Editing People's Party (United States) (section)

== Between presidential elections, 1893–1895 ==
{{See also|Second presidency of Grover Cleveland}}

Shortly after Cleveland took office, the country fell into a deep recession known as the [[Panic of 1893]]. In response, Cleveland and his Democratic allies repealed the [[Sherman Silver Purchase Act]] and passed the [[Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act]], which provided for a minor reduction in tariff rates.<ref name="Reichley 2000, p. 138"/> The Populists denounced the Cleveland administration's continued adherence to the gold standard, and they angrily attacked the administration's decision to purchase gold from a syndicate led by [[J. P. Morgan]]. Millions fell into unemployment and poverty, and groups like [[Coxey's Army]] organized protest marches in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>Goodwyn (1978), pp. 207–208</ref> Party membership grew in several states; historian Lawrence Goodwyn estimates that in the mid-1890s the party had "a following of anywhere from 25 to 45 percent of the electorate in twenty-odd states."<ref>Goodwyn (1978), p. 233</ref> Partly due to the growing popularity of the Populist movement, the Democratic Congress included a provision to re-implement a federal income tax in the 1894 [[Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act]].<ref name="brands485486">Brands (2010), pp. 485–486</ref>{{efn|The income tax provision was struck down by the Supreme Court in the 1895 case of ''[[Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.]]''<ref name="brands485486"/>}}

The Populists faced challenges from both the established major parties and the "Silverites," who generally disregarded the Omaha Platform in favor of bimetallism. These Silverites, who formed groups like the [[Silver Party]] and the [[Silver Republican Party]], became particularly strong in Western mining states like Nevada and Colorado.<ref name="goodwyn215222"/> In Colorado, Populists elected [[Davis Hanson Waite]] as governor, but the party divided over the Waite's refusal to break the [[Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894]].<ref>Holmes (1990), p. 50</ref> Silverites were also strong in Nebraska, where Democratic Congressman William Jennings Bryan continued to enjoy the support of many Nebraska Populists. A coalition of Democrats and Populists elected Populist [[William V. Allen]] to the Senate.<ref name="goodwyn215222">Goodwyn (1978), pp. 215–218, 221–222</ref>

The [[United States elections, 1894|1894 elections]] were a massive defeat for the Democratic Party throughout the country, and a mixed result for the Populists. Populists performed poorly in the West and Midwest, where Republicans dominated, but won elections in Alabama and other states. In the aftermath, some party leaders, particularly those outside the South, became convinced of the need to fuse with Democrats and adopt bimetallism as the party's key issue. Party chairman [[Herman Taubeneck]] declared that the party should abandon the Omaha Platform and "unite the reform forces of the nation" behind bimetallism.<ref>Goodwyn (1978), pp. 227–229</ref> Meanwhile, leading Democrats increasingly distanced themselves from Cleveland's gold standard policies in the aftermath of their performance in the 1894 elections.<ref>Goodwyn (1978), pp. 238–239</ref>

The Populists became increasingly polarized between moderate "fusionists" like Taubeneck and radical "mid-roaders" (named for their desire to take a middle road between Democrats and Republicans) like Tom Watson.<ref>Goodwyn (1978), pp. 230–231</ref> Fusionists believed the perceived radicalism of the Omaha Platform limited the party's appeal, whereas a platform based on free silver would resonate with a wide array of groups.<ref>Goodwyn (1978), pp. 233–234</ref> The mid-roaders believed that free silver did not represent serious economic reform, and continued to call for government ownership of railroads, major changes to the financial system, and resistance to the influence of large corporations.<ref>Goodwyn (1978), pp. 234–235</ref> One Texas Populist wrote that free silver would "leave undisturbed all the conditions which give rise to the undue concentration of wealth. The so-called silver party may prove a veritable [[Trojan Horse]] if we are not careful."<ref>Goodwyn (1978), pp. 249–250</ref> In an attempt to get the party to repudiate the Omaha Platform in favor of free silver, Taubeneck called a party convention in December 1894. Rather than repudiating the Omaha Platform, the convention expanded it to include a call for the municipal ownership of public utilities.<ref>Goodwyn (1978), pp. 241–242</ref>

