Greenbackers & Populists: The Failures and Successes of Agrarian Reform Movements in Douglas County, Kansas, 1874-1904

Abstract

The historiography of third party movements in the United States has taken various forms. Some have viewed the movements in isolation, focusing primarily on the factors that made them either successful or unsuccessful. Others have undertaken to view the movements in the context of the two major political parties of the period. Those of the former often seek to explain why the movements failed to emerge as a viable option to the major parties, or why their period of success came to an end. Those of the latter more often examine how the major parties curtailed the success of the upstart movement, or describe the factors that made such a third party movement unsustainable. Rarely are these movements compared to each other, and when they are, the movements under examination are often far removed from each other in terms of the time periods in which they operated. The following thesis seeks to address these problems by providing an analysis of the successes and failures of both the Greenback Party and the Populist Party by focusing on the election returns from Douglas County, Kansas. In this examination, the traditional interpretations of economic factors are analyzed, as well as the impact of environmental factors such as drought and grasshopper infestations on the support, or lack thereof, for these two political parties. In addition, the political platforms and election results for both are evaluated, demonstrating that they utilized similar rhetoric and desired similar ends from their campaigns. The purpose is to determine why two parties that used similar rhetoric, and faced similar economic and environmental conditions received different results. One can conclude that when third party ideas are significant to the populace, it is the contexts in which those ideas emerge that ultimately determine success or failure.