21. The Blue and the Gray             

Source:  Southern Mercury (Dallas, TX), September 3, 1891

Both mainstream parties claimed that splitting off from their party to join the Populists would be catastrophic for dearly-held priorities.  The captions written on the sides of the "Bloody Chasm" read, "A Solid North for Fear of Rebel Brigadier Rule" (left side) and "A Solid South for Fear of Negro Supremacy" (right side). 

In this era, both the South and West primarily produced low-value raw materials which were processed elsewhere.  In turn, southerners and westerners purchased high-value finished products from outside the region.  Instructors might find a discussion of the similarities between this situation and the relationship between the United States and today's third world nations instructive.  This might give students a better appreciation for the problems of international trade and disparities in wealth today.  I suspect that students in the conservative South and West of today have no idea of how radical their late nineteenth century ancestors sounded.

| Index | Back to Cartoon |