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Part Seventy-One: Tipping the Scales
Time for another main update.
Part Seventy-One: Tipping the Scales
A Million Little Parties:
As the Republican and Democratic parties settled into their respective positions in the Third Party System, regional parties and smaller national parties began gaining popularity. Tensions between the two parties and the dominance of the Republicans in the North and the Democrats in the South led to a level of dissatisfaction in the politics of both major parties. The first appearance of minor parties in Congress since the National War occurred after the midterm elections of 1878. The Redback Party, which promoted moving the dollar off of any metallic standard, was at first the most successful minor party, gaining 8 seats in the House of Representatives in 1878. The rise of minor parties in the elections of 1878 gave control of the House of Representatives to the Democratic Party as many of the minor parties were in the North.
The Redback Party gained much of its support in the Old Northwest. It's main leaders were James B. Weaver of Iowa and Edward Gilette of Indiana. The Redback Party gained a number of representatives in the following decade and reached its height in the early 1890s, when the party had 18 members of the House of Representatives and 2 senators. The Redback Party ran counter to the bimetallic platform of the Republican Party and the gold standard platform of the Democratic Party. The Redback Party achieved its voting base largely from rural agricultural voters, but lost its appeal once other minor parties began coopting moving off of a metal-backed currency on their platforms.
While the Redback Party was the most prominent party of the era, there were several other notable minor parties. The Temperance Party was the main political front of the growing moderation movement to ban alcohol and was popular mostly among religious revivalists. The Prohibition Party became the first party after the National War to nominate a candidate for executive office from a former Confederate state in 1892. This era also saw the beginning of the rise of far leftist parties in the United States. The American Socialist Party, the Union Labor Party, and the American Workers' Party were all formed during the 1880s. The leftist movement would continue to grow in urban areas in the early 20th century.
The Election of 1880:
After the Democratic Party gained control of the House of Representatives in 1878, they blocked most efforts by Burnside or the Republican members in the Senate to enact any other important legislation. With the Republican Party's lawmaking ability curtailed, the election of 1880 proved to be a difficult one for them. Accopmanying these issues were the growing feud between President Burnside and Congressman Blaine over the reasons for the Republicans' losing ground.
The feud came to a head in the Republican National Convention when the nominations for the Vice Presidential candidate were being allocated. Blaine had been winning the ballot as he was a nationally known Republican, but Burnside made a statement that if Blaine were nominated, he would not accept the presidential nomination as he was unwilling to campaign with Blaine. After Burnside's statement at the convention, the ballot slowly shifted toward Benjamin Harrison of Ohio who was confirmed as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate on the ninth ballot.
While the Republicans were miring over the conflict within the party, the Democrats were hitting their stride. The Democratc National Convention nominated former Union general Winfield Scott Hancock for president and Illinois senator John M. Palmer. Palmer was a noted advocate for liberal economic policies while Hancock was revered in the North for his successes in the National War. In an ironic twist, many Southern states still ended up voting for the Democratic Party even though Hancock was their presidential candidate because of poor campaigning by Burnside and the continued stigma of Fremont's policies in the South. Hancock defeat Burnside for the presidency and became the first president elected on the Democratic ticket since before the National War.