Polpulist Movement Essay, Research Paper
The movement was brought about due to financial and natural disasters which affected the farming community. The country was dealing with bad weather in the late 19th century. In the early 1880’s there were severe droughts, while the winter of 1886-1887, had a great deal of blizzards. These national disasters led to a loss of crop and profit, it soon turned into debt. Due to a great amount of debt that the farmers acquired over the years, they were forced to sell their farms to big business. The majority of the time these farmers stayed on their land and farmed as tenant farmers, keeping a certain amount of crop for their families and giving the remaining to the owner for profit. Because of these hardships, the small farmers felt that they needed to be hear in the government. In 1892, the Omaha Platform, known as the Populist Party, formed a independent third party. The party was involved in two Presidential elections, 1892 and 1894, but then dissolved. Why did the Populists fail in their effort to secure power? The answer comes in three parts: lack of effort or time, William James Bryan, and the viewpoint of silver.For the first presidential election, the Populists nominated a man by the name of James B Weaver. In this election, he received 1 million popular votes along with 22 electoral votes. This was a pretty good showing considering they were a new party. Unfortunately for the member of the party, the leaders didn’t think it was good enough. In the next election, 1896, the Populist Party departed from its third party status and joined the Democratic Party. In this election, the Populists followed the Democrats lead and nominated William James Bryan. By joining the Democrats so early in the life of the party, they did not give themselves a chance to prosper in politics. The lack of effort and time that the party leaders put in was not a sufficient amount. They should have stayed with the third party philosophy for a longer period of time.In 1986, when the Populists followed the Democrats by nominating Bryan for the Presidency, they made another crucial mistake which led to their downfall. Bryan was a 36 year old farmer/lawyer from Nebraska. Many people criticized him for not being an extremely intelligent candidate. Historian Richard Hofstedler once wrote, “Intellectually, Bryan was a boy who never left home.” With this he was denounced as an anarchist, a socialist, and a subverter of religion and morals. By endorsing Bryan the Populists endorsed a racist. Later in his life, he was an avid member in the Ku Klux Klan. Unfortunately for the Populists, Bryan’s political leadership and social philosophy were as crude. By nominating Williams James Bryan, the Populist party grew closer to being dissolved.The final reason that the populist movement seemed to fail was because of their philosophy on silver. The main idea behind Bryan’s election of 1896 was the idea of free silver. Silver was thought to boost prices of farm goods, which is why the Populist movement backed it. The silver campaign was a struggle between those who wanted money cheap and those who wanted it dear. Most people were against the idea of free silver, “Economists in the universities were against it; preachers were against it; writers of editorials were against it.” The farmers thought that the current currency was the cause of their miseries and that silver would end their misery. This idea ruined the populist party because they were too involved in this belief that they didn’t express any others to the public. On the other hand, the leaders of the populist movement did make some good choices. By joining the Democratic Party, they became a part of one of the major parties. By doing this, they had a better shot at gaining power. In ‘92 they received 1 million votes compared to the 47% of the population’s vote in ‘96. Even though the party dissolved only after 4 years, they made a few wise decisions. Unfortunately, the mistakes that they made were more costly than the wise decisions. By not staying with the third party status, nominating Bryan, and their viewpoint on silver the Populist movement die out. Because of their beliefs the Populists were a short lived political force.