Populist Party (United States)

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Populist Party campaign poster from 1904
Populist Party campaign poster from 1904

The Populist Party (also known as the People's Party) was a relatively short-lived political party in the United States in the late 19th century. It flourished particularly among western farmers, based largely on its opposition to the gold standard. The party did not remain a lasting feature of the political landscape, though many of its ideas have. The very term "populist" has since become a generic term in U.S. politics for politics which appeals to the common in opposition to established interests.

At least three distinct American parties have used the term populist in their names since 1924. See "Recent Incarnations" section below.

Contents

[edit] History

The U.S. presidential election of 1892
The U.S. presidential election of 1892

The Populist Party grew out of the agrarian revolt that rose to the collapse of agriculture prices following the Panic of 1873. The Farmers' Alliance, formed in Lampasas, TX in 1876, promoted collective economic action by farmers and achieved widespread popularity in the South and Great Plains. The Farmers' Alliance was ultimately unable to achieve its wider economic goals of collective economic action against brokers, railroads, and merchants, and many in the movement agitated for changes in national policy. By the late 1880s, the Alliance had developed a political agenda that called for regulation and reform in national politics, most notably an opposition to the gold standard to counter the deflation in agricultural prices.

The drive to create a new political party out of the movement arose from the refusal of both Democrats and Republicans to take up and promote the policies advocated by the Alliance, notably in regard to the Populists' call for unlimited coinage of silver. The Populist Party was formed by members of the "Alliance", in conjunction with the Knights of Labor, in 1889–1890. The movement reached its peak in 1892 when the party held a convention in Omaha, Nebraska and nominated candidates for the national election.

The party's platform, commonly known as the Omaha Platform, called for the abolition of national banks, a graduated income tax, direct election of Senators, civil service reform, a working day of eight hours and Government control of all railroads, telegraphs, and telephones. In the 1892 Presidential election, James B. Weaver received 1,027,329 votes. Weaver carried four states (Colorado, Kansas, Idaho, and Nevada) and received electoral votes from Oregon and North Dakota as well.

Populist Party convention held at Columbus, Nebraska, July 15, 1890.
Populist Party convention held at Columbus, Nebraska, July 15, 1890.

The party flourished most among farmers in the Southwest and Great Plains, as well as making significant gains in the South, where they faced an uphill battle given the firmly entrenched monopoly of the Democratic Party. Opposition to the gold standard was especially strong among western farmers, who viewed the inherent scarcity of gold (and its slow movement through the banking system) as an instrument of Eastern banking interests who could force mass bankruptcies among farmers in the west by instigating "credit crunches". Many western farmers rallied around the Populist banner in the belief that greenbacks not backed by a hard mineral standard would allow credit to flow more freely through rural regions. Free silver platform received widespread support across class lines in the Mountain states, where the economy was heavily dependent upon silver mining. The Populists were the first political party in the United States to actively include women in their affairs. At a time when cultural attitudes of white supremacy were permeating all aspects of American life, a number of southern Populists, including Thomas E. Watson, openly talked of the need for poor blacks and poor whites to set aside their racial differences in the name of shared economic self-interest. Regardless of these rhetoric appeals, however, racism did not evade the People's Party. In fact, after the party's disintegration, Watson himself later became an outspoken white supremacist.

[edit] Presidential election of 1896

By 1896, the Democratic Party took up many of the Populist Party's causes at the national level, and the party began to fade from national prominence. In that year's presidential election, the Populists nominated Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan; he backed the Populist opposition to the gold standard in his famous "Cross of Gold" speech. The Populists could not bring themselves to also nominate Bryan's wealthy running mate, Arthur Sewall, and nominated Thomas E. Watson for vice president instead, though Watson staunchly opposed fusion with the Democrats. The 1896 convention was the Coliseum of the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall which in the same month hosted the 1896 Republican National Convention. Bryan lost to William McKinley by a margin of 600,000 votes. The effects of fusion with the Democrats were disastrous to the Party in the south. Collaboration with the racist Democratic establishment effectively ended the Populist/Republican alliance which had governed North Carolina with the support of African Americans. By 1898, the North Carolinian Populists were attempting to out-flank the Democrats with a virulently racist campaign. [1]

In 1900, while many Populist voters supported Bryan again, the weakened party nominated a ticket of Wharton Barker and Ignatius L. Donnelly. Thomas E. Watson was the Populist nominee for president in 1904 and in 1908, after which the party effectively ceased to exist.

