L10: Populism: Regaining the People’s Voice in Democracy (1876-1896)

Striving for Balance Between Democracy and Authority

AgendaObjective:To understand..1. What the Populist Movement

was.2. Who Populism appealed to

and why.3. How was Populism a

response to the Gilded Age.4. Why Populism wasn’t

successful5. Populism’s legacy on

American democracy

Schedule: 6. Lecture & Discussion

Homework

1. Read Foner on Progressivism

Green * Purple Due: Friday 10/3

The 1890s: The Ascendency of the Industrial North

• Industrialization + Victory in the Civil War = North is the economic and political center of the United States

• Who feels left out?– South• But we never felt included anyway, so we just want to be left alone to do our own thing

–West • Hey!? What about us??

The West:Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…

• Post-Civil War, Rapid Movement and Settlement West. Why?– Homestead Act 1862

• Allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for five years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30

• Hey, Andrew Jackson said the Indians weren’t using it anyway!

– Expansion of Railroads• People were able to more easily

move West

– Growth of Northern Banking, Means Easier Access to Loans• People were able to secure

funding to support their move, and to get loans to buy new farming equipment that they would need on their land

The West: Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

• The West experienced huge population growth between 1870s and 1890s

• Eight New States Joined the Union– CO, ND, SD, MT, WA, ID, WY, and UT

• 1890 seemed like America had “conquered” the West; A frontier

line was no longer discernible – Jackson Turner’s The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1893)

Problems Facing Farmers 1865-1900

High Tariff

Drought

Debt and Foreclosure

What are Farmer’s Complaints? What is Their Perception of What Has

Happened to American Democracy in the Gilded Age?

Farmers Begin to Organize• Many farmers, subscribe

to the agrarian myth• Try to form organizations

with the goal of bringing back this lifestyle to America; Believe that it has been abandoned to northern corporate interests

• Important to note: Farmers view themselves as indispensible, “we feed you all,” yet by the 1880s are only 3% of the working population.

Farmers Alliance Movement

• Throughout the United States farmers were organizing together into small farmers’ clubs These groups were called alliances and they usually were based on region and race. – You might have the Northwest

Farmers’ Alliance or the Colored Farmers National Alliance.

• Effort to reclaim democracy for “true Americans” – the farmer!

• In 1890, farmers’ alliance members helped get 5 US senators, 6 governors, and 46 congressmen elected.

Populist Party 1892

• Encouraged by this electoral success, farmers again set their sights on a national coalition.

• The Populist Party (The People’s Party).

What Did the Populists Believe?

• Platform:– Graduated income tax– Direct election of senators– 8 hour work day– Nationalization of railroads, telegraphs, and

telephones – Free coinage of silver

• Based on this platform, what did the Populist party believe?

• What was their view of democracy?

What’s Up With Silver?

• In 1893 United States had a paper money currency, just like we have today. Those dollar bills had value or worth, because they were backed by gold.

• To oversimplify, each dollar bill that was floating around the economy could in theory be cashed in exchange for its value in gold. • Farmers believed, however, that by linking money to the rare gold, rather than the more abundant silver, prices were being kept artificially high.

What’s Up With Silver?

• Indebted farmers believed that the addition of an immense amount of silver money, not paper money, would inflate the currency leading to higher prices and easier debt payment.

What’s Up With Silver

• Belief among the Populists, is that the government’s decision to withhold silver is a prominent example of the way in which the government exerts its authority to sets fiscal policies that benefit urban capitalists and the expense of the voice of the common man.

• How does this reiterate their view of democracy/authority?

Populist Party and the Election of 1892

Populists Gain Support: Panic of 1893

• With the economic depression, different investors in US currency were cashing in their money for gold bars. This threatened to completely wipe out the gold reserves the United States had.

• If the US ran out of gold, the nation’s remaining currency would be rendered valueless. There would be nothing to back it up.

• To prevent this from happening, the government asked J.P. Morgan and his bank for a loan of $65 million in gold.

• Panic of 1893, begins to call into question the gold standard.

Election of 1896• In 1896 there is

another political election and the big issue is the gold/silver debate

• The Democrats reject Cleveland as their nominee even though he is the sitting president and put up a man named William Jennings Bryan.

William Jennings Bryan• 1860-1925• Ran for President 3 times

(1896, 1900, 1908)• Was the U.S. Secretary of

State under Wilson from 1913 to 1915.

• Was a devout Christian, silverite, supporter of popular democracy, a peace advocate, a prohibition, and an opponent of Darwinism.

• He was one of the best known orators an lecturers of time.

• Called “The Great Commoner.”

• Represented the State of Tennessee in the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1920

Cross of Gold Speech• At the democratic convention Bryan made what is perhaps the most famous Democratic convention speech ever. • “If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and

all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

• Audio Rerecording: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/

Cross of Gold Speech

• What is the significance of this speech for American democracy??

Populists Put Up Bryan Too!• The populists are so

impressed with Bryan and the fact that he is endorsing silver, that they also nominate Bryan for president.

• The populists saw Bryan and his belief that money should be backed by silver as their ticket out of debt.

Election of 1896

Election of 1896

• Why did Bryan lose?

• Some argue that the election of 1896 is the most significant election since Lincoln’s in 1864. What is the significance of this election?

Election of 1896: Significance

Bryan’s loss is synonymous with the farmer’s loss.

Bryan’s defeat marked the last serious effort to win the

White House with mostly agrarian votes.

Big business, big cities, the middle-class, and financial conservatism they are the

real winners in this election.

To win future elections you have to appeal to these

groups.

How does the election of 1896 permanently shift the meaning of

American democracy?

What Do Agrarianism, Populism, and Bimetallism Have to Do with The Wizard of Oz?

Yellow Brick Road

• Represents the gold standard: a road that looks hopeful, but leads nowhere

• Oz represents “oz” or the abbreviation for ounce, the standard measure for gold.

Scarecrow

• Represents the struggling farmer at the turn of the century.

• In Baum’s version, the Scarecrow rules Emerald City after Oz is dethroned.

• Baum is predicting that farmers would gain political power

Tin Man

• Represents the urban industrial worker who was enslaved to heartless industries.

• In the book, the Tin Man rules the west. Baum is predicting that industry would move west, shutting out farmers.

Cowardly Lion

• Represented William Jennings Bryan

• Described as having a loud roar but little else (recall Bryan lost to McKinley despite his powerful Cross of Gold Speech)

• In having the Lion protect smaller beasts in a “small old forest,” Baum predicted that Bryan would return to Congress

The Wizard of Oz

• Represents President McKinley

• Baum viewed McKinley as not being as powerful or wise as the façade he put forth.

The Silver Slippers

• In the book Dorothy’s slippers are silver

• When Dorothy walks on the Yellow Brick road it represents gold and silver coming together to increase America’s money supply (bimetallism)

• In the book, her silver slippers are lost, representing the sliver issue losing

• FYI: In the movie Dorothy’s slippers are ruby to showcase Technicolor

The Munchkins

• The “little people” in America whose power had been taken away by big business and industry

• Baum saw these people as “slaves” to the eastern banking and industrial interests

The Wicked Witch of the West

• Symbolizes large industrial corporations that Baum thought oppressed “the little guy”

Dorothy

• Is thought to represent Americans, who Baum viewed as good-natured but naive

Toto

• Represents the Prohibitionist Party who were pro-Populist

• Toto is a play on the term “teetotaller”—people who did not drink alcohol

Emerald City

• Thought to represent Washington, D.C. and the color of the dollar