Chapter 7 -- Issues of the Gilded Age
1877-1900
Name:
Section 1: Segregation and Social Tension
Why It Matters During Reconstruction, the federal government sought to secure equal rights for African Americans. By the time
of the Gilded Age (1877-1900), however, African Americans and other minorities experienced a narrowing of their rights. This turn
away from equality for all had a lasting impact on society in the United States.
Section Focus Question: How were the civil and political rights of certain groups in America undermined during
the years after Reconstruction?
African Americans Lose Freedoms
Following the disputed presidential election of 1876, President Hayes removed federal troops from the South. This action
allowed southern states to reassert their control over African Americans without concern about federal intervention. Southern
governments enacted various measures aimed at disenfranchising, or taking away the voting rights of, African Americans and enacted
Jim Crow laws that kept blacks and whites segregated, or apart.
Governments Limit Voting Rights The Fifteenth Amendment, which became part of the United States Constitution in 1870,
prohibited state governments from denying someone the right to vote because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
After Reconstruction, southern states got around this amendment by passing a number of
other restrictive measures. They enacted a poll tax, which required voters to pay a tax to
Vocabulary Builder
vote. The tax, which began in Georgia, cost voters $1 or $2 to vote. Poor African
exploit—(ehk SPLOYT) v. to treat
Americans could scarcely afford such fee. The states also required voters to pass literacy
someone unfairly in order to earn
tests and “understanding” tests. Because African Americans had been exploited
money or gain an advantage
economically and denied an education, these restrictions disqualified many of them as
voters.
Southern states also enacted grandfather clauses, which allowed a person to vote as long as his ancestors had voted prior to
1866. Of course, the ancestors of the black freedmen did not vote prior to 1866, but the ancestors of many whites did. In other words,
grandfather clauses allowed poor and illiterate whites but not blacks to vote. Some southern states also established all-white
primaries, meaning only whites had a voice in selecting who got to run in general elections. In addition, whites resorted to violence to
keep African Americans from participating in the political process. As South Carolina senator Ben Tillman put it: “We have done our
level best. We have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them [black voters]. We stuffed ballot
boxes. We shot them.”
As a result of these actions, throughout the Deep South, black participation in politics fell dramatically. In Louisiana, for
example, the number of blacks registered to vote plummeted from 130,000 in 1894 to just over 1,300 in 1904. On the eve of World
War II, in 1940, only 3 percent of all African Americans in the South could vote.
New Laws Force Segregation As the nineteenth century drew to a close, Jim Crow became a way of life in the South. Initially,
some white southerners opposed Jim Crow laws on the grounds that if some aspects of life were segregated, in time all aspects of life
would become segregated and this would impose an undue burden on society. “If there must be Jim Crow cars [railroad], there should
be Jim Crow waiting saloons. And if there were Jim Crow saloons,” stated a prominent Charleston newspaper writer, “then there
would have to be Jim Crow jury boxes and a Jim Crow Bible for colored witnesses.” The whole idea, he concluded, was “absurd.”
Nevertheless, widespread segregation became a reality. In addition to Jim Crow railroad cars and waiting stations, southern states
established Jim Crow jury boxes and Bibles, as well as cemeteries, restaurants, parks, beaches, and hospitals. Similarly, in northern
states, including those that had civil rights laws that outlawed legal segregation, black migrants found many examples of de facto
segregation—actual segregation, such as restrictions on where they were allowed to live and work.
During the 1870s, the Supreme Court ruled in cases that undermined the civil rights of African Americans. In Plessy v. Ferguson
(1896), the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Jim Crow laws. (See the feature page at the end of this section.) It did so by
arguing that as long as states maintained “separate but equal” facilities, they did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Yet, in reality,
separate facilities were rarely equal. For instance, in 1915, South Carolina spent nearly 14 dollars for every white student but less than
3 dollars for every black student.
Checkpoint In what ways were the rights of African Americans restricted?
African Americans Oppose Injustices
Even during the darkest days of Jim Crow, African Americans refused to accept their
status as second-class citizens. They established black newspapers, women’s clubs, fraternal
organizations, schools and colleges, and political associations with the goal of securing their
freedom. They did not always agree on the best strategies for achieving their goal. However,
they were united in the determination to “never turn back” until they had equality.
