1880-1896
• Causes of agrarian anger
• American farmers seemed to have much to be proud
of. Between 1870 and 1900 the population of the
United States doubled to just over 76 million people. New machines and
fertilizers enabled American farmers to increase the number of acres
under cultivation. As a result, farmers were able to dramatically expand
production and feed the nation’s soaring population.
• However, the law of supply and demand worked against the farmers.
The more wheat, corn, and cotton they produced the lower prices fell. For
example, the price of a bushel of wheat plummeted from $1.19 in 1881
to just 49 cents in 1894. Cotton that sold for 15.1 cents a pound in 1870
commanded only 5.8 cents a pound in 1894.
• Causes of agrarian anger
• Angry and desperate farmers blamed the
railroads for many of their problems. Railroads
made large-scale agriculture possible by
transporting corn, wheat, and cattle to cities and
then shipping heavy machinery and supplies to the
farms. Most farmers were thus completely
dependent upon the railroads. Farmers bitterly
complained that the railroads used their monopoly
to charge unfair rates. For example, the Burlington
line charged its customers west of the Mississippi
four times what they charged customers east of the
river.
• Farmers had to borrow heavily to build houses and
buy land and equipment. Following the Civil War,
America experienced a prolonged period of
deflation which meant that both prices and the
money supply were falling. As a result, a farmer
had to pay back loans with dollars that had
doubled in value since he borrowed them.
• The Granger movement
• Many farmers endured a lonely existence on
widely separated farms. The Granger
movement began as a social and educational
organization in response to the farmers’
isolation. As local Grange chapters spread
across the southern and western farm belts,
membership rolls reached 1.5 million people
by 1874.
• The Grange soon became more than an
organization to end the loneliness of farm
life. The Grange founded cooperatives
through which they sold their crops and
bought supplies as a group. They even tried
to manufacture farm machinery. At the same
time the Grange began to fight the railroads.
Several states passed “Granger laws” regulating railroad freight rates.
• The Grange’s early success proved to be short-lived. Many of the cooperatives
failed because of mismanagement. Meanwhile, the railroad successfully
challenged the state regulations in federal courts. By 1890, the Supreme Court
ruled that states could not regulate railroads engaged in interstate commerce.
These setbacks led to the decline of the Grange after 1876.
• The Farmers’ Alliance
• The farmers still had much to complain about. As the Grange lost
members, a new organization known as the Farmers’ Alliance grew in size
and importance. Founded in Texas in the mid-1870s, the National
Farmers’ Alliance quickly spread through the South and Plains’ states. By
1891, the Alliance movement boasted over 1.5 million members. A
separate Alliance for black farmers had another quarter-million members.
• The Alliance movement sponsored an ambitious program of economic and
political reform. As a “grand army of reform” it welcomed women
members. Many women embraced this opportunity and assumed key
leadership roles.
• The birth of the Populist Party
• America’s increasingly militant farmers believed
that they had good reasons to organize a third
party. Once praised as the backbone of
American democracy, the farmers now saw
themselves as victims of an unjust system that
penalized them with low crop prices and
predatory railroad rates while rewarding Wall
Street financiers with extravagant profits.
Populist leader Mary E. Lease captured the
farmers’ militant mood when she advised them
“to raise less corn and more hell.”
• The wave of agrarian discontent gave birth to
the People’s or Populist Party. Alliance leaders
discussed plans for a third party at conventions
held in Cincinnati in May 1891 and St. Louis in
February 1892. Finally in July 1892, 1,300
exhilarated delegates met in Omaha, Nebraska
to formulate a platform and nominate a
candidate for the fall presidential election.
• The Birth of the Populist Party
• The Populist platform emphatically demanded
government control of the railroads. It also
called for the free and unlimited coinage of
silver. Populist leaders believed that free silver
would increase the money supply and therefore
spur inflation. And finally, the Populist platform
endorsed the eight-hour workday, a graduated
income tax, and the direct election of senators by
voters instead of state legislatures.
• The Populists nominated former congressman and
Union general James B. Weaver of Iowa to run
for president. Weaver received just over one
million votes, more than any previous third-party
candidate. In addition, the Populists elected ten
congressmen, five senators, and almost fifteen
hundred members of state legislature. Buoyed
by their success, the Populists eagerly looked
forward to the 1896 presidential election.
• The Depression of 1893
• Grover Cleveland began his second term as
President on March 4, 1893. Just two months later
a panic on Wall Street touched off a sever
economic depression. A worried advisor warned
Cleveland, “We are on the eve of a very dark
night.” His gloomy prediction proved to be
accurate. In 1893 over 15,000 businesses and
600 banks closed. By the following year, one-fifth
of the nation’s workers had lost their jobs.
• The Depression of 1893
• An Ohio Populist named James S. Coxey urged the
federal government to launch a $500 million roadbuilding program to provide unemployed workers with
desperately needed jobs. When Congress ignored his
proposal, Coxey led a ragtag army of unemployed
workers on a protest march to Washington. When
“Coxey’s army” finally reached the U.S. Capitol armed
police arrested Coxey for walking on the lawn. He was
fined $5.00 and sentenced to 20 days in jail. It is
interesting to note that Coxey died in 1951 having lived
long enough to see his ideas for public works projects
enacted during the New Deal.
