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118-418: Supporters of an important place for silver in a bimetallic money system making use of both silver and gold , called " Silverites ", sought coinage of silver dollars at a fixed weight ratio of 16-to-1 against dollar coins made of gold. Because the actual price ratio of the two metals was substantially higher in favor of gold at the time, most economists warned that the less valuable silver coinage would drive

236-451: A bimetallic standard, which went into effect in July 1883. Units of gold and silver pesos would be exchanged with paper peso notes at given par values, and fixed exchange rates against key international currencies would thus be established. Unlike many metallic standards, the system was very decentralized: no national monetary authority existed, and all control over convertibility rested with

354-484: A hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like it to "Black Republicans." ... But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be

472-498: A huge national debt , homestead laws , railroads and aid to education and agriculture . The Republicans denounced the peace-oriented Democrats as disloyal Copperheads and won enough War Democrats to maintain their majority in 1862. In 1864, they formed a coalition with many War Democrats as the National Union Party . Lincoln chose Democrat Andrew Johnson as his running mate and was easily re-elected. During

590-577: A major issue between the wet Democrats and the dry GOP. The election of William McKinley in 1896 marked a resurgence of Republican dominance and was a realigning election . The GOP now had a decisive advantage nationwide and in the industrial states; the Democrats were left with the Solid South and mixed opportunities elsewhere. The large cities had Republican or Democratic machines. With fewer competitive states, turnout fell steadily. Blacks in

708-418: A murderer!" New England Yankees, who dominated that region and much of upstate New York and the upper Midwest , were the strongest supporters of the new party. This was especially true for the pietistic Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and, during the war, many Methodists and Scandinavian Lutherans . The Quakers were a small, tight-knit group that was heavily Republican. By contrast,

826-629: A new income tax, a national banking system, paper money ("Greenbacks") and enough taxes and loans to pay for the war. Many conservative Democrats became War Democrats who had a deep belief in American nationalism and supported the war. When Lincoln added the abolition of slavery as a war goal, the Peace Democrats were energized and carried numerous state races, especially in Connecticut, Indiana and Illinois. Democrat Horatio Seymour

944-558: A platform supporting the gold standard which was favored by financial interests on the East Coast. Bryan, the eloquent champion of the cause, gave the famous "Cross of Gold" speech at the National Democratic Convention on July 9, 1896, asserting that "The gold standard has slain tens of thousands." He referred to "a struggle between 'the idle holders of idle capital' and 'the struggling masses, who produce

1062-672: A presidential election. The final nail in the Whig coffin was the Kansas–Nebraska Act , passed by Democrats in 1854. It was also the spark that began the Republican Party, which would take in both Whigs and Free Soilers and create an anti-slavery party that the Whigs had always resisted becoming. The Act opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states , thus implicitly repealing

1180-505: A red herring and feared that free silver was "the cowbird of the reform movement", likely to push the other eggs out of the nest. Nevertheless, the Panic of 1893 , a severe nationwide depression, brought the money issue strongly to the fore again. The "silverites" argued that using silver would inflate the money supply and mean more cash for everyone, which they equated with prosperity. The gold advocates said silver would permanently depress

1298-433: A reformer, won two states. Through the primaries, Senator La Follette won a total of 36 delegates; President Taft won 48 delegates; and Roosevelt won 278 delegates. However 36 more conservative states did not hold primaries, but instead selected delegates via state conventions. For years Roosevelt had tried to attract Southern white Democrats to the Republican Party, and he tried to win delegates there in 1912. However Taft had

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1416-462: A role but it was less important at first. The Know-Nothing party embodied the social forces at work, but its weak leadership was unable to solidify its organization, and the Republicans picked it apart. Nativism was so powerful that the Republicans could not avoid it, but they did minimize it and turn voter wrath against the threat that slave owners would buy up the good farm lands wherever slavery

1534-529: A stabilizing effect on economies. The controversy became largely moot after technological progress and the South African and Klondike Gold Rushes increased the supply of gold in circulation at the end of the century, ending most of the political pressure for greater use of silver. It became completely academic after the 1971 Nixon shock ; since then, all of the world's currencies have operated as more or less freely floating fiat money , unconnected to

1652-491: A strong anti- Soviet Union foreign policy. Reagan's influence upon the party persisted into the 21st century. In 2016, businessman and media personality Donald Trump became the party's nominee for president, won the presidency, and shifted the party further to the right. Since Trump's nomination in 2016, the party is seen to be split between the Trumpist faction, which ranges from far-right nationalists to populists , and

1770-547: A third term, but he was outmaneuvered by Taft and lost the nomination. The 1912 Republican National Convention turned a personal feud into an ideological split in the GOP. Politically liberal states for the first time were holding Republican primaries . Roosevelt overwhelmingly won the primaries—winning 9 out of 12 states (8 by landslide margins). Taft won only the state of Massachusetts (by a small margin); he even lost his home state of Ohio to Roosevelt. Senator Robert M. La Follette ,

1888-486: A third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms . After 1912, many Roosevelt supporters left the Republican Party, and the party underwent an ideological shift to the right. The GOP lost its congressional majorities during the Great Depression (1929–1940); under President Franklin D. Roosevelt , the Democrats formed a winning New Deal coalition that was dominant from 1932 through 1964. After

