Populists roots of Oklahoma

Most histories of Oklahoma tend to start in the 1830s with Indian Removal. After all, it is impossible to understand this state without understanding the people who populated the Indian Territories.

Yet, when it comes to understanding the constitution of the great state of Oklahoma, 1896 is actually the genesis. It is in 1896 that the nation’s most significant third party and its radical issues were swallowed up by the Democratic Party. The Populists’ ideologies in the Democratic Party in Oklahoma made the Oklahoma Constitution a one-of-a-kind Populist document. In 1892, a new political party nominated James Weaver of Iowa as its presidential candidate. The People’s Party, better known as the Populist Party, was an agrarian movement started in Texas but formalized in Nebraska.

THE POPULIST MOVEMENT

What set the Populists apart from the traditional Republican and Democratic parties of the time was the idea that government had a responsibility to help its citizens. It is difficult for us to understand today, but the Gilded Age Government played a very limited role in day-to-day life. It was simply not government’s job to help. The most that government did to assist the economy was to raise or lower tariffs.

The Farmer’s Alliance movement, which morphed into the Populists, was made up of struggling farmers who needed help and felt the government should assist. The Alliance asked for backing with issues such as low-interest loans from the government and regulations in railroad shipping rates for their crops. Farmers mostly wanted help with their debts by printing greenbacks, paper money that was not backed by gold or silver. If the government flooded the market with greenbacks, it would create inflation, which made it easier for farmers to pay off their loans because the dollar was weak.

What it came down to was farmers wanted the Federal Government to manipulate the economy. They needed help. Neither traditional party wanted to touch the money issue. Because farmers felt neither party cared about their welfare, they decided to start a party of their own. At the time, the Populists’ platform was considered radical, and it was. Note, however, that the majority of the platform made its way into future federal law and, more importantly, into Oklahoma’s Constitution.

It took the Populists to shock the nation, but also to start a dialog before future Progressives passed the same legislation in a more conservative way. The Populists’ platform consisted of eight major planks. The first plank suggested the direct election of U.S. senators. Before 1913, senators were elected by state legislatures, not the people.

The second plank Populists suggested was their most radical proposal -government control of railroads. Farmers for years had felt abused by powerful railroad companies, which had monopolies on local railroad shipping. With farmers being the lifeblood of the nation, Populists believed the government should control this important duty.

The third planked called for federal supervision of co-ops. Farmers had organized themselves in co-ops for survival and once again believed the government should lend assistance. The fourth plank suggested allowing initiatives and referendums. This is an easy platform for Oklahomans to understand. Just last year, legalized medical marijuana was added to the Oklahoma Constitution through referendum.

The fifth plank focused on a graduated income tax. If you want the government to give assistance, it is going to need money. The sixth plank was women’s suffrage, a radical step for most in 1892, but the Populists had important women leaders, like Mary Elizabeth Lease telling Kansas farmers they “should raise less corn and more hell.”

The seventh plank was in support of Prohibition. The Populists of the 1890s had a strong Protestant-Christian streak. They saw alcohol as a sin and joined with urban temperance groups calling for a ban. The eighth and last plank became their most famous calling card - the free and unlimited coinage of silver. What became known as “free silver” was about adding silver to the currency to put more money into circulation.

Weaver, the Populists’ first presidential nominee, received only 8.5% of the popular vote in 1892, but he did win five states and 22 Electoral College votes. The other parties took notice. Over the next four years, the Populist Party grew in strength, winning seats in Congress.

“Next came the suffrage question. Sentiment appeared to favor woman suffrage until Guthrie held a school election ... Debate swelled into battle on the floor February 5 when Hanraty moved to strike ‘male’ from the section defining qualified electors. Women thronged the galleries. Only four states - Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming - had given women the ballot. Would Oklahoma be the fifth? Those opposing argued that ‘good’ women wouldn’t vote ... The chairman banged for order, and Haskell took the floor. He quoted liberally from the Bible and pictured his listeners coming home ‘to find a candidate for county commissioner has taken so much of your wife’s time that it really hadn’t occurred to her that supper was a part of everyday life.’” ~ Excerpt from the book “The 46th Star” by Irvin Hurst, copyright 1957.

THE 1896 ELECTION AND WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN

Everyone believed the Populist Party was going to be a larger force in the 1896 election, especially if they ran their champion, William Jennings Bryan, on the ticket. Democrats were in a peculiar place of power in the 1896 election. Grover Cleveland was the first Democrat in the White House since before Lincoln and yet the current recession was hurting the party’s chance for a repeat.

There was not a big divide between the Democrats and Republicans in the 1890s. The Republicans were seen as the party for big government, but only because the Democrats believed in doing less. Both basically did nothing. Some Democrats wanted to see their party go in a different direction, more towards positive government. The sides decided to debate the issue at their national convention and the winning side could nominate the president.

The Democrats, who wanted change, sought to embrace the issue of “Free Silver” and possibly win over some Populists support. For this cause, they asked William Jennings Bryan to speak. Bryan gave what is possibly the most famous political speech in history, the “Cross of Gold” speech. In it he said, “Silver was a cause as holy as the cause of Liberty — the cause of humanity.” He told the Democrats that they needed to run a man of the people, a new Andrew Jackson. Someone who would stand for the little guy and the farmer.