Chapter 7, Sep 2014
Reprinted from Prentice Hall United States History ©2012
No previous edition
Vocabulary Builder
status—(STAT uhs) n. legal
position or condition of a person,
group, country, etc.
SAB x5030
Booker T. Washington Urges Economic Advancement The most famous black leader during the late nineteenth century was
Booker T. Washington. Born a slave in 1856, Washington argued that African Americans needed to accommodate themselves to
segregation, meaning they should not focus their energies on seeking to overturn Jim Crow. Instead, he called for blacks to “pull
themselves up from their own bootstraps” by building up their economic resources and establishing their reputations as hardworking
and honest citizens.
Primary Source “The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the
extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of
severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing... It is important and right that all privileges of the law be
ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercises of these privileges.”
—Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition address, 1895
In addition to speaking and writing, Washington poured his energies into the Tuskegee Institute, a school in Macon County,
Alabama. Under Washington, Tuskegee became known for providing “industrial education,” sometimes referred to as vocational
education. Such an education, as Washington had suggested in his Atlanta Exposition address, would prepare African Americans to
exercise the privileges of citizenship.
W.E.B. Du Bois Attacks Washington’s Ideas A native of Great Harrington, Massachusetts, W.E.B. Du Bois, who earned his
Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1896, criticized Washington’s willingness to accommodate southern whites. Echoing the spirit of
the abolitionists, he argued that blacks should demand full and immediate equality and not limit themselves to vocational education.
Du Bois did not feel that the right to vote was a privilege that blacks needed to earn. He argued that Washington wrongly shifted the
burden of achieving equality from the nation to “Negro’s shoulders” alone. You will learn more about the conflict between
Washington and Du Bois in the next chapter.
Ida Wells Crusades Against Lynching One African American woman who fought for justice was Ida B. Wells. Born into
slavery in 1862, Wells grew up in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Her father, James Wells, became a prominent local businessman and
raised her to fight for the rights of African Americans. As a young adult, Wells moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she worked as
a schoolteacher and became active in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Wells bought a local newspaper, renamed it Free
Speech, and wrote numerous articles that condemned the mistreatment of blacks.
In 1892, after a mob attack on close friends in Memphis, she wrote an editorial attacking the practice of lynching in the South.
“Eight Negroes lynched since last issue of the ‘Free Speech,’” Wells declared. “If Southern white men are not careful, they will overreach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction.”
Local whites responded to Wells’s editorial by running her out of town. In exile, Wells embarked on a lifelong crusade against
lynching. She wrote three pamphlets aimed at awakening the nation to what she described as the “south horrors” of legalized murder.
She also toured Europe and helped organize women’s clubs to fight for African American rights.
Checkpoint How did Wells, Washington, and Du Bois protest the mistreatment of African Americans?
Chinese Immigrants Face Discrimination
During the same time that Jim Crow arose in the South, Chinese immigrants faced racial prejudice on the West Coast. In 1879,
California barred cities from employing people of Chinese ancestry. Several years later, San Francisco established a segregated
“Oriental” school. Elsewhere, mobs of whites attacked Chinese workers, saying they had taken “white” jobs. Congress responded to
these attacks by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country.
Like African Americans, brave Chinese immigrants challenged discrimination. Saum Song Bo questioned why he should support
a fund-raising drive to build the Statue of Liberty. “That statue represents Liberty holding a torch which lights the passage of those of
all nations who come into this country,” Bo wrote in a letter published in American Missionary in 1898. “But are the Chinese allowed
to come? As for the Chinese who are here, are they allowed to enjoy liberty as men of all other nationalities enjoy it?”
Chinese immigrants also turned to the federal courts to protect their rights but with mixed results. In 1886, in the case of Yick Wo
v. Hopkins, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a Chinese immigrant who challenged a California law that banned him and other
Chinese from operating a laundry. In 1898, the Court ruled that individuals of Chinese descent, born in the United States, could not be
stripped of their citizenship. Yet the Court upheld the Chinese Exclusion Act and several other discriminatory measures.
