Volume 17 , Issue 25

The Populist Party

The Populist Party was formally known as the National People's Party, was formed in 1892 to represent the interests of southern and western farmers who were particularly stressed in the 1890s by high interest rates on loans, severe drought in the Midwest, a high rate of foreclosure of farm mortgages, and unfair railroad shipping rates for their products.

Many of those who supported the Populist Party blamed their economic plight on a conspiracy of eastern bankers and railroad millionaires who were out to ruin them in order to maximize their own profits. In many ways the Populists represented the growing antagonism between labor and industry that marked the 1890s and the early decades of the 20th century.

The Populist platform included such issues as the free and unlimited coinage of silver, lower interest rates, national ownership of the railroads, labor reforms, and a graduated income tax. The first Populist presidential candidate, James B. Weaver, garnered more than a million popular votes and 22 electoral votes in the election of 1892. In 1896, the fiery young Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan adopted much of the Populist platform, and the Populists supported Bryan.

Eventually the Democratic/Populist alliance weakened the Populist movement, although the party survived until 1912. Many of the issues raised by the Populists would continue to echo in American political history during the Progressive Era and the New Deal.
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