From the time of the Pre-Civil war America the political framework consisted of mainly only two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. While each group went through its own struggles and changes they were strong enough to stay alive and continue to oppose each other. The Gilded age brought along another party, the Populist Party also known as the People’s Party. The Populist Party according to The American Spirit was “The populists represented Westerners and Southerners who believed that the U.S. economic policy inappropriately favored Eastern businessmen instead of the nation’s farmers.” To combat the economic hardship and the government ignoring the famers they created the Populist Party. The Populists party combined together farmers’ views on trusts and labor. …show more content…
Another hit economically was that the price of cotton had dropped, which mean the crops that were salvageable had much less value than before putting the southern famers economic state even further damaged. The Farmers and some of their workers grew to strongly dislike and distrust the owners and corporations they did business with. The Populist Party had strong ambitions to overcome just gold coinage, but include with that the use of silver. The farmers found it unfair that there was no chance for them to improve their standings, with just the Democratic and Republican parties.
In the late 1880’s, the Southern Farmers Alliance held a conference with the National Agricultural Wheel to unite the two groups into one. The largest problem being that there was no trust between the two sides. Not until 1892 with the joining of the Knights of labor did the Party formally unite. The knights of labor brought a lot of support with them because they were a major labor union in industrial areas. The Knights were glue for the groups even though most of the parties support came from west and the south. The creation of the