=== Populist-Republican fusion in North Carolina ===
{{main|Fusionism in North Carolina}}
In 1894–1896, the Populist wave of agrarian unrest swept through the cotton and tobacco regions of the South.<ref name="nyt-bouie-2019">{{cite web |last1=Bouie |first1=Jamelle |title=America holds onto an undemocratic assumption from its founding: that some people deserve more power than others. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/republicans-racism-african-americans.html |author-link=Jamelle Bouie |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=20 August 2019 |date=August 14, 2019 |quote=Despite insurgencies at home — the Populist Party, for example, swept through Georgia and North Carolina in the 1890s...}}</ref> The most dramatic impact was in North Carolina, where the poor white farmers who comprised the Populist party formed a working coalition with the Republican Party, then largely controlled by blacks in the low country, and poor whites in the mountain districts. They took control of the state legislature in both 1894 and 1896, and the governorship in 1896. Restrictive rules on voting were repealed. In 1895 the legislature rewarded its black allies with patronage, naming 300 black magistrates in eastern districts, as well as deputy sheriffs and city policemen. They also received some federal patronage from the coalition congressman, and state patronage from the governor.<ref>[[Helen G. Edmonds]], ''[[The Negro and Fusion Politics in North Carolina, 1894-1901]]'' (1951). pp 97–136</ref>

=== Women and African Americans ===

Due to the prevailing racist attitudes of the late 19th century, any political alliance of Southern blacks and Southern whites was difficult to construct; however, shared economic concerns allowed some transracial coalition building.<ref>Goodwyn (1978), pp. 121–122</ref> After 1886, black farmers started organizing local agricultural groups along the lines the Farmer's Alliance advocated, and in 1888 the national [[Colored Farmers' National Alliance and Cooperative Union|Colored Alliance]] was established.<ref>Goodwyn (1978), pp. 118–120</ref>

Some southern Populists, including Watson, openly spoke of the need for poor blacks and poor whites to set aside their racial differences in the name of shared economic interests. The Omaha Platform, appealed 'to reason and not to prejudice'.<ref name="Clanton 1991" /> The motto of the Alliance was: 'Equal rights to all and special privileges to none'.<ref name="Clanton 1991" /> Tom Watson, one of the key founders of the People's Party in the state of Georgia in early 1892, was the first  white Southern leader that acknowledged the aspirations of black farmers, appealing for justice . He believed that blacks and whites had been conditioned to hate each other, assuming that upon that hatred  the keystone of the arch of financial exploitation is rested.<ref name="Theodosiadis 2025">{{Cite book |last=Theodosiadis |first=Michail |title=Ancient Greek Democracy and American Republicanism: Prometheus in Political Theory |date=28 February 2025 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2025 |edition=1st |location=Edinburgh |pages=254–5 |language=English}}</ref> Moreover, the Populists followed the [[Prohibition Party]] in actively including women in their affairs. But regardless of these appeals, racism did not evade the People's Party.<ref name="Theodosiadis 2025" /> Prominent Populist Party leaders such as [[Marion Butler]] at least partially demonstrated a dedication to the cause of [[white supremacy]], and there appears to have been some support for this viewpoint in the party's rank-and-file membership.<ref>Hunt (2003), pp. 3–7</ref> After 1900 Watson himself became an [[Thomas E. Watson#Shifting racial views|outspoken white supremacist]].

=== Conspiratorial tendencies ===

Historians continue to debate the degree to which the Populists were bigoted against foreigners and [[Jews]].<ref>Turner (1980), pp. 355–356</ref> Members of the anti-Catholic [[American Protective Association]] were influential in California's Populist Party organization, and some Populists embraced the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that the [[Rothschild family]] sought to control the United States.<ref name="Reichley 2000, p. 142">Reichley (2000), p. 142</ref> Historian [[Hasia Diner]] says:

: Some Populists believed that Jews made up a class of international financiers whose policies had ruined small family farms, they asserted, owned the banks and promoted the gold standard, the chief sources of their impoverishment. Agrarian radicalism posited the city as antithetical to American values, asserting that Jews were the essence of urban corruption.<ref>{{cite book|author=Hasia R. Diner|title=The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JRQGybN2eboC&pg=PA170|year=2004|publisher=U. of California Press|page=170|isbn=9780520227736}}</ref>