Nadege Seppou
APUSH
Chapter 19: From Stalemate to Crisis
How could advancement and prosperity cause
disorder. With people having more money,
there should be more stability, because
everyone’s happy. In the previous chapters,
Americans were gaining new jobs having new
businesses, so it’ll be interesting to see what
actually led to disorder.
America has another political party. A two
party system had already been established so
what would cause another party to form again.
Maybe the “people’s” needs were not being
met by Democrats and Republicans, and these
people are most likely poor.
The nation’s economic prosperity caused
advancement and disorder.
The People’s Party was formed
The Politics of Equilibrium
The party system during the late 19th century had electoral stability. The electoral has
evenly divided between the Democrats and Republicans. This party system was very
stable and had little fluctuations in state loyalties. The Republicans were the ones who
held most of the seats in the Senate and presidency, while the Democrats led the House.
The public was very loyal to the parties. There were always high turnouts when it came
to voting from the voters. Sometimes loyalty depended on the region. The Democrats had
loyalty from the South, while Republicans had theirs from the North. Loyalty also
depended on culture: Democrats had support from the poor, Catholics, and new
immigrants; and Republicans had loyalty from the middle class and North Protestants.
There was more of a cultural basis of Party identification than an economic one.
The federal government had little powers and responsibilities. Most of the things they
were responsible for were giving land grant subsidies, and intervening when strikes
occurred. They were also responsible for the Civil War pension system, they delivered
pension to Civil War veterans. Most Party leaders were more concerned about holding
office than making policies.
Presidents had little power except the political power to grant privileges or appoint
people to positions (patronage). President Rutherford B. Hayes had to deal with the
Stalwarts and Half-breeds. Stalwarts favored machine politics, while half-breeds
wanted reform. The Patronage system had more power over the presidency, and the civil
system failed. Republicans won the Presidency in 1880 election, and Garfield was the
president (Half-breed), but his vice president Chester Arthur was a Stalwart. Garfield
assassinated in 1881 after he tried defying the Stalwarts, and creating a civil system
reform. New President Chester Arthur tried and attempted to support the civil system
reform. In 1883 Congress passes the Pendleton Act, requiring exams to be given for all
government jobs.
In the election of 1884, Republican nominee, Senator James Blaine was the symbol of
party politics. Many liberal Republicans left and joined Democrat reform candidate
Cleveland. Cleveland rebutted graft and special interest, and he wanted the government to
be limited. Wanted Congress to reduce protective tariff rate, and in 1877, he wanted them
to reduce government surpluses and size. Democrats passed the bill, but Republicans
opposed it, and this became an issue in the election of 188.
President Harrison did very little to influence Congress, however, public opinion caused
the government to begin dealing with social and economic issues, especially trusts issues.
By mid 1880s many states limited combination, which prevented competition, but
reformers wanted a national movement. In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was
passed, but was not really enforced, and the courts limited it, so it had no impacts.
Republicans wanted to deal with tariffs, so they passed the McKinley Tariff in 1890,
which was the highest protective tariff ever. The Public opposed the bill, and in 1892
election, the Republicans lost the House, Senate, and Democrat Cleveland won election.
Cleveland supported tariff reduction. A movement in 1880s in several states wanted to
regulate rail roads. In Supreme Court Case of Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad vs.
Illinois, it was ruled that only the federal government could regulate interstate commerce.
To please the public, Congress passed the Interstate commerce act, which banned rate
discrimination and injustice and lead to the formation of Interstate Commerce
Commission.
The Agrarian Revolt
The Grange movement was one of the first efforts to organizing farmers, in the
beginning; their main goal was to teach farmers the new farming scientific methods.
However in 1873 after the recession and fall of farm products prices, it became large and
was political. The Grange wanted cooperative political action to fight monopolistic rail
road and warehouse practices. They wanted to setup up co-op stores, insurance
companies, and Montgomery Ward mail-order; they wanted to challenge the middle man,
whom their economic grievances came from. Some Grange politicians were elected to
state legislatures, to help reform rail road, but they were challenged by courts and after a
boom in 1870s, they fell.
Famer’s Alliance formed mostly in the South and Midwest, and like the Grangers, they
dealt with local issues, such as co-op banks, and processing plants, and they also wanted
to create a society of cooperation. They were not very successful, and in the 1880s, they
tried forming political organizations after many struggles. Mary Lease was a prominent
woman in the alliance, and women played important roles, they held offices, voted, and
Lease was a blazing Populist speaker. In 1889 southern and northwestern alliances came
together to form the Ocala Demands, which was a party platform and they gained seats in
1890 elections. People wanted to form a third party, and in 1892, the Populist Party was
formed.
Populism appealed to mainly small farmers, who were doing badly as a result of
mechanization and commercial agriculture. The Populist did not attract a lot of labor
support, but they attracted Rocky Mountain States that had a free silver policy, this
allowed silver to be a currency, and it widened money supply. In the south, African
Americans were allowed very little involvement, so colored alliances were formed, but
whites allowed them to join as long as whites were always in control.
The Crisis of the 1890s
The Crisis of 1893 was a result of overexpansion and weak demand. Many people
suffered from depression during this time. It was caused by bankruptcy of different
corporations, which caused the banks to fail, and then caused credit reductions. Farm
prices fell in late 1880s, Europe experienced depression, the rail road was expanding
more than the market demands, and this shows how great the economy’s dependence was
on powerful rail roads. Businesses, banks and rail roads failed. Unemployment rates
increased tremendously, which caused social unrest. Populist Jacob Coxey wanted to
create a large public work program for those that were unemployed, and the currency
inflation. He protested in D.C. along with his Coxey’s Army.
The financial panic weakened monetary system, and President Cleveland believed that
the currency instability caused depression. Several people believed that specie, precious
metal, needed to be used to back up money to increase its value. Congress did not want to
use the bimetal standard, because the value for silver was high, which was higher than the
16:1 standard. In the late 1870s, the price for silver decreased more than standard, but
people could not convert silver as a result of the crime of 73. This was an opposing by
miners and farmers, who wanted a greater amount of money circulation; wanted to keep
inflations so they could pay off their debts. As tension rose between gold and silver
currency, the symbolic importance of the currency question was seen. The Presidential
election of 1896 was very intense because, supporters of the gold standard thought gold
was crucial to national stability, while supporters of free silver thought the gold standard
was authoritarian and beneficial to the wealthy, they felt silver would reduce debt.
A Cross of Gold
In the 1896 presidential election, Republicans felt confident, because Cleveland and the
Democrats were unable to fix the depression issue of the panic. Republicans nominate
William McKinley, and they were against free silver idea. When William Jennings
Bryan gave his “Cross of Gold” speech, he was against the gold standard at convention,
and the next day he was voted nominee for the Democrats. He was attacked by
Republicans and conservative Democrats. The Populist Party divided because they
couldn’t figure out if they wanted fusion with the Democrats, because they felt some of
their unique needs had been addressed by them; so they decided to join, and supported
Bryan.
McKinley won the election because the Democrats policy was too constricted (sectional)
to be able to win the national votes. As a result of the “fusion” decision with the
Democrats, the People’s Party started disappearing, as they were defeated. The McKinley
presidency wanted America to become calm again because all the labor unrest and
agrarian protest had been subsided by 1897, and the economic crisis was slowly going
away. McKinley’s main focus was to execute high tariff rates. Soon after that, Congress
passed the Dingley Tariff. Then Republicans passed the Currency Act of 1900 that
acknowledge and confirmed gold to be the nation’s currency standard.