AP U.S. History · Lesson 3

Gilded Age politics, Populism and the New South

Know Know it

Gilded Age elections were close and turnout was high, but the parties differed little on many issues. Corruption and the spoils system led to reform after an office seeker assassinated President Garfield: the Pendleton Act (1883) created merit exams for some federal jobs. The Interstate Commerce Act (1887) began federal regulation of railroads, though its commission was weak at first.

Farmers suffered from falling crop prices, debt and high railroad rates. They organized the Grange in the 1860s and 1870s and the Farmers' Alliances in the 1880s, and in 1892 they formed the People's (Populist) Party. Its Omaha Platform called for free coinage of silver to expand the money supply, a graduated income tax, government ownership of railroads and the direct election of senators. In the Panic of 1893 and the depression that followed, the money question dominated politics. In 1896 the Democrats and the Populists both nominated William Jennings Bryan, who backed free silver, but Republican William McKinley won with the support of industry and cities.

In the South, boosters such as the Atlanta editor Henry Grady promoted a "New South" of factories and railroads, yet most Southerners stayed poor farmers. After Reconstruction, Southern states built Jim Crow: poll taxes and literacy tests stripped most Black men of the vote, and segregation laws spread. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) the Supreme Court upheld "separate but equal." Lynching terrorized Black communities, and Ida B. Wells campaigned against it.

Black leaders differed on strategy. Booker T. Washington, in his 1895 Atlanta address, urged Black Southerners to focus on vocational training and economic progress and to accept segregation for the time being. Others, including W. E. B. Du Bois a few years later, demanded full civil and political rights at once.

The Omaha Platform (1892), selected demands
DemandProblem it answered
Free coinage of silverA tight money supply and falling prices that made farm debts harder to pay
Government ownership of railroadsHigh and unfair shipping rates
Graduated income taxA tax system that fell hardest on ordinary people
Direct election of senatorsState legislatures choosing senators seen as tools of business

Trap Populists wanted more government, not less

The Populists were not small-government protesters. They wanted the federal government to own the railroads, expand the money supply and tax high incomes. Many of their ideas, such as the income tax and the direct election of senators, became law in the 1910s.

Worked example Easy

After a disappointed office seeker shot President Garfield in 1881, Congress passed a law in 1883 that changed how some federal jobs were filled. What did that law require?

  1. It created the Interstate Commerce Commission
  2. It barred Chinese laborers from entering the country
  3. It required merit exams for some federal jobsAnswer
  4. It legalized racial segregation on railroads

How to solve it

  1. The stem points to the 1881 assassination and a law of 1883.
  2. That law was the Pendleton Act, Congress's civil service reform.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. The Interstate Commerce Commission was created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.
  • B. Incorrect. Barring Chinese laborers was the work of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
  • C. Correct. The Pendleton Act created a civil service in which some federal jobs went to people who passed exams, not to party loyalists.
  • D. Incorrect. Railroad segregation came from state laws, upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Explain Explain it

Task verbs: explain, analyze

Third-party questions often ask why a party arose and what became of its ideas. A strong answer ties a grievance to a demand: farmers faced X, so they asked for Y. Then it notes what happened to the demand later, since several Populist goals became law under other parties.

To analyze a source on race in this period, place it in the setting of disfranchisement, segregation and violence, and ask what the author hoped to achieve in that setting.

Worked example Medium

Why did indebted farmers in the 1890s support the free coinage of silver?

  1. They hoped inflation would ease their debtsAnswer
  2. They believed silver mines would hire farmers in the off season
  3. They wanted to keep the dollar backed only by gold
  4. They expected it to lower the tariff on imported goods

How to solve it

  1. Farmers owed fixed sums while crop prices fell.
  2. More money in circulation means rising prices, which helps debtors pay what they owe.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Correct. Adding silver to the money supply would cause inflation, raising crop prices and making fixed debts easier to pay.
  • B. Incorrect. The goal was a larger money supply, not jobs in silver mines.
  • C. Incorrect. A dollar backed only by gold was the policy free silver opposed.
  • D. Incorrect. Free silver was about money, not tariffs, which were a separate issue.

Explain Your turn

Explain one way Southern states took the vote away from most Black men in the late 1800s, even though the Fifteenth Amendment barred denying the vote because of race.

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A full answer does this

  • Names an accurate method used to keep Black men from voting
  • Explains how that method got around the Fifteenth Amendment or kept Black men from voting

Model answer

Southern states used literacy tests. The tests did not mention race, so they did not openly break the Fifteenth Amendment, but white officials gave them unfairly, failing Black men who could read while passing white men who could not, so most Black men lost the vote.

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