• The Populists and free silver
• Unemployed workers and debt-ridden farmers called for an
immediate solution to end the depression. Populist leaders
believed that the depression underscored the urgent need for
the free coinage of silver.
• The Populists believed that there was a direct relationship between the amount of
money in circulation and the level of economic activity. Strict adherence to the gold
standard reduced the supply of money in circulation and thus limited economic
activity. This policy benefited bankers and creditors while punishing debtors. The
free and unlimited coinage of silver would bring back prosperity by putting more
money in circulation and thus increasing business activity. One Populist summed up
the case for free silver by explaining that, “It means the reopening of closed
factories, the relighting of fires in darkened furnaces; it
means hope instead of despair; comfort in place of suffering;
life instead of death.”
• Populist leaders believed that free silver offered a compelling
solution to the depression. With the 1896 election fast
approaching, Populists prepared for a climatic battle with
the Republicans and Democrats that many believed would
determine the nation’s future for generations to come.
• The candidates
• The Republicans correctly sensed that the depression
weakened Cleveland and the Democrats. They
confidently nominated William McKinley, the affable
and well-liked governor of Ohio. The Republican
platform supported tariffs and forthrightly stated
that “the existing gold standard must be maintained.”
• Pro-silver delegates controlled the Democratic convention in Chicago. The
Silverites promptly repudiated Cleveland and wrote a platform demanding the
free coinage of silver. The Democrats now had an issue but still lacked a
candidate. That changed when William Jennings Bryan, a 36 year-old former
congressman from Nebraska, addressed the convention. Bryan reminded the prosilver delegates that, “We have petitioned and our petitions have been scorned!”
Bryan thundered defiance as he reached his free silver conclusion: “You shall not
press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify
mankind upon a cross of gold!” Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech galvanized
(electrified) the cheering delegates. The next day euphoric delegates wearing
silver badges and waving silver banners nominated Bryan for President.
• The Democrat’s decision to nominate a pro-silver candidate presented the Populists
with a difficult choice. Nominating their own candidate would divide the silver
vote and ensure McKinley’s election. Endorsing Bryan would mean giving up their
identity as a separate party. After much debate, the Populists chose to support
Bryan.
“You shall not press
down upon the brow
of labor this crown
of thorns; you shall
not crucify mankind
upon a cross of
gold!”
• The campaign
• Bryan ignored tradition and launched a whirlwind campaign that crisscrossed
the country. The “Boy Orator” conveyed boundless energy and an almost
evangelical enthusiasm as he delivered over 600 speeches extolling (praising)
the benefits of free silver.
• While Bryan campaigned across the country, McKinley stayed at home in
Canton, Ohio and ran a “front porch” campaign adroitly (skillfully) managed
by his close friend Mark Hanna. Friendly railroads provided reduced fares
enabling over 750,000 people to visit Canton and
hear McKinley earnestly promise “good work, good
wages, and good money.” Hanna’s strategy cleverly
allowed McKinley to maintain an image of decorum
and dignity. The president of a New England
woman’s club approvingly noted, “He does not talk
wildly, and his appearance is that of a President.”
• The results
• McKinley’s well-financed campaign
overwhelmed Bryan. McKinley won the
popular vote by 7.1 million to 6.5 million and
the electoral vote by 271 to 176. The South
and much of the thinly populated West
supported Bryan. McKinley captured all of the
Northeast and the upper Midwest, including
the crucial swing states of Ohio and Illinois.
• As expected, industrialists and the middle class
solidly endorsed McKinley. However, McKinley
surprised Bryan by also winning a majority of
votes from urban workers. Despite the prolabor planks in their platform, the Democrats
were unable to build a rural-urban coalition.
Bryan’s obsession with the silver issue diverted
attention from labor’s traditional focus on
wages, hours, and working conditions. Many
labor leaders feared that free silver would
inflate the value of the dollar and thus shrink
the real value of their wages. Industrial
workers also approved the Republican support
for high tariffs. They believed tariffs would
protect American industries and thus save
working-class jobs.
• The consequences
• The election of 1896 led to the swift collapse of the Populist Party. The
silver issue melted away as gold strikes in South Africa, the Yukon, and
Alaska enlarged the money supply and reversed the deflationary spiral.
In addition, crop failures in Europe led to an increase in American grain
exports. As commodity prices rose, farmers entered a period of renewed
prosperity that lasted until the end of World War I.
• The return of prosperity did not end the spirit of reform. A new
generation of Progressive reformers successfully fought for many of the
Populist reforms.
• The election of 1896 began a generation of almost unbroken Republican
dominance that lasted until the election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.
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Tornado  ?
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Silver Slippers  ?
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Dorothy  ?
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Emerald City  ?
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Toto  ?
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Oz  ?
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Kansas  ?
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The Wizard  ?
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Wicked Witch of the
East  ?
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Munchkins  ?
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Wicked Witch of the
West  ?
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Tin Woodsman  ?
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Scarecrow  ?
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Flying Monkeys  ?
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Cowardly Lion  ?
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Yellow Winkies  ?
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Yellow Brick Road  ?