However, most creative among the solutions promoted by the Farmers’ Alliance was the call for a subtreasury plan. Populists had thrown their support to the Democrats who shared similar ideas for the economic rebound of the country and lost. In the wake of the Civil War, the Grangers quickly grew to over 1.5 million members in less than a decade. By 1895, Americans living in cities grew accustomed to seeing the homeless on the streets or lining up at soup kitchens. Since the factory operated in the company town of Pullman, Illinois, where workers rented homes from George Pullman and shopped at the company store owned by him as well, unemployment also meant eviction. His actions at the time were largely blamed on the spoils system, prompting more urgent cries for change.
Voter participation was at an all-time high, and elections often had razor-thin margins, but neither party really seemed to do anything. This led a cartoonist to depict the political machine as a tiger destroying America. Patronage, in this case, took the form of the president naming his friends and supporters to various political posts. As early as 1872, civil service reformers gathered to create the Liberal Republican Party in an effort to unseat incumbent President Grant. Other measures proposed by Harrison intended to support African Americans, including a Force Bill to protect voters in the South, as well as an Education Bill designed to support public education and improve literacy rates among African Americans, also met with defeat. Eugene V. Debs, head of the American Railway Union, led the strike.
Therefore, farmers were paying inflated prices but not receiving them.
William McKinley – Known for starting a war and then being assassinated by an anarchist.
However, he did make a few overtures towards civil service reform. Since virtually every train in the United States operated with Pullman cars, the strike truly brought the transportation industry to its knees.
(2), Garfield assassination, engraving cropped.
Government money was used to fund campaigns, and government workers were forced to contribute … Rutherford B. Hayes – Selected in what has come to be called the ‘corrupt bargain’ to end Reconstruction. The Depression of 1893 left the country limping towards the next presidential election with few solutions in sight. (2).
First, the discovery of vast gold deposits in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896–1899 (also known as the “Yukon Gold Rush”) shored up the nation’s weakening economy and made it possible to thrive on a gold standard. Not surprisingly, almost nothing was accomplished on the federal level.
As a result of this relationship, the rare pieces of legislation passed were largely responses to the desires of businessmen and industrialists whose support helped build politicians’ careers. Long supporting former President Grant, Conkling had no sympathy for some of Hayes’ early appeals for civil service reform. Inflationary pressure would allow farm prices to increase, thus allowing them to earn more money that they could then spend on the higher-priced goods in stores. The Farmers’ Alliance, a conglomeration of three regional alliances formed in the mid-1880s, took root in the wake of the Grange movement. As the Populist convention unfolded, the delegates had an important decision to make: either locate another candidate, even though Bryan would have been an excellent choice, or join the Democrats and support Bryan as the best candidate but risk losing their identity as a third political party as a result. Although Cleveland narrowly won the overall popular vote, Harrison rode the influential coattails of several businessmen and party bosses to win the key electoral states of New York and New Jersey, where party officials stressed Harrison’s support for a higher tariff, and thus secure the White House. At a minimum, a return to a bimetallic policy that would include the production of silver dollars would provide some relief. Economists of the day thought the plan had some merit; in fact, a greatly altered version would subsequently be adopted during the Great Depression of the 1930s, in the form of the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Guiteau shot the president from behind and continued to shoot until police grabbed him and hauled him away.
Led by Tom Watson, the Colored Alliance, which was founded in Texas but quickly spread throughout the Old South, counted over one million members. Many participated in graft and bribery, often justifying their actions with the excuse that corruption was too widespread for a successful politician to resist. Prominent alliance spokeswoman, Mary Elizabeth Lease of Kansas, often spoke of membership in the Farmers’ Alliance as an opportunity to “raise less corn and more hell!”. Despite the presence of a third-party challenger, Cleveland won another close popular vote to become the first U.S. president to be elected to nonconsecutive terms.
Rather than being disappointed, several Populists applauded their showing—especially for a third party with barely two years of national political experience under its belt. The challenges Americans faced in the post-Civil War era extended far beyond the issue of Reconstruction and the challenge of an economy without slavery.
Farmers needed more money in circulation, whether it was paper or silver, in order to create inflationary pressure. All told, the Farmers’ Alliance brought together over 2.5 million members, 1.5 million white and 1 million black.
The Populist Party emerged in this era, but was quickly subdued by the Democrats. Fearful of his ability to end the economic depression with such a vital piece of the economy at a standstill, President Cleveland turned to his attorney general for the answer. Put simply, the American electorate was energized to elect a strong candidate who could adequately address the country’s economic woes. During this little slice of history, American politicians – especially presidents – took a backseat. The Gilded Age of the late 1800s is not typically recalled as an age of reform, though the Pendleton Civil Service Act was signed into law in 1883.
After you see this video lesson, you should be able to understand the Gilded Age of America and recognize the era of corruption and do-nothing politics in Congress under six presidents.
From the original one hundred protesters, the march grew five hundred strong as others joined along the route to the nation’s capital. These reform efforts did bring about change—but not without a fight. His own vice president shielded a corrupt railroad firm from federal investigation in exchange for stock in their company.
After Reconstruction, through the turn of the 20th century, America experienced a Gilded Age. Future efforts to establish a separate party identity would be met with ridicule by critics who would say that Populists were merely “Democrats in sheep’s clothing.”, But other factors also contributed to the decline of Populism at the close of the century.
The loss of his meager public support due to the Compromise of 1877 and the declining Congressional faction together sealed Hayes fate and made his reelection impossible. The speech was an enormous success and played a role in convincing the Populist Party that he was the candidate for them. These lower prices were due in large part to the cultivation of more acreage using more productive farming tools and machinery, global market competition, as well as price manipulation by commodity traders, exorbitant railroad freight rates, and costly loans upon which farmers depended. This fact was largely blamed on patronage, sometimes also called the ‘spoils system.’ Whatever you call it, the problem was that government jobs were generally granted to people as a reward for their political favors. To a hard-working farmer, the notion that their own overproduction was the greatest contributing factor to their debt was a completely foreign concept. In a single year, from 1893 to 1894, unemployment estimates increased from 3 percent to nearly 19 percent of all working-class Americans. The book satirized the corruption of post-Civil War society and politics. Additionally, the Pendleton Act didn’t apply to state and city politics.
As for tariff reform, Cleveland agreed with Arthur’s position that tariffs remained far too high and were clearly designed to protect big domestic industries at the expense of average consumers who could benefit from international competition.
But less than four months into his presidency, events pushed civil service reform on the fast track.
Second, he declared that party leaders could have no official say in political appointments, although Conkling sought to continue his influence. (2).
(2). Debs himself was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to six months in prison for disobeying the court injunction. Frustrated farmers organized the Populist Party to advance their own agenda, but it was quickly engulfed by the Democrats.