I. Introduction:
The farmers were not happy campers about the role of the federal government in the 1880’s.
 -isolated from urban industrial society which dominated national life
 -suffered from a long, painful economic decline
 -affected with a sense that farming did not matter anymore to the national way
 -aware of the problems of the modern economy

The force driving western farmers into open rebellion were social and economic.
        A. Social
-poor living conditions, hard work, urban life was growing more attractive, street lights, trolleys, theatre, parties, museums, library, school
-books written about the sin of city life-made farm life seem dull.
        B.  Economic
   -1870 Cotton $15.1 dollars a pound.
   -1894 Cotton $5.8 dollars a pound
“There is something radically wrong in our industrial system. There is a screw loose.”
SO Where was the federal government in all this? As a result was the emergence of an important powerful movement of political protest.

II. Populism
     A. What was the background to Populism?
            1.Grangers-several decades before the 1880’s.
                    a. Early Years
-First major farm organization, origins from the South after Civil War, Agriculture Department official, Oliver H. Kelley upset over the dull, isolated rural life.
-1867, left government and helped found the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry-network of local organizations.
-first tried to teach new scientific agricultural techniques and attempted to create a social community bond to take care of the isolation felt by farmers
                       b.    1873 Depression-CHANGE-
-sharp decline in farm prices
-membership increased rapidly
-direction of the organization changed.
                        c.   As a result
-Granges in the Midwest organize marketing cooperatives which would allow the farmers to bypass the middlemen
-promoted political action to try to stop the monopoly of the railroads and warehouses.
                        d. Success for a time
-created a network of cooperatives
-put pressure on state legislatures
-at the peak, controlled the legislatures in most of the midwestern states
                        e. Granger Laws
-early 1870’s, many states imposed strict regulations on railroad rates and practices
 -courts overturned
 -Granger leaders not political enough
-prosperity returned in the late 1870’s led to decline.
                2. The Alliances
                        a. Emerged even before the Granger movement faded out.
-1875, farmers in parts of the South (Texas) bonding with so called Farmer’s Alliances.
-By 1880, Southern Alliance has more than 4 million members Northwestern Alliance taking root in the Plains states and Midwest
                        b. Similar to the Grangers
-formed cooperatives
-established stores, banks, processing plants, for their members
-not dependant on the merchants who kept the farmers in debt.
                       c. Some of the Alliance leaders saw more
-an effort to build a new society in which economic competition might give way to cooperation
-lecturers would travel through the country attacking the concentrated power of corporations and financial institutions
                        d. Problems faced by the Alliances
-cooperatives not always work well
 Why? External and Internal forces
-market forces operating against them were sometimes too strong to overcome
  -mismanagement of the co-ops
-these economic frustrations pushed the movement into a new phase at the end of the 1880’s.
-creation of a new political organization.
 B. The Beginnings of Populism
        1. National Convention Ocala, Florida 1890
a. loose merger of the Southern and Northwestern Alliances
        2. Ocala Demands (party platform)
 -Southern Alliance asked for free silver coinage at 16 to 1
        3. The people rallied behind and formed their own parties, The People’s Party, Independent Party, Industrial Party, Alliance Party
                a. won many partial or full control of legislatures in 12 states
                b. six governorships
                c. three seats in the Senate
                d. fifty seats in the House
        3. Most were Democrats who benefited from Alliance endorsements
        4. Cincinnati, May 1891-1,400 delegates from Southern and Northwest Alliances met
-Southerners wanted to stay with the Democratic Party
-not ready
        5. St. Louis, February 1892-
-Democrats not supporting the Southern farmers
-independent action was needed to save the farmer
-Enthusiasm, committee of 15 named to set the time and place for the convention to nominate candidates for the 1892 Election.
-the birth of the People’s Party- July 4, 1892 in Omaha- Populism
        6. Election of 1892
-demonstrated the potential power of the movement.
-James weaver of Iowa, former Greenbacker-polled more than 1 million votes, 8.5 % total, carried six mountain and plains states with 22 of electoral vote.
-1,500 Populist candidates won election to state and local offices
-three governors
-five senators
-ten congressmen
-also the support of many Republican and Democrats in Congress who appealed to the Populist sentiment.
    C. Limits of Populism
        1. only one real group- appeal to farmers
-small farmers with little long-range economic security
-only minimally mechanized operationns
-relied on one crop
-little access to credit
        2. Tried to include Labor within the coalition
-added a labor plank to the platform, shorter hours, restrictions on immigration, denouncing the use of private strikebreakers
-failed- economic interests of labor and interest of farmers were at odds.
        3. White populists in the South struggled in accepting African Americans into the party- since numbers and poverty made them potential allies.
-network of Colored Alliances by 1890 1.25 million members
-whites wanted to remain in control
-Southern conservatives attack Populists for undermining white supremacy- so no more interracial character of the movement.
        D. Populist Ideas
            1. Ocala Demands of 1890 and Omaha Platform of 1892 was the reform program
-graduated income tax
-government ownership of the railroads, telephone, telegraph
-laws against excessive land holdings, absentee land ownership
-strict government economy
-abolition of national banks
-substitution of greenbacks for bank notes as currency and later the remontetization of silver.
-direct election of Senators-weaken the power of conservative legislatures