Checkpoint How did Chinese immigrants use the court system to protest discrimination?
Mexican Americans Struggle in the West
Like African Americans and Asian Americans, Mexican Americans struggled against discrimination in the latter decades of the
nineteenth century. At the center of their struggle stood land. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed at the end of the MexicanAmerican War, guaranteed the property rights of Mexicans who lived in the Southwest prior to the war. Still, four out of five Mexican
Americans who lived in New Mexico lost their land, as did Mexican Americans in other southwestern states.
Abuses and Discrimination Undermine Rights Many factors caused the Mexican Americans to lose most of their land. When
Anglo Americans and Mexican Americans laid claim to the same land, U.S. courts put the burden of proof on Mexican Americans to
show that they really owned the land. Differences in legal customs, and the fact that much of the land was held communally, not individually, made it difficult for many of them to do so.
In addition, Anglo Americans used political connections to take land away from Mexican Americans. The “Santa Fe Ring,” an
association of prominent whites got the federal government to grant the group control of millions of acres in New Mexico. Thousands
2
of Mexican Americans had lived on and farmed this land for many years. Since New Mexico was a territory, not a state, however,
Mexican Americans, who comprised the majority of the population, had no representatives in Washington, D.C., to challenge this
deal.
Mexican Americans Fight Back Throughout the Southwest—in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California—Mexican
Americans fought to maintain their rights. Many Mexicans especially resented the loss of their land. One group, Las Gorras
Blancas, targeted the property of large ranch owners by cutting holes in barbed-wire fences and burning houses. The group declared:
“Our purpose is to protect the rights and interests of the people in general; especially those of the helpless classes.” Supported by a
national labor organization, the Knights of Labor, the group also had a newspaper to voice their grievances.
As anti-Mexican feelings increased, a group of Hispanic citizens in Tucson, Arizona, formed the Alianza Hispano-Americana in 1894
to protect the culture, interests, and legal rights of Mexican Americans. Within two years, new branches of the organization opened in
other cities.
Checkpoint Why did Mexican Americans lose rights to their land?
Women Make Gains and Suffer Setbacks
Before the Civil War, women played a prominent role in many reform movements, including the drive to abolish slavery. They
even began to fight for their own right to vote, to own property, and to receive an education. In the decades that followed the Civil
War, women continued to fight for these rights. In some cases, they were successful; in others, they were not.
Fighting for a Constitutional Amendment Expanding the rights of African Americans left some women’s rights activists, such
as Susan B. Anthony, angry. Anthony favored abolishing slavery. Yet she felt betrayed when Radical Republicans did not include
women in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments.
In 1869, Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association to fight for a constitutional
amendment that would grant women the right to vote. In 1872, Anthony voted in an election in Rochester, New York, an illegal act
for which she was tried and ultimately convicted in federal court. While awaiting trial, Anthony toured the nation, delivering a speech
titled “Is It a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote?” Anthony declared, “Our… government is based on... the natural right
of every individual member... to a voice and a vote in making and executing the laws.” Anthony’s address failed to convince the
nation to enact a women’s suffrage amendment. By the time of Anthony’s death in 1906, only four western states—Wyoming, Utah,
Colorado, and Idaho—had granted women the right to vote.
Breaking Down Other Barriers Women’s rights activists, however, did achieve some of their other goals. The number of
women attending college jumped. By 1900, one third of all college students, nationwide, were women.
Women also played an increasingly important role in a number of reform movements. Frances Willard led the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). While temperance, or the ban of the sale of liquor, remained Willard’s primary goal, she also
supported women’s suffrage. She argued that women needed the vote to prohibit the sale of alcohol. Like many of WCTU’s
members, Willard also promoted other social causes, such as public health and welfare reform.
Checkpoint What successes did women achieve in the years after Reconstruction?
SECTION
1 Assessment
Comprehension
1. Terms and People Explain how
each person or group challenged
discrimination.

