Agrarian Protests
Introduction: The 1880’s saw movements by rural American people who were keenly aware of the
modern economy and their desire for government assistance. The movements were a result of their
frustrations. (Brinkley, Alan American History. NY McGraw Hill, 1995)
I. The Grangers
Post Civil War farmers were benefiting from the advances in science and
technology. They became more productive and enjoyed a good price for their grains on
the market. But, soon the market was flooded with cotton and wheat and the price per
bushel began to fall.
A. Cheap Land – Republicans Congress’s goal was to support agriculture. They
began to give land grants to the railroads knowing that this free land would
trickle down to homesteaders. Two Acts for giving this land away was:
1. The Homestead Act (1862) citizens or immigrants could acquire
160 acres of federal land by promising to cultivate it for 5 years.
2. The Morrill Act (1862) huge tracts of federal lands go to States under
the condition that they use some of the land to build colleges for the
purposes of teaching farming techniques. These were known as LandGrant Colleges.
B. Farmer’s Dependence on the Railroads, Merchants, and Banks- land was
cheap but the farmer’s expense was seen in the price of materials such as
machinery, tools, seed, horses etc. A major expense was for transporting
and storing their grain for market. Paying railroads for short hauls and
granaries temporarily storing their grain was expensive. Farm families lacked
the capital for this expense; however capital was available from banks.
Many farmers who suffered from droughts or poor prices went into debt and
in some cases the bank would foreclose their farms. (From the 1870’s to
1890’s prices sank and farm debt soared).
****Two political movements emerged---1) The Granger’s (1870’s) farmers from the Midwest who
battled the railroads. 2) The Populists (1890’s) farmer alliances from the South and West who
campaigned against the Northeastern banks.
1. The Grangers (1880’s)
a. American farmers from the South and Midwest.
b. 1867 Est. originally as a social group and self help assoc. The Grange = Patrons of
Husbandry. (Founded by the Agr. Dept. official, Oliver H. Kelley who was appalled by the isolation and
drabness of rural life- so he started the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry).
c. Depression of 1873---turned the organization into an agency for political change.
**** Political Cartoon: “The Grange Awakening the Sleepers” (1873 Culver). A farmer
is attempting to arouse passive citizens (lying in place of the “sleepers” or cross ties on
the railroad tracks), who are about to be crushed by a train. The RR cars bear the names
of the costs of the RR’s domination of the Agrarian economy. (Brinkley 538 ).
d. 1875 Grangers flourished 800,000 members with 2,000 local lodges. Strongest in the
South and Midwest.
Grievances (complaints): 1. High railroad fees – farmers paid more for short hauls than
for long hauls because more RR competition for long hauls and the RR’s made up for
their losses by charging more for the short hauls. 2. High grain storage fees –
temporary storage for wheat and corn before put on the market. (They focused their hate
on the “middle man”. Farmer------ Middle Man-------Market.
Solutions 1. Cooperatives (an enterprise owned and operated by those using its
services). Farmers set up stores, creameries, elevators, warehouses, insurance co’s.
Because of the distance between them a mail order service was est. (The Grangers est the
first mail-order business---Montgomery Ward + Co. founded in 1872).
2. Granger Laws - elected members to State legislatures and were successful in
passing laws and est. govt. agencies in regulating the Railroads. Some State laws
regulated the prices of RR’s and granaries were soon challenged by the granaries----Munn v. Illinois (1877) Federal Supreme Court case declared that states could place a
maximum price on grain storage, however this decision was overturned by Wabash v
Illinois (1886) because only the Federal govt. could regulate interstate trade. But the
Grangers were successful in getting Congress to enact the Interstate Commerce Act
(1877 +1887) which created Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC/1887) to regulate
the railroads.
-Railroad rates had to be “reasonable and just” and “railroads could not charge more
for short hauls than long”.
e. 1880 decline in membership to 100,000 Why?
Inexperience in business & politics, Apathy caused by economic prosperity.
1. cooperatives & businesses failed b/c of the inexperience of their operators &
the opposition of the middlemen whose businesses they were challenging.
2. Inexperience of political leaders caused many of the Granger laws regulating
the RR to be overturned in court.
3. The return of economic prosperity (in the late 1870’s) caused a decline in
need.
*****The long term effect of the Granger movement was that it inspired future
alliances among groups of farmers, thus the formation of the Populists
II The Populists
Origins: Farmers Alliances 1875-1880’s farmer’s alliances nationwide
Southern alliance-4 million, Northwestern and Midwestern regions also created alliances.
These alliances dealt with local problems, created cooperatives and businesses like the
Grangers in order to fight the “middlemen” who kept farmers in debt. (*these
cooperatives were not representative of Socialism because they were constructed to help
individuals)
Effects: 1. Opened opportunities for women such as Mary E. Lease.(she held an office
and served as a lecturer---“raise less corn and more hell”) as a result of this opportunity
2. Women became more politically active (ex. Temperance movement--sobriety was the key to stability in rural life).
1889 Farmer alliances merged and held their 1st national convention in Ocala, Florida.
“Ocala Demands”-became the Populists political platform. They became very successful
taking control of 12 state legislatures-----most Alliance politicians were Democrat
sympathizer.
1892 Alliances created a new political party: The Peoples Party and the movement
called Populism. In the election of 1892 their candidate, James B. Weaver of Iowa took 1
million votes or 8.5% of the popular vote (22 electoral votes). They won many seats in
Congress & the support of many Democrats and Republicans.
