An overview of the history of populism in the U.S. and elsewhere with unparalleled insights from primary and secondary sources. Learn about the origins of populism, populist leaders, left- and right-wing populist movements and more.

1. Populism
ProQuest Luncheon, DLC 2019
Product Managers: Andrew Laas, Rick Nelson, and Cathy Johnson

2. Researching Populism
October 22, 2019

3. Beginning Research with a Book
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4. The Populist Vision
by Charles Postel | Apr 17, 2009
Introduction: Modern Times Part One: Farmers 1. Push
and Energy: Boosterism and Rural Reform 2. Knowledge
and Power: Machinery of Modern Education 3. A Better
Woman: Independence of Thought and Action 4. A
Farmers' Trust: Cooperative Economies of Scale Part
Two: Populists 5. Business Politics: State Models and
Political Frameworks 6. Race Progress: Racial Ordering
of American Life 7. Confederation: Labor, Urban, and
Nonconformist Reform 8. Shrine of Science: Innovation
in Populist Faith Conclusion: Populist Defeat and Its
Meaning Sources
Beginning research with a book…
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Check out the table of contents, the index, and references for search term
ideas

5. William Jennings Bryan
A good place to start in
Congressional:
commemorative remarks
ADDRESS BY JOSEPHUS
DANIELS, PRESIDENT OF
THE BRYAN MEMORIAL
ASSOCIATION, AT THE
UNVEILING OF THE BRYAN
STATUE IN WASHINGTON,
D.C., MAY 3, 1934
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6. Women in the Populist Movement
Annie Diggs
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Mary Elizabeth
Lease

7. Marion Butler Good places to start
in Congressional:
• Directories
• Congressional
Record remarks
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8. Marion Cannon
Combine search with an
area of interest: Cannon
AND Chinese exclusion
Search Congressional
Record for Member
statements on topics
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9. William Alfred Peffer Good place to start
in Congressional:
• Member profiles
with list of
sponsored bills
9

10. Farmers’ Alliance Witness affiliation search retrieves views of the
Colored National Farmers Alliances supporting the
Free Silver Movement
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11. Thomas E. Watson
Congressional hearings:
• Differing views
• Inserted materials
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Research:
Changes in Party affiliation
Changes in interests
Changes in racial attitudes

12. Beginning Research with a Journal
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13. Populism and Race
• Search PQ platform
peer-reviewed full text
journals anywhere
except full text: U.S.
populism
• Search Congressional
anywhere: Middle
America And populist
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14. Populism, Globalism, and Patriotism
• Search PQ
platform peer-
reviewed full
text journals
anywhere
except full text:
U.S. populism
• Search
Congressional
anywhere:
globalism AND
patriotism
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15. Populism and Authoritarianism
• Search PQ
platform peer-
reviewed full
text journals
anywhere
except full text:
U.S. populism
• Search
Congressional
anywhere:
populism NEAR
authoritarianism
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16. Beginning Research with CRS Reports
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17. Populism in Europe and Latin America
Search
Populis*
Anywhere
except full
text
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18. Populism and Agriculture
Search
Populist OR
Populism
Anywhere
Sort by
relevance
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19. Populism 1926-2019
Change sort from
oldest to newest
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20. Know-Nothings, Greenbackers, and the People’s
Party
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21. Populism in the 19th Century
• Nativist “Native American Association” secretly formed in
1837.
• Anti-foreign and anti-Catholic nativist sentiment (in NY
state and elsewhere)
• American Republican Party established in 1843
• Opposed voting and officeholding by immigrant Catholics
• Changed its name to the Native American Party in 1845
• Focus was on changes to the naturalization laws
• Violent Protestant and Catholic clashes in Philadelphia in
1844
• Groundswell of nativist sentiment led to many memorials
and petitions which spawned hearings on naturalization
laws and election fraud by new immigrants
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22. Know Nothings / American Party
• Also known as the Native American Party/
American Party (after 1855)
• Previous Anti-Catholic and Anti-Immigrant
movement was revived after the election of 1852
• Active in the 1850s, but was all but gone by 1860
• Originated from secret societies arising in
reaction of the flood of Irish and other
immigrants
Major concerns:
1. extend naturalization period to 21 years
2. Elect only native born to all offices
3. Reject all foreign interference (including
Roman Catholic) in all institutions
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23. Know Nothings / American Party
• Know Nothings were influential, but their
concerns were NOT legislatively successful.
• January 1850 Lewis Charles Levin (AP, Penn) gave notice of
motion to introduce a bill extending naturalization period to 21
years. It was listed in the notification of bills in February 1850,
but there is no evidence of it actually being introduced and the
effort went nowhere legislatively.
• A few days later, Levin submitted a 5 year old (1845) Memorial
from citizens of Pennsylvania on Naturalization that had
previously been referred to the Committee of the Judiciary
• This had been one of the reasons for the 1845 hearing on
Naturalization)
• In the naturalization bill that WAS introduced in that year, the
21 year residence requirement was NOT included
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24. Know Nothings / American Party
• In the 34th Congress (1855-57),
they had 5 Senators and 43
Congressmen.
• Know Nothing coalition was pivotal
in choosing the Speaker (Nathanial
Banks, after 133 ballots for the
speakership), but had little influence
in crafting legislation
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25. Know Nothings / American Party
25
• Resolutions of legislature of
Massachusetts on amendment of
naturalization laws, April 13, 1855
• Advocated to extending “the term of
residence” for those non-native born
for voting.
• Signed by Daniel C. Eddy, Speaker of
Mass House, Henry W. Benchley,
President of Mass Senate, and Henry J.
Gardner, Governor of Massachusetts

