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Chapter Twenty
Commonwealth and Empire,
1870–1900
Section 1
American Communities
The Cooperative Commonwealth
• Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward described a
utopian society in which the economy was under
the collective ownership of the people.
– Suggested the fullest development of each
person is possible in a cooperative, egalitarian
society
– People enjoyed short workdays, long vacations, and
retired at age 45.
• The Point Loma community was established
near San Diego in 1897.
– It was a communal society that provided both
private and shared housing.
– No one earned wages.
– The men sought self-sufficiency through
agriculture while the women made clothing to
be worn.
– The members of the community shared two
meals a day and spent leisure time together.
– Donations from admirers and wealthy members
allowed the community to last for decades.
Section 2
Toward a National Governing
Class
The Growth of Government
• The size and scope of government at all
levels grew rapidly during the gilded age.
– Because society became more complex &
interdependent
• New employees, agencies, and
responsibilities changed the character of
government.
• Taxes increased as local governments assumed
responsibility for providing such vital services as
police, fire protection, water, schools, and parks.
• Departments that grew were:
– Department of Agriculture
– Department of the Treasury
– Department of the Interior
• The Interstate Commerce Commission was
created to regulate commercial activity that
the states could not
The Machinery of Politics
• The federal government developed its
departmental bureaucracy.
• Power resided in Congress and the state
legislatures.
• The Political Parties in the late 19th century were
local and state organizations using political
machines
– A group that controls the activities of a political
party
– Using bribe money & personal favors
• The two political parties only gradually adapted
to the demands of the new era.
– Political campaigns featured the vision that reflected
the strong competition for votes.
– Political machines financed their campaigns through
kickbacks and bribes and ensured support by
providing services for working-class neighborhoods.
• Offices were filled by the spoils system that
rewarded friends of the winning party.
• Tariffs increased in the late 19th century
The Spoils System and Civil Service Reform
• In 1885, Congress passed the Pendleton
Civil Service Reform Act that created the
civil service system and a professional
bureaucracy.
– Established a commission to set guidelines for
civil service personal
• Qualifications
– Spur the development of regulatory societies
• Maintaining groups
– Ban the assessment of a “tax” on the salaries of
holders of party sponsored jobs
– Had to pass an exam
• The legislative branch was also given a more
active role in government under the Circuit
Court of Appeals Act of 1891.
– Congress granted the U.S. Supreme Court the right
to review all cases at will.
Section 3
Farmers and Workers Organize
Their Communities
The Grange
• Farmers and workers built movements that
challenged the existing system.
• The Grange formed in the 1870s by farmers
in the Great Plains and South who suffered
boom and bust conditions and natural
disasters.
• The Grangers
– Built grain elevators & manufactured farm
equipment
– Sponsored social occasions that improved the
farmers lives
– Responded to the farmers frustration over
falling farm prices & high interest rates
• Grangers blamed hard times on a band of
“thieves in the night,” especially railroads, and
pushed through laws regulating shipping rates
and other farm costs.
– The depression of the late 1870s wiped out most
of these programs.
The Farmers’ Alliance
• The Alliance sought
to:
– Limit the salaries of
public officials
– Provide public
schools students
with books for free
or a small fee
– Wanted a program of
teacher certification
– New state colleges
• The Party Platform
– state ownership of
railroads
– Graduated income
tax & lower tariffs
– Restriction of land
ownership to citizens
• Northern Plains farmer organizations soon
joined the Alliance.
• Midwestern farm groups battled railroad
influence.
• By 1890, the Alliance was a major power in
several states demanding a series of economic
reforms.
Workers Search for Power
• In 1877, a “Great Uprising” shut down
railroads all across the country.
– Federal troops were called out, precipitating
violence.
– Government created national guards to prevent
similar occurrences.
• Workers organized stronger unions that
increasingly resorted to strikes and created
labor parties.
• Efforts to set higher standards in society,
promote professionalism, and protect the public
included:
– Passage of the Circuit Court of Appeals Act of
1891
• This Act created 9 more courts and dropped
the work load for the Supreme Court
Justices
– Establishment of the American Medical
Association
• Continuing medical education
• Largest association of physicians & medical
student in the United States
– Establishment of the American Historical
Association
• Promotes historical studies and the
preservation and access to historical
documents
• Henry George ran for mayor of New York on
the United Labor Party ticket and finished a
respectable second.
