populist history mid-term essay

Cassanndre Sager
History 222 Sennet
13 November 2006
Mid Term- Populist Essay

First came the Agricultural Depression, then the Alliance Movement, and from that the Populist, or Peoples', Movement was born. The Populist movement was a direct descendant of the farmers' despair from the agricultural depression. The farmers formed alliances in the hopes of extending their cause to the attention of the public and especially the government, with the goal to have their situations bettered. As these farmers' alliances picked up speed, they joined into a larger group, which- in the search of more support- extended its opinions to other matters in America's society.
The Alliance Movement was born of farmers' alliances- which were basically clubs of farmers that got together to support each other and make their problems known. The Knights of Reliance were a well-known farmer's alliance. It originated in Lampasas County, Texas in the late 1870s. It began to extend its reach to northeastern Texas as the Farmer's Alliance. Bu 1885, the Farmer's Alliance had gained popularity and swept over the cotton states.
The Alliances woul buy farm supplies in mass numbers and then sell the supplies to farmers at reasonable prices. This was a great manuever for saving farmers money in a time when money was tight and prices high.
These Alliance members who were considered socioeconomic radicals by others, had differing ideas of policies that the Alliance should support. However, they all agreed on a few key points. Firstly, agricultural goods did not sell for high enough prices. Secondly, transportation prices were too low. And Thirdly, the United States' financial system was messed up. Also, most every Alliance member recognized the need to have "political action" on their behalf if their cause was to succeed.
In 1890 the Alliances started doing a lot of campaining and got really good results in the elections. People were elected for government positions who were for improving the famers' plight.
In 1892 the Peoples', or Populist, Party was formed at a meeting in St. Louis. A few months laer there was a national convention in Omaha which consisted of farm leaders, representatives from the Knights of Labor, and other proffesional reformers. At this meeting Gerneral James B. Weaver (of Iowa) was nominated the president of the Peoples' Party. General Weaver wrote a platform which stated what the people of the Populist Party desired, and what the goal of the Party was. This platform included:
-having a "graduated income tax"
-national ownership of railroads, telegraphs, and telephones and
-a "subtreasury plan"
The subtreasury plan outlined a plan in which the government would pay greenback loans to farmers, which would be "secured by crops held in storage in federal warehouses" (The American Nation V2 (P). Carnes & Garraty. 2006. Pearson Education Inc.). When prices of crops rose, the farmers would sell their crops and so could pay their loans. The subtreasury plan also desired an unlimited number of silver coins to be released and for the supply of money to be increased to the point where there was at least 50 cents per capita.
The Populist Party needed to get more support in order to have their cause realized. It needed both government and industrial workers' support and black farmers' support. In order to achieve more government response, the Populist Party supported initiative and referandum procedures and also supported the idea of electing senators by popular vote. To get the workers' support, the Party was against Pinkerton detectives being used in labor disputes, and supported the 8-hour day and restricting "undesirable" immigration. The plan to get help from Black Farmers was to support civil rights, which would allow the black farmers to vote, thus giving them a political voice which could be added to the Populist cause. These black farmers were pretty ready to support the Populists. They had had a Colored Alliance for awhile, and had even sent representatives to the Populist meeting in St. Louis.
The Populist Party's overall views was that they were a "victimized majority"- the majority of people agreed with them and suffered as they did, however, they just weren't heard as well as the minorities. They were ambivalent about the free enterprise system, and also believed that socio-economic problems weren't caused by a messed-up system, but rather by people being selfish and messing things up.
Two famous Populist Leaders were Tom Watson and Ignatius Donnelly. Watson was a congressman from Georgia and was known for his temper. Donnelly was known as the "Minnesota Sage" and claimed to be well educated about science, economics, and Shakespeare. Watson ended up loosing his congress seat, and had a basically uneventful Populist political life afterward. Donelly wanted to be elected the governor of Minnesota. He had gained some recognition having written a book called The Golden Bottle, but desired to have an extremely lively campaign to assist his being voted for as governor. In this campaign, he made 150 speeches! (Can you say "overzealous"?) Unfortunately for him, Donnelly ended up loosing the election.