26. Know Nothings / American Party
• The American Party was opposed to the part of the
Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 that allowed for alien
suffrage.
• Emerson Etheridge (Whig, TN), during the debates on the
1856 House Speakership, noted that opposition was not
unique to the American Party– for example, John
Singleton Millson (D Va) was also noted as opposing
aliens gaining the vote.
• However, the ideals of the American Party were hardly
universally shared.
• For example, the central Know-Nothing plank that no
foreign born or Roman Catholic should ever hold public
office was roundly criticized by Alexander Hamilton
Stephens—as unconstitutional.
• Religious tests, in particular, he noted are specifically
banned in the Constitution.
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27. Know Nothings / American Party
• The anti-foreign crime bill was read and
only reported upon in the House
• On August 16, 1856, the House
Committee on Foreign Affairs issued a
report on “Foreign Criminals and
Paupers”.
• Main point of the committee
• this issue was centrally and constitutionally
important because the immigrant criminals
were out to “invade the sanctity and purity
of the ballot-box, and destroy the freedom
of the elective franchise”
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28. Know Nothings / American Party
• This is a pivotal debate in Congress on Feb 24, 1857 and one
in which perfectly illustrates the regionalism of the issue and
indicates one reason why naturalization period wasn’t
expanded to 21 years of residence
• Senator Stephen Adams (D, Miss) on the discussion of the
entry of Minnesota into the Union used the following
torturous logic to advocate for State jurisdiction of the issue:
• States have the right to authorize aliens to vote
• Since Congress won’t address issues contained in the foreign
pauper and criminals bill on a Federal level…
• The States should have the right to authorize who is permitted to
reside in that state.
• After the Committee report, this issue is never brought up
again…
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29. Know Nothings / American Party
• Why did Know Nothingism fail legislatively, while being quite
electorally popular and inform later post-Civil War movements?
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30. Granger movement of the 1870s
• At first a self-improvement group for
farmers in 1867, it expanded and
focused on railroads –mainly on the
state level in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa
and Minnesota.
• While many of these state laws were
poorly worded and eventually turned
over in the courts (so that the
Grangers rapidly faded in the 1880s),
they did set the stage for later national
railroad regulations.
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31. Greenbackers
• Origins in the post-Civil War monetary problems
• During the war—widespread use of greenback
currency that led to inflation that was good for
debtor groups such as laborers and farmers.
• After war, govt went back to the gold standard and
many people protested this. After 1875 Congress
started back onto hard currency specie payments
(Specie Payment Resumption Act of 1875 18 Stat.
296) and this led to widespread protests from
Southern and Western Farmers
• 1876 Greenback Party nominated Peter Cooper for
president. Chief goal: repeal of resumption act and
reissue of paper currency
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1874 hearing by the House Committee on Banking and
Currency on the problems related to retirement of
greenbacks (Treasury notes) issued during the Civil War

