Last Class
• Transition from 3rd to 4th Party System.
– Rise of mass movements
– Rise of third parties
– Rise of populists
• Election of 1896.
– Battle of Standards – Bryan v. McKinley
– Golden Age of Parties.
– Schattschneider’s interpretation.
New Politics in 3rd Party System
• Pressure groups and mass movements
– Prohibition, Woman Suffrage, Farmers
– WCTU: Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
– Patrons of Husbandry = Grangers
• 1867-1873: 7,325 local granges
• Not “explicitly”political
• Anti-monopoly thrust
Third Parties
• National Independent Party (“Greenbacks”)
– Currency reform, railroad regulation
– 1876; 1877-1878; 1880: fusion tickets, strong state parties
• Anti-Monopoly Party (1884)
– Business and commerce regulation, arbitration, graduated income tax,
direct election of senators, reduce public spending, enforce 8-hr day
• Union Labor Party (1888)
– Knights of Labor
– Limit ownership, public ownership of communication & transportation,
reform monetary system, veterans pensions, woman suffrage
• Farmers Alliance
– Loosely organized groups in states
People’s Party (“Populists”)
• Western-Southern Alliance
– Different strategies initially
– West forms new party in 1891; South joins
• Platform
– Free silver, currency expansion, graduated income tax
– Public ownership of railroads, telegraph, telephone
– Direct election of senators, labor planks, limit immigration
• Populist Peak
– General James Weaver (1+ million votes, 8%, 22 e.v.)
– Three senators, eleven representatives, three governors
Voter Turnout in U.S. Presidential Elections, 1824-1928
90
Log Cabin &
Hard Cider
Abraham
Lincoln
Hayes-Tilden
Disputed Election
Battle of the
Standards
70
Andrew
Jackson
60
High Tide of
Progressivism
50
Woman
Suffrage
40
30
20
18
24
18
28
18
32
18
36
18
40
18
44
18
48
18
52
18
56
18
60
18
64
18
68
18
72
18
76
18
80
18
84
18
88
18
92
18
96
19
00
19
04
19
08
19
12
19
16
19
20
19
24
19
28
Percent of Eligible Electorate
80
Suffrage in the United States
• Property Restrictions
– Property holding
• Declines in early US (75% down to 10%)
– Taxpaying
• Rises then falls (50% through 1840, then down
to 25%)
Suffrage in the United States
• Sources of Change
–
–
–
–
–
–
Racial, ethnic, and gender prejudice
Class and immigration fears
Beliefs and ideological change
Social movement pressure
Party competition
War
• Voting Qualifications Today
– Universal suffrage for adult citizens
– Insanity, felony, and residency
– Variety of residency/registration requirements
Women in Politics
• Crusading for a Moral America
–
–
–
–
–
Class-based voluntary associations
Abolition movement
Poor relief, prison reform, education
Working conditions, historic preservation
Religion’s role
• Providing a New Model for Mobilization
– WCTU (1874) Frances Willard
– Other organizations follow
• YWCA, Daughters of the Revolution
• Nat’l Assoc. of Colored Women, Nat’l Congress of Mothers (PTA)
Women in Party Politics
• Practicing Party Politics without the Vote
– Speaking
• Public speaking and speaking tours
• Public protests and riots
– Writing
• Wrote letters and published newspapers
– Campaigning
• Circulated petitions, distributed pamphlets
• Help with campaign rallies and election day events
• Pressure and mobilize voters
– Deciding
• Delegates to party conventions, serve on committees
Republican Advantage
• WCTU and election of 1884
– 1880 Willard supported Garfield and was
disappointed.
– 1884 supported prohibition party and some
blamed for loss.
• J. Ellen Foster and WNRA.
– Why did Democrats lag?
– What about suffrage?
Expansion: Woman Suffrage
• National Organizations
– National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA)
• Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
– American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)
• Lucy Stone
– Merger = NAWSA, 1890
• Anna Howard Shaw, Carrie Chapman Catt
• Partisanship
• Arguments: Equality versus Morality
• Expansion in the States
• National Expansion – 1920
Changed Politics
• Why not?
• Today’s gender gap?
Percent Voting Democratic
70
65
60
55
Males
Females
50
45
40
35
30
'48
'52
'56
'60
'64
'68
'72
'76
'80
'84
'88
'92
'96
'00
Restriction: Blacks and the South
• Antebellum Status
• Few explicit restrictions
– Could vote in most states, including North Carolina
– Race restrictions grow
•
•
•
•
30% in 1790s-1800s
50% in 1810s
60% in 1820s-1830s
80%+ in 1840s-1850s
• “Reconstructed South”
– Majority of freedmen vote for Republicans
– Southern intimidation and fraud
– Northern protection
Restriction: Blacks and the South
• “Redeemed”South
– Changing party incentives
– New Requirements
• Poll tax, literacy test, property requirement
• Escape clauses: understanding & grandfather
• Organizational barriers: new ballot & primary
• One-Party South
–
–
–
–
Uncompetitive
Apathetic
Disenfranchised minority
One-party politics: the return of factionalism