He ended his speech with, “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, and you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of Gold.” The crowd went wild with Bryan’s speech and the next day he was nominated as their presidential candidate. The Populists were disappointed at Bryan’s nomination by the Democrats, but that did not stop them from nominating him as their candidate as well. Bryan was on two tickets, with two different vice-presidents in 1896.

This left Populist voters in a difficult position. The Democrats had accepted Bryan and “Free Silver,” but still fell short of the Populists’ platform. Populists could vote with their hearts and cast their vote for the Populist’s candidates and probably lose, or they could vote for the Democrats and, if they won, could at least get part of what they hoped for.

Just like today with third parties, the majority of Populists voted for the Democrats. Even with the Populists infusion, Bryan only received 46% of the vote and lost in a close election to Republican William McKinley.

“The story of the Constitutional Convention will not suffer by comparison with the gatherings which we now reverence. It was not merely the birth of a new state; it was the birth of a new kind of state. Its founders claim that it is the first real democracy, the pioneer in the experiment of a true form of republican government. Its detractors assert that the visionaries and radicals from all other states poured into Oklahoma, and that the more rabid of them met and consolidated their theories into a hodge-podge which is certain to result in everlasting ruin; but I am of the opinion that it will take more than a freak constitution to hold Oklahoma back. She has done very well without any constitution, and I regret that she didn’t try the experiment of continually doing without one.” ~ Excerpt from the book “The 46th Star” by Irvin Hurst, copyright 1957.

PARTY DIES, BUT ITS PLATFORM SURVIVES

Of even greater importance to the Populist Party, the fusion with the Democrats killed off the Populists. They survived awhile longer in name only, but for all intents and purposes the Populists were done, although their platform stayed alive in the new Democratic Party.

It took a few more decades for the Democratic Party to become the liberal-leaning party of today, but the 1896 election sent it on that course. Franklin Roosevelt and later Lyndon Johnson took it the rest of the way.

Over the next 30 years the Democratic Party had to confront opposition from within between the growing progressive wing and the traditional southern conservative wing. One thing the Democrats had going for it was the “Solid South.” The Democratic Party had controlled the South since before the Civil War and did so, with very few exceptions, until the 1960s. Having this powerful voting block kept the Democrats competitive.

In the South, the Democrats still represented the party of white supremacy, which appealed to white voters. The Republican Party was still the party of Lincoln and emancipation, making it difficult to find support among whites, and blacks were still denied the vote under Jim Crow laws. In the 1880s and 1890s poor southern farmers were drawn to the Populist Party, but the power of the Democratic leaders was able to keep them at bay. The same laws that stopped blacks from voting, such as education tests and poll taxes, also restricted poor whites.

The same whites were more prone to vote Populist. At the same time, the South had always been dominated by strong powerful families going back to the plantation days. These oligarchies did a great job of not only keeping the Populists out but later were instrumental in keeping Populists’ ideologies out of the southern Democratic Party. Enter Oklahoma. When white settlers were allowed into the Sooner state, poor southerners packed up and moved, looking for new land and opportunities. They brought with them their evangelical religions and Democratic Party ideas.

However, without strong Democratic leadership, the Populist ideas were allowed to flourish. At the same time, two other groups found their way into the state. Populist farmers from the Midwest began to move into the Southern Plains and European immigrants came looking to farm. Some of the immigrants were actually second-or third-generation immigrants, but many were right off the boat. These mostly German and Eastern Europeans brought with them their strong socialist tendencies which blended nicely with American Populists.

When delegates were chosen to the Constitutional Convention, they were overwhelmingly Democrats. The leaders of the convention represented this coalition, such as “Alfalfa Bill” Murray from Texas; Peter Hanraty, a Scottish immigrant who was blacklisted from Eastern mines for radical organizing; Charles Haskell, an Ohio lawyer; and even Kate Barnard, daughter of Irish immigrants by way of Nebraska and Kansas.

Oklahoma wrote the first constitution since the formation of the Populist Party, except for Utah, and being in the region where Populists were the strongest, what was produced was the nation’s only Populist constitution. Populist influence is seen throughout the state constitution. Strong regulations were placed on railroads and banks, giving the state the ability to set prices. Rules on corporations were as detailed as the Federal Government’s. Not wanting to rely on elected officials, initiatives and referendums were included in the Oklahoma Constitution.

With enough signatures, any issue can appear on the ballot and be included into law. Initiatives are even allowed to amend the constitution. Oklahoma put some of the strongest labor laws into the constitution, including laws for women and children and an eight-hour workday.  The constitution also created a strong Board of Agriculture, which greatly supported farmers. Finally, the constitution even banned alcohol.

The issues that a state could control were incredibly similar to what the Populists had called for back in the 1890s. Bryan, pushing for the constitution’s ratification, called the Oklahoma Constitution “the best constitution of any state in this union, and a better constitution than the constitution of the U. S.” Without a doubt, the Oklahoma Constitution stands alone. At the time of its acceptance, it was the longest state constitution; but even more importantly, it was the first with only the people in mind. For a state with such conservative leanings today, its constitution was the most radical left in the Union.

Though Oklahoma started as Indian Territory, and those influences are strongly felt in the state today, when it comes to the forces that shaped the creation of the state’s original governing document, nothing is more prominent then the short-lived Populist Party.