10/4/2016
(59) The Populists | The Gilded Age | The Gilded Age (1865-1898) | US history | Khan Academy
The Populists
In the late nineteenth century, a new American political party sprung up to defend the
interests of farmers. Share
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Overview
The Populists were an agrarian-based political movement aimed at
improving conditions for the country’s farmers and agrarian workers. The
Populist movement was preceded by the Farmer’s Alliance and the
Grange.
The People’s Party was a political party founded in 1891 by leaders of the
Populist movement. It fielded a candidate in the US presidential election
of 1892 and garnered 8.5% of the popular vote, which was a substantial
amount of support for a third party.
The Populists allied with the labor movement and were folded into the
Democratic Party in 1896, though a small remnant of the People’s Party
continued to exist until it was formally disbanded in 1908.
Agrarian activism in the United States
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the nation’s farmers began to
organize to defend their interests against what they perceived to be the
interests of the Eastern establishment and banking elite. As the number of
landless tenant farmers rose, and as the debts of independent farmers
skyrocketed due to burdensome loan terms and interest rates from banks,
discontent among the nation’s agrarian workers burgeoned.
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In 1876, the Farmer’s Alliance was established in Texas with the goal of
ending the crop-lien system that had thrown so many farmers into poverty.
The crop-lien system operated in the cotton-growing South, among
sharecroppers and tenant farmers, both white and black, who did not own the
land that they worked. These workers took out loans to obtain the seed, tools,
and other supplies they needed to grow the cotton. After the harvest, they
were required to pay back the loans in the form of cotton crops. When cotton
prices tanked, these workers were sometimes left with nothing after their
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crops were collected by creditors.
Flag of the Farmer's Alliance. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
The Farmer’s Alliance was not the only organization that sprung up to defend
the nation’s agrarian workers. The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of
Husbandry, known as the Grange, was founded in 1868 in New York to
advocate on behalf of rural communities. From 1873 to 1875, local chapters
of the Grange were established across the country, and membership
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skyrocketed. This was partly due to the Panic of 1873, a financial crisis that
resulted in a number of bank failures and the bankruptcy of several of the
nation’s railroads. The Panic of 1873 depressed wages for workers, and the
prices of agricultural products plummeted, saddling farmers with massive
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amounts of debt that they had little hope of paying off.
The People’s Party
In 1891, the People’s Party, also known as the Populist Party, or Populists,
was formed as a political party representing the interests of the nation’s
agricultural sector. The Farmer’s Alliance was a major part of the Populist
coalition. The People’s Party nominated James B. Weaver, a former US
representative from the state of Iowa, as its candidate in the 1892 presidential
election. Campaigning on a platform designed to strengthen farmers and
weaken the monopolistic power of big business, banks, and railroad
corporations, the People’s Party garnered 8.5% of the popular vote, carrying
the states of Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, and Nevada.
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William Jennings Bryan was the presidential candidate for the
Democrats in 1896. Image courtesy Library of Congress.
Because of the mass appeal of the Populist movement, the Democratic Party
began to champion many of its policy goals. In the 1896 presidential election,
the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan as its candidate, and the
Populists agreed to support him. The People’s Party was thus folded into the
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Democratic Party and began to fade from the national scene. The effect of
the fusion of the Populist Party and the Democratic Party was a disaster in
the South. Though there had always been conflict within the Populist
movement about whether African Americans should be included, the
Democratic Party in the South was unabashedly racist. Though Bryan
performed strongly in the areas of greatest Populist influence, he lost the
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election to Republican William McKinley.
The People’s Party continued to function and fielded candidates in both the
1904 and 1908 presidential elections, but the heyday of the party’s influence
was over. Although the People’s Party was formally disbanded in 1908,
the Progressive movement would take up many of the goals and causes of
Populism, including anti-trust legislation, greater federal regulation of private
industry, and stronger support for the nation’s agricultural and working
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classes.
What do you think?
What were the nation’s farmers so upset about?
What sorts of policies did agrarian activists champion?
How would you measure the achievements of the Populist movement?
[Notes and attributions]
The Gilded Age
The Gilded Age part 1
The Gilded Age part 2
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Darwinism vs. Social Darwinism part 1
Darwinism vs. Social Darwinism part 2
Social Darwinism in the Gilded Age
America moves to the city
The Knights of Labor
Labor battles in the Gilded Age
The Populists
Practice: The Gilded Age
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