white southern hatred toward blacks became almost
genocidal; huge increase in the number of lynchings
III. Election of 1892
A. Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland (had been president four
years earlier)
 Now more conservative than during his first term as his law
practice represented wealthy businessmen.
B. Republicans renominated President Harrison who championed a new
protective tariff.
C. People’s Party (Populists) nominated General James B. Weaver
1. Delegates from Farmers Alliances, Knights of Labor, Nationalists
(Bellamy Clubs) and Land and Labor parties met in Omaha,
Nebraska
2. Omaha Platform (written by Ignatius Donnelly)
a. Free and unlimited coinage of silver at ratio of 16 to 1 (to
stimulate inflation)
b. A graduated income-tax (redistribute wealth)
c. Gov’t ownership of the telephone and telegraph, and railroads
d. Initiative, referendum and recall
 Initiative: people of a state place a new proposed law on the
ballot and if it passes, it becomes law
 Referendum: people of a state place a proposition to overturn
an existing law on the ballot; if it passes the existing law is
removed
 Recall: people of the state place a proposition on the ballot to
remove an elected official; if it passes the official is removed
e. Postal savings banks (a safe repository run by the gov’t)
f. Limiting gov’t land grants to settlers rather than railroads
(influenced by Henry George)
g. Direct election of senators
h. 8-hour work day
i. The subtreasury plan was not included: it had been defeated and
was a Southern idea—many southerners didn’t support Populists
due to racial reasons)
3. James B. Weaver: former abolitionist and general in the Union
Army; had been the Greenback-Labor Party presidential nominee in
1880.
D. The presidential campaign centered on the protective tariff
1. Epidemic of strikes damaged Harrison’s presidency; workers refuted
Harrison’s claim that higher tariffs meant higher wages.
2. Homestead Steel Strike in 1892 led to loss of thousands of
Republican votes.
E. Result: Cleveland defeated Harrison 277-145
1. Populists won over 1 million votes and 22 electoral votes for
Weaver.
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Textbook Chapter 20, Politics in the 1890s - Populism
a. One of the few 3rd parties in U.S. history to win electoral votes.
b. Support came predominantly from KA, CO, ID, and NV
c. 3 governors; 5 U.S. Senators & 10 representatives; 1,500
candidates overall elected to office
2. Indebted white farmers of the "Solid South" refused to desert the
Democratic party for fear of losing political power to blacks who
claimed more than a million members in the segregated Colored
Farmers’ Alliance.
Memory Aid for Populist Ideas:
Fried
Free unlimited coinage of silver
Green
Graduated income tax
Gummy bears
Government ownership of railroads
Invade
Initiative
Really
Referendum
Really
Recall
Dorky
Direct election of senators
Silly
Subtreasury plan
People
Postal savings banks
IV. President Grover Cleveland: second term in office (1893-1897)
A. Panic of 1893 (depression lasted until 1897)
1. Worst depression of the century
a. First large-scale depression in the new urban and industrial age.
 20% unemployed in winter of 1893-94 (rivaled the Great
Depression of the 1930s)
b. 8,000 business collapsed in within 6 months (including dozens of
railroads.)
2. Causes
a. Immediate cause: collapse of the stock market.
b. Long-term causes:
 Overbuilding of railroads, heavy loans to farmers,
overspeculation
 Reduction of the money supply; Europeans gradually withdrew
their capital from the U.S.
o Free-silver agitation damaged U.S. credit abroad and
European bankers called in their loans
 Numerous labor strikes disrupted economic activities
 An agricultural depression had already existed.
3. A federal budget deficit resulted
a. Gold reserves fell below $100 million (regarded as the safe
minimum to support about $350 million in outstanding paper
money)
 Reason: gov’t had paid out more for silver purchases than it
received for gold with legal tender notes – "endless chain"
activities
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Textbook Chapter 20, Politics in the 1890s - Populism
b. In response, President Cleveland repealed the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act
a) Democrat William Jennings Bryan argued against the repeal
b) Cleveland thus alienated Democratic silverites and weakened
the party.
B. Morgan bond transaction
1. By Feb. 1894, gold reserves had sunk to $41 million
a. U.S. was now in danger of going off the gold standard
b. Money would be volatile and unreliable; international trade would
be crippled
2. 1895, Cleveland persuaded J. P. Morgan and other bankers to lend
the gov’t $65 million in gold (bankers received a commission of
$7 million).
 Half of the gold was to be purchased abroad and deposited in the
Treasury
3. Confidence in the nation’s finances was restored for the short-term.
C. Coxey’s Army (1894)
1. Most famous of the "industrial armies" of the unemployed that
came to Washington, D.C.
2. Coxey was a wealthy businessman who curiously sought inflation
 He left the Democratic Party for Greenback-Labor party and later,
the People’s Party.
3. Coxey’s platform included a demand for gov’t to relieve
unemployment by an inflationary public works program and an
increase money supply
4. Coxey and 500 of his followers were arrested in Washington, D.C.
for (ostensibly, for walking on the grass).
D. Wilson Gorman Bill, 1894
1. The McKinley tariff of 1890 had resulted in a deficit of $61 million
 Democrats sought to reduce the high tariff of 48.4%
2. Wilson-Gorman Bill passed Senate after 634 amendments drove
tariffs higher
a. 2% income tax on incomes over $4,000 was put in to please the
Populists.
 Wealthy decried it as "communistic and socialistic"
b. The bill fell short of establishing a low tariff; 41.3% instead of
48.4%
c. Cleveland allowed bill to pass despite hating the high tariff.
3. Income tax shot down a year later in the Supreme Court (5-4) as it
violated the "direct tax" clause
a. Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co. (1895)
b. Thus, the only popular feature of the tariff law was axed.
c. Populists further incensed by alliance of business and courts.