2006-626: A variable value which was very hard to determine, which greatly hampered its development. Croesus (reigned c.  560 – c.  546 BCE), king of Lydia, who became associated with great wealth. Croesus is credited with issuing the Croeseid , the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation, Herodotus mentioned the innovation made by the Lydians: "So far as we have any knowledge, they [the Lydians] were

2124-406: Is legal tender and the other is used as "trade money" (e.g. most monies in western Europe from the 13th to 18th centuries). Economists also distinguish legal bimetallism, where the law guarantees these conditions, and de facto bimetallism, where gold and silver coins circulate at a fixed rate. During the 19th century there was a great deal of scholarly debate and political controversy regarding

2242-603: Is one of the two major political parties in the United States . It is the second-oldest extant political party in the United States after its main political rival, the Democratic Party . In 1854, the Republican Party emerged to combat the expansion of slavery into western territories after the passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act . The early Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after

2360-499: Is sometimes distinguished as permitting that both gold and silver money are legal tender in unlimited amounts and that gold and silver may be taken to be coined by the government mints in unlimited quantities. This distinguishes it from "limping standard" bimetallism, where both gold and silver are legal tender but only one is freely coined (e.g. the monies of France, Germany, and the United States after 1873), and from "trade" bimetallism, where both metals are freely coined but only one

2478-830: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , and the Southern strategy , the party's core base shifted with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic. White voters increasingly identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s. Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade ,

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2596-600: The Civil War also of former black slaves. The party had very little support from white Southerners at the time, who predominantly backed the Democratic Party in the Solid South , and from Irish and German Catholics, who made up a major Democratic voting block. While both parties adopted pro-business policies in the 19th century, the early GOP was distinguished by its support for the national banking system ,

2714-490: The Civil War , to finance the war the U.S. switched from bimetallism to a fiat money currency. After the war, in 1873, the government passed the Fourth Coinage Act and soon resumption of specie payments began (without the free and unlimited coinage of silver, thus putting the U.S. on a mono-metallic gold standard.) Farmers, debtors, Westerners and others who felt they had benefited from wartime paper money formed

2832-463: The Democratic Party moved the latter from the support of the gold standard which had been the hallmark of the Cleveland administration to the free-silver position epitomized by 1896 presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan in his Cross of Gold speech . Bryan's 1896 candidacy was supported by Populists and "silver Republicans" as well as by most Democrats. The issue was over what would back

2950-614: The Latin Monetary Union (LMU). Greece joined the LMU in 1868 and about twenty other countries adhered to its standards. The LMU effectively adopted bimetallism by allowing unlimited free coinage of gold and silver at the 15.5 to 1 rate used in France, but also began to back away from bimetallism by allowing limited issues of low denomination silver coins struck to a lower standard for government accounts. A surplus of silver led

3068-1001: The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution —which banned slavery in the United States—passed the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1865; it was ratified in December 1865. In 1865, the Confederacy surrendered, ending the Civil War. Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 ; following his death, Andrew Johnson took office as President of the United States. During the post-Civil War Reconstruction era , there were major disagreements on

3186-537: The U.S. House of Representatives before 1935 and all of the African Americans who served in the Senate before 1979, were Republicans. Frederick Douglass after the Civil War and Booker T. Washington in the early 20th century were prominent Republican spokesmen. Social pressure eventually forced most Scalawags to join the conservative/Democratic Redeemer coalition. A minority persisted and, starting in

3304-685: The anti-Trump faction , which consists of center-right conservatives, moderate centrists , as well as some traditional conservatives . Since the 1990s, the party's support has chiefly come from the South, the Great Plains , the Mountain States , and rural areas in the North. As of 2016, it supports free market economics , cultural conservatism , and originalism in constitutional jurisprudence . There have been 19 Republican presidents,

3422-414: The economy . McKinley relied heavily on industry officials and the middle classes for his support and cemented the Republicans as the party of business. This emphasis on business was in part reversed by Theodore Roosevelt, the presidential successor after McKinley's assassination in 1901, who engaged in trust-busting . Theodore Roosevelt, who became president in 1901, had the most dynamic personality of

3540-694: The gold standard , railroads , and high tariffs . The party opposed the expansion of slavery before 1861 and led the fight to destroy the Confederate States of America (1861–1865). While the Republican Party had almost no presence in the Southern United States at its inception, it was very successful in the Northern United States , where by 1858 it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state. With

3658-490: The mint for the public services of free coinage and currency regulation "in order not to abridge the quantity of circulating medium". With its acceptance, Sec.11 of the Coinage Act of 1792 established: "That the proportional value of gold to silver in all coins which shall by law be current as money within the United States, shall be as fifteen to one, according to quantity in weight, of pure gold or pure silver;"

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3776-514: The robber barons of the Gilded Age capitalism era and was referred to as the "People's Money" (as opposed to the gold-based currency, which was portrayed by the Populists as the money of "exploitation" and "oppression"). William H. Harvey's popular pamphlet Coin's Financial School , issued in the aftermath of the Panic of 1893 , illustrated the "restorative" properties of silver; through

