Political Realignments

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• Political Realignments
• 1876?1901

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Political Realignments, 1876?1901

• Politics of Stalemate
• Why was there a stalemate between Republicans and
  Democrats until the mid-1890s?
• The Rise of the Populist Movement
• What factors led to the formation and growth of
  the Farmers Alliance and Peoples party?

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Political Realignments, 1876?1901

• The Crisis of the Depression
• What were the main political and labor effects of
  the panic and depression of the 1890s?
• Changing Attitudes
• What changes in outlook did the panic and
  depression of the 1890s bring about?

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20.4
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Political Realignments, 1876?1901

• The Presidential Election of 1896
• Why was the presidential election of 1896 so
  important?
• The McKinley Administration
• What did McKinley accomplish that placed the
  results of the 1896 election on a solid basis?

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20.6
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Video SeriesKey Topics in U.S. History

1. Changing Political Landscape
2. Populist Party
3. Financial Crisis
4. The Age of Reform

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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

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Politics of Stalemate

• The Party Deadlock
• Reestablishing Presidential Power
• Republicans in Power The Billion-Dollar Congress
  
• Tariffs, Trusts, and Silver
• The 1890 Elections

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Politics of Stalemate

• Politics fascinated country
• Campaigns involved whole community
• Average of 79 percent of electorate voted
• Black men kept from polls in some areas
• Poll taxes spread across the South
• Literacy tests

Politics of Stalemate
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The Party Deadlock

• Electorate split almost evenly
• Democrats emphasized states rights and limited
  government
• Republicans promoted moral progress and material
  wealth
• One-party control of both Congress and White
  House rare
• Each party had safe states
• Federal influence waned

Politics of Stalemate
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Reestablishing Presidential Power

• Presidency weakened by scandals
• 1868 Andrew Johnsons impeachment
• 1870s scandals of Grant administration
• 1876 controversy over the election

Politics of Stalemate
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Reestablishing Presidential Power (continued)

• Presidents reasserted executive power
• Hayes made reforms and changes
• Bland-Allison Silver Purchase Act
• 1881 - Garfield succeeded Hayes
• Arthur and the Pendleton Act
• 1884 - Grover Cleveland

Politics of Stalemate
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Table 20.1 The Election of 1880
Politics of Stalemate
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Table 20.2 The Election of 1884
Politics of Stalemate
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Republicans in Power TheBillion-Dollar Congress

• Election of 1888 - most sweeping victory for
  either party in twenty years
• In spite of Harrisons narrow margin
• Gave Republicans presidency and both houses of
  Congress
• Seemed Republicans had broken party stalemate and
  become majority party

Politics of Stalemate
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Politics of Stalemate
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Tariffs, Trusts, and Silver

• 1890 Many new laws
• McKinley Tariff Act
• Raised duties to historic high
• Dependents Pensions Act
• By 1893, 1 million Union army veterans and
  families receiving pensions
• Sherman Antitrust Act
• Regulated big business
• United States v. E. C. Knight

Politics of Stalemate
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Tariffs, Trusts, and Silver (continued)

• 1890 - Sherman Silver Purchase Act
• Silver coinage had slipped into disuse
• Rise in silver production glutted world market
• Moved country toward bi-metallic monetary system

Politics of Stalemate
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Politics of Stalemate
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The 1890s Elections

• 1890 -Billion-Dollar Congress
• Republicans in control
• 1890 elections - voters crushed Republicans
• Nebraska and Iowa switched to Democratic party

Politics of Stalemate
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Politics of Stalemate
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Discussion Questions

• Why was there a stalemate between Republicans and
  Democrats that lasted until the mid-1890s?
• How did the Republican partys vision shape the
  Billion-Dollar Congress?

Politics of Stalemate
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The Rise of the Populist Movement

• The Farm Problem
• The Fast-Growing Farmers Alliance
• The Peoples Party

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The Rise of the Populist Movement

• Populism fast-growing movement among farmers
• Discontented farmers of West and South provided
  base of support
• National Farmers Alliance and Industrial Union

The Rise of the Populist Movement
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What Impact Did the Populist Movement Have on
American Politics?

• How did the average value of farmland change over
  this period?
• How did the Peoples Party fare in various
  elections?
• In what regions was support for the Peoples
  Party strongest?

The Rise of the Populist Movement
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The Rise of the Populist Movement
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The Farm Problem

• Worldwide agricultural discontent between 1870
  and 1900
• Farmers could not control international market
• Farmers complaints
• Lower prices for crops
• Rising railroad rates
• Onerous mortgages

The Rise of the Populist Movement
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The Fast-Growing Farmers Alliance

• Southern Alliance
• Farmers dealing with common problems
• 1890 more than a million members
• Farmers friends welcome
• Organized
• Colored Farmers National Alliance and
  Cooperative Union
• Loosely affiliated with Southern Alliance
• 250,000 members
• 1891 strikers lynched

The Rise of the Populist Movement
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The Fast-Growing Farmers Alliance (continued)

• Northwestern Alliance
• On the Plains
• Disagreed with Southern Alliance ideas
• National Farmers Alliance
• Merging of regional Alliances
• Ocala Demands platform
• Splitting the Alliance
• Formed Peoples party
• Resistance to a new party

The Rise of the Populist Movement
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The Rise of the Populist Movement
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The Rise of the Populist Movement
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The Peoples Party

• Northern Alliance splits from Democrats to form
  Peoples (or Populist) party
• Later joined by Southern Alliance
• Populists recruited African Americans
• 1892 James B. Weaver for president
• Alliance waned after 1892 elections

The Rise of the Populist Movement
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The Rise of the Populist Movement
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Discussion Question

• What factors led to the formation and growth of
  the Farmers Alliance and Peoples party?

