The Populist Movement

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As a result of the Populist Movement, the Populist Party was established in 1891, and it played a major role in American politics from 1892 to 1896. In the 1892 presidential election, the party had proved its popularity by gaining over a million votes. This success for such a new party had been due to the large amount of radical crusading farmers in the western and southern regions of the United States.The party was hostile towards banks, cities, gold, railroads, and the elites. Due to the party being a combination of the Farmers’ Alliance, the Greenback Party, and the Union Labor Party, its views were centered around the benefit of farmers, anti-monopoly beliefs, and the reform of labor laws. Moreover, it was composed of many angry farmers …show more content…
These parties all had anti-capitalistic core values, and the People’s Party had adopted these qualities. The Farmers’ Alliance supported the many farmers across the U.S. who had been struggling; they had blamed the banks, gold, and the elites. The Greenback Party was strongly against trusts and corporations who controlled the nation, and the Union Labor Party urged for reform in labor laws. Populists at this time had been angry farmers who blamed the corporations, trusts, and other elite groups for their struggles. However, the real problems came from overproduction, the Transportation Movement, and the fact that the U.S. was involved in a global economy. Many Populists were against the bosses who controlled immigrants and some drew cartoons to depict the bosses as evil. A major target of these cartoons was Tweed as can be seen in the second document (Document B). The many strategies of the Populists to gain support had been successful, and in the 1892 presidential election the People’s Party had shown its strength. Even though their candidate James B. Weaver had not won the election, the party still barely a year old had been able to obtain over a million votes. Overall, the party had been mostly anti-capitalistic due to its roots in other anti-capitalistic
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