Booker T. Washington

W.E.B. Du Bois

Ida B. Wells

Las Gorras Blanca
Progress Monitoring Online
For: Self-test with vocabulary practice
Web Code: nca-1602
Writing About History
3. Quick Write: Prepare an Outline
Write down notes to answer the
following prompt: Explain how issues
such as social reform, civil rights, and
the economy dominated local politics
in the late 1890s. Then, use your notes
to prepare an outline to answer the
prompt.
2. NoteTaking Reading Skill:
Summarize Use your concept web
to answer the Section Focus
Question: How were the civil and
political rights of certain groups in
America undermined during the years
after Reconstruction?
Critical Thinking
4. Draw Conclusions How did the Plessy
v. Ferguson decision support the
existence of Jim Crow laws?
5. Recognize Cause and Effect How did
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo affect
relations between Mexican Americans
and white Americans in the Southwest?
6. Analyze Information Do you think
women activists during the late 1800s
had any effect on the political and social
life of the country? Explain.
Section2: Political and Economic Challenges
3
Why It Matters While Congress enacted many major reforms during Reconstruction, it passed very few measures between 1877
and 1900. Instead, inaction and political corruption characterized the political scene during the Gilded Age. This raised questions
whether or not democracy could succeed in a time dominated by large and powerful industrial corporations and men of great wealth.
Section Focus Question: Why did the political structure change during the Gilded Age?
Balance of Power Creates Stalemate
Party loyalties were so evenly divided that no faction or group gained control for any period of time. Only twice between 1877
and 1897 did either the Republicans or Democrats gain control of the White House and both houses of Congress at the same time.
Furthermore, neither held control for more than two years in a row. This made it very difficult to pass new laws. Most of the
elections were very close as well, allowing those who lost to block new legislation until they got back in power.
In comparison to Lincoln, the Presidents of the Gilded Age appeared particularly weak. They won by slim margins and seemed to
lack integrity. Rutherford B. Hayes owed his election in 1876 to a secret deal. Benjamin Harrison became only the second President
in history to lose the popular vote but win the electoral college vote. Chester Arthur, who took the helm following James Garfield’s
assassination upset so many of his fellow Republicans that he failed to win his own party’s presidential nomination in 1884.
The most noteworthy President of the era was Grover Cleveland. In an era known for
its corruption, Cleveland maintained a reputation for integrity. He once observed, “A
Vocabulary Builder
Democratic thief is as bad as a Republican thief.” Cleveland enjoyed an extremely rapid rise
integrity—(ihn TEHG ruh tee) n,
to political prominence. In 1881, running as a reformer, he won the race for mayor in
quality of being honest and always
Buffalo, New York. A year later, he became the governor of New York, and in 1884, he
having high moral principles
became the first Democrat to win the White House in 24 years. In 1888, even though he
won the popular vote Cleveland lost to Benjamin Harrison. But Cleveland came back to
rewin the presidency in 1892.
Checkpoint Why did the federal government fail to make significant political gains between 1877 and 1897?
Corruption Plagues National Politics
Grover Cleveland’s reputation for honesty was the exception. Many government officials routinely accepted bribes. As Henry
Adams, the great-grandson of John Adams, observed, “one might search the whole list of Congress, Judiciary, and Executive… [from]
1870 to 1895, and find little but damaged reputation.”
Political Cartoonists Raise the Alarm Besides such writers as Mark Twain, political cartoonists expressed their concern about
the damaging effects of corruption and big money.
“The Bosses of the Senate,” one of the most famous political cartoons of the time, drawn by Joseph Keppler, showed a cluster of
businessmen representing various trusts, glaring down on the chambers of the Senate.
Thomas Nast did a series of cartoons which exposed the illegal activities of William Marcy “Boss” Tweed, a powerful New York
City politician. Eventually, Tweed was arrested. However, he escaped and fled to Spain. While there, Tweed was identified through
one of Nast’s cartoons.
Spoils System Dominates the Government Political parties and the system were central components of politics during the
Gilded Age. Under the spoils system, which was first used by President Andrew Jackson, politicians led government jobs to loyal
party workers, with little regard for their qualifications. Parties held elaborate rallies and to get out the vote. However, candidates for
the presidency did not take part in campaign. They felt it lowered the reputation of the presidency. Political parties developed
sophisticated organizations that reached virtually into every ward, in every precinct, in every city in the nation.
