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1

The tariff issue came to the fore in the election of 1888, with Grover Cleveland favoring lower rates. Read the following excerpt from President Cleveland's State of the Union message in December 1887. Also read the short excerpt from the Minority Report of the House Ways and Means Committee, in which the Republicans expressed their opposition to the Mills bills, which embodied many of Cleveland's tariff revision suggestions. Consider the following questions: How does the first part of the address reveal Cleveland's political philosophy? Is Cleveland's characterization of the protective tariff as a tax on consumers an accurate one? Although in another part of the speech Cleveland disclaims any support for completely "free trade," would that be the logical culmination of his ideas? The Republican Minority Report implies that American prosperity flowed from the protective tariff. Was this a valid claim?

President Cleveland

2

From the Farmer's Declaration of Independence of 1873 through the Ocala Demands of 1890 to the Populist Party's Omaha platform of 1892 the farmers of the South and West expressed their frustration with an increasingly industrial corporate society that they felt was leaving them behind. Read the selection below, which is taken from the Omaha platform, and consider the following questions: Were the Populist demands reasonable and rational responses to the problems facing the Populist constituency? What elements of socialism can be found in the Populist program? How was the platform designed as an attempt to broaden the appeal of Populism beyond farmers?

Platform of the Populist Party 1892






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