Free silver was a major economic policy issue in the United States in the late 19th century. Its advocates were in favor of an expansionary monetary policy featuring the unlimited coinage of silver into money on-demand, as opposed to strict adherence to the more carefully fixed money supply implicit in the gold standard. Free silver became increasingly associated with populism, unions, and the perceived struggle of ordinary Americans against the bankers, monopolists, and robber barons of the Gilded Age. Hence, it became known as the "People's Money".
Supporters of an important place for silver in a bimetallic money system making use of both silver and gold, called "Silverites", sought coinage of silver dollars at a fixed weight ratio of 16-to-1 against dollar coins made of gold. Because the actual price ratio of the two metals was substantially higher in favor of gold at the time, most economists warned that the less valuable silver coinage would drive the more valuable gold out of circulation.
While all agreed that an expanded money supply would inevitably inflate prices, the issue was whether this inflation would be beneficial or not. The issue peaked from 1893 to 1896, when the economy was suffering from a severe depression characterized by falling prices (deflation), high unemployment in industrial areas, and severe distress for farmers.[1] It ranks as the 11th largest decline in U.S. stock market history.[2]
The "free silver" debate pitted the pro-gold financial establishment of the Northeast, along with railroads, factories, and businessmen, who were creditors deriving benefit from deflation and repayment of loans with valuable gold dollars, against farmers who would benefit from higher prices for their crops and an easing of credit burdens.[3] Free silver was especially popular among farmers in the Wheat Belt (the western Midwest) and the Cotton Belt (the Deep South),[3] as well as silver miners in the West. It had little support among farmers in the Northeast and the Corn Belt (the eastern Midwest).
Free silver was the central issue for Democrats in the presidential elections of 1896 and 1900, under the leadership of William Jennings Bryan, famed for his Cross of Gold speech in favor of free silver. The Populists also endorsed Bryan and free silver in 1896, which marked the effective end of their independence. In major elections, free silver was consistently defeated, and after 1896 the nation moved to the gold standard.[4]
The debate over silver lasted from the passage of the Fourth Coinage Act in 1873, which demonetized silver and was called the "Crime of '73" by opponents, until 1963, when the Silver Purchase Act of 1934, which allowed the U.S. President and U.S Department of Treasury to regulate U.S silver,[5] was completely repealed by Public Law 88-36.
- Founded in 1894 in Spokane, Washington, it adopted a constitution, bylaws, and a ritual at Pullman, Washington late that year. Their stated goal was "to unite the friends of silver under one banner to battle for the white metal and to wage war against the gold monopoly". It was reportedly an outgrowth of the National Order of Videttes. The order spread through the Pacific Coast states and east to the Missouri River. It claimed as many as 800,000 members in late 1896, though Stevens considered this "extravagant". Nevertheless, there was no doubt about its popularity and influence west of the Rocky Mountains during the 1896 free silver campaign. The obligation of the order was said to be "most emphatic and binding" and lawyers and bankers were barred from membership.[10] The order was apparently defunct by the early 1920s.[11]
Freemen's Protective Silver Federation
- Founded early in 1895 to campaign for free silver, it was headquartered in Washington, D.C., where it had a literary bureau. The governing body, the Supreme Temple, was incorporated as a stock company with $100,000 capital. Senator W. M. Stewart of Nevada was president, James Pait was vice-president, Oliver Sabin secretary, James A. B. Richard treasurer, and S. S. Yoder was the director-general. Many well-known current and former members of the House of Representatives were members. The organization was "pushed simultaneously" in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Arkansas, from which it invaded the Democratic-leaning areas. There was a female branch, the Silver Ladies of America, which was "intended to strongly develop the social feature of the organization". The order had a ritual, grips, passwords, and a burial service. The order became defunct after 1896.[12]
Silver Knights of America
- It was founded in late 1895 by William Harvey to organize for free silver in the 1896 campaign. Officers of the order included First National Patriot William Harvey, National Recorder Charles H. McClure of Michigan, and National Treasurer James F. Adams of Michigan. Each state was also expected to have a First State Patriot and these officers would constitute the Congress of Patriots. Each county was also supposed to have a First Patriot. The "First Patriots" of the national, state, and county level were expected to make an oath refusing to ever serve in elective or appointive offices or to have property over $100,000. There was an auxiliary organization, the Daughters of the Republic, which was tasked with looking after the poor of the Patriots of America. There were no dues and the order was financed through voluntary contributions. The order's object was to swing one of the parties to a free silver platform in 1896 and, if that failed, to launch an independent free silver ticket. The order was expected to hold a ballot every four years to determine what cause and candidate it would support, however, the order appeared to become defunct after 1896.[13] Headquartered in Chicago.[12]
Free silver became increasingly associated with populism, unions, and the fight of ordinary Americans against the bankers, railroad monopolists, and the robber barons of the Gilded Age capitalism era and was referred to as the "People's Money" (as opposed to the gold-based currency, which was portrayed by the Populists as the money of "exploitation" and "oppression"). William H. Harvey's popular pamphlet Coin's Financial School, issued in the aftermath of the Panic of 1893, illustrated the "restorative" properties of silver; through the devaluation of the currency, closed factories would reopen, darkened furnaces would be relit, and the like. But progressive activist Henry Demarest Lloyd held a harshly critical view, writing: "The free silver movement is a fake. Free silver is the cowbird of the reform movement. It waited until the nest had been built by the sacrifices and labor of others, and then it lay its own eggs in it, pushing out the others which lie smashed on the ground."[15]
Alexander del Mar
Gresham's law
Inflation
Silver Party
Coletta, Paolo E. in H. Wayne Morgan (ed.), The Gilded Age: A Reappraisal. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1963; pp. 111–139.
"Greenbackers, Goldbugs, and Silverites: Currency Reform and Politics, 1860-1897,"
Kazin, Michael. A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (2007)
Gramm, Marshall. "The Free Silver Movement in America: A Reinterpretation," Journal of Economic History, vol. 64, no. 4 ( Dec 2004), pp. 1108–1129.
Ritter, Gretchen. Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America. (1997)
Rockoff, Hugh. "The 'Wizard of Oz' as a monetary allegory," Journal of Political Economy, vol. 98, no. 4 (Aug. 1990), pp. 739–60
in JSTOR
Wells, Wyatt. "Rhetoric of the Standards: The Debate over Gold and Silver in the 1890s," Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, (Jan. 2015) 14#1 pp. 49–68.
Weiss, Colin. 2019. "Contractionary Devaluation Risk: Evidence from the Free Silver Movement, 1878-1900." The Review of Economics and Statistics
Williams, R. Hal. Realigning America: McKinley, Bryan, and the Remarkable Election of 1896. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2010.
: Speeches before the 51st Congress (1889-1891) regarding "free silver", digitized and available on FRASER
The Money Question of the 51st Congress
: Speeches before the 52nd Congress (1891–1893) regarding "free silver", digitized and available on FRASER
The Money Question of the 52nd Congress
: Speeches before the 53rd Congress (1893–1895) regarding "free silver", digitized and available on FRASER
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