System of “subtreasuries” which would replace and strengthen the cooperatives with which the Grangers and Alliances were experimenting with for years.
 -National government would establish a network of warehouses, where farmers could deposit their crops. Those crops would become collateral, growers then could borrow money from the government at low rates of interest and wait for the prices of their goods to go up before selling them.
            2. Some historians uncovered that some populists were openly Anti-Semitic, anti-intellectual, anti-eastern, anti-urban.
            3. The movement was serious, intelligent effort to find solutions to real problems
-rejected laissez-faire policies of the time
-rights of ownership are not absolute
-challenged industrialism and capitalism
-saw the economy as chaotic, wanted progress and growth
but defined by the needs of communities and individuals.

III. The Crisis of the 1890’s
 Political crisis emerging in the 1890’s
  -severe depression 1893
  -widespread labor unrest and violence, strikes of 1894
  -failure of either major party to respond to the distress.
  -Grover Cleveland took office for the second time-rigid conservative

        A. The Panic of 1893
            1. Immediate causes of depression
                    a. Most severe the nation ever. March 1893 when the Philadelphia and the Reading Railroads declared bankruptcy unable to pay British banks back.
                    b. National Cordage Company failed
                    c. Stock Market collapsed
-Many New York banks invested in the market, wave of bank failures began
-Banks could not give credit.
-Many new and aggressive businesses that started went bankrupt because unable to secure the loans they needed.
              2. Longer-range causes
                    a. Depressed prices in agriculture since 1887 weakened the  purchasing power of farmers-largest group in the population
                    b. Depression conditions in Europe
-resulted in a loss of American markets abroad
-withdrawal by foreign investors of gold invested in the United States
                    c. Railroads, major industries had expanded too rapidly
-beyond market demand
                3. Depression reflected how the American economy was interconnected, failures in one area affects another area
-the economy was dependent on the health of the railroad, the nations most powerful corporate and financial institutions.
                4. Some figures
-six months- 8000 businesses
           156 railroads
  400 banks FAILED
-prices dropped even further
-one million workers, 20% loss jobs
-lasted really till 1898. Long time.
                5. Depression produced widespread social unrest
-Populist, Jacob S,. Coxey advocated the inflation of currency and a massive public works program to create jobs for the unemployed.
-organized a march of the unemployed to Washington to present demands
-Congress took no action.
-labor upheavals Homestead and Pullman strikes
-Middle class Americans, the worker unrest was a sign of unstability and maybe revolution.