• In the late 1880s, labor parties won seats on
numerous city councils and in state
legislatures in industrial areas where workers
outnumbered other classes.
Women Build Alliances
• Women actively shaped labor and agrarian
protest.
• Women’s Christian Temperance Movement
Union was the most effective organization
advocating the right to vote for women
– They also worked to reform the prison system
– As well as wanting total abstinence from
alcoholic beverages
• The Knights included women at their national
convention and even ran day-care centers and baking
cooperatives.
• Women were active members in the Grange and
Alliances.
• The greatest female leader was Frances E. Willard,
who:
– was president of the Women’s Christian
Temperance Union
– mobilized nearly 1 million women to promote
reform and to work for women’s suffrage
Populism and the People’s Party
• Between 1890 and 1892, the Farmers’ Alliance, the
Knights of Labor, the National Colored Farmers’
Alliance and other organizations formed the
People’s Party.
• The People’s Party platform called for:
– government ownership of railroads, banks, and
the telegraph
– the eight-hour day
– the graduated income tax, and other reforms
• Though the party lost the 1892 presidential
race, Populists elected three governors, ten
congressional representatives, and five
senators.
Section 4
The Crisis of the 1890s
The Depression of 1893
• In 1893, the collapse of the nation’s major rail
lines precipitated a major depression.
• Full recovery was not achieved until the early
1900s.
– Unemployment soared and many suffered great
hardships.
– Tens of thousands took to the road in search of
work or food.
• Jacob Coxey called for a march on Washington to
demand relief through public works programs.
– “Coxey’s Army” was greeted warmly by most
communities on the way to Washington.
– The attorney general, who was a former lawyer for
a railroad company, conspired to stop the march.
– Police clubbed and arrested the marchers for
trespassing on the grass in Washington.
Strikes: Coeur d’Alene, Homestead,
and Pullman
• Strikes were sparked by wage cuts, longer
work days, and big business attempts to
destroy unions.
• In Coeur d’Alene, Idaho a strike by miners
involved peaceful protests as well as a
violence-plagued strike that was broken up
by federal and state troops.
– The miners formed the Western Federation of
Miners.
• Homestead Strike
– Employer and
employees had been in
negotiations for
months
– General Manager
announced wage cuts
of 20%
– Workers fire at factory
• More than 10 people
died
• Workers thought they had
won
• It was a defeat for the
workers and the unions
• The Steel plant re-opened
and hired non-union
workers
• Carnegie company
reduced their workforce,
cut wages and lengthened
the hours of their
employees
• George Pullman created the sleeping car for
the railroads
• He had a self-contained company
– Factory in the center
– Cottages surrounding the factory
– Library
– Churches
– Water supply
– Cemetery
– No saloons
• He deducted rent, library fees, & grocery bills from
the workers paychecks
• In times of crisis, Pullman would cut the wages
of his employees
• Prices for food and rent remained unchanged
• Pullman Strike
– Eugene V. Debs became a socialist to make the
government more responsive to the workers
• He became the leader for the workers
– On May 11,1894, three thousand Pullman workers
went on a "wildcat" strike, that is, without
authorization of their union
– Many of the strikers belonged to the American
Railroad Union (ARU) founded by Eugene V. Debs.
• He was a socialist
• He wanted to government to respond to the workers
– On June 26, 1894, some ARU members refused to
allow any train with a Pullman car to move, except
those with mail cars. Debs did not want federal
troops to get involved, and he knew that if the
U.S. mail was tampered with, the troops would be
there immediately.
• On July 4, President Grover Cleveland sent in
federal troops to Chicago.
• Debs was arrested
• The Strike ended with the federal troop firing on
strikers, killing 25 people
• Unions were not recognized for the next 30 years
The Social Gospel
• A “social gospel” movement led by ministers such as
Washington Gladden, called for churches to fight
against social injustice.
• This movement tried to influence people to take
action to reform society to benefit all.
• Charles M. Sheldon urged readers to rethink their
actions by asking: “What would Jesus do?”
