Title: POLITICAL REALIGNMENTS IN THE 1890s
1POLITICAL REALIGNMENTS IN THE 1890s
- America Past and Present
- Chapter 20
2Politics of Stalemate
- Politics a major fascination of late nineteenth
century - entertainment - White males make up bulk of electorate
- Black men denied vote by poll tax, literacy
tests, etc.
3The Party Deadlock
- Democratic party and Republican party divide
evenly - Federal influence wanes, state control rises
- Early State commissions weak and advisory in
nature - Congress passes the Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC) prototype for Federal
Commissions to regulate all areas of government
4Reestablishing Presidential Power
- Presidential power at low until 1890s
- Presidents reassert executive power
- Hayes ends military Reconstruction
- Garfield - assassinated
- Arthur Pendleton Act
- Cleveland uses veto to curtain federal
- activities
5Republicans 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 - Billion-Dollar Congress shaped the future policy
of the nation
6Tariffs, Trusts and Silver
- 1890--McKinley Tariff raises duties to historic
high - By 1893--1 million Union pensions granted
- 1890--Sherman Anti-Trust Act regulates big
business but is vague and at the mercy of the
courts - 1890--Sherman Silver Purchase Act backs paper
money with silver and kept limited silver coinage
in circulation
7The 1890 Elections
- 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
8The Rise of the Populist Movement
- Discontented farmers of West and South provide
base of support - The National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial
Union the result - Alliance objective to organize and politicize the
farmers
9The Farm Problem
- Worldwide agricultural economy causes great
fluctuations in supply and demand - Farmers complaints
- lower prices for crops (actual prosperity rising)
- rising railroad rates (rates actually declining)
- onerous mortgages (loans permit improvement)
- Conditions of farmers vary by region
- General feeling of depression, resentment
10The Fast-Growing Farmers' Alliance
- Alliances unite and politicize to help farmers
- Alliance eventually rejects Democratic and
Republican - After 1890 Runs its own candidates in North and
West
11The Fast-Growing Farmers' Alliance Ocala Demands
- System of government warehouses to hold crops for
higher prices - Free coinage of silver
- Low tariffs
- Federal income tax
- Direct election of Senators
- Regulation of railroads
12The People's Party
- Southern Alliance splits from Democrats to form
Populist party - 1892--Populist presidential candidate James
Weaver draws over one million votes - Alliance wanes after 1892 elections
13The Crisis of the Depression
- Economic crisis dominated the 1890s and was
caused by economic changes of the period - Railroads overbuilt, companies grew beyond their
markets, farms and businesses went deeply in debt
14The 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
15Coxey's Army and the Pullman Strike
- 1894--Jacob Coxey leads Coxeys Army to
Washington to demand relief - Pullman strikes by Eugene Debs American Railway
Union close Western railroads - President Cleveland suppresses strikes with
federal troops
16The Miners of the Midwest
- United Mine Workers strike 1894
- Old miners--English and Irish workers, owners
of small family mines - New miners--1880s immigrants
- Strike pits new miners against old
17A 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
18Breaking the Party Deadlock
- Election of 1894 reduces Democrats to a sectional
southern organization - Republicans sweep congressional elections
- Republicans become majority elsewhere
19Changing Attitudes
- Depression of 1893 forces recognition of
structural causes of unemployment - Americans accept the need for government
intervention to help the poor and jobless
20Everybody Works but Father
- Women and children paid lower wages, displace men
during depression - Employers retain women and children after
depression to hold down costs
21Changing Themes in Literature
- Depression encourages realist school
- Mark Twains characters speak in dialect
- William Dean Howells, Stephen Crane portray grim
life of the poor - Frank Norris attacks power of big business
- Theodore Dreiser presents humans as helpless
before vast social, economic forces
22The 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
23The Mystique of Silver
- Free and independent coinage of silver
- set ratio of silver to gold at 161
- U.S. mints coin all silver offered to them
- U.S. coins silver regardless of other nations
policies - Silverites believe amount in circulation
determines level of economic activity - A moral crusade for the common people
24Republicans and Gold
- Candidate William McKinley
- Silverite Republicans defeated on convention
floor - Promises gold standard to restore prosperity
25The Democrats and Silver
- Candidate William Jennings Bryan
- Free silver promised in "Cross of Gold" speech
- Democrats enthusiastic
26Campaign and Election
- Populist party endorses Bryan
- Bryan offers return to rural, religious U.S.
- McKinley defends urban, industrial society and
support of eastern press - Election is a clear victory for McKinley, utter
rout of Populist party
27The McKinley Administration
- McKinley takes office at depressions end
- An activist president
- Dingley Tariff raises rates to record highs
- 1900--U.S. placed on gold standard
- 1900--McKinley wins landslide reelection against
William Jennings Bryan
28A Decades Dramatic Changes
- September, 1901--McKinley assassinated
- Theodore Roosevelt becomes president