Money and Populism: Greenbacks, Silver, and Gold

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Anderson, B. Wylie. "The Economic Prophesies of George Evan Roberts." Annals of Iowa 1976 43(5): 362-370.  "George Evan Roberts (1857-1948) had a national reputation as a journalist, banker, and economist. His 1896 anti-free silver tract, "Coin at School in Finance," resulted in an appointment as Director of the Mint in the McKinley Administration. America: History and Life, 15A:6845

Baack, Ben and Ray, Edward John. "The Political Economy of the Origin and Development of the Federal Income Tax." Research in Economic History 1985 (Supplement 4):121-138.  Discusses origins of federal government expansion, the growth of the US military, and the federal income tax system, from the late 19th century to the 1980's. Populist agitation in the late 19th century to reduce import tariffs by instituting an income tax culminated in the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913. American History and Life, 24A:3273

Baibakova, L. V. "'Serebro Protiv Zolota" Iz Istorii Genezisa Politiki Burzhuaznogo Reformizma v SSHA" (pervaia polovina 90-KH GG. XIX V.)  ["Silver against Gold": from the history of the genesis of the politics of bourgeois reform in the USA (first half of the 1890s)]." Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta, Seriia 8: Istoriia [USSR] 1987 (4): 64-75. An alliance of southern and western Democrats with western Republicans organized itself around the antitrust laws and free silver in the US Congress in the 1880s.  American History and Life, 26:8644

Bakken, Gordon M. "Law and Legal Tender in California and the West." Southern California Quarterly 1980 62(3): 239-259.  The Legal Tender Act (US, 1862) made greenbacks legal tender for debts. California passed the Specific Contract Act (1863) calling for payment in a specific kind of money. Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and Montana also passed similar laws or allowed gold clause contracts in business transactions. California's State Supreme Court upheld its act as not conflicting with federal law. In Nevada, the California precedent was at first rejected and then followed. Idaho declared its specific contract law void. In contrast to eastern states where gold clause contracts were repudiated, western jurisdictions defied the national trend. American History and Life, 19A:2957

Barnes, James A. "Illinois and the Gold-Silver Controversy." Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society. 38:35-59. 1931. 

Barnett, Paul. "The Crime of 1873 Re‑examined." Agricultural History. 38(3):178-81. July 1964.  Traces origin of phrase, "The Crime of 1873."  

Bogue, Allan G. Money at Interest: The Farm Mortgage on the Middle Border. 293 p., tables. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1955.   Discusses social and economic conditions underlying the Populist movement. Derived from "Farm Credit in Kansas and Nebraska, 1854‑1900." Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell U, 1951.  

_____. "Farmer Debtors in Pioneer Kinsley." Kansas Historical Quarterly. 20(2):83-107. May 1952.  Treats Kansas farmers and their views toward debt.   

Buckner, Philip F. "Silver Mining Interests in Silver Politics, 1876-1896. M.A. thesis, Columbia U, 1954.  

Carruthers, Bruce G. and Babb, Sarah. "The Color of Money and the Nature of Value: Greenbacks and Gold in Post-bellum America." American Journal of Sociology 1996 101(6): 1556-1591.  During the greenback era of the 1860's-70's, two monetary alternatives (gold-based money and paper money) were debated, which raised questions about the nature of money.  

Christenson, Jack H. "Free Silver Comes to Pennsylvania." Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine. 50(4): 281-90. 1967.  Chronicles editorial opinion of four newspapers to currency issue--Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Williamsport, & Pottsville. 

Clark, Thomas D. "The Furnishing and Supply System in Southern Agriculture Since 1865." Journal of Southern History. 12(1):24-44.  Merchants were not the "bad guys" of farm finance.  

Clements, Roger V. "The Farmers' Attitude Toward British Investment in American Industry." Journal of Economic History 1955 15(2): 151-159.  The flow of British capital into American industry around 1890 deepened the farmers' distrust of the "money power," and was taken as evidence a formal alliance of British and American finance to create and exploit monopoly. America: History and Life, 0:2776

Clinch, Thomas A. Urban Populism and Free Silver in Montana: A Narrative of Ideology in Political Action. 190 p. Helena: U of Montana P, 1970.  Montana's Populists were urban and allied with workingmen, but shared the goals of other Populists.  Derived from Clinch's Ph.D. dissertation, "Populism and Bimetallism in Montana." U of Oregon, 1964. Dissertation Abstracts, 25:10:5878.  

Coletta, Paolo. "Greenbackers, Goldbugs, and Silverites: Currency Reform and Policy, 1860-1897." In The Gilded Age: A Reappraisal. pp. 111-39, 258-64. edited by H. Wayne Morgan. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1963.  Notes Populist influence on Democrats and Republicans re: the money question.  

