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. 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 legal tender for all debts. It
remained law until replaced by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of
1890. This act required the U.S. government to purchase nearly twice
as much silver as before, but also added