3894-405: The severe economic depression 1893–1897 and the violent coal and railroad strikes of 1894. From 1860 to 1912, the Republicans took advantage of the association of the Democrats with "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion". Rum stood for the liquor interests and the tavernkeepers, in contrast to the GOP, which had a strong dry element. "Romanism" meant Roman Catholics , especially Irish Americans, who ran

4012-466: The 11th largest decline in U.S. stock market history. The "free silver" debate pitted the pro-gold financial establishment of the Northeast, along with railroads, factories, and businessmen, who were creditors deriving benefit from deflation and repayment of loans with valuable gold dollars, against farmers who would benefit from higher prices for their crops and an easing of credit burdens. Free silver

4130-545: The 1870s, formed the "tan" half of the "Black and Tan" Republican Party , a minority in every Southern state after 1877. This divided the party into two factions: the lily-white faction , which was practically all-white; and the biracial black-and-tan faction. In several Southern states, the "Lily Whites", who sought to recruit white Democrats to the Republican Party, attempted to purge the Black and Tan faction or at least to reduce its influence. Among such "Lily White" leaders in

4248-512: The 1880s and 1890s, the Republicans struggled against the Democrats' efforts, winning several close elections and losing two to Grover Cleveland (in 1884 and 1892 ). Religious lines were sharply drawn. Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Scandinavian Lutherans and other pietists in the North were tightly linked to the GOP. In sharp contrast, liturgical groups , especially the Catholics, Episcopalians and German Lutherans, looked to

4366-648: The Croeseid, and is therefore considered to be later and derived from the Croeseid. The weight of the Daric would then be modified through a metrological reform, probably under Darius I. Sardis remained the central mint for the Persian Darics and Sigloi of Achaemenid coinage, and there is no evidence of other mints for the new Achaemenid coins during the whole time of the Achaemenid Empire. Although

4484-492: The Democratic Party for protection from pietistic moralism, especially prohibition. Both parties cut across the class structure, with the Democrats more bottom-heavy. Cultural issues, especially prohibition and foreign language schools became important because of the sharp religious divisions in the electorate. In the North, about 50% of the voters were pietistic Protestants (Methodists, Scandinavian Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Disciples of Christ ) who believed

4602-612: The Democratic Party in every big city and whom the Republicans denounced for political corruption. "Rebellion" stood for the Democrats of the Confederacy , who tried to break the Union in 1861; and the Democrats in the North, called " Copperheads ", who sympathized with them. Demographic trends aided the Democrats, as the German and Irish Catholic immigrants were Democrats and outnumbered the British and Scandinavian Republicans. During

4720-456: The Democrats, who had nominated reformer Grover Cleveland . Young Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge , leading reformers, refused to bolt—an action that preserved their leadership role in the GOP. As the Northern post-war economy boomed with industry, railroads, mines and fast-growing cities as well as prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to keep

4838-412: The Democrats. Demographic trends aided the Democrats, as the German and Irish Catholic immigrants were mostly Democrats and outnumbered the British and Scandinavian Republicans. During the 1880s, elections were remarkably close. The Democrats usually lost, but won in 1884 and 1892 . In the 1894 Congressional elections , the GOP scored the biggest landslide in its history as Democrats were blamed for

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4956-425: The Democrats. They won control of the House and formed " Redeemer " coalitions which recaptured control of each southern state, in some cases using threats and violence. Reconstruction came to an end when the contested election of 1876 was awarded by a special electoral commission to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes , who promised through the unofficial Compromise of 1877 to withdraw federal troops from control of

5074-470: The LMU to limit free coinage of silver in 1874 and to end it in 1878, effectively abandoning bimetallism for the gold standard. Medieval and early modern England used both gold and silver, at fixed rates, to provide the necessary range of coin denominations; but silver coinage began to be restricted in the 18th century, first informally, and then by an Act of Parliament in 1774. After the suspension of metal convertibility from 1797 to 1819, Peel's Bill set

5192-603: The President and the Department of the Treasury to regulate US silver, was completely repealed by Public Law 88-36 . Under the gold specie standard, anyone in possession of gold bullion could deposit it at a mint where it would then be processed into gold coins. Less a nominal seigniorage to cover processing costs, the coins would then be paid to the depositor; this was free coinage of gold by definition. The objective of

5310-491: The Progressive Era, North Carolina journalist William Garrott Brown tried to convince upscale white southerners of the wisdom of a strong early white Republican Party. He warned that a one party solid South system would negate democracy, encourage corruption, because the lack of prestige of the national level. Roosevelt was following his advice. However, in 1912, incumbent president Taft needed black Republican support in

5428-482: The Republican Party (it lost the presidency only in 1884 and 1892). Lincoln proved brilliantly successful in uniting the factions of his party to fight for the Union in the Civil War. However, he usually fought the Radical Republicans who demanded harsher measures. Led by Senator William P. Fessenden and Congressman Thaddeus Stevens , Congress took the lead in economic policy, bringing in high tariffs,

5546-434: The Republican Party opposed abortion in its party platform and grew its support among evangelicals . The Republican Party won five of the six presidential elections from 1968 to 1988. Two-term President Ronald Reagan , who held office from 1981 to 1989, was a transformative party leader. His conservative policies called for reduced social government spending and regulation , increased military spending, lower taxes , and