The Populists
a. American Farmers who had the same grievances as the Grangers, Industrial
Workers who wanted shorter work days and restriction on immigration, and
silver Miners from the Rocky Mountains.
b. Issue: “Free Silver”-or allowing silver, like gold, to be the basis of currency so as
to expand the money supply.
c. Leadership: Rural Middle Class (professional people; editors, lawyers, & long
time politicians).
“Populism was not a challenge to industrialization or to Capitalism itself, but a
response to what the Populists considered the brutal chaotic way in which the
economy was developing” (Brinkley 541).
d. Demands: 1. sub treasuries to replace + strengthen cooperatives
2. Govt. owned & operated granaries
3. abolition of national banks & absentee landlords
4. direct elections of Senators
5. Regulations, later, govt. ownership of RR’s, telephone & telegraph.
***The Populists leadership demonstrated signs of bigotry that caused them some
support.
d. The Populist Party’s 1892 Political Platform (statement of political ideas)
1. a Graduated Income Tax (the higher the income the higher the tax rate)
2. Est. banks in US Post Offices
3. Govt ownership of RR’s
4. Govt ownership of Telephone & Telegraph
5. Direct election of US Senators
6. 8 hr work day for all factory workers
7. State laws granting Initiatives (voters’ power to initiate ideas for new
laws) and the Referendum (voters’ power to mark their ballots for or
against proposed laws). Recall (Popular vote for removing a govt. official
from office)
III The Turbulent 1890’s
A period of Agrarian protests, severe depression, widespread labor unrest and
violence, and the government’s indifference. (Pres. Grover Cleveland).
1. Panic of 1893
Cause: (2) major bankruptcies caused a decline in the stock market (Philadelphia Reading
Railroad and the National Cordage Co) soon followed by bank failures.
Within 6 months 8,000 businesses, 156 RR’s, and 400 banks had failed. Up to 1 million
or 20% of the labor force lost their jobs. This caused labor movements to become more
radical ex. the Homestead and Pullman Strikes.
*depressed prices in agriculture since 1887 had weakened the purchasing power of
farmers, the largest group in the American population.
2. The Silver Standard
Between 1873 and 1890, no silver coins had been minted, and because gold was a more
valuable precious metal than silver, these coins were often kept and not spent. Money,
therefore, was terrible scarce. Farmers saw a direct connection between the scarcity of
money and the low prices they received for cotton and corn. The Populists offered a
solution: raise farm prices by making the government coin more money- silver money.
The Populists wanted the US govt. to bring about Inflation (a regular increase in prices).
The way to do this was to coin 16 silver dollars for every one gold dollar. This appealed
to the silver miners who joined the Populists in 1892. (Peiser 181).
President Cleveland believed that instability of the currency causes depressions
and by introducing silver into the money would cause instability.
*today—the dollar rests on the public’s confidence in the economy. No more gold
standard.
3. The Election of 1896 “Silver against Gold”
Democrats divided into 2 groups:
a.
“Gold-bug” Democrats- Democrats from the North and East who supported Pres.
Grover Cleveland. They opposed silver because it would create instability in the
economy.
b.
“Silver” Democrats- Democrats from the South and West who supported
Nebraska Congressman William Jennings Bryan. They wanted “free and unlimited
coinage of silver”.
1896 Democratic National Convention: Bryan makes his famous Cross-of Gold Speech.
Last sentence, “You shall press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you
shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”
*The “silver-tongued” candidate defeated conservative “gold-bug” democrats.
**Populist’s convention of 1898 nominates Bryan.
c. Republicans – support William McKinley who supported the use of gold and
opposed silver.
***Bryan took the South and West (48%-176 electoral votes) but failed to carry the
crucial electoral votes from the East, thus losing the election to McKinley(51%-271
electoral votes).
4. Decline of the Populists
Bryans’ defeat and rising farm prices (prosperity) caused a decline in members.
*After 1900 no more populists elected to Congress.
IV Populist Contribution to American Society.
Populists Idea
Amendment
th
1. Graduated Income Tax
16 Amendment (1913)
2. Direct election of US Senators
17th Amendment (1913)
By popular vote. **(13th-abolish slavery, 14th-“equal rights” equal protection under the law,
15th-States cannot deny citizens the right to vote).
Profile:
William Jennings Bryan
- (1860-1925) Born in Illinois to a Middle Class family
-College-educated lawyer
-One of America’s great orators.
-Campaigned in 1896 election for the Democratic Party.
“Cross of Gold Speech” in support of the unlimited coinage of silver at the 1896
Democratic Convention not only helped to defeat a platform resolution in favor of the
gold standard, but also catapulted him into his party’s nomination for presidency.
-Violated longstanding tradition by which presidential candidates remained aloof from
their campaigns (tradition by which they “stood” for office rather than “running” for it).
-Bryan helped to establish the modern form of presidential politics
-In the 1896 election he carried the South and West but it was not enough.
-McKinley and the Republicans enacted the Currency or Gold Standard Act of 1900
making gold standard for the American currency.
-Although silver had failed it made Americans identify the weaknesses of making a gold
standard because the money supply that was tied to gold could not keep pace with a
progressing economy.
-In the late 1890’s new technology helped extract more gold from the mines, disguising
the potential weakness however, a new focused emerged at the turn of the century,
America’s growing presence in world affairs: American Imperialism.
-Bryan ran for presidency 3 times and was defeated by McKinley 1896 & 1900 and by
Taft in 1908.
-He served as secretary of state under Woodrow Wilson
-Opposed Clarence Darrow in the famous Scopes evolution trial in 1923
(Great American Speeches)