History of the Populist Movement in the United States

The Populist Movement: This political based historical incident took place in the United States of America.

  • In this event the there was a partnership among the agrarian reformers in particularly the Middle West as well as the South who promoted economic and political legislation in the times of the 19th
  • In the times of 1880’s the local groups were called as Farmers Alliance who were not happy due to constant crop failures, falling prices, and poor marketing and credit facilities.
  • This alliance did awaken a lot of individuals but it failed to be proved as an effective movement on the national level.
  • This led the leaders in 1892 to deform the Farmer’s Alliances whereas there was a formation of groups of people who were either Populist or People’s or Party based.
  • They even tried to expand themselves by including labor and other such groups while they remained completely agrarian.
  • They had particular demands which were like there should be an increase in circulating money so that an infinite level of coinage and silver could be achieved, income tax should be graduated from the level that is stuck on, government should take proper control of the railroads, a tariff that is only for the revenue should exist, the senators in the U.S. should be elected directly and some other efforts were needed in order to strengthen the political democracy while making the farmers equal as well with the industries and the businesses.
  • The fruits of the hard efforts resulted in 1892 wherein the Populist presidential candidate James B. Weaver polled 22 electoral votes that actually account to being more than 1,000,000 popular votes.
  • They even joined with the Democrats from certain parts so that they could represent some individuals from Congress, three governors and hundreds of minor officials and legislators which were all in the Middle West.
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