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The Gilded Age & the Progressive Era (1877–1917)

History SparkNotes

The Rise and Fall of Populism: 1892–1896

The West: 1860–1900

The Rise and Fall of Populism: 1892–1896, page 2

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1885 Farmers’ Alliance forms
1891 Populist Party forms
1892 Grover Cleveland is elected president again
1893 Depression of 1893
1894 “Coxey’s Army” marches on Washington, D.C. Congress passes the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Eugene V. Debs organizes Pullman Strike in Chicago
1895 J. P. Morgan bails out U.S. government
1896 William Jennings Bryan delivers “Cross of Gold” speech William McKinley is elected president
1897 Congress passes Dingley Tariff
1900 Congress passes Gold Standard Act
Key People
Grover Cleveland -  22nd and 24th U.S. president; only president elected to two nonconsecutive terms
William McKinley -  25th U.S. president; ran on pro–gold-standard platform against William Jennings Bryan in 1896
William Jennings Bryan -  Democratic congressman from Nebraska; won party’s nomination for president in 1896 after giving famous “Cross of Gold” speech
Mark Hanna -  Wealthy Ohio businessman and McKinley’s campaign manager in the elections of 1896 and 1900
James B. Weaver -  Former Civil War officer; Populist Party presidential candidate in 1892
J. P. Morgan -  Wealthy banker who saved U.S. government from bankruptcy in 1895 by loaning the Treasury more than $60 million

The Rise of the Populists

The Populist movement arose primarily in response to the 1890 McKinley Tariff, a very high tariff that particularly hurt western and southern farmers who sold their harvests on unprotected markets but were forced to buy expensive manufactured goods. To protest the tariff, these farmers helped vote Republicans out of the House of Representatives in the 1890 congressional elections.

By the time the elections of 1892 rolled around, the Farmers’ Alliance—a quasi-political party that formed in the late 1880s—merged with other liberal Democrats to form the Populist Party. Populists nominated former Greenback Party member James B. Weaver for president and campaigned on a platform of unlimited, cheap silver money pegged at a rate of sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold. Populists also campaigned for government ownership of all railroad and telephone companies, a graduated income tax, direct election of U.S. senators, one-term limits for presidents, immigration restrictions, shorter workdays, and a referendum.

The Election of 1892

For the presidential election of 1892, the Republican and Democratic parties renominated candidates Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland, respectively. In addition to the Populist candidate James Weaver, the fledgling Prohibition Party nominated John Bidwell. The Populists did surprisingly well, managing to receive over a million popular votes and twenty-two electoral votes. The unpopular McKinley Tariff ruined Harrison’s chance for reelection, so Cleveland was reelected, improbably becoming the first and only president to serve two inconsecutive terms.

The Depression of 1893

Cleveland’s second term was much more dynamic than his relatively uneventful first term, as the Depression of 1893 hit just months after he took the oath of office. This depression, the worst the country had seen since the Depression of 1873, could not have come at a more desperate time for the federal government. On top of the fact that the U.S. Treasury was already nearly empty, wily investors traded silver for gold in a convoluted scheme that sent the gold reserve sinking below the $100 million mark. Had this trend continued, there would not have been enough gold to back the paper currency in circulation. The United States would have then had to go off the gold standard, which would have crashed the economy completely and ruined the country’s financial credibility abroad.

J. P. Morgan’s Loan

To prevent any more gold from being used up, Cleveland repealed the 1890 Sherman Silver Purchase Act, much to the chagrin of Populist-leaning Democrats. But the act’s repeal had little positive effect, and by the following year there was only $41 million left in the Treasury. The federal government thus was forced to look elsewhere for help. In a transaction that perhaps perfectly encapsulates the great power and wealth of big business in the Gilded Age, President Cleveland borrowed more than $60 million from Wall Street financier J. P. Morgan to put the U.S. economy back on solid ground.

Coxey’s Army

The Depression of 1893 and Cleveland’s repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act empowered the Populist movement, as disillusioned Democrats flocked to the Populist Party in the hopes of winning free silver and more power for the people. The depressed economic conditions also encouraged the creation of reform movements. In 1894, wealthy Ohio businessman Jacob S. Coxey set out with 500 men for Washington, D.C., to petition the federal government for cheap money and debt-relief programs. When “Coxey’s Army” reached the Capitol building, however, the men were arrested for trespassing on the lawn.

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