The Rise of the Populist Movement
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The Crisis of the Depression

• The Panic of 1893
• The Pullman Strike
• A Beleaguered President
• Breaking the Party Deadlock

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The Crisis of the Depression

• Economic crisis dominated the 1890s
• Economy had expanded too rapidly
• Railroads had overbuilt
• Companies had outgrown markets
• Farms and businesses had borrowed heavily for
  expansion

The Crisis of the Depression
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The Panic of 1893

• 1893 - panic hit stock market
• Failure of major railroad
• Investors sold stock to purchase gold
• Depleted Treasury shook confidence
• May 1893 - market hit record low
• Business failures displaced 2 million workers
• 1894 heat wave and drought hit West
• Corn crop failed
• Cotton prices dropped

The Crisis of the Depression
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The Pullman Strike

• 1894 - Pullman Strike
• Joined by Eugene Debss American Railway Union
• Closed Western railroads
• President Cleveland suppressed strikes
• Federal troops sent in
• Debs was arrested
• Effect on labor movement
• Clevelands actions resented
• Injunctions endorsed

The Crisis of the Depression
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A Beleaguered President

• Cleveland returned to presidency
• Defeated Weaver and Harrison
• Democrats controlled Congress as well
• Repeal of Sherman Silver Purchase Act
• Seen as cause of Panic of 1893
• Failed to stop depression
• Made silver a political issue
• Democrats failed to lower tariff
• Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act

The Crisis of the Depression
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Breaking the Party Deadlock

• Elections of 1894 crushed Democrats
• Reduced to a sectional southern organization
• Populists gained in the South and West
• Republicans swept congressional elections
• Republicans became dominant party
• Acceptance of activism and national authority rose

The Crisis of the Depression
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Discussion Question

• What were the main political and labor effects of
  the panic and depression of the 1890s?

The Crisis of the Depression
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Changing Attitudes

• Women and Children in the Labor Force
• Changing Themes in Literature

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Changing Attitudes

• Depression of 1893 forced change of view
• Established ideas failed to deal with depression
• Unemployment not a personal failure
• Local institutions discussed alternatives
• Acceptance of need for government intervention to
  help the poor and jobless

Changing Attitudes
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Women and Childrenin the Labor Force

• Women and children worked more
• Paid lower wages
• More black urban women than white
• Children in southern textile mills
• Concerned groups formed
• League for the Protection of the Family
• Mothers Congress

Changing Attitudes
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Changing Themes in Literature

• Depression led to growing realism in literature
• Rejected sentimentalism, romanticism, and
  escapism
• Portrayed life as it was
• Regionalists
• Realists Mark Twain
• Naturalists

Changing Attitudes
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Discussion Question

• What changes in outlook did the panic and
  depression of the 1890s bring about?

Changing Attitudes
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The Presidential Election of 1896

• The Mystique of Silver
• The Republicans and Gold
• The Democrats and Silver
• Campaign and Election

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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 Presidential Election of 1896
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The Mystique of Silver

• Support for free silver coinage grew
• Dominated South and West
• Literature flooded country
• Seen as quick solution to economic crisis
• Silverites quantity theory of money
• Believed amount in circulation determined level
  of economic activity
• Silver also a symbol
• Moral crusade
• Patriotic

The Presidential Election of 1896
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The Republicans and Gold

• Candidate - William McKinley
• Silverite Republicans defeated on convention
  floor
• Promised gold standard to restore prosperity

The Presidential Election of 1896
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The Democrats and Silver

• Candidate - William Jennings Bryan
• Strong public speaker
• Free silver promised in "Cross of Gold" speech
• Anti-Cleveland platform
• Attacked Cleveland on Pullman strike actions and
  censured sale of gold bonds
• Democrats were enthusiastic

The Presidential Election of 1896
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The Presidential Election of 1896
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Campaign and Election

• Populist party endorsed Bryan
• Might have hurt his chances
• Bryan campaigned directly to voters
• First presidential candidate to do so
  systematically
• Bryan offered return to rural, religious United
  States
• Opportunity for common people
• Distrust of central authority

The Presidential Election of 1896
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Campaign and Election (continued)

• McKinley let voters come to him
• Railroads brought voters to his hometown, where
  he spoke from his front porch
• Reached people through the press
• McKinley defended economic nationalism and
  urban-industrial society
• Election was clear victory for McKinley
• Populist party vanished after 1896
• Proposals later adopted

The Presidential Election of 1896
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The Presidential Election of 1896
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Discussion Question

• Why was the presidential election of 1896 so
  important?

The Presidential Election of 1896
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The McKinley Administration

• McKinley faced favorable outlook
• Took office at depressions end
• An activist, modern president
• Major policies
• Dingley Tariff raised rates to record level
• Need for regulation of industrialism
• War with Spain
• Gold Standard Act
• McKinley won reelection
• Against Bryan again

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The McKinley Administration
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Table 20.3 The Election of 1900
The McKinley Administration
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Discussion Question

• What did McKinley accomplish that placed the
  results of the 1896 election on a solid basis?

The McKinley Administration
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Conclusion A DecadesDramatic Changes

• 1890s - brought powerful effects
• Political patterns shifted
• Social change from massive unrest
• War with Spain brought new world responsibilities
• Technology and innovation
• 1901 - McKinley assassinated Theodore Roosevelt
  became president