The spoils system served as the glue it helped make the parties so powerful. Postmaster General, who headed the U.S. Postal
Service, for example, could reward thousands of supporters with jobs. Likewise, other officials could and did use federal contracts to
convince people to vote for their candidates. Ironically, political participation probably got a boost from the spoils system and the
fierce partisanship of the era. About 75 to 80 percent of all those who could vote did vote in presidential elections during the Gilded
Age.
Civil Service Reform Promotes Honest Government The feeling that the spoils system corrupted government, or at least
made it terribly inefficient, prompted a number of prominent figures to promote civil service reform. The civil service is a system that
includes federal jobs in the executive branch. In a reformed system, most government workers would get their jobs due to their
expertise and maintain them regardless of which political party won the election. Reforming the spoils system did cause controversy.
Without the spoils system, politicians felt they would not attract the people needed to run their parties. Independent attempts by
politicians to change the system failed. When Rutherford B. Hayes took office in 1877, he worked for civil service reform. He even
placed well-known reformers in high offices. However, the Republican Party did not support his reform efforts. It took the
assassination of President James Garfield by Charles J. Guiteau to make civil service reform a reality. Guiteau shot Garfield because
he believed that the Republican Party had not fulfilled its promise to give him a government job.
Chester A. Arthur became President after the assassination of Garfield. While Arthur defended the spoils system, he supported the
movement for civil service reform, which had been strengthened because of public
Vocabulary Building
indignation over Garfield’s assassination. Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act in
manipulate—(muh NIHP yoo layt)
1883. This act established a Civil Service Commission, which wrote a civil service exam.
v. to exert influence or practice
Individuals who wanted to work for the government had to take the exam, and getting a job
deception to obtain some
depended on doing well on the exam, not on manipulating one’s political connections.
advantage
4
Initially, the act covered only a small percentage of federal employees, but its reach grew over time, reducing the power of the spoils
system.
Checkpoint How did the spoils system lead to government corruption and, eventually, government reform?
Economic Issues Challenge the Nation
The tariff and monetary policy were critical economic issues during the Gilded Age. The tariff issue sharply divided the
Democrats and Republicans. Monetary policy gave rise to independent political parties or movements that disagreed with the major
parties’ commitment to the gold standard. Using the gold standard meant that the government would use gold as the basis of the
nation’s currency.
Americans Debate the Tariff Question The debate over the tariff had deep roots in American history. The tax on imports of
manufactured goods and some agricultural products was created to protect newly developed industries. Since then, the debate to
lower or increase tariffs continued. Differences over the tariff had divided the Federalists and Jeffersonians and the Democrats and
Whigs. During the Gilded Age, it divided the Republicans and Democrats. The tariff question became a major issue during the
presidential election of 1888. The Republicans favored a high tariff, arguing that it would allow American industries to grow and
promote jobs in manufacturing. Democrats countered that high tariffs increased the costs of goods to consumers and made it harder
for American farmers to sell their goods abroad.
Conflicts Develop Over Monetary Policy Two related factors turned monetary policy into a bitter issue during the Gilded Age.
During the Civil War, the federal government issued paper money, known as greenbacks. After the war, because they had contributed
to wartime inflation (a rise in prices), the government retired, or got rid of, the greenbacks.
Around the same time, Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1873. This law reversed the government policy of making both gold
and silver coins. Those who favored the minting of silver—in other words, considering silver as money—protested against what they
termed the “Crime of 1873” and prompted Congress to mint silver dollars. Nonetheless, the debate over whether to consider both gold
and silver as money or only gold as money continued.
Bankers and others involved in international trade feared that considering silver as money would undermine the economy. In
contrast, most farmers favored coining silver to create inflation. They hoped the rise in prices would increase their income. You will
read more about this dispute in the next section.
Checkpoint Why did the Republicans and Democrats differ in their view of the tariff issue?
