Discuss the Populist Movement during the 1880s and 1890s and assess its impact on American society.  Use the documents provided and your knowledge of the time period.

Document A
Source: Popular song of the 1890s (The Annals of America)

When the farmer comes to town
With his wagon broken down,
Oh, the farmer is the man who feeds them all,
It you'll only look and see
I think you will agree
That the farmer is the man who feeds them all. 

The farmer is the man,
The farmer is the man,
Lives on credit till the fall;
Then they take him by the hand
And they lead him from the land --
The middleman's the one who gets it all.

When the butcher hangs around,
While the butcher cuts a pound,
Oh, the farms is the man who feeds them all,
And the preacher and the cook
Go a-strolling by the brook,
Oh, the farmer is the man who feeds them all.

Oh, the farmer is the man,
The farmer is the man,
Lives on credit till the fall;
And his pants are wearing thin,
His condition, it's a sin,
He's forgot that he's the man who feeds them all.

When the banker says he's broke,
And the merchant's up in smoke,
They forget that it's the farmer feeds them all.
It would put them to the test
If the farmer took a rest,
Then they'd know that it's the farmer feeds them all.

The farmer is the man,
The farmer is the man,
Lives on credit till the fall;
With the int'rest rate so high
It's a wonder he don't die,
For the mortgage man's the one who gets it all. 

Document B
Source: A History of the American People Second Edition Volume II

Document C
Source: Excerpt from the Populist Party Platform, 1892

The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal intimidation and bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrate in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right to organize for self-protection, imported pauperized labor beats down their wages, a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of those, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes -- tramps and millionaires.

Document D
Source: Excerpt from James B. Weaver, 1892

The rugged utterances of these statesmen ring out today like a startling impeachment of our time. . . . There is enough in them to completely transform and re-invigorate our present suppliant and helpless state of public opinion. Those declarations were uttered in the purer days of the republic and before the various departments of Government had seriously felt the baleful and seductive influence of corporate wealth and power

Document E
Source: William McKinley, excerpt of a speech at The St. Louis Convention June 17, 1896

Gentlemen of the convention : The happy memory of your kindness and confidence will abide in my grateful heart forever. My sole ambition is to meet your expectations, and I pledge myself to exercise the important powers of this high office with absolute justice and impartiality.

. . . The American people will return the Republican party to power because they know that its administration will mean :

. . . A revenue adequate for all government expenditures and the gradual extinguishment of the national debt.

A currency as sound as the government and as untarnished as its honor, whose dollars, whether of gold, silver, or paper, shall have equal purchasing and debt paying power with the best dollars of the civilized world.

A protective tariff which protects, coupled with reciprocity which reciprocates, securing American markets for American products and opening American factories to the free coinage of American muscle.

. . . The government supervision and control of transportation lines and rates. The protection of the people from all unlawful combinations and unjust exactions of aggregated capital and corporate power.

Document F
Source: Excerpt from Mrs. Mary Lease 1890

. . . The great common people of this country are slaves, and monopoly is the master. The West and South are bound and prostrate before the manufacturing East.

Money rules, and our Vice-President is a London banker. Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags.

. . . We want money, land, and transportation. We want the abolition of the national banks, and we want the power to make loans direct from the government. We want the accursed foreclosure system wiped out. Land equal to a tract thirty miles wide and ninety miles long has been foreclosed and bought in by loan companies of Kansas in a year.

We will stand by our homes and stay by our fireside by force if necessary, and we will not pay our debts to the loan-shark companies until the government pays its debts to us. The people are at bay; let the bloodhounds of money who have dogged us thus far beware.

Document G
Source: Excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard of OZ by L. Frank Baum, copyright 1899

The Tin Woodman, raising his axe, rushed toward the little man and cried out, "Who are you?"

"I am OZ, the Great and Terrible," said the little man, in a trembling voice, "but don't strike me -- please don't! -- and I'll do anything you want me to."

Our friends looked at him in surprise and dismay.

"I thought OZ was a great Head," said Dorothy.

"And I thought Oz was a lovely Lady," said the Scarecrow.

"And I thought Oz was a terrible Beast," said the Tin Woodman.

"And I thought Oz was a Ball of Fire," exclaimed the Lion.

"No; you are all wrong," said the little man, meekly. "I have been making believe."

"Making believe!" cried Dorothy. "Are you not a great Wizard?"

"Hush, my dear," he said; "don't speak so loud, or you will be overheard -- and I should be ruined. I'm supposed to be a Great Wizard."

"And aren't you?' she asked.

"Not a bit of it, my dear; I'm just a common man."

Document H
Source: William Jennings Bryan, Excerpt from The Cross of Gold Speech, (given at the 1896 Democratic National Convention, at Chicago, on July 9)

 . . . If the gold standard is the standard of civilization, why, my friends, should we not have it? We go forth confident that we shall win. . . You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good, but that we cannot have it until other nations help us, we reply that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has it. If they dare to come out in open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

Document I
Source: Excerpt from a writing of an Iowan Farmer 1893

Nothing has done more to injure the [western] region than these freight rates. The railroads have retarded its growth as much as they first hastened it. The rates are often four times as large as Eastern rates. . . . The extortionate character of the freight rates has been recognized by all parties, and all have pledged themselves to lower them, but no state west of the Missouri has been able to do so.