5664-622: The Senate . With the election of Ulysses S. Grant in 1868, the Radicals had control of Congress and the party attempted to build a solid Republican base in the South using the votes of Freedmen, Scalawags and Carpetbaggers , supported directly by United States Army detachments. Republicans all across the South formed local clubs called Union Leagues that effectively mobilized the voters, discussed issues, and when necessary, fought off Ku Klux Klan (KKK) attacks. Thousands died on both sides. Grant supported radical reconstruction programs in

5782-491: The South lost the vote in general elections, but still had a voice in the Republican National Convention. New immigrants were pouring in from Eastern and Southern Europe. The Progressive Era (or " Fourth Party System ") was dominated by Republican presidents, with the sole exception of Democrat Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921). The Republican Party had a progressive element, which supported unions and

5900-725: The South, the Fourteenth Amendment and equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen. Most of all he was the hero of the war veterans, who marched to his tune. The party had become so large that factionalism was inevitable; it was hastened by Grant's tolerance of high levels of corruption typified by the Whiskey Ring . In 1869, the Republican-controlled legislature in Wyoming Territory and its Republican governor John Allen Campbell made it

6018-499: The South, where it was roundly denounced in 1856–1860 as a divisive force that threatened civil war. The Republican Party absorbed many of the previous traditions of its members, who had come from an array of political factions, including Working Men , Locofoco Democrats , Free Soil Democrats, Free Soil Whigs, anti-slavery Know Nothings , Conscience Whigs , and Temperance Reformers of both parties. Many Democrats who joined were rewarded with governorships, or seats in

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6136-404: The U.S. Senate, or House of Representatives. During the presidential campaign in 1860, at a time of escalating tension between the North and South, Abraham Lincoln addressed the harsh treatment of Republicans in the South in his famous Cooper Union speech : [W]hen you speak of us Republicans, you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant

6254-718: The US currency. The two options were gold (wanted by the "Goldbugs" and William McKinley ) and silver (wanted by the Silverites and Bryan). Unbacked paper (wanted by the Greenbacks ) represented a third option. A fourth option, a currency backed by land value, was advocated by Senator Leland Stanford through several Senate bills introduced in 1890–1892, but was always killed by the Senate Finance Committee. Three fraternal organizations rose to prominence during

6372-424: The best properties. It vigorously argued that free market labor was superior to slavery and was the very foundation of civic virtue and true republicanism ; this was the "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men" ideology. Without using the term " containment ", the Republican Party in the mid-1850s proposed a system of containing slavery. Historian James Oakes explains the strategy: The federal government would surround

6490-408: The best road to national prosperity was " sound money ", or gold, which was central to international trade. They argued that inflation meant guaranteed higher prices for everyone, and real gains chiefly for the silver interests. In 1896 Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado led many western Republicans to bolt and form a third party that supported Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan ,

6608-406: The bimetallic standard in 1873 led to greater price instability than would have occurred otherwise, and thus resulted in long-term harm to the US economy. His retrospective analysis led him to write that the act of 1873 was "a mistake that had highly adverse consequences". History of the Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party , also known as the GOP (Grand Old Party),

6726-449: The civil service . Upscale reformers who opposed the spoils system altogether were called " Mugwumps ". In 1884, Mugwumps rejected James G. Blaine as corrupt and helped elect Democrat Grover Cleveland , though most returned to the party by 1888. In the run-up to the 1884 Republican National Convention , Mugwumps organized their forces in the swing states, especially New York and Massachusetts. After failing to block Blaine, many bolted to

6844-493: The country on the gold standard for the remainder of the century; however advocates of a return to bimetallism did not cease to appear. After the crash of 1825, William Huskisson argued strongly within the Government for bimetallism, as a way to increase credit (as well as to ease trade with South America). Similarly, after the banking crisis of 1847, Alexander Baring headed an external bimetallist movement hoping to prevent

6962-565: The creditors such as banks and landlords. The most vocal and best-organized supporters were the silver mine owners (such as William Randolph Hearst ) and workers, and the western states and territories generally, as most U.S. silver production was based there and the region had a great number of highly indebted farmers and ranchers. Outside the mining states of the West, the Republican Party steadfastly opposed free silver, arguing that

7080-415: The devaluation of the currency, closed factories would reopen, darkened furnaces would be relit, and the like. But progressive activist Henry Demarest Lloyd held a harshly critical view, writing: "The free silver movement is a fake. Free silver is the cowbird of the reform movement. It waited until the nest had been built by the sacrifices and labor of others, and then it lay its own eggs in it, pushing out

7198-560: The discovery of the cyanide process by which gold could be extracted from low-grade ore. This process and the discoveries of large gold deposits in South Africa ( Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1887 – with large-scale production starting in 1898) and the Klondike Gold Rush (1896) increased the world gold supply and the subsequent increase in money supply that free coinage of silver was supposed to bring. The McKinley campaign

