Political Parties in the United States, 1870–1900
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In 1896, William Jennings Bryan’s supporters took conrol of the national Democratic Party. Bryan argued that farmers and workers would be crucied on a “cross of gold” by conservative bankers and businessmen who insisted on a tight money supply. He lost the election, but the Democratic Party increasingly backed his populist principles. As Democrats began to take up Populist The Greenback Party supported government issue of paper The Populists opposed the gold standard and supported a causes, the Populist Party lost inuence. money to help farmers and businesses. By 1884, it also freer money supply. More generally, they advocated for In 1900 they ran a “Fusion” ticket, advocated an income tax, the eight-hour work day, and farmers and industrial workers and a stronger government supporting the Democratic nominee for women’s right to vote, and the party quickly lost support. to work for their interests rather than those of the parties. President, William Jennings Bryan. In 1872, Republicans calling for an end to Reconstruction split and ran Horace Greeley for Peter Cooper James Baird Weaver Benjamin Franklin Butler President on the Liberal Republican ticket. Democrats also nominated Greeley. GREENBACK James Weaver Wharton Barker SOUTHERN DEMOCRATIC POPULIST Horatio Seymour Samuel J. Tilden Wineld Scott Hancock Grover Cleveland Grover Cleveland Grover Cleveland William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan Horace Greeley DEMOCRATIC NORTHERN DEMOCRATIC John McCauley Palmer NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC LIBERAL REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James Gareld James Blaine Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison William McKinley William McKinley In 1876, election results in three southern states were contested. Congressional Democrats agreed not to let Hayes John Pierce St. John Clinton Bowen Fisk John Bidwell Joshua Levering John Granville Wooley have the Presidency in exchange for an end to Reconstruction. The Prohibition Party organized around a single By the mid-1890s, the Democrats’ northern In the 1880s, Republicans “waved the bloody issue: the banning of alcoholic beverages. They coalition of farmers, immigrants, and In 1896, Republicans led by William McKinley argued that Bryan’s liberal shirt,” gaining support by reminding northern received a small percentage of the vote in each businessmen was breaking up. In the economic policies would make everyone poor. McKinley also reassured voters that they had won the Civil War. election until 1920. Congressional elections of 1894, Republicans immigrants, especially Germans, that he welcomed them as Americans. His nearly swept the northern states. campaign manager, Mark Hanna, raised millions of dollars and used new techniques of advertising. The result was a Republican landslide. The new Republican coalition would dominate national politics for another 36 years. 1868 1872 1876 1884 1888 1892 1896 1870 1880 1890 1900 POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1870–1900 Political parties have shifted many times in 220 years of national politics. Even when parties The colored lines represent organized parties that had a signicant impact on national have kept the same names for long periods, their issues, principles, demographics, and politics, electing members of Congress or receiving more than 1% of the vote for President. regional support all change over time. Where the lines merge and split, parties split or party aliations changed dramatically in a short period of time. This chart shows the evolution of political party systems in the U.S. after the Civil War. Each “party system” is a roughly dened time period in which two major political parties, each with Presidential candidates are also listed for each party, with the winning candidate in bold: fairly consistent supporters and beliefs, dominated the political scene. Candidate Winning Candidate © Copyright LEARN NC 2009. May be reproduced for noncommercial purposes so long as attribution is provided, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license. Visit us on the web at www.learnnc.org. .