Populist Party’s Premature Fall into Obscurity Essay

Towards the demise of the 19th Century, awkward discontent was growing among the landed e landed estates farmers. In the South, cotton that was selling for nigh 30 cents per pound after the Civil fight was, at metres, worth under six cents in the 1890s. Wheat from the Midwest that had sold at $1.50 per regenerate after the Civil War brought in 60 cents in the 1890s. The nations bucolic point of view was tired of getting the raw deal from politicians, and in conclusion made their voice heard through the populist company. When it first stepped onto the public stage, the party was precise succeederful. However, the victory was relatively short lived. While a outlet of factors contributed to the demise of the populist society, the failed election of 1896 played an constituent(a) role in its fall due to its inability to find a strong figurehead.The Populist society formed from Alliances that had come from farm radicalism. Many of the Alliances were statewide, and most formed in the late 1870s. Eventually, using the success of minor farm groups who had won elections, the Populist Party formed from southern and western farmers. Although there was a whopping group of northerners that was sympathetic to the party, it soothe tended to pick out Republican.The partys first convention, held in Omaha, Nebraska, brought in a variety of groups, including the Knights of Labor. The Peoples (Populist) Party was trying to attract anyone and everyone to join its cause. General pile B. Weaver of Iowa was nominated for President, and his running mate was a Confederate veteran. The partys platform was very widespread, and it bordered on socialistic. The platform included gradational income tax,national ownership of utilities, a subtreasury, and bimetallism. To please industrial workers, the party in addition advocated eight hour workdays, limitation of undesirable immigration, and it also shunned Pinkerton detectives.The partys main supporters were still, ho wever, the farmers. In order to raise prices on agricultural products, it supported unlimited coinage of silver, increasing the aggregate of money in circulation, and also al crusheding the holding of agricultural products off the market in times of low prices.In the 1860s, the amount of silver it took to make a silver dollar was actually worth more than $1, which made coining the metal unprofitable. However, with the discovery of a large number of silver deposits in 1874, it again became glib to coin the money. However, the Coinage motivate of 1873 demonetized the metal and empower the U.S. on the Gold Standard. This Crime of 73 enraged inflationists and silver miners, who demanded a return to bimetallism.In 1878, the Bland-Allison Act made for the purchase of $2-4 million of silver per month, at market value. The government always bought the minimum, however, and this did very piffling to the economy. In 1890, the Sherman Silver leveraging Act need 4.5 million ounces of si lver to be bought monthly, but purge this was not enough to save the plummeting value of silver. As no one was happy with the compromises, Grover Cleveland repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893, which reverted the country back to a gold standard, and caused the southern and western democrats to split from the party. These issues were still present for the election of 1896.The Democratic nomination for President, William Jennings Brian, was also supported by the Populists. While they feared losing their individual identity, they had no candidate of their own that could win the election. As a matter of fact, a pure Populist nominee would ensure McKinleys election. In an attempt to continue the partys identity, the Populists nominated a vice-president freestanding from the Democrats.Although Brian managed to win the South, the Plains states, and the Rocky Mountains, McKinley pulled out the rest, and won with 271 electoral votes to Bryans 176. Brian lost in the popular vo tes by fewer than 600,000 votes.The lost election spelled the end of the Populist Party. In addition to the lost presidential election, the party also lost many local and state elections. The South divided again, because their support of blacks went against their white domination beliefs, which caused a great rift. In addition, the western farmers agendas were instead different from those of the southerners, which caused another split in the already wounded party. It was just a matter of time before the party faded into obscurity.The Populist Party, speckle short-lived, did bring a number of issues to Americas attention. The silver debates, agricultural economy, and many other arguments brought frontwards by the populists were still argued after their demise pastime the Election of 1896. Without the populists, the gold standard may take aim remained longer, and we may have even retained it today. The populists challenged things day-after-day Americans took for granted, and ta ught us a valuable lesson. Things can be changed, and those changes, while hard to bring about, can be for the betterment of the entire nation.