_____. "William Jennings Bryan and Currency and Banking Reform." Nebraska History 1964 45(1): 31-57.  Examines Bryan's career as a currency and banking reformer. A bimetallist and a believer in the quantitative theory of money, he originally called for free silver as a means of providing "more money" and an equitable currency system. But more and more he came to stress a flexible banking system, keeping pace with an expanding economy, that provided government money and government control. These ideas were encompassed in legislation calling for a Federal Reserve System. Bryan's support was instrumental in the passage of this measure.  America: History and Life, 1:1833

Cowing, Cedric B. "Market Speculation in the Muckraker Era: The Popular Reaction." Business History Review 1957 31(4): 403-413.  Between 1890 and 1907, Populist-progressive attacks against obvious abuses in this field caused highly adverse public opinion, which in turn shaped stock-exchange history through subsequent decades. America: History and Life, 0:2791

_____. Populists, Plungers, and Progressives: A Social History of Stock and Commodity Speculation, 1890‑1936. 299 p. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1965.  Midwest opposes speculation because of what it did to grain prices.  

Cushman, Dan. "Cordova Lode Comstock." Montana 1959 9(4): 12-21.  Describes the history of the silver camps of Granite and Philipsburg between 1865 and 1893. When the Indian mints were closed to free coinage in June 1893, the international silver market collapsed in panic. America: History and Life, 0:5105

Devine, Jerry Wayne. "Free Silver and Alabama Politics, 1890-1896." Ph.D. dissertation, Auburn University, 1980.  DAI, 41, no. 01A, (1980): 0367.  Populism in Alabama represented little ideological departure from the conservative theory of government championed by most state Democratic leaders.  When a coalition of silverite and progressive Democrats repudiated the conservative leadership and the national party espoused most of the Populist platform under the banner of free silver, the insurgent movement began to wane. The ascendant silver Democrats allowed both former Populists and their conservative antagonists to rejoin the state party after 1896. 

Dieterich, H. R. and Wilson, John P. "The Dimensions of Political Discourse: Some Observations on the Free Silver Controversy of the 1890s." Social Studies 1970 61(1): 13-18.  Emphasizes inaccuracies in various aspects of political discourse how a controversial subject can mean many things to people. The argument between the mono-metallists and bimetallists, the advocates of the use of gold versus the advocates of the use of free silver for the economy, is at best confusing and neither group offers final solutions to American monetary problems as they existed during the time. America: History and Life, 7:2231

Donnelly, Ignatius. The American People's Money. 186 p. Chicago: Laird & Lee, 1895. "Argument for currency inflation." Hicks, Populist Revolt.  

Ellis, Elmer. Henry Moore Teller: Defender of the West. 409 p. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton, 1941.  Populists urge Teller, a Silver Republican, to back Bryan.   

_____. "The Silver Republicans in the Election of 1896." Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 18:519-34. March 1932.  

Fay, C.R. "The Bimetallic Controversy of Fifty Years Ago." Southwestern Political and Social Science Quarterly. 14:99-108. 1933.  

Freedman, Milton and Schwartz, Anna Jacobson. A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960. 860 p. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1963.  Supports populist contention that the volume of currency is important to economic well-being.  

Friedman, Milton. "The Crime of 1873." Journal of Political Economy 1990 98(6): 1159-1194.  The US Coinage Act of 1873 eliminated the free coinage of silver. That act cast the die for a gold standard. The conventional view is that "the act of 1873 was a piece of good fortune."  It was a mistake that had highly adverse consequences. By 1896, when William Jennings Bryan ran for president on a "free-silver ticket," it was too late to undo the damage. America: History and Life, 29:1407

Fuller, Leon W. "Governor Waite and His Silver Panacea." Colorado Magazine. 10:41-47. March 1933.  

Gavis, R.L. and Watkins, Lowe. "AAA-1890 Style." People's Money. 1(6):209-11, 247-48. November 1935. 

Gerhard, Paul F. "The Silver Issue and Political Fusion in Colorado: 1896; A Study of the Pre‑election Maneuvers of Political Parties and of the Members of the Colorado Delegation to the Fifty‑fifth Congress [sic]." Wichita U, University Studies. 46. Wichita Univ. Bull., 15 p.  35(4):(n.d.).  

Goodwyn, Lawrence C. Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America. New York, Oxford U P, 1976.  Abridged as The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America. 349 p. Derived from Goodwyn's Ph.D. dissertation, "The Origin and Development of American Populism. 510 p. Ph.D. dissertation, U of Texas at Austin, 1971. Dissertation Abstracts, 33:3538‑A.  The Alliance's unsuccessful experiments in cooperative buying and selling produced a mass-based "movement culture" that turned to politics in order to obtain government cooperatives with the subtreasury plan.  The subtreasury plan, not the free silver issue, thus, was the essence of Populism. 

Gustaitis, Joseph. "Coxey's Army." American History Illustrated 1994 29(1): 38-45.  Outlines Coxey's march to publicize his Populist reform schemes, including creation of a national road-building program, the issuing of non-interest-bearing bonds to finance it, and federal aid for the unemployed. America: History and Life, 34:1592

Harvey, William Hope. Coin's Financial School. 149 p. illus. Chicago: Coin Publishing, 1894.   The most important free‑silver tract.  

Haynes, Fred Emory. "The New Sectionalism." Quarterly Journal of Economics. 10:269‑95. April 1896.  "Points out the significance of the debtor character of the West and South." Hicks, Populist Revolt.  