. . . Disaster always follows the exactions of such exorbitant rates of interest, and want or eviction quickly came. Consequently, when demagogues went among the farmers to utter their calamitous cries, the scales seemed to drop from the farmers; eyes, and he saw gold bugs, Shylocks, conspiracies, and criminal legislation ad infinitum. Like a lightning flash, the idea of political action ran through the Alliances. A few farmers' victories in country campaigns the previous year became a promise of broader conquest, and with one bound the Farmers' Alliance went into politics all over the west.

Document J
Source:  "A Party of Patches," Judge Magazine, June 6, 1891

Essay

Political parties in America often reflect the opinions and discord of their members. In the 1880s and 1890s the Populist Party exhibited this trait. During this time period, the party expanded in both social and political characteristics. This expansion was caused by the farmers discontent, and thus it led to the formation of the Populist Party. American society was drastically changed by the actions of the Populists.

The Midwest in the 1880s was an area of tribulation and dissatisfaction. Most of the families had to struggle with falling crop prices and problems with railroads and middlemen. Crop prices, for example wheat, fell from about two-dollars a bushel to about fifty-cents a bushel in a 30 year period. During this same 30 year period production of wheat nearly tripled. (B) Farmers began to lose money on the farms. Many could not make mortgage payments to the banks and thus lost their farms.

The farmers were often at the mercy of the railroad companies for the few crops they could sell at market. Railroad rates were exorbitant; western rates were "often four times as large as Eastern rates." (I) At the time, railroads were the only form of transportation in the area. Therefore, farmers were often forced to pay the set price. Governments refused to recognize the plight of the farmer. Middlemen bought from the farmer often at prices that were lower than market value. Farmers ultimately "felt the baleful and seductive influence of corporate wealth and power." (D)

 When the farmers were subjected to such oppression, they reacted by forming the Populist Party. The party believed that "the great common people of this country are slaves, and monopoly is the master. The West and South are bound and prostrate before the manufacturing East. Money rules, and our vice-president is a London banker. Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags." (F) The rich ruled the country. Workers fed the machine and gave their lives to the system. "The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of those, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty." (C) The farmers feared that the corporate wealth of the East would jeopardize their future. Amplifying the farmers' fear was the national controversy over bimetallism. William Jennings Bryan believed that switching to bimetallism would save the nation economically. "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. . . . If they dare to come out in an open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost." (H) Bryan felt the folly of the gold standard would be the undoing of the farmers and the nation. He realized that most in the East did not understand the importance of the farmer. The farmer was the source of food for everyone. "They've forgot that it's the farmer feeds them all." (A) While the nation around them made policies that undid them, the farmer tried to carry on and provide food for the nation.

Although the Populist Party had many different goals, each individual goal created questions within society. For example, one goal of the party was to create a political system in which even the poorest people would have their say in government. Society began to believe this thought and after many years it became true. In the election of 1896, William McKinley, an Easterner and a Republican, had the "sole ambition to meet your expectations, and I pledge myself to exercise the important powers of this high office with absolute justice and impartiality." (E) Although McKinley tried his best to please, his party he also had to please the rest of the nation. This is reflected through his statement that "the government [shall have] supervision and control of transportation lines and rates." (E) He also believed that the government should protect "the people from unlawful combinations and unjust exactions of aggregated capital in corporate power." (E) The Populist Party made the people's views be heard even in the highest powers of government. They established a system which held government to the needs of people everywhere in the nation. By creating such a ruckus, the Populist Party ensured that they would be heard and action would be taken.

The Populist Party was composed of many different organizations. (J) The Grangers, Socialists, Anarchists, and others all had so many contrasting opinions and goals that succeeding as a party was virtually impossible. Having so many opposing views in one party also had the effect that each group believed the party stood for something different. The party leaders made the individual groups believe that the party would "do anything you want me to." (G) This belief created a rift in the party that would never be patched. The fear of the party was that they would be discovered as not fully being committed to each interest group. The interest groups were eventually disillusioned by the misguided party and thus the party fell apart.

While the Populist Party was never able to pass the legislation or remain as a cohesive unit, their platform was adopted and successfully used by both the Republican party and the Democratic party. One goal of the Populist Party was the control of the railroads by the government. Both parties adopted this into their platforms. Over time the government eventually took control of the railroads to save them from failure. Another example of the Republican and Democratic Parties adopting the Populist Party's goals was the switch to the free ballot system. Early American voting was plagued by unjust and open balloting. The ballots were often divided into colors by party and handed to men as they exited pubs. This led to easily corruptible results. The free ballot system, first used in Australia, made the ballots secret, thus creating an atmosphere in which the people could freely vote as they wanted. The Democrats and Republicans tapped into a larger voter pool by pulling up the defunct Populist Party planks.

Easterners believed that the Populist Party was made up of renegades from the west and south. They feared that if the party succeeded these people would be able to exercise power in the federal government. The Populist Party believed that Easterners were only out to make money and didn't care whom they ran over in the process. American society was forever changed by the actions of a virtually unsuccessful party. The formation of a people-sensitive government, government control of the railroads, and the free ballot system were all started by a farmer revolution.