Populism
... at the decline in the standard of farm living, a result of the steadily lowering value of farm yields. There main protest targets were banks, for their refusal to reduce interest rates, railroads for their discriminatory freight rates; and in some areas, local law officials, for laxity in prosecuting cattle thieves. The Alliances were nonpolitical at first, they held regional and local meetings, sponsored lectures, and printed periodicals in order to spread information on agricultural issues, such as crop rotation and diversification. In conjuncture with the periodicals they also distributed works of social protest such as (Looking Backward ,1887 by the American essayist and journalist Edward Bellamy.) They also established local cooperative stores, grain elevators, and cotton gins, as well as the large-scale cooperative marketing of crops, mostly cotton in Texas and grain in Illinois. Later Farmer Alliances would expand into organized fire, hail, and life insurance agencies. One of the largest parties was the Greenback Party, formed in 1875 and made up of, yes again chiefly Midwestern and southern farmers. It’s primary aims were the adoption of a new national monetary system based solely on a bimetallism and federal issuance of paper currency which was not backed by gold. The Greenbackers decided on the formation of an independent party late in 1874, after failing to persuade the Democrats to adopt their views. The first national convention of the Greenback Party was held in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1876, and Peter Cooper, a philanthropist and manufacturer, was nominated for the presidency. Cooper was to receive 81,737 popular votes but no electoral votes in the election held later that year. Then in 1878 the Greenback party was dissolved, with it’s farmer member’s uniting with workers to form the Greenback-Labor party. American workers, faced with low incomes and high living costs, had begun to form trade unions to advance their interests. By 1891 the expanding farmer-labor movement had attained sufficient proportion to warrant a national political program; and the People’s party, members of which were known as Populists, was formed. The People’s Party was a product of the Populist movement, it was the successor of the Greenback-Labor party from the 1880’s. One of it’s chief organizers, the journalist and reformer Ignatius Donnelly had been a leader in the Populist-oriented Farmers’ Alliance. The Party was founded in 1891 at a convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, it adopted a platform calling for free coinage of silver and the issuance of large amounts of paper currency. These were inflammation measures that it hoped would ease the financial burdens of the nation’s debt-ridden farmer and working classes. It’s other demands included abolishing the national banking system, nationalizing the railroads, instituting a graduated income tax, electing U.S. senators by direct popular vote, and allowing people to participate directly in government by means of referendum. In 1892 the party nominated James Baird Weaver for the presidency. Weavor lost, but he received more than a million popular votes and 22 electoral ones, and several Populist candidates were elected to congress. In 1896 the Populists won control of the Democratic convention in St. Louis and secured the nomination of William Jennings Bryan, who favored the Populist program, as candidate for the presidency. After Bryan was defeated, the People’s party split over the issue of it’s continued alliance with the Democrats. In 1900 the pro-Democrats renominated Bryan, and the anti- Democrats nominated the Financer Wharten Barker, but both were defeated in the later election. The party reunited in 1904, but by then its influence was declining, and it ceased to exist after the 1908 election. Throughout it’s existence the Populist’s movement sough...