James
Baird Weaver, the son of a farmer, was born in Dayton, Ohio, on 12th
June, 1833. After graduating from Cincinnati Law School and established
himself as a lawyer in Bloomfield, Iowa. He became involved in the
anti-slavery movement after reading Uncle
Tom's Cabin by Harriet
Beecher Stowe.
On
the outbreak of the American Civil War
Weaver enlisted as a private in the Union
Army.
In 1861 he received a lieutenant's commission and fought at Shiloh.
He also served in his home state where he helped suppress pro-slavery
violence and by the end of the war had reached the rank of brigadier
general.
A
member of the Republican Party, Weaver
was elected district attorney of the Second Iowa Judicial District
in 1866. The following year he became federal assessor of internal
revenue.
Weaver
witnessed the hardship caused by declining farm prices, high railroad
rates and the government's deflationary currency policies. He became
disillusioned with the government of Ulysses
Grant and
considered the Republican Party to
be under the control of big business.
In
1878 Weaver joined the Greenback-Labor
Party. He successfully won a seat in Congress on a policy of an
expanded and flexible national currency. Weaver soon emerged as a
national political figure and in 1880 ran for the presidency. During
the campaign Weaver argued that the two major political parties had
lost sight of their original democratic ideals of equal opportunity.
He also claimed that the maintenance of the gold standard benefited
banking interests but was driving farmers out of business. Weaver
called for policies where all classes could share in the economic
wealth of America.
The
Greenback Labor Party program included the coinage of silver on a
par with gold, an adequate supply of money, the taxing of government
bonds, a maximum eight-hour day, the introduction of graduated income
tax and opposition to railroad land grants.
Weaver
obtained 308,578 votes but was easily beaten by James
Garfield (4,454,416) and Winfield S.
Hancock (4,444,952). Most of Weaver's support came from the rural
West but he was now one of the most important political figures in
the United States. The following year he was elected to Congress and
became chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department
of the Interior.
The
Greenback-Labor Party merged with
the Democratic Party in most states.
Weaver was against this policy and in 1891 helped establish the Populist
Party.
The party advocated the public ownership of the railroads, steamship
lines and telephone and telegraph systems. It also supported the free
and unlimited coinage of silver, the abolition of national banks,
a system of graduated income tax and the direct election of United
States Senators.
In
1892 Weaver became the party's presidential candidate and his decision
to form an alliance with black groups in the South led to outbreaks
of violence and voter intimidation. Weaver obtained 1,041,028 votes
and won four states. This was one of the best performances of any
third-party candidates in the history of American elections.
In the 1896 presidential election Weaver advocated that the Populist
Party supported William J. Bryan, the
proposed Democratic Party candidate.
Weaver thought he had an agreement that Tom
Watson would become Bryan's running mate. After giving their support
to the Democrats Bryan announced that Arthur Sewall, a conservative
politician with a record of hostility towards trade unions, would
be his vice presidential candidate. This created a split in the Populist
Party and some refused to support Bryan.
The
defeat of William J. Bryan severely damaged
the Populist Party. While Populists
continued to hold power in a few Western states, the party ceased
to be a factor in national politics.
James
Baird Weaver, who was mayor of Colfax, Iowa (1901-1903), died in Des
Moines on 6th February, 1912.
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