SECTION
Progress Monitoring Online
For: Self-test with vocabulary practice
Web Code: nca-1604
2 Assessment
Comprehension
1. Terms and People Explain how
each of the following terms describes
a political issue during the 1870s and
1880s.

spoils system

civil service

Pendleton Civil Service Act

gold standard
2. NoteTaking Reading Skill:
Summarize Use your outline to
answer the Section Focus Question:
Why did the political structure change
during the Gilded Age?
Writing About History
3. Quick Write: Prepare an Outline
Look for the key word that will tell you
how to focus and organize your
response: Summarize the importance
of the tariff as a national issue. Write a
brief paragraph.
Critical Thinking
4. Draw inferences Why do you think
Congress became the strongest branch of
the government in the 1880s?
5. Analyze Information What were the
positive and negative effects of the
Pendleton Civil Service Act?
6. Identify Point of View President
Cleveland called the high tariff “unjust
taxation.” Why do you think President
Cleveland made this statement? Explain
his point of view.
Section 3: Farmers and Populism
Why It Matters Following the Civil War, millions of men and women migrated west in search of the American dream. However,
in the late 1880s and early 1890s, their dream began to turn into a nightmare, which, in turn, sparked a social and political revolt
known as populism. This movement displayed the dissatisfaction of millions of ordinary Americans—poor farmers, small
landholders, and urban workers—and produced one of the largest third-party movements in American history.
Section Focus Question: What led to the rise of the Populist movement, and what effect did it have?
Farmers Face Many Problems
The farmers of the West and the South were willing to accept the difficulties of farm life. Yet, farmers discovered that other
enormous obstacles stood in the way of realizing their dreams. They received low prices for their crops, yet they had to pay high costs
for transportation. Debts mounted while their influence on the political system declined.
5
Falling Prices and Rising Debt Between 1870 and 1895, farm prices plummeted. Cotton, which sold for about 15 cents a pound
in the early 1870s, sold for only about 6 cents a pound in the mid-1890s. Corn and wheat prices declined nearly as rapidly. One study
estimated that by the early 1890s, it was costing farmers more to produce corn than they could get by selling it, so they burned it and
used it as fuel. Planting more crops did not help. On the contrary, the more crops farmers produced, the more prices declined.
During the same time period, the cost of doing business rose. To pay for new machinery, seed, livestock, and other needs,
farmers went into debt. An increasing number of farmers mortgaged their farms to raise funds to survive and became tenant
farmers—meaning they no longer owned the farm where they worked.
Big Business Practices Also Hurt Farmers blamed big business, especially the railroads and the banks, for their difficulties.
They protested that railroads, as monopolies, charged whatever rates they wanted. Likewise, they complained that banks set interest
rates at ridiculously high levels. Southern farmers, especially black sharecroppers, faced the added problem of having to deal with
dishonest merchants and landlords who paid less for crops and charged more for supplies than promised.
In addition, farmers grew angry because they felt the nation had turned its back on them. The United States had a long tradition
of electing leaders from farm states with agricultural backgrounds, like Thomas Jefferson. Yet, it now appeared that most of the
nation’s leaders came from urban industrial states. Moreover, farmers felt that they performed honest labor and produced necessary
goods, while bankers and businessmen were the ones who got rich. One editor for a farmers’ newspaper explained:
Primary Source “There are three great crops raised in Nebraska. One is the crop of corn, one a crop of freight rates,
and one a crop of interest. One is produced by farmers who sweat and toil to farm the land. The other two are
produced by men who sit in their offices and behind their bank counters and farm the farmers.”
—Farmers’ Alliance, 1890
Farmers, however, refused to accept these circumstances. They took action.
Checkpoint What were the farmers’ major grievances, or complaints?
Farmers Organize and Seek Change
Farmers created a network of organizations, first in the Midwest and then in the
South and West, to address their problems. The Granger movement, also known as the
“Patrons of Husbandry,” was the first.
Vocabulary Builder
network—(NEHT werk) n. group of
people, organizations, etc., that
work together
The Grange Tries Several Strategies Organized in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley—a
Minnesota farmer, businessman, journalist, and government clerk—the organization popularly known as the Grange attracted about a
million members. The goals of the Grange included providing education on new farming techniques and calling for the regulation of
railroad and grain elevator rates.
