Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd
Populism was a political movement founded in the 1890’s representing mainly farmers, favoring free coinage of silver and government control of railroads and other large industries. The Populist Party, also known as the People’s Party, adopted a platform calling for free coinage of silver, abolition of national banks, a subtreasury scheme or some similar system, a graduated income tax, plenty of paper money, government ownership of all forms of transportation and communication, election of senators by direct vote of the people, nonownership of land by foreigners, civil service reform, a working day of eight hours, postal banks, pensions, revision of the law of contracts, and reform of immigration regulations. The goal of the Populists in 1892 was no less than that of replacing the Democrats as the nation’s second party by forming an alliance of the farmers of the West and South with the industrial workers of the East. James B Weaver was the Populist candidate for president that…show more content… As a result, most urban workers continued to vote for the Democrats, whose candidate, Grover Cleveland, won the election. As the election of 1896 approached, leaders of the People’s Party decided to make the free coinage of silver the focus of their campaign. The People’s Party hoped that when they endorsed silver, pro-silver Democrats would abandon their party and vote for the Populists. Unfortunately for the People’s Party, their strategy failed. When the Populists gathered in St. Louis for their own convention, they faced a difficult choice: endorse William Jennings Bryan and risk undermining their identity as a separate party, or nominate their own candidate and risk splitting the silver vote. They eventually decided to support Bryan as well as the Democrats did