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7316-503: The early 20th century, Arkansas ' Wallace Townsend was the party's gubernatorial nominee in 1916 and 1920 and its veteran national GOP committeeman. The factionalism flared up in 1928 and 1952. The final victory of its opponent the lily-white faction came in 1964. The party split into factions in the late 1870s. The Stalwarts , followers of Senator Roscoe Conkling , defended the spoils system . The Half-Breeds , who followed Senator James G. Blaine of Maine, pushed for reform of

7434-411: The early 20th century. The merits of the system were the subject of debate in the late 19th century. If the market forces of supply and demand for either metal caused its bullion value to exceed its nominal currency value, it tends to disappear from circulation by hoarding or melting down. In the United States, bimetallism became a center of political conflict toward the end of the 19th century. During

7552-515: The economy, but that sound money produced by a gold standard would restore prosperity. Bimetallism and " Free Silver " were demanded by William Jennings Bryan who took over leadership of the Democratic Party in 1896, as well as by the Populists, and a faction of Republicans from silver mining regions in the West known as the Silver Republicans who also endorsed Bryan. The Republican Party itself nominated William McKinley on

7670-486: The effective end of their independence. In major elections, free silver was consistently defeated, and after 1896 the nation moved to the gold standard. The debate over silver lasted from the passage of the Fourth Coinage Act in 1873, which demonetized silver and was called the "Crime of '73" by opponents, until 1963, when the Silver Purchase Act of 1934 (also known as Executive Order 6814 ), which allowed

7788-532: The election of its first president, Abraham Lincoln , in 1860, the party's success in guiding the Union to victory in the Civil War, and the party's role in the abolition of slavery, the Republican Party largely dominated the national political scene until 1932. In 1912, former Republican president Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as

7906-464: The era. Roosevelt had to contend with men like Senator Mark Hanna , whom he outmaneuvered to gain control of the convention in 1904 that renominated him and he won after promising to continue McKinley's policies. More difficult to handle was conservative House Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon , who blocked most of Roosevelt's legislative goals in 1906–1908. Roosevelt achieved modest legislative gains in terms of railroad legislation and pure food laws . He

8024-594: The example of Mark Hanna, were active in the National Civic Federation , which promoted urban reforms and sought to avoid wasteful strikes. Protectionism was the ideological cement holding the Republican coalition together. High tariffs were used by Republicans to promise higher sales to business, higher wages to industrial workers, and higher demand for their crops to farmers. Progressive insurgents said it promoted monopoly. Democrats said it

8142-620: The fast growth going. The Democratic Party was largely controlled by pro-business Bourbon Democrats until 1896. The GOP supported big business generally, the gold standard , high tariffs and generous pensions for Union veterans. However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers. The high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt

8260-419: The first jurisdiction to grant voting rights to women . In 1875, California swore in the first Hispanic governor, Republican Romualdo Pacheco . Many of the founders of the GOP joined the liberal movement , as did many powerful newspaper editors. They nominated Horace Greeley for president, who also gained the Democratic nomination, but the ticket was defeated in a landslide. The depression of 1873 energized

8378-410: The first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coins, and the first who sold goods by retail" Many ancient bimetallic systems would follow, starting with Achaemenid coinage . From around 515 BCE under Darius I , the minting of Croesids in Sardis was replaced by the minting of Darics and Sigloi . The earliest gold coin of the Achaemenid Empire , the Daric , followed the weight standard of

8496-479: The five banks of issue. This convertibility lasted only 17 months: from December 1884 the banks of issue refused to exchange gold at par for notes. The suspension of convertibility was soon accommodated by the Argentine government, since, having no institutional power over the monetary system, there was little they could do to prevent it. A French law of 1803 granted anyone who brought gold or silver to its mint

8614-416: The free silver movement was that the mints should accept and process silver bullion according to the same principle, although the market value of the silver in circulating coins of the United States was substantially less than face value. As a result, the monetary value of silver coins was based on government fiat rather than on the commodity value of their contents, and this became especially true following

8732-623: The gold Daric became an international currency which was found throughout the Ancient world, the circulation of the Sigloi remained very much limited to Asia Minor: important hoards of Sigloi are only found in these areas, and finds of Sigloi beyond are always very limited and marginal compared to Greek coins, even in Achaemenid territories. In 1881, a currency reform in Argentina introduced

8850-431: The government should be used to reduce social sins, such as drinking. Liturgical churches ( Roman Catholics , German Lutherans , and Episcopalians ) comprised over a quarter of the vote and wanted the government to stay out of the morality business. Prohibition debates and referendums heated up politics in most states over a period of decade as national prohibition was finally passed in 1919 (repealed in 1933), serving as

8968-619: The huge silver strikes in the West, which further depressed the silver price. From that time until the early 1960s the silver content in United States dimes, quarters, half-dollars, and silver dollars was worth only a fraction of their face values. Free coinage of silver would have amounted to an increase in the money supply, resulting in inflation. Many populist organizations favored an inflationary monetary policy because it would enable debtors (often farmers who had mortgages on their land) to pay their debts off with cheaper, more readily available dollars. Those who would suffer under this policy were

9086-446: The last three southern states. The region then became the Solid South , giving overwhelming majorities of its electoral votes and Congressional seats to the Democrats through 1964. Back in the late 19th century, when Senate Republicans pushed hard for civil rights, the GOP had a reputation for supporting minorities such as black people. Black people generally identified with the GOP until the 1930s. Every African American who served in

