Focus: The troubled Agrarian sector mounted a powerful, but unsuccessful, challenge to industrial capitalism and the two-party system, and how this challenge can to a head in the election of 1896.
The monetary deflation and fall in commodity prices following the Civil War hurt farmers almost immediately, causing widespread debt and the loss of land. Noting the success of the unions for the country’s laborers, organizations for farmers were founded. The National Grange was an organization designed to pool the abilities of local farmers to political and economic ends. The Farmers’ Alliance was formed in 1876 in Texas and spread throughout the country, with its strongest hold in the South and the Great Plains. The Farmers’ Alliance was a precursor to the Populist Party, which rose to power soon after the demise of the original organization. The symbolic and ritualistic tendency of the Grange can be seen in the Joining the Grange and the Suggestions articles below. The Resolutions from an Illinois Farmers’ Alliance Meeting elucidates the goals of the Alliance.
Questions to Consider:
1. What does the main focus of the Grange appear to be?
2.What does the main focus of the Farmer’s Alliance appear to be?
3. Do these organizations seem compatible?
4. Can you see the precursor to a large-scale political movement in the resolutions of the Illinois Farmers’ Alliance Meeting? What section of the population, other than farmers, would this type of platform appeal to?
LINKS:
A Pledge of Allegiance http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5026/
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