• The Catholic Church endorsed the right of workers to
form trade unions.
• Immigrant Catholic groups urged priests to ally with
the labor movement.
• Women’s religious groups such as the YWCA (Young
Women’s Christian Association) strove to provide
services for poor women.
The Free Silver Issue
• Grover Cleveland won the 1892 election by
capturing the traditional Democratic South and
German voters alienated by Republican nativist
appeals.
• When the economy collapsed in 1893,
government figures concentrated on longstanding
currency issues to provide a solution.
• The debate was over hard money backed by gold
or soft money backed by silver.
– Cleveland favored a return to the gold standard, losing
much popular support.
Populism's Last Campaign
• The hard times strengthened the Populists, who
were silver advocates.
• They recorded strong gains in 1894.
• But in 1896, when the Democrats nominated William
Jennings Bryan as a champion of free silver, Populists
decided to run a fusion ticket of Bryan and Tom
Watson.
• Republicans ran William McKinley as a safe alternative to
Bryan.
– Republicans characterized Bryan as a dangerous man
who would cost voters their jobs.
• President William McKinley suggested
–
–
–
–
Raising the tariff
Bankruptcy act for small business
Creation of the United States Industrial Commission
Settling the currency questions with the Gold
Standards Act
The Election of 1896
• William Jennings Bryan won the Democratic &
Populist nominations for the President in 1896
because of his support for the free and unlimited
coinage of silver
• Bryan won 46% of the vote but failed to carry the
Midwest, Far West, and Upper South.
– Traditional Democratic groups like Catholics were
uncomfortable with Bryan and voted Republican.
• In the election of 1896 the Republicans spent huge
amount of $ labeling Bryan as a radical
• The Populist party disappeared and the Democrats
became a minority party.
• McKinley promoted a mixture of pro-business and
expansionist foreign policies.
– United States Industrial Commission
• Plan business regulation
– Promoted Bankruptcy act
• This would ease conditions for small business
– Gold Standard Act
• Established that gold was only standard for redeeming
paper money
• The return to prosperity after 1898 insured continued
Republican control.
Section 5
The Age of Segregation
Nativism and Jim Crow
• Neither McKinley nor Bryan addressed the increased
racism and nativism throughout the nation.
• Nativists blamed foreign workers for hard times and
considered them unfit for democracy.
• The decline of the Populist party led to the
establishment
of white supremacy as the political force in the
South.
– Southern whites enacted a system of legal
segregation
and disenfranchised blacks, approved by the
Supreme
Court
• Plessy V Ferguson
– Supreme Court decision that states that facilities
could be separate as long as they were equal
– “Separate but equal”
• Reformers abandoned their traditional
support for black
rights and accepted segregation and
disenfranchisement.
• African Americans were restricted from voting by:
– Poll taxes
•$
– Literacy test
• Ability to read & write
– Property qualifications
• Proof of $300 to $500 in property
– Grandfather clause
• Proof that their grandfathers had voted
Mob Violence and Lynching
• Racial violence escalated.
• In Wilmington, North Carolina “massacre” of 1898 was
an example of the anti-black mob violence to try to
suppress the rights of blacks
• Between 1882 and 1900 lynching's usually exceeded a
hundred each year.
– They were announced in newspapers and became
public spectacles.
– Railroads offered special excursion prices to people
traveling to attend lynching's.
– Postcards were often printed as souvenirs.
• Tom Watson called for political equality for blacks
& whites before 1896
• Ida B. Wells launched a one-woman anti-lynching
crusade.
– She argued that lynching was a brutal device to get rid
of African Americans who were becoming too
powerful or prosperous.
– She published a pamphlet called A Red Record
– National Association of Colored Women was formed
– Showed that most of the lynching victims were not
accused of rape
Section 6
“Imperialism of
Righteousness”
The White Man’s Burden
• Many Americans proposed that the economic crisis
required new markets for American production.
• Others suggested Americans needed new frontiers to
maintain their democracy.
• The Chicago World’s Fair:
– showed how American products might be marketed
throughout the world
– pointed out American superiority and its
opportunities worldwide
• A growing number of writers urged America to take up
the “White Man’s Burden.”