9204-645: The lead in forming state Republican Party tickets; apart from St. Louis and a few areas adjacent to free states, there were no efforts to organize the Party in the southern states. On September 20, 1854 a "People's Convention" was held in Aurora, IL at the First Congregational Church to discuss slavery. L.D. Brady was elected chairman of that first Republican convention. It was a representative gathering of 208 delegates who had been selected for

9322-508: The left-center of the Republican Party. He explained his balancing act: Disagreements on tariffs were pulling the party apart. Roosevelt tried to postpone the issue, but Taft had to meet it head on in 1909 with the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act . Eastern conservatives led by Nelson W. Aldrich wanted high tariffs on manufactured goods (especially woolens), while Midwesterners called for low tariffs. Aldrich outmaneuvered them by lowering

9440-567: The liturgical churches ( Roman Catholic , Episcopal and German Lutheran ) largely rejected the moralism of the Republican Party; most of their adherents voted Democratic. William Gienapp argues that the great realignment of the 1850s began before the Whig party collapse, and was caused not by politicians but by voters at the local level. The central forces were ethno-cultural, involving tensions between pietistic Protestants versus liturgical Catholics, Lutherans and Episcopalians regarding Catholicism, prohibition, and nativism. Anti-slavery did play

9558-464: The mid-1890s and supported the silver campaign in 1896. They all disappeared after the failure of the campaign. The city voters—especially German Americans—overwhelmingly rejected the free-silver cause out of the conviction that it would lead to economic disaster, unemployment, and higher prices. The diversified farmers of the Midwest and East opposed it as well, but the cotton farmers in the South and

9676-415: The more valuable gold out of circulation . While all agreed that an expanded money supply would inevitably inflate prices, the issue was whether this inflation would be beneficial or not. The issue peaked from 1893 to 1896, when the economy was suffering from a severe depression characterized by falling prices ( deflation ), high unemployment in industrial areas, and severe distress for farmers. It ranks as

9794-455: The most from any one political party. The American party system had been dominated by Whigs and Democrats for decades leading up to the Civil War. But the Whig party's increasing internal divisions had made it a party of strange bedfellows by the 1850s. An ascendant anti-slavery wing clashed with a traditionalist and increasingly pro-slavery Southern wing. These divisions came to a head in the 1852 election , where Whig candidate Winfield Scott

9912-553: The next half century the market rate was above 15.5 to 1. As a consequence, silver powered the French economy and gold was exported. But when the California Gold Rush increased the supply of gold, its value was reduced relative to silver. The market rate fell below 15.5 to 1, and remained below until 1866. Frenchmen responded by exporting silver to India and importing nearly two-fifths of the world's production of gold in

10030-492: The others which lie smashed on the ground." In 1934, the passage of the Silver Purchase Act revived the debate stirred by Grover Cleveland's 1893 repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890. The new law granted the U.S. president and U.S. secretary of treasury the authority to purchase silver, issue silver certificates, and also nationalize U.S. mines. The law also included a 50¢ tax on profits from

10148-621: The party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections, even defeating McKinley himself. Foreign affairs seldom became partisan issues (except for the annexation of Hawaii , which Republicans favored and Democrats opposed). Much more salient were cultural issues. The GOP supported the pietistic Protestants (especially the Methodists , Congregationalists , Presbyterians , and Scandinavian Lutherans) who demanded prohibition . That angered wet Republicans, especially German Americans , who broke ranks in 1890–1892, handing power to

10266-506: The period from 1848 to 1870. Napoleon III introduced five franc gold coins which provided a substitute for the silver five franc coins which were hoarded, but still maintained the formal bimetallism implicit in the 1803 law. The national coinages introduced in Belgium (1832), Switzerland (1850), and Italy (1861) were based on France's bimetallic currency. These countries joined France in a treaty signed on 23 December 1865 which established

10384-637: The prohibition on slavery in territory north of 36° 30′ latitude that had been part of the Missouri Compromise . This change was viewed by anti-slavery Northerners as an aggressive, expansionist maneuver by the slave-owning South. Opponents of the Act were intensely motivated and began forming a new party. The Party began as a coalition of anti-slavery Conscience Whigs such as Zachariah Chandler and Free Soilers such as Salmon P. Chase . The first anti-Nebraska local meeting where "Republican"

10502-404: The proportion had slipped by 1834 to sixteen to one. Silver took a further hit with the Coinage Act of 1853 , when nearly all silver coin denominations were debased, effectively turning silver coinage into a fiduciary currency based on its face value rather than its weighted value. Bimetallism was effectively abandoned by the Coinage Act of 1873 , but not formally outlawed as legal currency until

10620-468: The purpose of forming an anti-slavery party. The name "Republican" was adopted at this convention together with a platform that formed the basis of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. The new Republican Party envisioned modernizing the United States, emphasizing expanded banking, more railroads and factories, and giving free western land to farmers ("free soil") as opposed to letting slave owners buy up

