Two major parties—the Republican Party and the Democratic Party—have dominated American politics. Third parties, however, have occasionally been organized by advocates of an issue or group they feel the major parties have ignored. No third-party candidate has ever won the presidency, although a few have been elected to the Senate and the House of Representatives, and more have had success at the state and local level. More significantly, third parties, by playing the part of the spoiler, force their agendas (although often watered down) onto the platforms of either the Democrats or the Republicans, who are anxious to prevent the defection of key constituencies.
In the late 19th century, third parties formed around issues related to political reform, agrarian discontent, class conflict, and prohibition. The Liberal Republican Party was organized prior to the 1872 election by Republicans who were disturbed by the course of the Ulysses S. Grant administration. They favored low tariffs, wanted civil service reform, were anti-inflation, and had soured on Radical Reconstruction. The Liberal Republican movement did not survive the election of 1872. In part it self-destructed due to the ludicrous nomination of Horace
Greeley—a high tariff, anti-civil service reform man—for the presidency, but also because Grant and the Republican Congress undercut the Liberals by adopting both tariff reductions and civil service reform before the election and then abandoning them in 1875.
The most notable Gilded Age third parties were born of agrarian discontent and focused on the currency issue. The Greenback-Labor Party (National Independent Party) was organized in the 1870s and promoted the expansion of the currency by issuing more paper money (“greenbacks”) and rejecting the gold standard in order to ease the financial burdens of farmers and industrial workers. The Greenbackers were succeeded in the 1890s by the People’s Party (Populists), which promoted currency expansion through the unlimited coinage of silver at a 16-to-1 ratio with gold (see Free Silver movement). The Populists also advocated low interest rates to farmers based on crops stored in “subtreasuries” (warehouses), favored government ownership of railroads and utilities, a graduated income tax, an end to the national banking system, and the direct election of U. S. senators. The Democratic Party, however, adopted Free Silver in 1896 and forced the Populists to choose between maintaining their party or fusion with the Democrats. They chose fusing and their party survived a few years in the Midwest before expiring. The Populists ultimately succeeded in that most of the reforms they advocated were adopted by the Progressives and the New Deal in the 20th century.
Among the other third parties to emerge at the end of the 19th century was the Prohibition Party, which sought the enactment of legislation outlawing the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. It was the spoiler for the Republican Party in 1884 when enough upstate New York Republicans deserted to vote the Prohibitionist ticket, enabling the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland, to win the state and with it the presidency. By the early 20th century politicians in both parties supported Prohibition. Some third parties like the Socialist Labor Party, established in 1874, were so small that the major parties could and did ignore them.
See also bimetallism; Omaha platform; Simpson, Jerry.
Further reading: Steven J. Rosenstone, Roy L. Behr, and Edward H. Lazarus, Third Parties in America: Citizen Response to Major Party Failure (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1984).
—Phillip Papas
World History