In the mid-1870s, the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota enacted laws that set maximum rates for shipping freight and
for grain storage. The railroad companies challenged these “Grange Laws” in the courts, but the Supreme Court, in general, upheld
them. The Grangers also prompted the federal government to establish the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to oversee
interstate transportation.
Farmers’ Alliances Lead the Protest Although the Grange declined in the late 1870s, farm protest remained strong. Farmers’
Alliances, such as the Southern Farmers’ Alliance, became important reform organizations. These alliances formed cooperatives to
collectively sell their crops, and they called on the federal government to establish “sub-treasuries,” or postal banks, to provide
farmers with low-interest loans. They hoped the cooperatives would push the costs of doing business down and the prices for crops
up. Some of the cooperative efforts succeeded. The Georgia Alliance led a boycott against manufacturers who raised the price of the
special cord that farmers used to wrap bundles of cotton. The Southern Farmers’ Alliance organized white farmers. However, there
was an Alliance network for African American farmers. R. M. Humphrey, a white Baptist minister, headed the Colored Farmers’
Alliance, which had been organized by African American and white farmers. Nearly one million African American farmers joined the
group by 1891. The Colored Farmers’ Alliance recognized that both white and African American farmers shared the same difficulties,
but racial tensions prevented any effective cooperation between the groups.
Checkpoint What reforms did the farmers’ organizations introduce?
The Populist Party Demands Reforms
The spread of the Farmers’ Alliances culminated with the formation of the Populist Party, or People’s Party, in 1892. These
Populists sought to build a new political party from the grass roots up. They ran entire slates of candidates for local, state, and
national positions. Like a prairie fire, the Populist Party spread rapidly, putting pressure on the two major political parties to consider
their demands.
Populists State Their Goals The Populist Party spelled out their views in their platform, which they adopted in Omaha, Nebraska,
in July 1892. The platform warned about the dangers of political corruption, an inadequate monetary supply, and an unresponsive
government. The Populist Party proposed specific remedies to these problems. To fight low prices, they called for the coinage of
silver, or “free silver.” To combat high costs, they demanded government ownership of the railroads. Mary Elizabeth Lease, a fiery
Populist Party spokesperson, also advanced the cause of women’s suffrage.
The Populist Party nominated James B. Weaver of Iowa as their presidential candidate and James Field of Virginia as his running
mate. Both had risen to the rank of general in the United States and Confederate armies, respectively, and their nominations
6
represented the party’s attempt to overcome the regional divisions that had kept farmers apart since the end of the Civil War.
(Southern whites had supported the Democrats; northerners, the Republicans.) The Populist Party also sought to reach out to urban
workers, to convince them that they faced the same enemy: the industrial elite.
Populists Achieve Some Successes For a new political party, the Populists did quite well in 1892. Weaver won more than one
million votes for the presidency, and the Populists elected three governors, five senators, and ten congressmen. In 1894, the Populist
Party continued to expand its base, gaining seats in the state legislatures and prompting the major political parties to consider
endorsing its ideas. In the South, the Populist Party had to unite blacks and whites if it hoped to succeed politically. As noted above,
Tom Watson, Georgia’s most famous Populist Party leader, made a strong case for casting aside racial prejudice in favor of a political
alliance between the races. However, the Democratic Party successfully used racist tactics, such as warning that a Populist victory
would lead to “Negro supremacy,” to diminish the appeal of the Populist Party.
Checkpoint What were the goals of the Populist Party?
Economic Crisis and Populism’s Decline
In 1893, a four-year-long depression began that not only worsened conditions for already-suffering farmers but for other
Americans as well. Labor unrest and violence engulfed the nation. The major parties failed to satisfactorily respond to the nation’s
distress.
In the midst of national discontent, the Populist Party’s dream of forging a broad coalition with urban workers grew. The
Populists’ relative success at the polls in 1892 and 1894 raised their hopes further. The decision of the Democratic Party to nominate
William Jennings Bryan as their presidential candidate put the election for the Populists on an entirely different plane, leading some
to believe they could win the White House that year.