– Imperialism
• Clergymen like Josiah Strong urged Americans to help
Christianize and civilize the world.
– Strong emphasized that saving the souls and bodes of
the less fortunate worldwide
Foreign Missions
• After the Civil War, missionary activity increased
throughout the non-western world.
– College campuses blazed with missionary excitement.
– The YMCA and YWCA embarked on a worldwide crusade
to reach non-Christians.
• Missionaries helped generate public interest in
foreign lands and laid the groundwork for economic
expansion.
An Overseas Empire
• Beginning in the late 1860s, the United States began
expanding overseas.
• Secretary of State William Henry Seward launched
the nation’s Pacific empire by buying Alaska and
expanding the United States presence in Hawaii.
• The U.S. policy emphasized economic control,
particularly in Latin America.
• During the 1880s and 1890s, the United States
strengthened its navy and began playing an
increased role throughout the Western Hemisphere
and the Pacific.
– Great White Fleet sailed around the world
• Boxer Rebellion
–
–
–
–
–
Chinese secret societies like the “Boxers”
They trained in martial arts
Societies did not like the Western ways
May of 1900 the Boxers killed foreign missionaries
Boxer Rebellion
• Violence start by member of a secret society in China, which
prompted the governments of Europe & America to send troops to
squash the rebellion
• In response to this the United States sent troops into
China
Hawaii
• The U.S. annexes Hawaii
– President Harris signed the treaty but could not get
support from the Senate
– President Grover Cleveland found that a majority of
the people in the Hawaii did not want the treaty
– President William McKinley favored the annexation
– The approval went through in 1898
• Hawaii was a stepping-stone to Asian markets.
• In 1899, Secretary of State John Hay
proclaimed the Open Door policy in Asia to
ensure American access and laid the basis for
twentieth-century foreign policy.
– Trade with China
Section 7
The Spanish-American
War
The United States and Cuba
• A movement to gain independence
from Spain began in the 1860s.
• Americans sympathized with Cuban
revolutionaries.
– The Spanish were imposing harsh taxes.
– By 1895, public interest in Cuban affairs
grew, spurred on by grisly horror stories
of Spanish treatment of revolutionaries.
– The Spanish General Weyler deprived the
rebels of food & more recruits
– The people were put in reconcentration
camps
• Died of disease & starvations
– The Spanish as well as the Cubans
destroyed the American property
– Americans were sympathetic
• The Yellow press inflames Opinion
– Joseph Pulitzer & William Randolph Hearst
owned their own newspapers
– Yellow Press-newspapers that used
sensational headlines & exaggerated stories
in order to promote readership
– President McKinley warned the Spanish to
establish peace or the U.S. would step in
– Cuba wanted independence
– Spain would not grant it
– A letter was leaked to Hearst
• It was from Spain’s ambassador to W.D.C.
• It called McKinley weak & stupid
• Hearst gave it the headline “Worst Insult to the
United States in Its History”
• This fueled jingoism- aggressive nationalism
– This worsened the relations with Spain
• The Maine blows up
– Of the 350 officers & crew on board 266 died
– The Yellow Press claimed that Spain was the
one who blew up the Maine
– President McKinley investigated the cause of
the explosion
– They concluded that a mine had destroyed the
ship
– Most people blamed Spain
• The Nation goes to War
– Newspapers “Remember the Maine”
– McKinley asked Congress to for authority to
use force against Spain to end the fighting
in Cuba
– Navy blockade Cuban ports & called more
then 100,000 volunteers
– Spain declared war on the United States
• American were enthusiastic about the war
• 200,000 men enlisted
A “Splendid Little War” in Cuba
• The United States smashed Spanish power in what John
Hay called “a splendid little war.”
• The Platt Amendment protected U. S. interests and
acknowledged its unilateral right to intervene in Cuban
affairs.
– Cuba would have to provide land for the United States
bases
– Cuba could not sign a treaty with the approval of the
United States
– Cuba had to pay back debts to the United States
– U.S. could intervene in Cuba anytime
• The United States also annexed a number of
other Caribbean and Pacific islands including
the Philippines.
