This lesson is from
http://sheg.standford.edu
Assignment for November 7, 10
Why did the Populist Party attract millions of supporters?
Read the following documents and answer the questions.
Document A: Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
(Modified)
The mightiest movement the world has
known in two thousand years.
. . is sending out the happiest message
to oppressed humanity that
the world has heard since John the
Baptist came preaching in the
wilderness that the world’s Redeemer
was coming to relieve the
world’s misery.
To this sterile and remote region,
infested by savage beasts and still
more savage men, the women of the New
England States, the
women of the cultured East, came with
husbands, sons and brothers
to help them build up a home [in the
West] . . . .We endured
hardships, and dangers; hours of
loneliness, fear and sorrow. . . We
toiled in the cabin and in the field;
we helped our loved ones to make
the prairie blossom. . .
Yet, after all our years of toil and
deprivation, dangers and hardships,
our homes are being taken from us by an
infamous [wicked] system
of mortgage foreclosure. It takes from
us at the rate of five hundred a
month the homes that represent the best
years of our life, our toil, our
hopes, our happiness. How did it happen?
The government, siding
with Wall Street, broke its contracts
with the people. . . . As Senator
Plumb [of Kansas] tells us, “Our debts
were increased, while the
means to pay them [cash] was
decreased.”
No more millionaires, and no more
paupers; no more gold kings,
silver kings and oil kings, and no more
little waifs of humanity starving
for a crust of bread. We shall have the
golden age of which Isaiah
sang and the prophets have so long
foretold; when the farmers shall
be prosperous and happy, dwelling under
their own vine and fig tree;
when the laborer shall have that for
which he toils. . . .When we shall
have not a government of the people by
capitalists, but a government
of the people, by the people.
Source: Mary Elizabeth Lease became politically involved as
a speaker for the
rights of workers and farmers. She had a powerful voice and
charismatic
speaking style. In this speech, Lease gave a speech to the
Women’s Christian
Temperance Union in 1890, a women’s movement against
alcohol.
Guided Questions
1. Sourcing:
Who wrote this? When?
2. Contextualization:
What was going on for farmers at the time? Lease is
a woman who is speaking to a group of women. What does this
say
about women’s involvement in politics in the 1890s?
3. Close reading:
Read first paragraph:
How is this supposed to make
the audience feel? Why might she use religious references?
Read second and third paragraphs: How was this supposed
to make the audience feel? Who are the good guys? Who are
the bad
guys? What emotions does she appeal to?
Read final paragraph: How was this supposed to make the
audience feel?
Document B: William Jennings Bryan,
1896 (Modified)
The merchant at the corner store is as
much a businessman as the
merchant of New York. The farmer who
goes forth in the morning and toils
all day...is as much a businessman as
the man who [works on Wall Street].
We come to speak for this broader class
of businessmen....It is for these
that we speak. We are fighting in the
defense of our homes and our
families. We have petitioned, and our
petitions have been scorned. We
have entreated, and our entreaties have
been disregarded. We have
begged, and they have mocked us.
We beg no longer; we entreat no more;
we petition no more. We defy
them!
You come to us and tell us that the
great cities are in favor of the gold
standard. I tell you that the great
cities rest upon these broad and fertile
prairies. Burn down your cities and
leave our farms, and your cities will
spring up again as if by magic. But
destroy our farms and the grass will
grow in the streets of every city in
this country.
Having behind us the commercial
interests and the laboring interests and
all the toiling masses, we shall answer
their demands for a gold standard
by saying to them: you shall not press
down upon the brow of labor this
crown of thorns. You shall not crucify
mankind upon a cross of gold.
Source: The speech above was delivered by William Jennings
Bryan at the
Democratic National Convention in July 1896. It is
considered one of the most
famous speeches in American history. The passage is an
excerpt.
Guided Questions
1. Sourcing: Where is Bryan speaking? What is his purpose?
2. Context: Based on the speech, how do you think farmers
and workers were
feeling about business and industry? Find a quote to support
your answer.
3. Close reading: What is the main point of his speech?
4. Close reading: What makes the speech so powerful? Pick
the line that you
think is most powerful and explain your choice.
5. Corroboration: What are two similarities between this
speech and the speech
by Mary Elizabeth Lease.
Conclusion
1. Why were the speakers like Lease and Bryan popular in the
1890s?
2. What images and rhetorical devices did they use to excite
their
audiences?
3. How did
their audiences feel when they listened to these
speeches?
4. Do these
themes resonate today? Which parts of these speeches
could we expect to hear from today’s politicians? Which
parts seem
outdated?
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