10738-593: The repeal of laws enabling slaveholding in free territories and "resistance by Constitutional means of Slavery in any Territory", defense of anti-slavery individuals in Kansas who were coming under physical attack, and a call to "resist and overthrow the present National Administration" of Franklin Pierce , "as it is identified with the progress of the Slave power to national supremacy". Its first national nominating convention

10856-407: The right to have it coined at a nominal charge in addition to the official rates of 200 francs per kilogram of 90% silver, or 3100 francs per kilogram of 90% fine gold. This effectively established a bimetallic standard at the rate which had been used for French coinage since 1785, i.e. a relative valuation of gold to silver of 15.5 to 1. In 1803 this ratio was close to the market rate, but for most of

10974-667: The short-lived Greenback Party to press for cheap paper money backed by silver. The latter element—" free silver "—came increasingly to the fore as the answer to the same interest groups' concerns, and was taken up as a central plank by the Populist movement . Proponents of monetary silver, known as the silverites , referred back to the Fourth Coinage Act as "The Crime of '73", as it was judged to have inhibited inflation, and favored creditors over debtors. Some reformers, however, like Henry Demarest Lloyd , saw bimetallism as

11092-434: The short-lived Silver Republican Party . The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, while falling short of free silver's goals, required the U.S. government to buy millions of ounces of silver (driving up the price of the metal and pleasing silver miners) for money (pleasing farmers and many others). However, the U.S. government paid for that silver bullion in gold notes—and actually reduced their coinage of silver. The result

11210-469: The silver tax. In 1943, the overprints were discontinued, and the Silver Purchase Act of 1934 would be fully repealed in 1963. Bimetallism Bimetallism , also known as the bimetallic standard , is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, typically gold and silver , creating a fixed rate of exchange between them. For scholarly purposes, "proper" bimetallism

11328-522: The south with free states, free territories, and free waters, building what they called a 'cordon of freedom' around slavery, hemming it in until the system's own internal weaknesses forced the slave states one by one to abandon slavery. The Republican Party launched its first national organizing convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 22, 1856. This gathering elected a governing National Executive Committee and passed resolutions calling for

11446-475: The support of black Republicans in the South, and defeated Roosevelt there. Roosevelt led many (but not most) of his delegates to bolt out of the convention and created a new party (the Progressive , or "Bull Moose" ticket), in the election of 1912 . Few party leaders followed him except Hiram Johnson of California. Roosevelt had the support of many notable women reformers, including Jane Addams. During

11564-507: The tariff on farm products, which outraged the farmers. The great battle over the high Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act in 1910 ripped the Republicans apart and set up the realignment in favor of the Democrats. Insurgent Midwesterners led by George Norris revolted against the conservatives led by Speaker Cannon. The Democrats won control of the House in 1910 as the GOP rift between insurgents and conservatives widened. In 1912, Roosevelt broke with Taft, rejected Robert M. La Follette , and tried for

11682-524: The transfer of silver bullion and financing a "Silver Tax Stamp". After the law was passed, the U.S. Treasury paid rates for silver well over its 1934 value, achieving the hoped-for result, raising the price of silver from 45¢ to 81¢ an ounce. However, overprints on the Silver Stamp Taxes, which ranged from 1¢ to $ 1,000, also presented a problem for free, nationally owned silver. These were stamps attached to transfer memoranda to indicate payment of

11800-546: The treatment of ex-Confederates and of former slaves, or freedmen . Johnson broke with the Radical Republicans and formed a loose alliance with moderate Republicans and Democrats. A showdown came in the Congressional elections of 1866 , in which the Radicals won a sweeping victory and took full control of Reconstruction, passing key laws over the veto. Johnson was impeached by the House , but acquitted by

11918-543: The undue restriction of the currency. It was, however, only in the last quarter of the century that the movement for bimetallism gathered real strength, drawing on Manchester cotton merchants and City financiers with Far East interests to offer a serious (if ultimately unsuccessful) challenge to the gold standard. In 1792, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton proposed fixing the silver to gold exchange rate at 15:1, as well as establishing

12036-420: The use of bimetallism in place of a gold standard or silver standard ( monometallism ). Bimetallism was intended to increase the supply of money, stabilize prices, and facilitate setting exchange rates. Some scholars argued that bimetallism was inherently unstable owing to Gresham's law , and that its replacement by a monometallic standard was inevitable. Other scholars claimed that in practice bimetallism had

12154-688: The value of silver or gold. Nonetheless, academics continue to debate, inconclusively, the relative use of the metallic standards. From the 7th century BCE , Asia Minor , especially in the areas of Lydia and Ionia , is known to have created a coinage based on electrum , a natural occurring material that is a variable mix of gold and silver (with about 54% gold and 44% silver). Before Croesus , his father Alyattes had already started to mint various types of non-standardized electrum coins. They were in use in Lydia and surrounding areas for about 80 years. The unpredictability of its composition implied that it had

12272-460: The war, upper-middle-class men in major cities formed Union Leagues to promote and help finance the war effort. Following the 1864 elections, Radical Republicans Led by Charles Sumner in the Senate and Thaddeus Stevens in the House set the agenda by demanding more aggressive action against slavery and more vengeance toward the Confederates. Under Republican congressional leadership,

