American Stories:
A History of the United States
Second Edition
Chapter
20
Political
Realignments
1876–1901
American Stories: A History of the United States, Second Edition
Brands • Breen • Williams • Gross
Wealth and Poverty Tiny children peddling
newspapers and women domestics serving the rich—
their meager earnings were desperately needed.
Political Realignments
1876–1901
• Politics of Stalemate
• Republicans in Power: The Billion-Dollar
Congress
• The Rise of the Populist Movement
• The Crisis of the Depression
• Changing Attitudes
• The Presidential Election of 1896
• The McKinley Administration
Hardship and Heartache
• The depression of the 1890s had
profound and lasting effects
 Rural hostility toward cities
 Fight over currency
 Changed attitudes to government,
employment, and reform
Politics of Stalemate
The Party Deadlock
• Post-Civil War Democratic party divides
electorate almost evenly with
Republicans
• Democrats emphasize state’s rights and
limited government
• Republicans see government as agent
to promote moral progress and material
wealth
The Party Deadlock (cont’d)
• One-party control of both Congress and
White House rare
• Each party has safe states, control of
federal government rests with 6
“doubtful” states in North and Midwest
• Federal influence wanes, state control
rises
Political Toys A toy scale pitting the presidential
candidates of 1888 (Harrison and Cleveland)
against each other. More than a plaything, this
scale symbolizes the high level of voter
participation during the late nineteenth century
when elections hung in balance until the last vote
was counted.
Reestablishing
Presidential Power
• Presidency hits nadir under Johnson
• Later presidents reassert executive
power
 Hayes ended military Reconstruction
 Garfield asserted leadership of his party
 Arthur strengthened navy, civil service
reform
 Cleveland used veto to curtail federal
activities, called for low tariffs
TABLE 20.1
The Election of 1880
Map 20.1
TABLE 20.2
The Election of 1884
Republicans in Power:
The Billion-Dollar Congress
Republicans in Power:
The Billion-Dollar Congress
• 1888: Republicans control both White
House and Capitol Hill
• 1890: Adoption of Reed Rules permits
enactment of “billion dollar” program
Tariffs, Trusts, and Silver
• 1890: McKinley Tariff raises duties to
historic high
• Dependents Pension Act: By 1893, 1
million receiving pensions from union
army
Tariffs, Trusts, and Silver (cont’d)
• 1890: Sherman Anti-Trust Act regulates
big business
 U.S. v. E.C. Knight clarifies that law does
not apply to manufacturers
• 1890: Sherman Silver Purchase Act
moves country toward bi-metallic
monetary system
The Battle of the Standards In this 1886,
cartoon illustrating the silver standard versus gold
standard controversy, Uncle Sam bicycles to
national bankruptcy on an enormous silverite
dollar.
The 1890 Elections
• “Billion Dollar” Congress alienates
people
• Republicans also assert activist
government policies on state level
 Sunday closing laws
 Prohibition
 Mandatory English in public schools
• 1890: Alienated voting blocks turn out
Republican legislators
The Rise of the Populist Movement
The Rise of the
Populist Movement
• Discontented farmers of West and
South provide base of support
• The National Farmers’ Alliance and
Industrial Union the result
The Farm Problem
• Worldwide agricultural economy causes
great fluctuations in supply and
demand
• Farmers’ complaints
 Lower prices for crops (although
purchasing power rising)
 Rising railroad rates (rates actually
declining)
 Onerous mortgages (loans permit
production expansion)
The Farm Problem (cont’d)
• Conditions of farmers vary by region
• General feeling of depression,
resentment
The Fast-Growing Farmers’
Alliance
• 1875: Southern Alliance begins
• Colored Farmer’s National Alliancedestroyed after leaders lynched in 1891
• Regional Alliances merge into National
Farmer’s Alliance
The Farmers’ Alliance The Alliance movement
grew quickly in the late 1800s among discontented
farmers. This photograph shows Southern Alliance
members meeting at the site of their first formal
meeting in 1877 in Lampasas County, Texas. The
cabin was later uprooted and exhibited at the
World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
The Fast-Growing Farmers’
Alliance (cont’d)
• Division in the South
 Tillman: Capture existing Democratic party
to maintain white supremacy
 Tom Watson and Leondias Polk urge new
party
 Adopts Ocala Demands
 Warehouses to hold crops for higher prices
The Fast-Growing Farmers’
Alliance (cont’d)
• Division in the South (cont’d)





Free coinage of silver
End to protective tariffs
Federal income tax
Direct election of Senators
Regulation of railroads
The People’s Party