4. Republicans won Congress in 1894; result of ill-fated Democratsponsored bill
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Textbook Chapter 20, Politics in the 1890s - Populism
V. Election of 1896 (most important election since Lincoln was elected)
A. William McKinley, ex-Congressman from Ohio, was nominated by
the Republicans.
1. McKinley was Marcus Hanna's candidate: an iron tycoon, who
bailed McKinley out of a $100,000 personal debt
a. Hanna believed the function of gov’t was to aid business.
 Believed that prosperity "trickled down" to the laborer.
 Critics lambasted Hanna for this idea
b. Hanna raised $3.5 million compared to only $300k for
Democrats.
2. The Republican platform supported the gold standard but advocated
bimetallism (world-wide gold-silver standard)
a. The proposal was really a sham as all other leading nations would
have to agree and they certainly wouldn’t
b. Platform also praised the protective tariff.
B. William Jennings Bryan, Democratic nominee
1. Democrats refused to endorse Cleveland for his silver-purchase
repeal, Pullman Strike action, and Morgan bond deal
 Cleveland left office an extremely unpopular man.
2. Bryan a 36-yearr-old from Nebraska was the premier orator of
his generation
 First politician of his generation to lead a major party as a
champion of the poor
3. Cross of Gold speech given at the Democratic national convention
 "We will 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."
4. Democratic platform: “free silver” --free unlimited coinage of sliver
at ratio of 16 to 1 (16 oz of silver to 1 oz of gold); silver in a dollar
would be worth about 50 cents
5. Bryan was also nominated by the People’s party but Bryan did not
acknowledge the Populist nomination early enough and the
campaign began with uncertainty
 Populists were thus frozen out as the Democratic party absorbed
their 16 to 1 platform.
C. Campaign
1. Bryan forced the silver issue to the forefront despite Hanna wanting
to focus on the tariff.
2. Hanna waged a high pressure campaign against silver.
3. McKinley remained at his Ohio home waging his "front-porch"
campaign.
 He appealed to middle-class voters and characterized Bryan as
threat to their way of life.
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Textbook Chapter 20, Politics in the 1890s - Populism
D. McKinley defeated Bryan 271-176
1. McKinley won the Northeast and North; Bryan won the South &
West (except California and Oregon)
2. Most significant election since Lincoln’s victories.
a. Last serious effort by a major party to win the White House with
agrarian votes.
 Farmers no longer constituted a majority of American voters
b. Republicans had the White House for 16 consecutive years (28 of
the next 36 years)
c. Diminished voter participation occurred as the Republican party
was seen as party of the rich.
d. Beginning of the "4th party system" -- large population
centers determined elections; farmers were discouraged and less
politically active in subsequent elections.
e. African Americans rights were abandoned by Republicans as
African American vote in the South not important in 1896
election
E. The 1896 election and the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum)
-- Oz can be used as a parable for the election
1. Dorothy – represents everyman of the west; seen as pure and
likeable
2. Yellow Brick Road = gold standard
3. Dorothy’s silver slippers = soft money (no one knows how to use
their power)
4. Scarecrow = Midwestern farmers (seen as stupid but actually have
wisdom)
5. Tin Man = Eastern Labor victimized by the Wicked Witch of the
East
6. City of OZ = Eastern Establishment
7. Wizard = McKinley, or perhaps any Gilded Age president who is
powerless to carry out promises
8. Cowardly Lion with a big roar and no bite = William
Jennings Bryan
9. Wicked Witch of the East = Corporations of Eastern Finance
10. OZ = An ounce of gold or silver
11. Flying monkeys = Plains Indians once free but now subdued by the
Wicked Witch of the West
12. Wicked Witch of the West = Harsh frontier environment
(drought, tornados)
13. Water = boon that will thwart drought (kills the Wicked Witch of
the West)
F. Legacy of Populism
1. Populism failed as a 3rd Party cause but had a political influence
for 25 years after its defeat in the 1896 elections.
2. Populist ideas that carried forward during the Progressive Era
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Textbook Chapter 20, Politics in the 1890s - Populism
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(1900-1920):
a. railroad legislation
b. graduated income tax
c. direct election of Senators
d. initiative, referendum and recall
e. postal savings banks
f. subtreasury plan
3. Populist ideas were geared to rural life. Yet, many of its ideas
appealed to the urban progressives by 1900.
POPULISM
(1890-1896)
PROGRESSIVISM
(1900-1920)
NEW DEAL
(1933-1938)
Terms to Know
The Grange
Granger Laws
Munn v. Illinois, 1877
Wabash case, 1886
Greenback Labor Party
Farmers’ Alliances
subtreasury plan
The People’s Party (Populist Party)
“Pitchfork” Benjamin Tillman
Omaha Platform
“free silver”
graduated income tax
government ownership of railroads
initiative, referendum and recall
direct election of senators
postal savings banks
Ignatius Donnelly
Homestead Steel Strike
Election of 1892
President Grover Cleveland
Panic of 1893
Morgan Bond Transaction
Coxey’s Army
Election of 1896
William McKinley
Marcus Hanna
bimetallism
William Jennings Bryan
“Cross of Gold Speech”
“4th Party System”
Essay Questions
Note: This unit is the highest probability area for the AP exam! In the past 10
years, 9 questions have come wholly or in part from the material in this Unit. This
sub-unit is a high probability area for the AP exam. In the past 10 years, 3 questions
have come wholly or in part from the material in this sub-uint. Below are some
questions that will help you study the topics that have appeared on previous exams.
1. Analyze the factors that led to the rise of the Populist movement.
2. To what extent were the Populists successful in achieving their goals by 1900?
3. Why might the election of 1896 be considered the most important election
since the Civil War?
Textbook Chapter 20, Politics in the 1890s - Populism
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