L10: Populism: Regaining the People’s Voice in Democracy (1876-1896) Striving for Balance Between Democracy and Authority Agenda Objective : 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 successful 5. Populism’s legacy on American democracy Schedule : Homework 1. Read Foner on Progressivis m Green * Purple Due: Friday 10/3
35
Embed
L10: Populism: Regaining the People’s Voice in Democracy (1876-1896) Striving for Balance Between Democracy and Authority Agenda Objective: To understand..
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
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.”