Bryan and the Election of 1896 Born in Salem, Illinois, William Jennings Bryan moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he set up a
law practice in 1887. He earned the nickname the “boy orator,” in part by displaying his strong debating skills during his successful
run for the United States Congress in 1890. In 1896, Bryan addressed the national Democratic convention on the subject of the gold
standard, attacking Grover Cleveland and others in the party who opposed coining silver. The audience listened and cheered as Bryan
spoke for “the plain people of this country,” for “our farms” and declared “we beg no longer.” The speech became known as the
“Cross of Gold” speech because it ended with the following line: “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 speech so moved the Democratic delegates that they nominated Bryan as their party’s presidential candidate. He was just 36
years old and had not been a contender for the nomination until then. Bryan’s advocacy of “free silver," or the coinage of silver as
well as gold, and his support of a number of other Populist Party proposals, placed the Populists in a difficult situation. Holding their
convention after the Democrats, the Populists had to decide whether to nominate their own presidential candidate and continue to
focus on building a broad-based movement from the bottom up or to endorse Bryan with the hope that they could capture the White
House in 1896. They chose the latter course.
Bryan’s campaign was like none other before. For the first time, a presidential candidate toured the nation, speaking directly to
the people. In contrast, William McKinley, the Republican candidate, accumulated approximately $15 million, 30 times the amount
Bryan had, and allowed party regulars to do the campaigning for him. Marcus Hanna, the political powerhouse who orchestrated
McKinley’s run, cast Bryan and his Populist Party supporters as a potential dictator and a threat to the Republic. For instance, one
cartoon published in the pro-Republican Los Angeles Times depicted the Democratic-Populist coalition as a collection of evil witches,
who fed the fires of sectionalism, discontent, and prejudice in order to win the election.
Checkpoint How did the nomination of William Jennings Bryan affect the Populist Party?
Populism’s Legacy
McKinley won the election of 1896 and went on to win reelection, again over Bryan, in 1900. Bryan's emphasis on monetary
reform, especially free silver, did not appeal to urban workers, and the Populist Party failed to win a state outside of the South and
West. Moreover, the decision to endorse Bryan weakened the Populists at the local and state levels, and the party never recovered
from its defeat in 1896. The Populist Party lingered for nearly a decade. By the early 1900s, it had disappeared as a feasible
alternative to the two major political parties. Most of the voters who supported the Populist Party returned to the Democratic Party in
1896.
Even though the Populist Party fell apart, many of the specific reforms that it advocated became a reality in the early decades of
the twentieth century. As we shall see, the Progressives supported a graduated income tax, regulation of the railroads, and a more
flexible monetary system. Moreover, populism had a lasting effect on the style of politics in the United States. For a brief time, there
was even a coalition of whites and blacks in Texas. They were able to find a common political ground. Increasingly, candidates
campaigned directly to the people, and, like Bryan, they emphasized their association with ordinary Americans.
Checkpoint What happened to the Populist Party?
SECTION
3 Assessment
Comprehension
1. Terms and People Explain the
significance of these terms and
Progress Monitoring Online
For: Self-test with vocabulary practice
Web Code: nca-1607
2. NoteTaking Reading Skill:
Identify Causes and Effects Use
your cause-and-effect chart to answer
7
Critical Thinking
4. Determine Relevance How did the
deflation, or decrease, in the money
people in establishing support for
farmers.

Oliver H. Kelley

Grange

Populist Party

William Jennings Bryan
the Section Focus Question: What led
to the rise of the Populist movement
and what effect did it have?
Writing About History
3. Quick Write: Support Your Ideas
Write a paragraph in response to the
following: Explain how the election of
1896 ended the political stalemate that
began in 1877. Keep in mind that each
sentence should support your main
idea.
8
supply in the late 1800s affect farmers?
5. Synthesize Information How did
the Farmers’ Alliances begin a crusade
against big business?
6. Make Comparisons In what ways
did McKinley represent the old way of
politics? In what ways did Bryan
represent the new way?