AP U.S. History: Unit 6.4 Teacher’s Edition The Political Rise and Fall of the Farmer in the Gilded Age Themes of the Gilded Age: Industrialism: U.S. became the world’s most powerful economy by 1890s (exceeding combined output of Britain and Germany; railroads, steel, oil, electricity, banking Unions and reform movements sought to curb the injustices of industrialism. Urbanization: America was transformed from an agrarian nation to an urban nation between 1865 (where 50% of Americans were farmers) and 1920 (where only 25% were farmers). (2% today) Millions of "New Immigrants" came from Southern and Eastern Europe, mostly to cities to work in factories. By 1900 society had become more stratified into classes than any time before or since. The “Great West": farming, mining, & cattle frontiers Farmers increasingly lost ground in the new industrial economy and eventually organized (Populism). In 1880, 25% of those who farmed did not own their land. 90% of African Americans lived in the South; 75% were tenant farmers or sharecroppers. Politics: hard vs. soft money ('70s & '90s); tariff ('80s); corruption due to political machines, patronage & trusts (throughout late 19th c.); election of 1896 ©2014 HistorySage.com All Rights Reserved This material may not be posted on any website other than HistorySage.com HistorySage.com APUSH Lecture Notes Page 2 Unit 6.4: Political Rise and Fall of the Farmer I. The Money Issue and Tariffs A. The Panic of 1873 and subsequent depression resulted in deflation during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877). 1. Western mining states and farmers sought the introduction of silver to the nation’s monetary standard in order to create inflation. 2. Conservatives feared inflation and instituted deflationary policies, such as the Bland-Allison Act (1873), that actually caused the depression of the 1870s to worsen. 3. The money issue emerged as the biggest political issue of the 1870s. a. New political parties such as the Greenback Labor Party in the 1870s and the Populist party in the 1890s were dedicated to increasing the money supply by adding massive amounts of silver to the money supply. b. The climactic election of 1896 would ultimately decide the issue as those who advocated the unlimited coinage of silver were soundly defeated. B. Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 (system of bimetallism) 1. The Treasury would approximately double the minimum amount of silver purchased under the Bland-Allison Act of 1873. 2. Western pro-silver advocates agreed to support a protective tariff in return for eastern support for a silver bill. a. Mining states hated the “woefully limited” silver purchasing under the Bland-Allison Act. b. Easterners were eager to increase tariffs and increase profits but were concerned about inflation through increased silver purchases. c. Result: Not enough silver flooded the monetary system; thus, inflation did not occur significantly. C. McKinley Tariff Bill (1890) 1. Republicans’ reward for supporting the Sherman Silver Purchase Act 2. Raised tariffs to the highest peacetime level in U.S. history: 48% 3. Republicans lost the 1890 mid-term elections for Congress. a. The new Congress included 9 members of the Farmers’ Alliances. b. The tariff issue was replaced by the silver issue as the main issue in 1890s. D. Economic problems plaguing farmers 1. Farmers were in perpetual debt; many lost their farms to foreclosure. 2. Deflated currency and low food prices were the chief worries among farmers. 3. Natural disasters caused by freezing temperatures, insects, and diseases compounded the problems farmers faced. 4. Government policies seemed to hurt farmers © HistorySage.com 2014 All Rights Reserved This material may not be posted on any website other than HistorySage.com HistorySage.com APUSH Lecture Notes Page 3 Unit 6.4: Political Rise and Fall of the Farmer a. Farmers’ land was often overvalued, making property taxes higher. b. Protective tariffs hurt the South as manufactured product prices increased Farmers’ products were unprotected in the competitive world market. 5. Agricultural-related trusts gouged farmers: barbed-wire trust, fertilizer trust, harvester trust, and railroad trust (freight rates) 6. Farmers were underrepresented politically and poorly organized. II. Political Rise of the Farmer A. National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry: The Grange organized in 1867 1. Provided farmers with social and educational activities (picnics, music, lectures) a. The initial purpose of the Grange was to help reduce the isolation many farmers felt in sparsely-populated areas. b. By 1875, the Grange had about 800,000 members, mostly in the Midwest and South. 2. Eventually, the Grange established cooperatives for both consumers and producers. a. Grain elevators (to store excess grain), dairies to store and process products, cooperative stores to purchase supplies (such as seed, plows, fertilizer, etc.) b. Politically, the Grange sought to end monopolistic railroad practices that hurt farmers with high freight rates. c. Its attempt to manufacture harvesting machinery ultimately failed. 