12390-461: The wealth and pay the taxes of the country;' and, my friends, the question we are to decide is: Upon which side will the Democratic party fight?" At the peroration , he said: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." However, his presidential campaign was ultimately unsuccessful; this can be partially attributed to

12508-405: The wheat farmers in the West were enthusiastic for free silver. Bryan tried again in 1900 to raise the issue but lost by larger margins, and when he dropped the issue it fell out of circulation. Subsequent actions to revive the issue were unsuccessful. Free silver became increasingly associated with populism , unions, and the fight of ordinary Americans against the bankers, railroad monopolists, and

12626-975: The women's suffrage movement. McKinley was the first President to promote pluralism , arguing that prosperity would be shared by all ethnic and religious groups. The new Jewish element of the party favored socialism. In 1898, the first Jewish U.S. Senator elected from outside of the former Confederacy was Republican Joseph Simon of Oregon . Progressive leaders included President Theodore Roosevelt , Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. , Senator Hiram Johnson in California, Senator George W. Norris in Nebraska, Senator Bronson M. Cutting in New Mexico, Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin in Montana and Senator William Borah in Idaho. The first important reform mayor

12744-422: Was Hazen S. Pingree of Detroit (1890–1897), who was elected Governor of Michigan in 1896. In New York City , the Republicans joined nonpartisan reformers to battle Tammany Hall and elected Seth Low (1902–1903). Golden Rule Jones was first elected mayor of Toledo as a Republican in 1897, but was reelected as an independent when his party refused to renominate him. Many Republican civic leaders, following

12862-474: Was a "run" on the U.S. Treasury's gold reserves, which was one of the many reasons for the Panic of 1893 and the onset of the 1890s Depression. Once he regained power, and after the Panic of 1893 had begun, Grover Cleveland engineered the repeal of the act, setting the stage for the key issue of the next presidential election. The Populist Party had a strong free-silver element. Its subsequent combination with

12980-408: Was a tax on the little man. It had greatest support in the Northeast, and greatest opposition in the South and West. The Midwest was the battle ground. McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Panic of 1893 . He denounced William Jennings Bryan , the Democratic nominee, as a dangerous radical whose plans for "Free Silver" at 16–1 (or Bimetallism ) would bankrupt

13098-465: Was allowed. The realignment was powerful because it forced voters to switch parties, as typified by the rise and fall of the Know-Nothings, the rise of the Republican Party, and the splits in the Democratic Party. The election of Lincoln as president in 1860 opened a new era of Republican dominance based in the industrial North and agricultural Midwest. The Third Party System was dominated by

13216-549: Was effective at persuading voters in the business East that poor economic progress and unemployment would be exacerbated by the adoption of the Bryan platform. 1896 saw the election of McKinley. The direct link to gold was abandoned in 1934 in Franklin D. Roosevelt 's New Deal program and later the link was broken by Richard Nixon when he closed the gold window . In 1992, economist Milton Friedman concluded that abandonment of

13334-498: Was elected Governor of New York and immediately became a likely presidential candidate. Most of the state Republican parties accepted the antislavery goal except Kentucky . During the Civil War , the party passed major legislation in Congress to promote rapid modernization , including a national banking system , high tariffs , the first income tax , many excise taxes , paper money issued without backing (" greenbacks "),

13452-773: Was especially popular among farmers in the Wheat Belt (the western Midwest) and the Cotton Belt (the Deep South ), as well as silver miners in the West. It had little support among farmers in the Northeast and the Corn Belt (the eastern Midwest). Free silver was the central issue for Democrats in the presidential elections of 1896 and 1900 , under the leadership of William Jennings Bryan , famed for his Cross of Gold speech in favor of free silver. The Populists also endorsed Bryan and free silver in 1896, which marked

13570-581: Was held in June 1856 in Philadelphia . John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican nominee for President in 1856 behind the slogan "Free soil, free silver, free men, Frémont and victory!" Although Frémont's bid was unsuccessful, the party showed a strong base. It dominated in New England, New York and the northern Midwest and had a strong presence in the rest of the North. It had almost no support in

13688-570: Was more successful in Court, bringing antitrust suits that broke up the Northern Securities Company trust and Standard Oil . Roosevelt moved to the left in his last two years in office, but was unable to pass major Square Deal proposals. He did succeed in naming his successor, Secretary of War William Howard Taft , who easily defeated Bryan again in the 1908 presidential election . By 1907, Roosevelt identified himself with

13806-426: Was suggested as a name for a new anti-slavery party was held in a Ripon, Wisconsin schoolhouse on March 20, 1854. The first statewide convention that formed a platform and nominated candidates under the Republican name was held near Jackson, Michigan , on July 6, 1854. At that convention, the party opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a statewide slate of candidates. The Midwest took

13924-527: Was trounced by Franklin Pierce . Southern Whigs, who had supported the prior Whig president Zachary Taylor , had been burned by Taylor and were unwilling to support another Whig. Taylor, who despite being a slaveowner, had proved notably anti-slave after campaigning neutrally on the issue. With the loss of Southern Whig support, and the loss of votes in the North to the Free Soil Party , Whigs seemed doomed. So they were, as they would never again contest

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