[edit] Legacy

The nation remained at least partially on the gold standard until 1973, when President Nixon revoked it. However, the Populists' notion of allowing silver to become legal tender was noted and adopted by the US Government, but only for a short period of time. On the same note there exist historians who would cite the Sherman Silver Purchase Act as a major contributing factor to the depression of 1893.

In addition, the Populist Party's call for the direct election of senators was realized in 1913 with the ratification of the seventeenth amendment.

[edit] Elected officials

[edit] Governors

[edit] United States Congress

Approximately forty-five members of the party served in the U.S. Congress between 1891 and 1902. These included six United States Senators:

The following were Populist members of the U.S. House of Representatives:

52nd United States Congress

53rd United States Congress

54th United States Congress

55th United States Congress

56th United States Congress

  • William Ledyard Stark, Nebraska's 4th congressional district
  • Roderick Dhu Sutherland, Nebraska's 5th congressional district
  • William Laury Greene, Nebraska's 6th congressional district
  • John W. Atwater, North Carolina's 4th congressional district

57th United States Congress

[edit] Recent incarnations

[edit] People's Party

In the 1970s, a "People's Party" was established as a left-wing, anti-war coalition. It ceased to exist after 1976.

[edit] Populist Party (right-wing)

In 1984, the Populist Party name was revived by some extreme right activists including Willis Carto. The party's 1984 presidential nominee, Olympic medalist and ordained minister Bob Richards, and running mate Maureen Salaman carried 66,324 votes. This party became the electoral vehicle for the right-wing Presidential campaigns of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in 1988, and of former Green Beret officer Bo Gritz in 1992, but was defunct by 1996. Willis Carto and party chair Don Wassall were said to be rivals competing for control of the party. In 1994 the anti-Carto group won the internal struggle and re-organized the group as the American Nationalist Union.

[edit] Electoral history

[edit] Populist Party of America

A new group officially formed in 2002 calling itself the Populist Party of America (http://www.populistamerica.com), which advocates direct democracy and a "strict adherence to the Bill of Rights" as well as a general opposition to President George W. Bush and the Iraq War. This party is registered with the Federal Election Commission (at a Los Angeles address) but has not yet fielded candidates for president or established itself as an electoral force.[5]

[edit] Populist Parties, 2004-present

Meanwhile, the name Populist Party was adopted in 2004 by groups in several states seeking a ballot line for independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader. The Populist Party of Maryland was one of those groups, but unlike most, it continued to exist after Nader's poor showing in 2004. In the 2006 United States Senate election in Maryland, the Populist Party of Maryland supported a fusion ticket of Green Party, Libertarian Party, and Populist supporters for U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Zeese, a founder of the PPMD and 2004 press secretary for Ralph Nader. The Maryland Populists also nominated candidates for governor and lieutenant governor of the state.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Graham, Nicholas (June 2005). The Election of 1898 in North Carolina: An Introduction. The North Carolina Election of 1898. University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
  2. ^ StateMaster - StateMaster Survey
  3. ^ StateMaster - 1988 > Popular Votes for David Duke (most recent) by state
  4. ^ 1992 Presidential General Election Results
  5. ^ FEC Disclosure Report Search Results. Federal Election Commission. Retrieved on 2008-02-06.

[edit] References

  • Goodwyn, Lawrence. 1978. The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (ISBN 0-19-502416-8 or ISBN 0-19-502417-6)
  • Hicks, John D. The Sub-Treasury: A Forgotten Plan for the Relief of Agriculture . Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Dec., 1928), pp. 355-373. First page available here: [1].
  • Kazin, Michael. 1995. The Populist Persuasion: An American History. New York: Basic Books. (ISBN 0-465-03793-3)
  • Lester, Connie. Up from the Mudsills of Hell : The Farmers' Alliance, Populism, And Progressive Agriculture in Tennessee, 1870-1915. University of Georgia Press. March 2006. Hardcover. ISBN 0-8203-2762-X.
  • McMath, Robert C. Jr. 1993. American Populism: A Social History 1877-1898. New York: Hill and Wang; Farrar, Straus & Giroux. (ISBN 0-8090-7796-5)
  • Nugent, Walter T. K. 1962. The Tolerant Populists: Kansas Populism and Nativism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Stock, Catherine McNicol. 1996. Rural Radicals: Righteous Rage in the American Grain. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. (ISBN 0-8014-3294-4)

[edit] External links

[edit] Contemporary accounts

[edit] Party publications and materials

[edit] Secondary sources

[edit] External links — later parties

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