Populism and the Election of 1896

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Slide 1

Populism

& the

Election

of 1896

Slide 2

What were some

of the major

problems facing

farmers during the

Gilded Age ??

Slide 3

The Silver Issue

“Crime of ’73”  demonetization of silver (govt. stopped coining silver).

Bland-Allison Act (1878)  limited silver coinage to $2-$4 mil. per mo. (based on the 16:1 ratio of silver to gold).

Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)

The US Treasury must purchase $4.5 mil. oz. of silver a month.

Govt. deposited most silver in the US Treasury rather than circulation.

Slide 4

Populism:

An Agrarian

Revolt

Slide 5

Price Indexes for Consumer & Farm Products: 1865-1913

Slide 6

Founder of the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (1867)

Slide 7

The Grange Movement

First organized in the 1870s in the Midwest, the south, and Texas.

Set up cooperative associations.

Social and educational components.

Succeeded in lobbying for “Granger Laws.”

Rapidly declined by the late 1870s.

Slide 8

Supreme Court Decisions

Munn vs. Illinois (1877)

Wabash, St. Louis, & Pacific Railroad Company vs. Illinois (1886)

Slide 9

Gift for the Grangers:

The Farmer Pays for All!

Slide 10

The Farmers Alliances

Begun in the late 1880s (Texas first  the Southern Alliance; then in the Midwest  the Northern Alliance).

Built upon the ashes of the Grange.

More political and less social than the Grange.

Ran candidates for office.

Controlled 8 state legislatures & had 47 representatives in Congress during the 1890s.

Slide 11

United We Stand, Divided We Fall

In 1889 both the Northern and Southern Alliances merged into one—the Farmers’ Alliance.

Slide 12

The Populist (Peoples’) Party

1890 Bi-Election: