Populist Party (United States)

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

Contents

1 History
2 Legacy
3 Modern incarnations
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

History

The U.S. presidential election of 1892

The Populist Party grew out of the agrarian revolt that rose after the collapse of agriculture prices following the Panic of 1873. The Farmers' Alliance, formed in Lampasas, Texas 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 goal 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 promotion of silver as legal tender was especially favored by farmers as a means of countering the deflation of agricultural prices and allowing credit to flow more easily through the rural banking system.

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, and a working day of eight hours. 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.

The party flourished most among farmers in the Southwest and Great Plains, as well as making significant gains 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 "easy money" not backed by a hard mineral standard would allow credit to flow more freely through rural regions. The 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. In many southern states they sought to include African-Americans. At a time when cultural attitudes of white supremacy were permeating all aspects of American life, a number of southern Populists, most notably Thomas E. Watson, openly talked of the need for poor blacks and poor whites set aside their racial differences in the name of shared economic self-interest.

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. Bryan lost to William McKinley by a margin of 600,000 votes. In 1900, while many Populist voters supported Bryan again, the weakened party nominated a ticket of Wharton Barker and Ignatius Donnelly. Thomas E. Watson was the Populist nominee for president in 1904 and in 1908, after which the party effectively ceased to exist.

Approximately forty-five members of the party served in the U.S. Congress between 1891 and 1902. These included six United States Senators: William A. Peffer and William A. Harris from Kansas, Marion Butler of North Carolina, James H. Kyle from South Dakota, Henry Heitfeld of Idaho, and William V. Allen from Nebraska.

Legacy

The nation remained on the gold standard until 1973, a fact that some (but by no means all) economic historians blame for the banking crisis during the Great Depression.

In addition, the Populist Party's call for the direct election of Senators was realized in 1913 with the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment. The party's call for civil service reform would become part of the Progressive Party platform.

Though the Populist Party's political power was short-lived, they did enact and promote important political policies like term limits and the secret ballot. The Populists were also responsible for their support of the grassroot political powers of initiative, referendum and recall. Initiatives allow ordinary citizens to introduce legislation, usually by collecting a certain number of signatures. Referendums submit legislation to the voting public for approval, and recalls allow citizens to replace politicians before their term has expired.

Many Populist ideas were adopted by the Democratic Party. Once the more established party adopted the Populist policies, the third party no longer had much political force.

Modern incarnations

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.

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 new party is not known to have yet nominated candidates for office.

References

Goodwyn, Lawrence. 1978. The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (ISBN 0195024168 or ISBN 0195024176)
Kazin, Michael. 1995. The Populist Persuasion: An American History. New York: Basic Books. (ISBN 0465037933)
McMath, Robert C. Jr. 1993. American Populism: A Social History 1877-1898. New York: Hill and Wang; Farrar, Straus & Giroux. (ISBN 0809077965)
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 0801432944)

External links

[Populist Party of America]