The Rise of the Populist Party and the Principle Features of Its Platform

Pre- civil war there was really only two parties; Republicans or Democrats. In the years after the civil war greed, favoritism, and corruption among both parties ran rampant. In 1873 an economic downturn had debtors lobbying for the reissuance of paper money, or greenbacks, and when that failed they looked to a metal other than gold to bolster inflation and help them pay down debts: Silver. This demand was also quashed by the “hard-money” republicans. The act of withdrawing more paper money from circulation and refusing to mint and issue silver dollars resulted in “contraction”. Although this did help the greenback reach its full face value, it also helped get a new democratic House of Representatives elected. As the corruption in politics continued to grow, farmers and poorer classes, who struggled to make ends meet began to form alliances. The Grange which was founded in 1867 and the Farmers' Alliance which was founded in 1877 introduced marketing and equipment co-ops, cooperatively owned mills, and even credit unions. But by 1890, farmers had decided that they needed to take their organizational efforts to the next level so they formed their own political party. In July 1892, 1300 delegates gathered at Omaha, Nebraska to write a national platform and select a presidential nominee thus The People's, or Populist Party was born.

The Populist Party took in the earlier alliances of the farmers in the west and the south. They once again demanded that silver coinage be issued to raise inflation rates. They also introduced the idea of graduated income tax, government ownership of railroads, telephone, and telegraph, plus several more radical ideas for the time. There presidential campaigning garnered unheard of support for a third party but at election time they failed to gather enough electorate votes to carry the election. The presidential contenders, presidential nominee James B. Weaver and vice presidential nominee James G. Field, didn't