failing populsit party

failing populsit party

The third party, the People’s Party, nominated James B. Weaver and James G. Field for president and vice-president in 1892, respectively. They ended up with nine percent of the popular vote and twenty-two electoral votes since the black farmers stayed with the Republicans, and white farmers were convinced to stay with the Republican party as well. The only states the People’s Party won were Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, North and South Dakota, and the silver states of the West. Even through all this the People’s Party did not disappear.
The feelings left with people from the Panic of 1893 increased the chances of the People’s Party succeeding the next time around. Then later in the year when President Cleveland successfully repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, the Democratic Party was split. Democrats in the south and west of the United States were now against Cleveland. Changing the monetary policy to use silver was a big deal for a lot of people. Some felt that it showed how people want a more fair society and they wanted banks and corporations to have less power. The people who were now against the Democratic party looked like they were going to take over and they adopted free silver as the main component of their stand. All of this raised thoughts of a possibility of the Populists and the Democrats merging, and the Populists hoping the Democrats would accept more of their policies. William Jennings Bryan, who also believed in free silver, made a speech at the Democratic convention in 1896 and they loved him so much he became the presidential nomination.
This is where the true down fall of the People’s Party came. Some of the populist’s wanted to continue to be the third party, but most of them wanted to merge with the Democrats because they thought they could win for sure this way. In the end, the people who wanted to merge won, and the Populist’s and the Democrats became one, under the Democratic name.