High School US history lesson on populism

1. Objectives:
•Explain why farmers wanted a greenback currency and why
the adoption of the gold standard led to the Farmers’ Alliance.
•Describe who joined the Populist Party and what the party’s
goals were.

2. Unrest in Rural America
 In the 1890’s, a political movement
called Populism emerged to
increase the political power of
farmers and to work for legislation
for farmers’ interests.
 Greenbacks were paper currency
(printed in green on the back)
issued by the United States during
the American Civil War. They were
in two forms: Demand Notes, issued
in 1861–1862, and United States
Notes issued in 1862–1865. They
were legal tender by law, but were
not backed by gold or silver, only the
credibility of the U.S. government,
by fiat.

3. Inflation
 This rapid increase in the money supply without a rapid
increase in goods for sale caused inflation–a decline in the
value of money.
• The prices of goods greatly increased.
• To get inflation under control, the federal government
stopped printing greenbacks and started paying off bonds.
• Congress also stopped making silver into coins.

4. Deflation
 As a result, the country did not have a large enough money
supply to meet the needs of the growing economy.
• This led to deflation–or an increase in the value of
money and a decrease in the general level of prices.
• Deflation forced most farmers to borrow money to plant
their crops.
• The short supply of money caused an increase in interest
rates that the farmers owed.

5. The Grange
 Some farmers wanted more greenbacks printed to
expand the money supply.
• Others wanted the government to mint silver coins.
• The Grange was a national farm organization
founded for social and educational purposes.
• When the country experienced a recession, large
numbers of farmers joined the Grange for help.
• The Grange changed its focus to respond to the
plight of farmers.

6. This lithograph, published in
1875, is a modification of the
Grange motto, "I pay for all."
It asserts that the farmer is
the central character upon
which all society relies, with
the central image of the
lithograph being a farmer
behind his plow, captioned,
"I feed you all!" This vignette
appears within a framework
of twigs and oak branches,
with stalks of corn and
sheaves of wheat in the
corners.
Surrounding the central farmer vignette is a series of other scenes of professionals, laborers, and
military and government agents. Clockwise from the upper left corner appear: a lawyer ("I Plead for
All"); a seated President Ulysses S. Grant ("I Rule for All"); an officer leading a charge ("I Fight for
All"); a clergyman at his pulpit ("I Preach for All"); a ship owner watching his vessel through a
window ("I Sail for All"); a shopkeeper in a general store ("I Buy & Sell for All"); a doctor with a scale
and drugs ("I Physic You All"); a banker at his window ("I Fleece You All"); a trader ("I Bull & Bear
for All"); and a railroad owner watching his locomotive ("I Carry for All").

7.  Grangers put their money
together and created
cooperatives–marketing
organizations that worked
to help its members.
• The cooperatives pooled
members’ crops and held
them off the market
to force the prices to rise.
• Cooperatives could
negotiate better shipping
rates from railroads.
 The Grange was unable to
improve the economic
conditions of farmers
 By the late 1870s, many
farmers left the Grange and
joined other organizations
that offered to help
them solve their problems.

8. The Farmers’ Alliance
 The Farmers’ Alliance was
formed in 1877
• By 1890 it had between 1.5 and
3 million members with
strength in the South and on
the Great Plains.
• The Alliance organized large
cooperatives called exchanges
for the purpose of forcing farm
prices up and making loans to
farmers at low interest rates.
• These exchanges mostly failed.
 Many exchanges overextended
themselves by loaning too much
money at low interest rates that
were not repaid.
• Wholesalers, manufacturers,
railroads, and bankers
discriminated against the
exchanges.
• The exchanges were too small
to dramatically affect world
prices for farm products.
First banner of the Southern
Farmers' Alliance, organized on a
statewide basis in Texas in 1878

9.  Members of the Kansas
Alliance formed the People’s
Party, or Populists, to push
for political reforms that
would help farmers solve their
problems.
• Most Southern leaders of the
Alliance opposed the People’s
Party because they wanted
the Democrats to retain
control of the South.
• One Southern leader, Charles
Macune, came up with a
subtreasury plan to set
up warehouses where farmers
could store their crops to
force prices up.
In March 1889 Macune made use of a
$10,000 loan from a wealthy Texas
Alliance member and launched a new
publication, The National Economist.

10. The Rise of Populism
 In 1890 the Farmers’ Alliance issued the Ocala Demands to help
farmers choose candidates in the 1890 elections.
• The demands included the adoption of the subtreasury plan that
required the establishment of federally controlled warehouses to aid
farmers, the free coinage of silver, an end to protective tariffs and
national banks, tighter regulation of the railroads, and direct
election of senators by voters.
• Many pro-Alliance Democrats were elected to office in the South.
People's Party candidate
nominating convention held
at Columbus, Nebraska, July 15,
1890

11. Election of 1892
 In July 1892, the People’s Party
held its first national convention
where it nominated James B.
Weaver to run for president.
 By early 1892, Southern
members of the Alliance
began to realize that
Democrats were not going to
keep their promises to the
Alliance and they were ready
to leave the Democratic
Party and join the People’s
Party.
1892 People's Party campaign
poster promoting James Weaver for
President of the United States

12. 1892 Election
 The People’s Party platform
called for unlimited coinage
of silver, federal ownership
of railroads, and a
graduated income tax, one
that taxes higher earnings
more heavily.
• It also called for an eight-hour workday, restriction of
immigration, and denounced the use of strikebreakers.
• Democrats nominated New Yorker Grover Cleveland for the
1892 presidential election.
• Cleveland won the election.
1892 electoral vote results

13. President Cleveland
 President Cleveland wanted
to stop the flow of gold and
make it the sole basis for the
country’s currency, so he had
Congress repeal of the
Sherman Silver Purchase
Act which not only
required the U.S.
government
to purchase nearly twice as
much silver as before, but
also added substantially to
the amount of money
already in circulation.
• This caused the Democratic Party to
split into the goldbugs and the
silverites.
• Goldbugs believed the American
currency should be based only on
gold.
• Silverites believed coining silver in
unlimited amounts was the answer
to the nation’s economic crisis.

14. The Election of 1896
 The Democrats nominated William
Jennings Bryan for the presidential
election of 1896.
• He strongly supported the unlimited
coinage of silver.
• Populists also supported Bryan for
president.
• The Republicans nominated William
McKinley of Ohio for president.
• He promised workers a “full dinner pail.”
• Most business leaders liked McKinley
because they thought that unlimited silver
coinage would ruin the country’s economy.

15. • McKinley won the election of 1896.
• New gold strikes in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon
Territory and in other parts of the world increased the
money supply without needing to use silver.
• As the silver issue died out, so did the Populist Party.
Presidential election
results map. Red denotes
those won by
McKinley/Hobart, blue d
enotes states won by
Bryan/Sewall and the
Populist ticket of
Bryan/Watson. Numbers
indicate the number of
electoral votes allotted to
each state.