3. Washington's
Prophecy Fulfilled
Source:
Anthony Weekly Bulletin (KS), March 30, 1894
Populists
opposed the greed and exploitation implicit in the reigning ideologies of social
Darwinism, laissez-faire capitalism, and the gospel of wealth.
They were especially incensed by the growing wealth, power, and
aristocratic pretensions of Plutocracy, which they considered a subversion of
American republicanism. In the
1890s, almost all European governments had some form of institutionalized
privilege (monarchy, aristocracy, etc.). America,
on the other hand, symbolized republican equality and a fair opportunity for the
less privileged. In this cartoon,
Populists invoke the warnings of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln about the
degeneration from republican equality to plutocratic privilege that they see in
late nineteenth century America.
Cartoons
used in this presentation that are drawn from the Anthony Weekly Bulletin,
Kansas Populist, and Republic County Freeman were part of
"boiler-plate" syndications (which also contained several news and
propaganda items) that many smaller Populist newspapers used.
The National Reform Press Association (the organization of Populist
editors), the A.N. Kellogg Co. of Kansas City, Missouri, and the Industrial
Free Press of Caldwell and Winfield, Kansas (among others) regularly
provided such pages. They usually
contained cartoons.
For
more on Populism and republicanism:
Clanton, Gene. Populism: The Humane Preference in
America. Boston: Twayne, 1991.
.
"Populism, Progressivism, and Equality: The Kansas Paradigm." Agricultural
History. 51(3):559-81. 1977.
Hahn,
Stephen. The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeomen Farmers and the
Transformation of Georgia's Upcountry, 1850-1890. 340 p. New York: Oxford
University P, 1983.
McMath, Robert C., Jr. American Populism: A Social
History, 1877-1898. New York: Hill and Wang, 1992.
Miller, Worth Robert. "A Centennial
Historiography of American Populism." Kansas History: A
Journal of the Central Plains 16, no. 1
(Spring 1993): 54-69
_____. Oklahoma Populism: A History of the
People's Party in the Oklahoma Territory. Norman and London: U of Oklahoma P, 1987.
_____. "The Republican tradition," in
William F. Holmes, American Populism. Problems in American Civilization
Series. pp. 209-14. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath & Co., 1994. This
chapter is drawn from the previous selection.
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