What was the largest factor in the end of the populist party as a political force?

The People's Party, also known as the Populist Party, was an important political party in the United States of America during the late nineteenth century.

The People's Party originated in the early 1890s. It was organized in Kansas, but the party quickly spread across the United States. It drew its members from Farmers' Alliances, the Grange, and the Knights of Labor. Originally, the Populists did not form a national organization, preferring to gain political influence within individual states.

The Populist Party consisted primarily of farmers unhappy with the Democratic and Republican Parties. The Populists believed that the federal government needed to play a more active role in the American economy by regulating various businesses, especially the railroads. In particular, the Populists supported women's suffrage the direct election of United States Senators. They hoped that the enactment women's suffrage and the direct election of senators would enable them to elect some of their members to political office. Populists also supported a graduated income tax, government ownership of the railroads, improved working conditions in factories, immigration restrictions, an eight-hour workday, the recognition of unions, and easier access to credit. 

During the early 1890s, the Populist Party garnered numerous victories. The party won governors' seats in Colorado, Washington, North Carolina, Montana, and several additional states. The Populists gained control of state legislatures in Kansas, Nebraska, and North Carolina, and they succeeded in electing members to the United States House of Representatives in Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and California.

In 1892, the People's Party formed a national organization. The party selected James Weaver as its candidate for the presidency of the United States. The Populist platform called for government ownership of the railroads and the telephone and telegraph networks. It also demanded the free coinage of silver, an end to private script, a graduated income tax, direct election of senators, additional government and railroad-owned land being made available to homesteaders, and the implementation of secret ballots. The Populists won numerous political offices at the state and local levels, but Weaver finished a distant third to Grover Cleveland in the presidential election. By the election of 1896, the Democratic Party had absorbed many of the Populist ideals, causing the People's Party to cease to exist as a national organization.

In Ohio, the Populist Party remained a relatively insignificant force in politics. Thousands of Ohioans, especially farmers and industrial workers, agreed with the Populists platform, but they made up a minority of the states populace. John J. Seitz, a Populist, ran for Ohio's gubernatorial seat, but he received less than three-tenths of one percent of the votes cast in the election. The party performed significantly better in the gubernatorial race of 1895. Jacob S. Coxey ran as the Populist candidate and received fifty-two thousand votes. It was a respectable showing, but Coxey still lost the election. He ran again in 1897. This time he received just over six thousand votes, illustrating the declining popularity of the Populist Party.

The People's Party in Ohio helped Republicans tremendously, because the Populists tended to draw their supporters from the Democratic Party. To win back their former members, the Democrats in Ohio, as the party did nationally, quickly adopted many of the Populists ideals.

The Populist movement was a revolt by farmers in the South and Midwest against the Democratic and Republican Parties for ignoring their interests and difficulties. For over a decade, farmers were suffering from crop failures, falling prices, poor marketing, and lack of credit facilities. Many farmers were in debt due to a drought that affected the Midwest in the 1880s. At the same time, prices for Southern cotton dropped. These disasters, combined with resentment against railroads, money-lenders, grain-elevator owners, and others with whom farmers did business, led farmers to organize.

As a result, two organizations came into existence during this period: the segregated National Farmers' Alliance and the Colored Farmers' Alliance. Although they came to win some significant regional victories, the alliances achieved little influence on a national scale. By the 1890s, agrarian reformers refocused their energies and organized the new Populist, or People's Party. The Party called upon the federal government to buffer economic depressions, regulate banks and corporations, and help farmers who were suffering hard times.In 1892 the Populist presidential candidate, James B. Weaver, won more than 1,000,000 popular votes. The party elected several members to Congress, three governors, and hundreds of minor officials and legislators, nearly all in the Midwest. In the South, they challenged white supremacy by forming coalitions with black farmers in common cause. The coalitions won a number of elections in certain areas and captured the state of North Carolina in 1896 under the leadership of Marion Butler.

In Georgia, Tom Watson led the Populist revolt against the Democratic Party. Watson appealed to rural black voters by promising to respect their political and civil rights. Watson organized picnics, barbecues, and camp meetings and formed political clubs for blacks. But political cooperation did not mean socializing; blacks and whites sat separately when together. Yet that did not prevent them from cheering wildly when Watson spoke of their common plight: "You are made to hate each other because on that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both. You are deceived and blinded because you do not see how this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system that beggars you both. The colored tenant is in the same boat as the white tenant, the colored laborer with the white laborer and that the accident of color can make no difference in the interests of farmers, croppers and laborers."

Using fraud and violence, and rallying support by appealing to white supremacy, the Democrats held on to their power in Georgia and other Southern states. Many Democrats refused to endanger white supremacy by voting against the Democratic Party. In 1896 the Populists fused into the Democratic Party. With the defeat of Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan and with the Democrats successfully launching white unity campaigns in the South, the Populists gradually disappeared as a political force.

What caused the end of the Populist Party?

What was the greatest contribution of the Populist Party?

Why did the Populist movement fail?

What factors gave rise to the Populist movement?