• Arguments for the United States to keep
Spain’s formers colonies
– That the people could not rule themselves
– It was the duty of the U.S. to guide the less
civilized
– The colonies needed protection
– If the U.S. did not take them then other countries
would
War in the Philippines
• Initially, Filipino rebels welcomed American troops
in their fight against Spain.
• The goal was to gain foreign markets
• After the United States intended to annex their
country, they turned against their former allies.
• Between 1899 and 1902, Americans fought a war
that led to the death of one in every five Filipinos.
– Supporters defended the war as bringing
civilization to the Filipinos.
– Critics saw the abandonment of traditional
support for self-determination and warned against
bringing in dark-skinned people.
• Reforms lead to promise of self-rule
– William Howard Taft (future president)
became governor if the Philippines
– Extended the limits of self-rule
– Construction of schools, roads & bridges
– 1916-Congress passed the Jones Act
which would ultimately give the
Philippines independence
– 30 years later after the liberation of the
Japanese Islands after WWII the
Philippines became independent
Critics of Empire
• The Filipino war stimulated the founding of an
Anti-Imperialist League that denounced the
war and territorial annexation in no uncertain
terms.
• Anti-Imperialist supporters were
– W.E.B. Du Bois
– Andrew Carnegie
– Charles Francis Adams
– Mark Twain
• Critics cited democratic and racists reasons
for anti-imperialism.
• Most Americans put aside their doubts and
welcomed the new era of aggressive
nationalism.
• Anti-Imperialist members thought that a war was
a threat to the United States’ government, ideals
& population
• REVIEW
1. A Two-Party Stalemate
Two-Party “Balance”
2. Intense
Voter Loyalty
to the
Two Major
Political Parties
3. Well-Defined Voting Blocs
Democratic
Bloc
 White southerners
(preservation of
white supremacy)
 Catholics
 Recent immigrants
(esp. Jews)
 Urban working
poor (pro-labor)
 Most farmers
Republican
Bloc
 Northern whites
(pro-business)
 African Americans
 Northern
Protestants
 Old WASPs (support
for anti-immigrant
laws)
 Most of the middle
class
4. Very Laissez Faire Federal Govt.
 From 1870-1900  Govt. did very
little domestically.
 Main duties of the federal govt.:
 Deliver the mail.
 Maintain a national military.
 Collect taxes & tariffs.
 Conduct a foreign policy.
 Exception  administer the annual
Civil War veterans’ pension.
5. The Presidency as a Symbolic Office
 Party bosses ruled.
 Presidents should
avoid offending any
factions within their
own party.
Senator Roscoe
Conkling
 The President just
doled out federal jobs.
 1865  53,000 people worked for the federal govt.
 1890  166,000
“
“
“
“
“
“
1880 Presidential Election: Republicans
Half Breeds
Stalwarts
Sen. James G. Blaine
(Maine)
compromis
e
James A. Garfield
Sen. Roscoe Conkling
(New York)
Chester A. Arthur (VP)
1880 Presidential Election: Democrats
Inspecting the Democratic Curiosity Shop
1880 Presidential Election
1881: Garfield Assassinated!
Charles Guiteau:
I Am a Stalwart, and Arthur is
President now!
Chester A. Arthur:
The Fox in the Chicken Coop?
Pendleton Act (1883)
 Civil Service Act.
 The “Magna Carta” of
civil service reform.
 1883  14,000 out of
117,000 federal govt.
jobs became civil
service exam positions.
 1900  100,000 out of
200,000 civil service
federal govt. jobs.
Republican “Mugwumps”
 Reformers who wouldn’t re-nominate
Chester A. Arthur.
 Reform to them  create a
disinterested, impartial govt. run by an
educated elite like themselves.
 Social Darwinists.
 Laissez faire government to them:
Favoritism & the spoils system seen as
govt. intervention in society.
Their target was political corruption,
not social or economic reform!
The
Mugwumps
Men may come
and men may go,
but the work of
reform shall go
on forever.
 Will support
Cleveland in the
1884 election.
1884 Presidential Election
Grover Cleveland
* (DEM)
James Blaine
(REP)
A Dirty Campaign
Ma, Ma…where’s my pa?
He’s going to the White House, ha… ha… ha…!
Little Lost Mugwump
Blaine in 1884
Rum, Romanism & Rebellion!
