The populist movement is a variety of reform initiatives associated with popular sentiment. The Populists dreamed of creating a broad political coalition. Populism however, appealed to small farmers in particular with economic security. Out in the Midwest, Populists were typically family farmers who wanted their land back or tried to keep it in the first place. In the South, there were many modest landowners as well as sharecroppers and tenant farmers. Throughout all the differences most Populist had one thing in common: there were associated with a type of farming. Populists tended to be not only economically but also culturally marginal. The Populist movement appealed to all isolated farmers who felt cut off from the world. It gave everyone a way back; it also gave them a social life, the need to be there for the community. The Populists did not attract many groups. They gave energetic efforts to try an include labor within the coalition. In 1890 Populists won control of the Kansas state legislature, and Kansan William Peffer became the party’s first U.S. Senator. Peffer, a saw little evidence of Populism in their states and often treated the party as a joke. However, Southern and Western Populists gained support rapidly. In 1892 the national party was officially founded through a merger of the Knights of Labor and Farmers’ Alliance. The Panic of 1893 brought up the most severe depression the nation and YET experienced. In March 1893 when a company was unable to meet payments on loans, declared bankruptcy. After a few more months, another company failed too. This triggered a collapse of the stock market. A wave of bank failures soon began. It caused a contraction of credit, which meant that many of the new, aggressive, and ... ... middle of paper ... ...o Bryans 176 and received 51.1 percent of the popular vote to Bryans 47.7. Bryan carried the areas of the South and West where miners or struggling staple farmers predominated. The Democratic program, like that of the Populists, had been too narrow to win the national election. For the Populists, the election was a disaster they had gambled everything on their “fusion” with the Democratic Party and lost. Within months of the election, the People’s party began to dissolve. American farmers would never again unite so to demand economic reform. The election of 1896 overall was no good and a complete waste of time to the Populists. With the Democratic Party’s last they lost all momentum. After the depression started everything for the populists started to go downhill from there. The last of their strength and wit was placed into the election with the opposite effect.
...hey lacked the followers that would enable them to push their ideas further, so in the end the Populists slowly died out but the ideas remained which became a driving force during the progressive era. The Populists can be seen as the stepping stone which it gathered and helped people to realize that a change was needed, without this would the progressive era still have the drive that brought people together?
The populist movement occurred in the late 19th century, formed from the Grangers movement where its goal was ta movement for people, to change the economic system where it would benefit farmers. The grange movement rapidly declined in the 1870s and was replaced by the farmer alliances. The farmer alliances were more political rather then social. The farmer’s alliance later formed the populist. The populist movement is considered to be an agrarian revolt by farmers and those concerned with agriculture, because in the gilded age many people were moving to rural areas where banks and industrial systems were superior over agriculture. The high tariffs, decentralization of currency, and decreasing crop prices were hurting the farmers. Founded by James B Weaver and Tom Watson, they wanted the government to have a stronger control over banking and industries. Populism pursued limited coinage of silver and adjusted income tax so the wealthy would be paying more than the poor. They wanted free coinage of silver because this would eventually help the farmers pay off their debts. Parallel, they wanted the government to have control over railroads, telephone and telegraph systems. They wanted to government to be more in control and involved in the economy and most of all, wanted to stop laissez faire. They aimed for a secret ballot and direct election where the president would only hold office for 1 term. Although they won several seats in congress, the Populist Party never won any presidential elections. The Democrats supported much of the Populists goals. Nevertheless, they voted Democrat William Jennings Bryan for the presidency. His goal of unlimited coinage of silver gained the support of the Populist Party uncovered injustice...
Mortgages had foreclosed and agricultural prices fell by almost one half. Investments collapsed and price in land dropped. The drop lead to land speculation and the expansion of banks and the Second Bank of the United States. Export of agricultural goods and Import of manufactured goods increased. Their was widespread foreclosures and bank failures. All of these events ultimately lead to The Panic of 1819.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the economy was booming, new technology flourished. The rapid industrialization brought achievement to the United States, however, it also caused several social problems. Wealth and power were concentrated in the hands of a few, and poverty and political corruption were widespread. As people became aware of these problems, a new reform group was created. Unlike populism, which had been a group of farmers grown desperate as the economy submerged into depression, the new reform movement arose from the educated middle class. These people were known as the progressives. The Progressive Movement was a movement that aimed at solving political, economic, and social problems. The Progressives were people from the middle class who had confidence that they could achieve social progress through political reform. The Progressives sought after changes and improvements in the society through laws and other federal actions.
Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, farmers organized collectively, at first locally, and eventually nationally into the Farmers Alliance, an organization that promoted economic cooperation and broad economic reform to protect the interests of farmers. Both of these movements helped to create the People’s Party, and Populist Party, which officially established its party platform in Omaha, Nebraska. With the economy still poor, there was widespread discontent with the two existing major political parties. Democrats had held the White House for the previous four years and were widely blamed for the severe economic depression of 1893. Before the democratic convention Bryan had traveled through the west, speaking passionately for the unlimited coinage
In all the history of America one thing has been made clear, historians can’t agree on much. It is valid seeing as none of them can travel back in time to actually experience the important events and even distinguish what has value and what doesn’t. Therefore all historians must make a leap and interpret the facts as best they can. The populist movement does not escape this paradox. Two views are widely accepted yet vastly different, the views of Richard Hofstadter and Lawrence Goodwyn. They disagree on whether populists were “isolated and paranoid bigots” or “sophisticated, empathetic egalitarians”; whether their leaders were “opportunists who victimized them” or “visionary economic theorists who liberated them”; whether their beliefs were rooted in the free silver campaign of the 1890s or the cooperative movement of the 1880s; and finally whether their ideal society was in the “agrarian past” or “the promise of a cooperative future”. They could not agree on anything, over all Richard Hofstadter seems to have a better idea of the truth of populism.
The Populists and Progressive were form of movement that occurred during the outbreaks of the workers union after the civil war. The populists began during the late 1800s.The progressive began during the 1900s. There are many differences between these two movements, but yet these movements have many things that are similar.
In short, reformers were fed up with inept government, and believed that through economic and social reforms, they can influence the government to enact the changes they desire.
The election of 1896 changed American politics forever. The Populist Party came to its end as its members joined other major parties. Gold had also become the national standard and ended up benefitting the United States. However, the inflation helped the debt-ridden farmers and helped them pay their mortgages. Bryans lost marked the end of trying to win the presidency by the rural vote. Though our country was out of its depression and going well, there may have been others who wanted to reform issues to help our country
After settlements were established, farmers opposed the government. The farmers united to form their opposing union that would lead their opposing movement and solve their common problems that they had with economic distress and railroads. The grange and farmers´ alliances surged with the quest to get the government to support them. The rise of the populist party caused a scare and panic to other government groups, but it didn´t last, the populist party collapsed.
President Herbert Hoover tried to use governmental power to check the economic downfall but did so without success. Critics of Hoover claimed that his policies were too conservative and lacked imagination. His defenders maintained that, regardless of the president's efforts, the depression just had to run its course. But millions of Americans could not afford to wait for the economic system to correct itself. The depression had caused not only financial disaster but also and perhaps the most important, a loss of personal pride, status and sense of self-respect. Many Americans demanded prompt and immediate action. As a result all indications pointed to a sweeping Democratic victory in the 1932 presidential election.
The progressive reform movement has some constituencies for reform. Two groups that supported the reform were the populists and the civil service reformers. Both of these groups served as an important ally to the core groups in the Progressive movement. The populists was a group that consisted of farmers and small merchants that had been destroyed by other groups that were much larger such as railroads, bankers, and the other economic forces. The civil service reformers were a small but growing number of people that “saw the problem of patronage primarily in moralistic terms” (pg. 34) according to Knott and Miller. The difference between the populists and the civil service reformers was that the populists usually weren’t educated and had less money while the civil service reformers made it their goal to put forth their best men, those with money and generally upper class, professional men.
"After 1815 Americans transformed the republic of the Founding Fathers into a democracy. State after state revoked property qualifications for voting and holding officethus transforming Jefferson's republic of property holders into Andrew Jackson's mass democracy. Democracy, however, was not for everyone. While states extended political rights to all white men, they often withdrew or limited such rights for blacks. As part of the same trend, the state of New Jersey took the vote away from propertied women, who formerly had possessed that right. Thus the democratization of citizenship applied exclusively to white men. In the mid19th century, these men went to the polls in record numbers. The election of 1828 attracted 1.2 million voters; that number jumped to 1.5 million in 1836 and to 2.4 million in 1840. Turnout of eligible voters by 1840 was well over 60 percenthigher than it had ever been, and much higher than it is now." (Remini, 1998)
The stock market crash of 1929 was the primary event that led to the collapse of stability in the nation and ultimately paved the road to the Great Depression. The crash was a wide range of causes that varied throughout the prosperous times of the 1920’s. There were consumers buying on margin, too much faith in businesses and government, and most felt there were large expansions in the stock market. Because of all these positive views that the people of the American society possessed, people hardly looked at the crises in front of them.... ...
The more well-known Populist movement came to fruition from the lesser known Grange Movement, when farmers were being adversely affected by falling crop prices due to overproduction, sought to change their ever-dismal situation. Such a movement became present in nearly every state in the nation during the 1860s and 1870s, and provided a pedestal for farmers to air their grievances and propose courses of action. During the middle of the 1870s, The Grange Movement had a million members spread out across twenty thousand branches (Norton, p. 610). It started out as a social organization, providing an empowering effect on farmers who were constantly faced with adversity. Oliver Hudson Kelley, an employee of the Department of Agriculture, was responsible for the club’s development in the immediate years following the Civil War, which was originally called the Patrons of Husbandry. Members turned to activism during this time period, advocating economic issues that would be beneficial to working-class Americans. Such efforts included a push to keep paper money, which was enter...