• Southern Alliance splits from
Democrats to form Populist party
• Southern Populists recruit African
Americans, give them influential
positions
The People’s Party (cont’d)
• 1892: Populist presidential candidate
James Weaver draws over one million
votes
 Loses South to violence and intimidation
by Southern Democrats
 Loses urban areas
• Alliance wanes after 1892 elections
Map 20.2
The Crisis of the Depression
The Crisis of the Depression
• Economic crisis dominated the 1890s
• Railroads overbuilt, companies grew
beyond their markets, farms and
businesses went deeply in debt
The Panic of 1893
• February, 1893: Failure of major
railroad sparks panic on New York
Stock Exchange
• Investors sell stock to purchase gold
• Depleted Treasury shakes confidence
• May, 1893: Market hits record low,
business failures displace 2 million
workers
• 1894: Corn crop fails
The Pullman Strike
• 1894: Pullman strike joined by Eugene
Debs’ American Railway Union closed
Western railroads
• President Cleveland suppressed strikes
with federal troops and Debs was
arrested
A Beleaguered President
• Cleveland repeals Sherman Silver
Purchase Act to remedy Panic of 1893
• Repeal fails to stop depression
• Repeal makes silver a political issue
• Democrats renege on promise of lower
tariff
Breaking the Party Deadlock
• Election of 1894 reduced Democrats to
a sectional southern organization
• Republicans swept congressional
elections
• Republicans became majority elsewhere
Changing Attitudes
Changing Attitudes
• Depression of 1893 forced recognition
of structural causes of unemployment
• Americans accepted the need for
government intervention to help the
poor and jobless
Women and Children in
the Labor Force
• Women and children paid lower wages,
displaced men during depression
• Employers retained women and
children after depression to hold down
costs
Changing Themes in Literature
• Depression encouraged “realist” school
• Mark Twain’s characters spoke in dialect
• William Dean Howells, Stephen Crane
portrayed grim life of the poor
Changing Themes in Literature
(cont’d)
• Frank Norris attacked power of big
business
• Theodore Dreiser presented humans as
helpless before vast social, economic
forces
The Presidential Election of 1896
The Presidential
Election of 1896
• Free coinage of silver the main issue
 Boost the money supply
 Seen as solution to depression
• New voting patterns emerged and
national policy shifted
The Mystique of Silver
• “Free and independent coinage of
silver”
 Set ratio of silver to gold at 16:1
 U.S. mints coined all silver offered to them
 U.S. coined silver regardless of other
nations’ policies
The Mystique of Silver (cont’d)
• Silverites believed amount in circulation
determined level of economic activity
• A moral crusade for the common
people
The Republicans and Gold
• Candidate: William McKinley
• Silverite Republicans defeated on
convention floor
• Promised gold standard to restore
prosperity
The Democrats and Silver
• Candidate: William Jennings Bryan
• Free silver promised in "Cross of Gold"
speech
• Democrats were enthusiastic
A Crucial Election This cartoon satirizes the
religious symbolism in Bryan’s “Cross of Gold”
speech, but his stirring rhetoric captivated his
audience and won him the Democratic presidential
nomination in 1896.
Campaign and Election
• Populist party endorsed Bryan
• Bryan offered return to rural, religious
U.S.
• McKinley defended urban, industrial
society
• Election was a clear victory for
McKinley, utter rout of Populist party
Political Conflict in 1896 This campaign card
from the 1896 presidential election predicts that
Republican candidate William McKinley’s protariff,
protectionist policy will lead to prosperity and
thriving industrialism while Democratic candidate
William Jennings Bryan’s free trade and free silver
policies will lead to economic ruin.
Map 20.3 This map illustrates McKinley’s victories
over a large swatch of states in the North, Midwest
and Pacific Coast. It also shows the greater reach
of the Democratic party under William Jennings
Bryan, though the states he carried in the West
tended to have few electoral votes.
The McKinley Administration
The McKinley Administration
• McKinley took office at depression’s end
• An activist president
• Dingley Tariff raised rates to record
highs
• 1900: U.S. placed on gold standard
• 1900: McKinley won landslide
reelection against William Jennings
Bryan
TABLE 20.3
The Election of 1900
Conclusion: A Decade’s Dramatic
Changes
Conclusion: A Decade’s Dramatic
Changes
• September, 1901: McKinley
assassinated
• Theodore Roosevelt became president
• In 1896 Henry Ford produced a twocylinder, four-horsepower car
• Wilbur and Orville Wright neared the
birth of powered flight
Timeline