 Led a delegation of
ministers to Blaine in
NYC.
 Reference to the
Democratic Party.
 Blaine was slow to
repudiate the
remark.
Dr. Samuel Burchard
 Narrow victory for
Cleveland [he wins NY
by only 1149 votes!].
1884 Presidential Election
Cleveland’s First Term
 The “Veto Governor” from New York.
 First Democratic elected since 1856.
 A public office is a public trust!
 His laissez-faire presidency:
 Opposed bills to assist the poor as
well as the rich.
 Vetoed over 200 special pension bills
for Civil War veterans!
Bravo, Señor Clevelando!
The Tariff Issue
 After the Civil War, Congress raised
tariffs to protect new US industries.
 Big business wanted to continue this;
consumers did not.
 1885  tariffs earned the US $100 mil.
in surplus!
 Mugwumps opposed it  WHY???
 President Cleveland’s view on tariffs????
 Tariffs became a major issue in the 1888
presidential election.
Filing the Rough Edges
Tariff of 1888
1888 Presidential Election
Grover Cleveland
(DEM)
Benjamin Harrison
* (REP)
Coming Out for Harrison
The Smallest Specimen Yet
1888 Presidential Election
Disposing the Surplus
Changing Public Opinion
 Americans wanted the federal govt. to deal
with growing soc. & eco. problems & to curb
the power of the trusts:
 Interstate Commerce Act – 1887
 Sherman Antitrust Act – 1890
 McKinley Tariff – 1890
 Based on the theory that prosperity
flowed directly from protectionism.
 Increased already high rates another 4%!
 Rep. Party suffered big losses in 1890 (even
McKinley lost his House seat!).
1892 Presidential Election
Grover Cleveland
again! * (DEM)
Benjamin Harrison
(REP)
1892 Presidential Election
Cleveland Loses Support Fast!
 The only President to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
 Blamed for the 1893 Panic.
 Defended the gold standard.
 Used federal troops in the 1894
Pullman strike.
 Refused to sign the Wilson-Gorman
Tariff of 1894.
 Repealed the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act.
• REVIEW
The Silver Issue
 “Crime of ’73”  demonetization of
silver (govt. stopped coining silver).
 Bland-Allison Act (1878)  limited
silver coinage to $2-$4 mil. per mo.
(based on the 16:1 ratio of silver to
gold).
 Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)
 The US Treasury must purchase
$4.5 mil. oz. of silver a month.
 Govt. deposited most silver in the
US Treasury rather than circulation.
Price Indexes for Consumer &
Farm Products: 1865-1913
Founder of the National Grange of
the Patrons of Husbandry (1867)
The Grange Movement
 First organized in the 1870s in the
Midwest, the south, and Texas.
 Set up cooperative associations.
 Social and educational components.
 Succeeded in lobbying for “Granger
Laws.”
 Rapidly declined by the late 1870s.
Supreme Court Decisions
 Munn vs. Illinois (1877)
 Wabash, St. Louis, &
Pacific Railroad Company vs.
Illinois (1886)
Gift
for the
Grangers:
The
Farmer
Pays
for All!
The Farmers Alliances
 Begun in the late 1880s (Texas first 
the Southern Alliance; then in the
Midwest  the Northern Alliance).
 Built upon the ashes of the Grange.
 More political and less social than the
Grange.
 Ran candidates for office.
 Controlled 8 state legislatures & had 47
representatives in Congress during the
1890s.
United We
Stand,
Divided We
Fall
 In 1889 both
the Northern and
Southern Alliances
merged into one—the
Farmers’ Alliance.
The Populist (Peoples’) Party
 1890 Bi-Election:
So. Alliance  wanted to
gain control of the Democratic Party.
No. Alliance  ran 3rd Party candidates.
 1892  800 met in St. Louis, MO
majority were Alliance members.
over 100 were African Americans.
reps. of labor organizations & other
reformers (Grange, Greenback Party).
Platform of Lunacy
The Populist (Peoples’) Party
 Founded by James B. Weaver
and Tom Watson.
 Omaha, NE Convention in July,
1892.
 Got almost 1 million popular
votes.
 Several Congressional seats
won.
