Chapter 3 Section 3 Critical Thinking

Q: What do you think were the most significant factors in bringing an end to the Populist Party?

- Monetary policy

- Third-party status

- Source of popular support

- Popular participation policy

The Populist Party was a very short-lived political party in the late 1800’s. Some of the reasons for its demise were its monetary policy, its status as a third party, its supporters and its belief that the people should have more of a say in what the government did.

The Populist Party was in support of bimetallism, a monetary system that used gold and silver, rather than just gold. One of the reasons this was a factor in the collapse of the party was its candidate in the 1896 election, William Jennings Bryan (p.428). He was the presidential candidate of the Democrats as well, but his belief in bimetallism caused wealthy Democrats in favor of the gold standard to nominate their own candidate. Bryan lost support in cities, where the inflation that would result in his election would cause prices of goods to rise (p.429). He lost the election to William McKinley, who had support in the North and the Middle West (basically everywhere industrial). McKinley’s election “buried the hopes of the farmers”, to quote page 429 of the book, and the collapse of the Populist Party occurred quite soon after. Aside from their party’s faith in a candidate who would have a hard time getting elected as president, the Populist’s Party’s belief in bimetallism ensured that they would have no support in the more heavily populated cities, which made it very unlikely that they would ever be able to win an election and thus make a change.

The Populist Party’s status as a third party hurt them for several reasons. From the beginning, they were at a disadvantage: they had to make their own party from two previously existing parties who would be their rivals, and then attract people from those other parties to their cause. The competition for the Populist Party was well-established, and neither faced the problems that the Populists did. In addition, the Populists compromised their identity as a party by not electing their own presidential candidate; their nominee was William Jennings Bryan, who was also the Democratic nominee (p.429), and so they had split themselves. By doing this, they lost their identity and narrowed the range of people who would vote for them. The gold bug Democrats had nominated their own presidential candidate, and the Democrats who would vote for William Jennings Bryan would most likely vote for him with the Democratic vice presidential candidate.

The source of popular support for the Populist Party was largely struggling farmers, as well as other laborers to whom the platform of the Populist Party appealed. These people were not as rich or influential as the rich gold bugs, and that may have impacted the turnout of the election of 1896, which lead to the demise of the party. William McKinley was very rich, and his campaign was backed by millions of dollars. While William Jennings Bryan had to tour the country, campaigning in 27 states and making up to 20 speeches a day, McKinley “campaigned from his front porch, while thousands of well known people toured the country speaking on his behalf”(p.429). The people who were the base of the Populist Party didn’t have the money or fame that the supporters of McKinley, and were not nearly as influential people. Jennings Bryan had to wear himself to the ground to spread his message, and McKinley barely had to lift a finger. It is hard to overcome such wealth and influence, and the economic status of the struggling farmers was no help to their candidate.

What many of the difficulties of the Populist Party came down to seem to have been a struggle between the rich politicians and businessmen and the poor farmers. One wouldn’t think that the idea of a popular participation policy would be something that would hurt the party at first, but the people who were the opponents of the Populists were rich and in power. If these people were in charge of the government for the larger part, certainly they wouldn’t want that to change that. They would hate the idea of giving the “common folk” more power in their government, and would try hard to crush the Populists, because if the Populists died, then the idea of a popular participation policy died with them. And since these people were rich and influential, they could easily promote themselves far better than the poor farmers of the West, and get people to vote for them. The rivals of the populists were able to easily bury them.