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Difficulty: MediumGilded Age Politics and the Populist Movement

"The existence of an alarming and unprecedented condition in our financial and industrial affairs... is largely the result of a financial policy which the executive branch of the Government finds embodied in federal laws... The purchase of silver by the government, required by these laws, has created a lack of confidence in the stability of our currency and has steadily depleted our gold reserves, threatening our national credit."

— President Grover Cleveland, Message to Congress, August 8, 1893

Which of the following groups would have been most likely to oppose the perspective expressed in the excerpt?

  1. A
    Urban reformers who campaigned for municipal improvements during the Progressive Era
  2. B
    Industrialists who argued that the federal government should adhere to strict laissez-faire policies by refusing to enact protective tariffs
  3. Southern and Western farmers who supported the expansion of the money supplyAnswer
  4. D
    Humanitarian reformers who supported the Dawes Act as a means of protecting Native American tribal lands

Answer

Southern and Western farmers who supported the expansion of the money supply
The correct answer is the group of Southern and Western farmers who supported the expansion of the money supply. President Grover Cleveland's message advocated for the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to defend the gold standard. Agrarian reformers and Populists strongly opposed this policy because they believed that the free coinage of silver would increase the money supply, inflate crop prices, and reduce the real value of their debt burdens.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the author, context, and core argument of the stimulus.
President Grover Cleveland's 1893 address criticizes government silver purchases, arguing they drain gold reserves and undermine currency stability.
This establishes the historical debate over bimetallism versus the gold standard during the Panic of 1893.
2
Determine which Gilded Age groups supported or opposed the gold standard.
Creditors, eastern bankers, and industrialists supported the gold standard, whereas debtors, Western miners, and agrarian reformers advocated for the free coinage of silver.
This links economic self-interest to the monetary policy debates of the late nineteenth century.
3
Select the group whose political platform directly conflicted with the President's goals.
Southern and Western farmers, who supported bimetallism (free silver) to inflate the currency and ease debt, would strongly oppose Cleveland's call to repeal silver purchases.
This identifies the correct group opposing the gold-standard perspective expressed in the excerpt.

Key Concept

The Gilded Age debate over monetary policy and currency inflation
Estimated Time:1m 15s
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Topics

Gilded Age Politics and the Populist Movement

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