32. Greenbackers
• Investigation by a Select Committee Relative to the Causes
of the General Depression in Labor and Business, etc., 1879
• Hearings show the combination of traditional agrarian
populist concerns with issues important to labor
• James Connolly, (National Labor Greenback Party)
• Bond system was reason for depression—that it robbed from
the working classes. There were heated exchanges between
Connolly and the Chairman and other questioners. Clearly,
Connolly didn’t understand that if you continually increase
the supply of paper money, inflation results.
• William Carsey, (National Labor Greenback Party)
• Advocates passage of homestead bill: feels it would level the
playing field for the government to help transport people out
west, give seed and tool loans at low interest rates
• Sees reason for depression was a system set up for the
banking, landed, and railroad interests that has taken wealth
away from the people and concentrated it in the hands of the
few extremely wealthy.
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33. Greenbackers
In 1880, the Greenbackers received
only 300k votes for James B. Weaver in
the presidential election. The plank
included:
• Graduated income tax
• Women’s suffrage
• Government Regulation of interstate
commerce
• The last Greenback candidate for
President was Benjamin F. Butler in
1884
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34. Populist Party (People’s Party)
• 1892-1908: adopted much of the Greenback Party platform
• Ban on Foreign Land ownership, state control of railroads, critical of
banking and currency system, graduated income tax, and direct vote of US
Senators
• Recruited from the Farmers’ Alliances and was an agrarian movement.
• Farmers wanted cheaper credit and cheaper transportation costs
• Saw themselves as exploited by East Coast financial and industrial
concerns that controlled credit and transportation costs.
• Focus on RR nationalization and to cheapen credit by using silver as
well as gold for currency. It was to reform, not replace capitalism.
• Sought to combine the agricultural interests with the labor
interests…but failed.
• After Civil War, there was a massive drop in farm prices from increased
production and transportation revolution that allowed more global
competition, but it was blamed on
• High railroad charges
• High interest rates
• Profiteering by middlemen
• An international money conspiracy
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35. Populist Party (People’s Party)
• 1891 People’s Party Convention at Omaha
• It was in the main a farmer’s platform written by Ignatius L.
Donnelly and included the following planks:
• Federal farm loan system
• Pensions for former Union soldiers
• Get rid of private banks
• Federal storage for Crops
• 8 hour workday
• Direct election of Senators
• Nationalization of Railroads
• However, the silverites argued that a return to the 16:1 ratio of
Silver to Gold would solve all the nation’s problems.
• 1892/96
• In 1892, Weaver (1880 Greenbacker candidate) was the People’s
Party candidate for President, garnering 1M votes and receiving 22
electoral votes
• In 1896, the largely agrarian Omaha platform was essentially
abandoned as Silverites came to dominate the movement (William
Jennings Bryan was backed both by the Democrats and Populists in
1896).
• In 1900 the party had split, but later many of their concerns
about private monopolies and agricultural distress were met by
Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson
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36. Populism in the Twentieth and Twenty-
first Century

37. Huey Long
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https://congressional.proquest.com/congressional/docview/t49.d48.13724_s.doc.20_2?
accountid=146910

38. George Wallace
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39. Ross Perot
39
https://congressional.proquest.com/congressional/docview/t29.d30.hrg-1993-ocj-
0021?accountid=146910

40. Patrick Buchanan
40

41. Tea Party
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42. Occupy Wall Street
42

43. Occupy Wall Street
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44. Bernie Sanders
The most important economic
reality of our time is that over the
past 40 years there has been an
enormous transfer of wealth from
the middle class to the wealthiest
people in America.
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45. Donald Trump
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46. Elizabeth Warren
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47. Questions?
Please ask:
andrew.laas@proquest.com
richard.nelson@proquest.com
catherine.johnson@proquest.com
Thank you for attending
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