Farmers+Alliance+and+Populist+Party

__Farmers Alliance and Populist Party  __  __Orgins of Farmers' Alliance__ The antecedents of the Populist Party began in the mid-1870s in response to the debt incurred by farmers in Texas. Economic Panic broke out in 1873 and severely afflicted the famers and the agrarian society. A drought hit the wheat growing areas of the Great Plains and Southern cotton prices plumetted. The farmers denounced those viewed as "arrongant capitalists and powerful cooperations". This lead to the instantanous formation of the Farmers' Alliance in 1877. The Alliance was quite efficient in fostering new cooperation stores, which bought domestic goods from wholesalers and directly sold them to the farmers for lower prices. The Farmers' Alliance was a short-lived faction though, however, they later morphed into the Populist Party in 1889 which garnered a lot of support.

 __Leaders and Some Subdivisions of Our Alliance__   ---President: H. Lewis of Herkimer  ---Secretary: A.A. Hopkins of Rochester  ---Treasurer: E.S. Hayward of Monroe <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">   <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">o  <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">      <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">General Superintendent: R.M. Humphrey    <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">   <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">o  <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">      <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Provided equal roles for blacks    <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">   <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">o  <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">      <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Received charter from Federal Government in 1888    <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">   <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;"> __<span style="display: block; font-size: 150%; font-family: Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Effects of the Farmers' Alliance __ <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">
 * ** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Farmers <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Alliance  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;"> officially began in central  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Texas  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">, 1877  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">  **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">(National) Officer Elections
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">National Grange of Patrons of Husbandry- first of the politically active farmers' groups
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Established in 1868 by Oliver H. Kelley
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">A Grange was formed in almost every state <span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Two farm organizations from the 1870s: North Alliance (not secret) and <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">South Alliance  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;"> (secret)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Colored Farmers' National Alliance and Cooperative Union formed December 1886 in Texas
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Merged with National Colored <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Alliance
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Cooperaties (buisnesses/warehouses run by farmers to cut out those middlemen!) were established:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Birth of the Populist Party (Result of July 1890 Farmer's Alliance Convention)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Major parties adopted some of our ideas
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">We established the Declaration of Principles in 1890:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Government Ownership of Telegraphs and Railroads
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Abolition of land monopoly
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">The free coinage of silver to inflate value of crops
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;">Lower Taxes

<span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;">The Future of the Farmer's Alliance was the Populist Party! We have created a nationally renowned party that ran James B. Weaver, a former Union general from Iowa, in 1892. Weaver recieved more than one million popular votes and several Populists were elected to Congress. We look forward to vying for a victory in the Election of 1896. Farmers are our priority. =<span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Georgia, serif; background-color: #fdfded;"> POPULIST PARTY  = = Photo Gallery    = <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black', Gadget, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black', Gadget, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black', Gadget, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: 'Arial Black', Gadget, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Sources 1. “Birth of the People’s Party.” __The 19th Century__. Ed. John Powell. Vol. 4. Great Events from History. Pasadena: Salem Press Inc., 2007. 1745-1747.

2. “Chronology of Events 1886-1900 .” __Geocities__. 11 Jan. 2008. 25 Nov. 2008 <http://www.geocities.com/‌salika_2000/‌chronology2.html>.

3. Cresswell, Stephen. “The People’s Party.” __Creswell’s List__. 1998. 13 Dec. 2008 <http://www.cresswellslist.com/‌ballots2/‌pp.htm>.

4. Donnelly, Ignatius. “Populist Platform 1892: Preamble.” Memo. 1892. __Primary Sources__. 2001. WGBH Educational Foundation. 24 Nov. 2008 <h[|ttp://www.learner.org/‌workshops/‌primarysources/‌corporations/‌before.html]>.

5.“The Farmers’ Alliance.” __New York Times__ 6 Sept. 1877: 1. __ProQuest Historical Newspapers__. ProQuest. Huntingtown High School Lib., Huntingtown, MD. 26 Nov. 2008 <[|http://hn.bigchalk.com]>.

6. “The Farmers’ Alliance.” __Roots of Progressivism__. Nebraska State Historical Society. 26 Nov. 2008 <http://www.nebraskastudies.org/‌0600/‌frameset_reset.html?<http://www.nebraskastudies.org/‌0600/‌stories/‌0601_0302.html>.

7. "Fusion in Michigan." __Chicago Daily__ 3 Oct. 1892: 1. __ProQuest Historical Newspapers__. ProQuest. Hunitngtown High School Lib., Huntingtown, MD. 16 Nov. 2008 <[|http://hn.bigchalk.com/hnweb/hn/do/document?set=search&start=1&rendition=x-article-image&inmylist=false&urn=urn:proquest:US;PQDOC;HNP;PQD;HNP;PROD;x-article-image;436182672&mylisturn=urn:proquest:US;PQDOC;HNP;PQD;HNP;PROD;x-citation;436182672>.]

8. “L. L. Polk (Leonidas La Fayette), 1837-1892 .” __Documenting the American South__. 26 Nov. 2008. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 26 Nov. 2008 <http://docsouth.unc.edu/‌nc/‌polk90/‌summary.html>.

9. Newman, John J., and John M. Schmalbach. __United States__ __History__. New York: Amsco School Publications, Inc., 2006.

10. “Populism on the Great Plains .” __American Agricultural History Primer__. Iowa State University. 27 Nov. 2008 <http://www.history.iastate.edu/‌agprimer/‌Page25.html>.

11. Ward, Carolyn. “Farmers’ Alliance.” __Kansas____: a cyclopedia of state history__. KSGenWeb Project. 28 Nov. 2008 <http://skyways.lib.ks.us/‌genweb/‌archives/‌1912/‌f/‌farmers_alliance.html>.