The United States from 1877 to 1914The Tariff: real issue or

diversion?• Republicans for it• Helps

manufacturing• Helps workers keep

their jobs

• Democrats against it

• Hurts consumers• Raises prices on

farmersBut the Populists say the tariff debate is just a diversion from more fundamental issues, such as regulation of railroads, telegraph, and access to credit.

The United States from 1877 to 1914

the gendered tariff

• Democrats: tariff weakens the autonomy of the white male farmer and consumer; emasculates him

• Republicans: tariff enables male wage earner to support his wife, who then can protect the domestic hearth

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Grover Cleveland: home-wrecker?

• Accused in election of 1884 of having fathered illegitimate child

• Cleveland had “foraged outside the city [Buffalo, NY] and surrounding villages, a champion libertine, an artful seducer, a foe to virtue, an enemy of the family,” according to one newspaper

• Once in office quickly marries Frances Folsom

Mr. Cleveland on a less successful day of foraging

The United States from 1877 to 1914

1888: Cleveland v. Harrison (r)

• Tariff remains key issue to the campaign

• Harrison wins majority of electoral votes, but loses Congress in the election of 1890 to Democrats and Populists

• Populists win women support in western states with their advocacy of suffrage

Benjamin Harrison “reminds me of a pig blinking in the cold wind.” –Theodore Roosevelt

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Alliance St. Louis platform, 1889

• Abolition of national banks• Substitution of money issued by the

U.S. Treasury• Government ownership of railroads

and telegraph• Progressive taxation• The sub-treasury plan

The United States from 1877 to 1914

“Bleeding Kansas,” 1854

The United States from 1877 to 1914

The United States from 1877 to 1914

“Pitchfork” Ben Tillman of South Carolina

James Hogg of Texas

Faux populists

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Tom Watson of Georgia

“Here is a tenant – I do not know, or care, whether he is white or black. He knows perfectly well that he cannot get goods as cheap as cash.” The system “tears a tenant from his family and puts him in chains and stripes because he sells his cotton for something to eat and leaves his rent unpaid.”

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Election of 1892

• Populists elected three governors• Five U.S. Senators• Populist presidential candidate gets

1,041,000 votes• 8.5 percent of the total vote• Grover Cleveland (D) defeats

Harrison (R) by 300,000

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Coin’s Financial School, 1892

• Advocated the unlimited coinage of silver to create a more deflationary currency

• Adopted by William Jennings Bryan

The United States from 1877 to 1914

• Shipping rates have to be "reasonable and just"

• Rates must be published • Secret rebates outlawed • Price discrimination against small

markets illegal.

Interstate Commerce Act, 1887

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890

• Trusts “in restraint of trade” made illegalPunishable by fines of up to 10 million

dollars• Individuals who “conspire to

monopolize” guilty of a felony• Attorney General empowered to

enforce the law

The United States from 1877 to 1914

U.S. vs. E.C. Knight Company, 1895

• E.C. Knight produced 98 percent of refined sugar in U.S.

• But Supreme Court declared it wasn’t violating Sherman act because it was involved in manufacturing, not trade

• Nyah nyah nyah . . .

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Supreme Court: Income tax unconstitutional

• 1895: by 5 to 4 in Pollock v. Farmers Loan Supremes say that “direct taxes” may not be imposed directly, “unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” (Section 9, para 4 of Constitution)

• Furthermore: “Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states.”

• Court narrowly (5-4) construes this to mean that Federal government can’t directly collect taxes

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Showdown for the People’s Party, St. Louis: 1896

• “Fusionists” want to ally with Democrats using free silver issue, and endorse William Jennings Bryan

• “Mid-roaders” want to stick to issues like the sub-treasury plan

• Bryan says he will not fuse with People’s Party unless they accept pro-gold standard Democrat Samuel Sewall as well

• Populists endorse Bryan, with Tom Watson as their Vice Presidential candidate

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Bryan’s 1896 political program

• A graduated Federal income tax• Direct election of United States

Senators• Greater regulation of the

railroads, telegraph, and monopolies to protect

consumers• Lower tariffs to protect

consumers• Backing the dollar with silver as

well as gold for a more flexible currency

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Mark Hanna: Mastermind of the McKinley campaign of 1896

The United States from 1877 to 1914

Frank L. Baum, Wizard of Oz, 1900

• Dorothy = average American citizen

• Scarecrow = farmer

• Woodman = factory worker

• Lion = William Jennings Bryan

• Mark Hanna = The wizard of OUNCE (aka .OZ)