Populism had incredible appeal in the southern states where poverty and hatred seemed the greatest. The people felt trapped between the republican bankers of the North and the new1y freed slaves, against whom they had to compete in the open labor market. Populist politicians found that they could do relatively little to control the bankers and the wealthy privileged, but in the newly freed slaves they found a scapegoat for all their problems and complaints. They also promoted a totally new system of racial segregation. Even though they lost all national elections, the Populists managed to win control of all of the southern states and several western ones.
Populist programs had a tremendous impact on the lives of African-Americans, but they had comparatively little on the bankers or on the monetary system of the country, which became even more gold-oriented. During most the remainder of the nineteenth century, different political factions fought over whether the United States should have only the gold standard or both the gold and the silver standard.
English: Photograph of William Jennings Bryan as a...
English: The Wicked Witch of The West, melting aft...
Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion, from The Wonderfu...Populist senator William Jennings Bryan from the farm state of Nebraska campaigned tirelessly for the use of both silver and gold as a monetary standard. In his famous acceptance speech after receiving the presidential nomination at the 1896 Democratic convention, Bryan aimed carefully at the bankers, financiers, Republicans, and all the greedy. Despite the thunderous applause of the Democrats, he suffered a crucial defeat by the Republican nominee, William McKinley, in 1896 and again in 1900.
In 1878, the U.S. Congress passes the Bland- Allison Act to provide for freer coinage of silver. The act as adopted required the U.S. Treasury to purchase between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month at market prices; this was to be coined into silver dollars, which were made...