Transcript Populist Movement (Populism)

Essential Questions:
What were the successes and
failures of the Populist Party?
Why was it the most important 3rd
party in American History?
Copy this page
Problems of the Farmers
•
•
•
•
•
Drought
Surpluses
Prices set by world market
Railroad corruption
Debt & monetary policies
Farmer’s
Organize
• The Grange
• The Southern
Alliance
• The Coop
Catalyst: 1891 = Banks began to
foreclose on farm mortgages
When the banker says he's broke
And the merchant’s up in smoke,
They forget that it's the farmer
who feeds them all.
It would put them to the test
If the farmer took a rest;
Then they'd know that it's the farmer feeds them all.
Platform of
Lunacy
Omaha Platform, 1892
• Free unlimited coinage of silver
• National income tax
(Omaha Platform Continued)
• Government ownership of
Railroads,
telephone,
telegraphs
•
•
•
•
•
•
Government secured loans to farmers
Treasury storehouse for surplus crops
8 hour work day
Direct election of Senators
Initiative & referendum
Australian (secret) ballot
1892 Election
Heyday of Western Populism
Why did the Populist Party
attract millions of supporters?
Populism in Kansas
Mary Elizabeth
Lease
• “raise less corn
and more hell”
• Led Kansas
revolt over high
mortgage
interest &
railroad rates
Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
Source: Mary Elizabeth
Lease became politically
involved as a speaker for the
rights of workers and
farmers. She had a powerful
voice and charismatic
speaking style. In this
speech, Lease gave a
speech to the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union
in 1890, a women’s
movement against alcohol.
The mightiest movement the world has
known in two thousand years. . . is sending
out the happiest message to oppressed
humanity that the world has heard since
John the Baptist came preaching in the
wilderness that the world’s Redeemer was
coming to relieve the world’s misery.
• How is this suppose to make the audience
feel?
• Why might she use religious references?
To this sterile and remote region, infested
by savage beasts and still more savage
men, the women of the New England
States, the women of the cultured East,
came with husbands, sons and brothers to
help them build up a home [in the West] . . .
.We endured hardships, and dangers; hours
of loneliness, fear and sorrow. . . We toiled
in the cabin and in the field; we helped our
loved ones to make the prairie blossom. . .
• What historical references is she making?
• How is this suppose to make the audience
feel?
• What emotions does she appeal to?
Yet, after all our years of toil and deprivation,
dangers and hardships, our homes are being
taken from us by an infamous [wicked] system
of mortgage foreclosure. It takes from us at the
rate of five hundred a month the homes that
represent the best years of our life, our toil, our
hopes, our happiness. How did it happen? The
government, siding with Wall Street, broke its
contracts with the people. . . . As Senator
Plumb [of Kansas] tells us, “Our debts were
increased, while the means to pay them [cash]
was decreased.”
• How is this suppose to make the audience feel?
• Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys?
• What emotions does she appeal to?
No more millionaires, and no more paupers; no
more
gold kings,
kingsbyand
kings,
“Government
of silver
the people,
the oil
people,
forand
people,
from starving
the earth.”for a
no the
more
little shall
waifsnot
of perish
humanity
crust of bread. We shall have the golden age
Abraham
Gettysburg
of which Isaiah
sangLincoln,
and the
prophetsAddress
have so
long foretold; when the farmers shall be
prosperous and happy, dwelling under their
own vine and fig tree; when the laborer shall
have that for which he toils. . . .When we shall
have not a government of the people by
capitalists, but a government of the people, by
the people.
• What images & documents does this bring to
mind?
• How is this suppose to make the audience feel?
1896 Election
Democrats – 1890s
Republicans – 1890s
• Southerners
• Wealthy farmers
• Supported low tariffs
(wanted other
countries to buy their
crops)
• Northerners
• Wealthy business men
(connected to the
railroad)
• Southern African
Americans (poor
farmers)
• Supported high tariffs
(didn’t want to
compete with other
countries’ products)
William Jennings Bryan
(1860-1925)
•Nebraska
Senator
•1896 Populist
& Democratic
Nominee for
President
The “Great Commoner”
The
Seasoned
Politician
vs.
The
“Young”
Newcomer
Bryan: The Farmers Friend
18,000 miles of campaign “whistle stops.”
Document B
• “You shall not press down upon the
brow of labor this crown of thorns,
you shall not crucify mankind upon
a cross of gold!”
1896 Election
Results
Gold Triumphs Over Silver
 1900  Gold
Standard Act
 Most other
Populist reforms
were adopted by
Dem. &
Republicans
• Why were the speakers like Lease
and Bryan popular in the 1890s?
• What images and rhetorical
devices did they use to excite their
audiences?
• How did their audiences feel when
they listened to these speeches?
• How do these themes resonate
today?
How do these themes
resonate today?
• Koch Brothers of Kansas
• 4th Richest Americans today—42 billion
• Spending 290 million on this election
If they lost the presidential
election, why was the Populist
Party considered a success?
• 16th Amendment—Graduated Income
Tax
• 17th Amendment—Direct Election of
Senators
• Initiative & referendum
• Australian (secret) ballot