B. The Silver Question
            1.  Debate over depression, focus on currency.
-Populists blamed it on an inadequate supply of money.
-Conservatives blamed it on lack of commitment to a sound currency.
-MONEY Question BIG ISSUE
            2.   Background
-Today we trust that government will pay on the money.19th Century, assume currency was worthless is there was not something
concrete behind it, precious metal (specie) which paper money could collect if presented to the bank or to the Treasury.
-United States recognized two metals-gold and silver as the basis for the dollar.
-Change in the 1870’s-mint ratio was 16 to 1:sixteen ounces of silver equal one ounce of gold
-Silver was worth more than that.
-sell it or melt it down make jewelry instead of making coins- stopped taking it to the mint and the mint stopped coining silver.
              -1873, Congress passes a law that just discontinued silver coinage.
   -Silver prices dropped in the late 1870’s below the 16 to 1 ratio.
-Silver available for coinage, became clear that Congress foreclosed a potential method of expanding currency
-CONSPIRACY-Americans felt that big bankers were responsible for the de-monetization of silver- CRIME OF 73
            3. Crime of ’73
                    a. Two groups determined to change back
-Silver mine owners and their allies
-discontented farmers, wanted an increase in the quantity of money-an inflation of currency
-means of raising prices of farm products and easing payment of farmers’ debts.
-free silver- free and unlimited coinage of silver at the old ratio of 16 to 1.
                    b. Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1893
-required the government to buy but not coin silver and pay for it in gold.
-provided some relief to silver miners
-did not expand currency
                    c. Gold reserves were dropping intensified by the Panic of 1893
-President Cleveland believed the cause of the weakening gold reserves was the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1893.
-Congress responded and repealed the act-created a split in the Democratic party.
                    d. Supporters of the gold standard considered its survival essential to the honor and stability of the nation
                    e. Free Silver-considered the gold standard an instrument of tyranny and silver as liberation.

C. Election of 1896
                1.Republicans saw failure of Cleveland so Democrats felt they would win.
 William McKinley, author of the 1890 tariff and Ohio governor
 -the tariff should be the central issue of the election
-opposed free coinage of silver except by agreement with leading commercial nations-not likely
-western mountain and plain state delegates walked out and joined Democratic Party
              2. Democratic Convention
Southern and Western delegates eager to compete with the Populists wanted to take over the conservative easterners and incorporate Populist demands –FREE SILVER
-tariff reduction
-income tax
-stricter control of railroad and trusts
-debated the issue of free silver
-William Jennings Bryan, 36 years old Cross of Gold speech
-everyone impressed –Free Silver  on the platform
-Bryan nominated as a candidate.
            4. Populist
-problem for them because the Democrats nominated Bryan and took their issue
-Democrats took the wind out of their sails
-had to choose whether to split the vote or endorse Bryan and lose their identity as a party.
-Had other issues more important than Free Silver but at their convention they endorsed Bryan but did not like the vice-president so chose their own Tom Watson of Georgia.
             5. The Results
-election produced desperation among conservatives
business and financial community contributed $7 million to the campaign compared to the Democrats $300,000
-McKinley conducted “front porch” campaign customary of the time undignified to campaign for yourself.
-Bryan showed no such restraint, went all over hand shaking, went 18,000 miles and addressed 5 million people
-McKinley polled 271 electoral votes to Bryan 176 and received 51.1% of popular vote to Bryan’s 47.7%. Bryan carried only those areas where miners or farmers – too narrow of a program to win a national election.
-Populists-the election results disasterous-lost it all
 -began to dissolve
 -never again farmers unite so strong for economic reform
-never again would such a large group of Americans raise a protest against the nature of the industrial economy
D. McKinley and Prosperity
            1. Everything calmed down.
-labor and agrarian protests subsided
-depression eased up
-stability was the goal.
            2. McKinley worked on the Republican issue: higher tariffs
-Dingley Tariff (raised the tariff)
-Gold Standard Act of 1900
 confirmed the nation’s commitment to the gold standard
-Conservatism
-Prosperity in 1898
 -US farm prices surged upward-(European crop failure)
 -American business grew-booming expansion
E. Failure of the Free-Silver Movement
            1. Raised an important question for the American economy
-25 years before the turn of the century countries of the Western world had experienced a spectacular growth in productive facilities and population
-supply of money did not keep up with economic progress, because the supply was tied to gold and the gold remained constant
 -If no increase in the gold supply in the late 1890’s, Populist prediction of financial disaster could have come true
-1898, two and a half times the amount of gold was produced as in 1890- currency supply inflated far  beyond Bryan’s proposal