I. Politics from 1870s to 1890s

• Political culture
• Following the Civil War, politics took on air of parades and pageantry
• these events provided excitement and entertainment to the masses
• political rituals helped voters make sense out of complex issues and helped get young men involved with partisan politics
• spectacular campaigns simplified politics by reducing voter options to two political opposites
• reinforced partisanship
• resulted in high voter turnouts--almost 80% in some presidential elections
• Beginning in late 1870s, liberal upperclass, college-educated reformers (often referred to as Mugwumps) began a series of reforms as a response to what they saw as political corruption
• reforms included: political pressure groups, modifying or eliminating the patronage system, and adopting the secret ballot
• also developed an educational political style designed to convince undecided voters to go for their candidates--this led to lack of emotional attachment to parties and a rapid decline in voter turnout
• During the 1896 election, party leaders tried to restore emotion and simplicity to politics through use of advertisement based campaigns--emphasis on personality of the candidate rather than party loyalties
• Presidential and congressional politics (1877-1894)
• From Rutherford B. Hayes through Grover Cleveland, presidents showed little flair or initiative
• most content to hold the office, made little effort to assume strong leadership position
• these presidents took a pro-business stance, advocating that government not interfere with operations of business (at least not in a harmful manner)
• Congressional policy during this period focused on building the nation's economic strength--what was good for business was good for America

• Changes in rhythms of traditional rural life
• Farmers not isolated people living in island communities
• they were tied directly into an agricultural market economy
• they enjoyed extensive networks of kinship and friendship
• Change brought about by:
• spread of railroads
• merchants began to set up shops in the towns and crossroad communities, providing points of contact between farmers and the larger markets
• the railroad and the country store brought machines and chemical fertilizers which made farming more productive (and at same time more dependent on credit)
• In the west and south, farmers of two minds about the networks of transportation and trade that linked them to the outside world
• farmers knew railroads and markets were as essential to their way of life as theland itself--and saw that these agents of modernity held great promise
• at same time, farmers increasingly viewed railroads and markets as engines of oppression
• Farmers' vision of a well-ordered society dated back to a body of thought stemming from the founding fathers
• set of ideas frequently called radical republicanism (or producerism)
• based on simple idea that the producer deserves the fruits of his or her work (compare with beliefs of Knights of Labor and American Socialist Party)
• the enemies of this ideology were the "special privilieges" or monopolies
• banks held monopolies over credit
• land syndicates monopolized acreage
• manufacturers who substituted traditional relations of shop with wage slavery
• railroads who monopolized transportation
• Origins of the Farmers Alliances
• During the 1880s and early 1890s, western and southern farmers felt the federal government was unresponsive to their problems
• falling agricultural prices
• tight money supply, high interest rates and debt
• overcharging by farm-implement dealers, grain-elevator operators, and railroads
• Political efforts
• At first, farmers had turned to the Grange and to the Greenback party for political assistance, but those efforts produced little
• In the mid-1880s, farmers began to join Farmers' Alliances
• Southern
• National Colored
• Northwestern
• National Farmers' Alliance (umbrella organization)
• Alliances originally formed as cooperatives, seeking to give more buying and selling power to farmers through collective effort
• By 1890, the different Alliances began to back candidates for election--helping elect 4 governors and gaining control of 11 state legislatures, 3 senators and 50 congressmen
• Dissatisfaction with traditional parties lead alliance members to form the People's Party (Populists) in 1892
• Meet in Omaha in 1892 and draft platform which calls for:
• tariff reduction
• graduated income tax
• public ownership of the railroads and telegraphs
• free silver
• prohibition of land ownership by aliens
• Leonidas Polk (of N.C.), head of National and Southern Farmers' Alliances was to have been pres. candidate, but he dies of heart attack just before convention
• James B. Weaver becomes Populist candidate
• Populists got over 1 million votes (8.5% of total), elected five senators, ten congressmen, and 3 governors
• Election of 1892 showed weaknesses
• no support from New England, urban parts of the East, and the Midwest
• no support from organized labor
• Death by compromise--the election of 1896
• Populist movement dead by 1896
• Grover Cleveland elected again in 1892
• Nation goes into severe depression in 1893, lasts until 1897--worst ever up to that time
• Unemployment in industrial sector as high as 25%
• farm prices drop 1/5, finishing off many farmers
• In 1894, Jacob Coxey leads an "army" of unemployed demanding public-work efforts to create jobs--he's arrested and demonstration broken
• Middle and upper class frightened by unrest
• Appeal of Populist Party should be high
• Election of 1896
• Free silver becomes big symbolic issue--symbolizing the deep split between economic classes
• creditors fear abandonment of gold standard will lead to runaway inflation and ruin
• debt-ridden farmes see silver as way to ease credit problems, raise farm prices, and return prosperity
• Democratic National convention
• western and southern delegates gain control
• write platform calling for free silver and lower tariffs
• Nominate William Jenning Bryan
• 36 year old lawyer from Nebraska who had served 2 terms in Congress
• Great orator--"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"
• "If you burned down all the cities, fields would grow in their places. But if you destroyed all the fields, cities would wither and die."
• Populists aren't satisfied with the Democratic platform (too much emphasis on silver)
• but they fear running a candidate against Bryan would split the farm vote
• they endorse Bryan as the Populist candidate, although they choose a different V.P.
• Republicans nominate Senator William McKinley of Ohio as candidate
• McKinley promises to raise protective tariff to protect industry
• maintain the gold standard
• his campaign receives huge contributions from businessmen who fear Bryan
• Mark Hanna, campaign manager, creates a masterful political advertising stragegy that holds McKinley as a good, God-fearing man and Bryan as a wild-eyed radical (development of cult of personality in politics)
• McKinley beats Bryan by 600,000 votes
• Bryan loses in the Northeast and the big cities of the midwest
• does not appeal to factory workers, urban middle class, or immigrants
• People's Party is dead following the election