Hicks, John D. "The Sub‑Treasury: A Forgotten Plan for the Relief of Agriculture." Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 15(3):355-73. December 1928.   Populist Party endorses the Sub-Treasury Plan. 

Hoffman, Charles. The Depression of the Nineties. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1970. 

_____. "The Depression of the Nineties." Journal of Economic History. 15(2):137‑64. June 1956.  The depression involved more than monetary considerations.  

Holdsworth, John Thomas. Money and Banking. 563 p., illus. New York: Appleton, 1928. Historical aspects of the money question.  

Hornbein, Marjorie. "Davis Waite, Silver, and Populism." Essays and Monographs in Colorado History. 1:1-24. 1983. 

Kennan, Clara B. "Coin Harvey's Pyramid." Arkansas Historical Quarterly. Summer 1947.  

Lauck, William Jett. The Causes of the Panic of 1893. 122 p. Boston: Houghton, 1907. Holds that the money situation was primarily responsible for the panic.  

Morgan, H. Wayne. "Western Silver and the Tariff of 1890." New Mexico Historical Review 1960 35(2): 118-128.  Discusses the struggle by a group of far western senators known as "Silver Republicans," in particular Henry Moore Teller, senator from Colorado, and William M. Stewart, senator from Nevada, to secure the free coinage of silver and tariff protection in the 51st Congress; 1889-91. 

Nichols, Jeannette P. "Bryan's Benefactor: Coin Harvey and His World." Ohio Historical Quarterly. 47:299-325. October 1958.  

Nugent, Walter T.K. "Money, Politics, and Society: The Currency Question." In The Gilded Age. pp. 109-27, 302. H. Wayne Morgan, ed. Rev. and enl. ed. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1970. 

_____. The Money Question During Reconstruction. New York: Norton, 1967. 

Scheidler, Lawrence John. "Silver and Politics, 1893-1896." Ph.D. dissertation, U of Indiana, 1936.  

Schlup, Leonard. "Bourbon Democrat: Thomas C. Catchings and the Repudiation of Silver Monometallism." Journal of Mississippi History 1995 57(3): 207-223.  Catchings served in the U.S. Congress from 1885 to 1901.  He was a goldbug supporter of President Grover Cleveland, and thus, found himself defending Cleveland and his policies, which were highly unpopular in Mississippi. America: History and Life, 35:1740

Silverman, Max. "A Political and Intellectual History of the Silver Movement in the United States, 1888-1896." Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1986.  DAI, 47, no. 04A, (1986): 1463.  Deals with struggle in the national leadership of the People's Party over giving primacy to silver and muting the balance of the Omaha platform; the role of Wharton Barker, the prolonged ideological struggle between silverites and gold-bugs, and a brief history of the American Bimetallic League.  The Democratic Party, split by the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, became the major silver group after a sharp struggle with the People's Party over sponsorship of the silver issue.   

Stephens, Oren. "'Coin' Harvey: The Free Silver Movement's Frustrated Promoter." American West 1971 8(5): 4-9.  William Hope Harvey, Coin's Financial School (1894) became an immediate bestseller. Coin analyzed the crash of 1893.  He contended that the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was responsible. Harvey's efforts figured prominently in the campaign of 1896. America: History and Life, 9:2935

Taggart, Harold F. "California and the Silver Question in 1895." Pacific Historical Review. 6(3):249-69. September 1937.  Populists very active.    

_____. "The Free Silver Movement in California. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford U, 1936.  

Tarr, Joel A. "Goldfinger: The Gold Conspiracy and the Populists." Midcontinent American Studies Journal. 7(2): 49-52. 1966. 

Taussig, Frank W. The Silver Situation in the United States. 133 p. New York: Putnam's. 1892.  Contemporary account of silver arguments. States case of farmer. Insight into why it became Populist issue.  

Unger, Irwin. The Greenback Era: A Social and Political History of American Finance, 1865-1879. 467 p. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1964.  

Walker, Ben. "The Gold Standard and the California Realignment of 1896." M.A. Thesis, U of California, 1930.  

Weberg, Frank Paul. The Background of the Panic of 1893. 71 p. Washington, D.C.: Catholic U of America, 1929.  Populism pp. 24-36.  

Weinstein, Allen. Prelude to Populism: Origins of the Silver Issue, 1867-1878. 433 p. Yale Historical Publications, Miscellany, 90. New Haven: Yale UP, 1970.  

Wellborn, Fred Wilmot. "The Influence of the Silver‑Republican Senators, 1889‑1891." Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 13(4):462-80. March 1928.  Silver Republicans usually were from Silver States.  Weak on Populism.   

_____. "The Silver Republicans, 1890-1900." Ph.D. Dissertation, U of Wisconsin, 1926.  

Winkelman, Richard D. "Some Monetary Standard-of-Value Concepts of the Latter Nineteenth Century." Res. in Economic History. Supplement 2:157-89. 1982. 

Wooldridge, William C. "The Sound and the Fury of 1896: Virginia Democrats Face Free Silver." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 75(1):97‑108. 1967.