3. Grangers were politically successful in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. a. Granger Laws sought gov't control over big business to benefit the people. Regulated railroad rates and storage fees charged by railroads and operators of warehouses and grain elevators. b. Munn vs. Illinois (1877): The Supreme Court ruled that private property was subject to gov't regulation when property was devoted to the public interest. c. Many Granger Laws were written badly and overturned by higher courts who were influenced by wealthy business interests. Wabash case (1886): The Court ruled that individual states don’t have right to regulate interstate commerce (effectively overturned Munn decision). Supreme Court reverses, especially the Wabash case, reduced Granger influence in state politics. © HistorySage.com 2014 All Rights Reserved This material may not be posted on any website other than HistorySage.com HistorySage.com APUSH Lecture Notes Page 4 Unit 6.4: Political Rise and Fall of the Farmer B. Greenback Labor Party 1. The third party emerged in the 1870s that combined the inflationary goals of earlier Greenback supporters with a program for improving conditions for laborers. The money issue (soft vs. hard) was perhaps the biggest political issue of the 1870s. 2. In the election of 1878, the Greenback-Labor party earned over a million votes and elected 14 members to Congress. 3. Election of 1880, the Greenback Party nominated General James B. Weaver, a Granger and Civil War veteran. a. Weaver received only 3% of the total popular vote. b. He would become the candidate of the Populist party in 1892. C. Populism -- Rise of the Populist Party 1. Farmers’ Alliances in the South (formed in 1877) and Midwest (1880) increasingly voiced discontent; the Colored Alliance formed in 1889. a. Like the Grangers, they sponsored social events, political action, cooperatives, and gov't regulation of railroads and manufacturers. b. The 3 Alliances met in 1889 and boasted over 3 million members Demanded free silver and a subtreasury plan for farmers (would provide cash advances on a farmer’s future crop) A major demand of the Southern Alliance in 1880 had been a subtreasury plan. o Reason: farmers had poor cash flow during much of the year o Called for federal subtreasury offices alongside warehouses or grain elevators. o Farmers could store grain and the subtreasury would loan them up to 80% of the value of the crop at modest interest and fees. c. Many supported or joined the Knights of Labor; saw similar goals d. Defeat of the subtreasury scheme in Congress in 1890 led to the Alliances taking political matters into their own hands and forming a third party. Since the Civil War, Greenbackers, Workingmen’s and Knights of Labor parties, and Farmers’ Alliances saw banking interests and trusts—“the Eastern Establishment”— as monopolistic culprits who exploited workers and farmers. 2. The People’s Party (Populist Party) emerged in the early 1890s through the Farmer’s Alliances; born in Topeka, Kansas a. Attracted recruits from Farmer’s Alliances and disenfranchised southern whites. b. Ignatius Donnelly was elected three times to Congress, and was a major figure in the Populist movement. © HistorySage.com 2014 All Rights Reserved This material may not be posted on any website other than HistorySage.com HistorySage.com APUSH Lecture Notes Page 5 Unit 6.4: Political Rise and Fall of the Farmer He was formerly known as a utopian author (like Henry George and Edward Bellamy) c. Mary E. Lease gave numerous speeches in 1890 denouncing the Eastern Establishment in Wall Street Kansas should raise "less corn & more hell." d. "Sockless" Jerry Simpson, along with Lease, traveled to the South to get Southern Alliance support for Populist unity. e. Tom Watson: elected to Congress in 1890, fought for the subtreasury plan, and fought for Populist unity in 1892 In 1896, he became the Democratic party’s vice presidential candidate alongside William Jennings Bryan D. Disenfranchisement and anti-black violence 1. "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman, a Democrat, used his Southern Alliance influence to become governor of South Carolina and dominate the Democratic party in that state. Tillman succeeded in disenfranchising blacks in the state constitution. 2. Widespread southern fears of blacks in Farmers’ Alliances led to a major push for disenfranchisement in the 1890s and Jim Crow laws. Following South Carolina’s lead, southern states limited black suffrage in their state constitutions. 3. Voting restrictions were essentially a ruling-class campaign against lower-class voters in general, not just African Americans. Deliberate attempt by the New South’s elite, who were threatened by the Populists, to destroy party opposition and widespread political participation. 4. In the 1890s white southern hatred toward blacks became almost genocidal; a huge increase in the number of lynchings resulted. III. Election of 1892 A. Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland (who had been president four years earlier) He was now more conservative than during his first term (1885- 1889) as his law practice represented wealthy businessmen.