James B. Weaver,
Presidential Candidate
&
James G. Field, VP
Omaha Platform of 1892
1.
Abolition of the National Bank.
2.
3.
4.
5.
System of “sub-treasuries.”
Direct election of Senators.
Govt. ownership of RRs, telephone &
telegraph companies.
Government-operated postal savings banks.
6.
Restriction of undesirable immigration.
7.
8-hour work day for government employees.
8.
Abolition of the Pinkerton detective agency.
9.
Australian secret ballot.
10. Re-monitization of silver.
11. A single term for President & Vice President.
Govt.-Owned Companies
1892 Election
Bi-Metallism Issue
Causes of the 1893 Panic
 Begun 10 days after Cleveland took office.
1. Several major corps. went bankrupt.
 Over 16,000 businesses disappeared.
 Triggered a stock market crash.
 Over-extended investments.
2. Bank failures followed causing a contraction
of credit [nearly 500 banks closed].
3. By 1895, unemployment reached 3 million.
 Americans cried out for relief, but the Govt.
continued its laissez faire policies!!
Here Lies Prosperity
Written by a Farmer at the
End of the 19c
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.
Coxey’s Army, 1894
 Jacob Coxey & his “Army of
the Commonweal of Christ.”
 March on Washington  “hayseed socialists!”
Result of Election Returns
 Populist vote
increased by
40% in the
bi-election year,
1894.
 Democratic
party losses in
the West were
catastrophic!
 But, Republicans
won control of
the House.
Gold / Silver Bug
Campaign Pins
William Jennings Bryan
(1860-1925)
The “Great Commoner”
William Jennings Bryan
 Revivalist style of oratory.
Prairie avenger,
mountain lion,
Bryan, Bryan, Bryan,
Bryan,
Gigantic troubadour,
speaking like a siege
gun,
Smashing Plymouth Rock
with his boulders
from the West.
Bryant’s
“Cross of Gold” Speech
You shall not
press down upon
the brow of labor
this crown of
thorns; you shall
not crucify
mankind upon a
cross of gold!
Bryan: The Farmers Friend
(The Mint Ratio)
18,000 miles of campaign “whistle stops.”
Democratic
Party
Taken Over
by the
Agrarian
Left
Platform  tariff reductions; income tax; stricter
control of the trusts (esp. RRs); free silver.
Mark Hanna:
The “Front-Porch” Campaign
William McKinley (1843-1901)
Mark Hanna to Candidate
McKinley
“A Giant Straddle”: Suggestion
for a McKinley Political Poster
The Seasoned
Politician
vs.
The “Young”
Newcomer
Joshua A. Levering: Prohibition
Party
Into Which
Box Will the
Voter
of ’96 Place
His Ballot?
1896 Election Results
Why Did Bryan Loose?
 His focus on silver undermined
efforts to build bridges to urban
voters.
 He did not form alliances with
other groups.
 McKinley’s campaign was well-
organized and highly funded.
Gold Triumphs Over Silver
 1900  Gold
Standard Act
 confirmed the
nation’s
commitment to
the gold standard.
 A victory for the
forces of
conservatism.
The Wizard
of Oz
by L. Frank
Baum
1964: Henry Littlefield’s
“Thesis”?
“Parable of the Populists”?

Tornado  ?

Dorothy  ?





Kansas  ?
Tin Woodsman  ?
The Wizard  ?



Oz  ?
Munchkins  ?
Wicked Witch of the
West  ?
Scarecrow  ?

Flying Monkeys  ?
Cowardly Lion  ?

Yellow Winkies  ?


Emerald City  ?

Toto  ?
Wicked Witch of the
East  ?

Silver Slippers  ?

Yellow Brick Road  ?
Heyday of Western Populism
Why Did Populism Decline?
1. The economy experienced rapid change.
2. The era of small producers and
farmers was fading away.
3. Race divided the Populist Party,
especially in the South.
4. The Populists were not able to break
existing party loyalties.
5. Most of their agenda was co-opted by
the Democratic Party.
But, Populism Still Lives!
Al Gore (Dem) in 2000
But, Populism Still Lives!
John Edwards (Dem) in 2008