Free Silver

(noun)

Free silver was a central American policy issue in the late 19th century. Its advocates were in favor of a monetary policy using the "free coinage of silver" as opposed to the gold standard.

Related Terms

Examples of Free Silver in the following topics:

  • The Economy and the Silver Solution

    • Proponents of "free silver" believed that the United States economy should be based on silver instead of gold.
    • Free Silver was a central American policy issue in the late 19th century.
    • Supporters of Free Silver were called "Silverites".
    • Everyone agreed that free silver would raise prices.
    • Evaluate the reasons for, and consequences of, the adoption of the "free coinage of silver"

  • Silverties Versus Goldbugs

    • After the war, the government passed the Fourth Coinage Act in 1873 and soon resumed payments without the free and unlimited coinage of silver.
    • William Jennings Bryan, who took over leadership of the Democratic Party in 1896 as well as the Populist and Silver Republican Parties, demanded bimetallism and "Free Silver. " The Republican Party nominated William McKinley on a platform supporting the gold standard which was favored by financial interests on the east coast.
    • A faction of Republicans from western silver mining regions known as the Silver Republicans endorsed Bryan.
    • This process and the discoveries of large gold deposits in South Africa and Alaska (Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1887 and the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896) increased the world gold supply and the subsequent increase in money supply that free coinage of silver was supposed to bring.
    • The Silverites advocated free coinage of silver.

  • Inadequate Currency

    • In the address, Bryan supported bimetallism or "free silver", which he believed would bring the nation prosperity.
    • To advocates of what became known as free silver, the 1873 act became known as the "Crime of '73".
    • The profit, or seignorage, from monetizing the silver was to be used to purchase more silver bullion.
    • Implementation of the Bland-Allison Act did not end calls for free silver.
    • In his "Cross of Gold" speech, William Jennings Bryan advocated for bimetallism or "free silver", which he believed would bring the nation prosperity.

  • Economic Conditions

    • After the war, the government passed the Fourth Coinage Act in 1873 and soon resumed payments without the free and unlimited coinage of silver.
    • This angered the proponents of monetary silver, known as the silverites.
    • To understand exactly what is meant by "free coinage of silver", it is necessary to understand the way mints operated in the days of the gold standard.
    • Free silver advocates wanted the mints to accept silver on the same principle, so that anyone would be able to deposit silver bullion at a Mint and in return receive nearly its weight in silver dollars and other currency.
    • The Democratic Party, which supported silver and free trade, absorbed the remnants of the Populist movement as the presidential elections of 1896 neared.

  • The Populist Party and the Election of 1896

    • He gave speeches, organized meetings, and adopted resounding resolutions that eventually culminated in the founding of the American Bimetallic League, which then evolved into the National Bimetallic Union, and finally the National Silver Committee.
    • The ultimate goal of the League was to garner support on a national level for the reinstatement of the coinage of silver.
    • Jones of the St Louis Post-Dispatch was put on the platform committee and Bryan's plank for free silver was adopted sixteen to one, and silently added to the Chicago Democratic Platform in order to avoid controversy.
    • Bryan delivered speeches across the country for free silver from 1894 to 1896, building a grass-roots reputation as a powerful champion of the cause.
    • In a test vote on an anti-silver measure, the Eastern states (from Maryland to Maine), with 28% of the delegates, voted 96% in favor of gold.

  • The People's Party and the Election of 1896

    • When the Republicans nominated former Ohio Governor William McKinley for president in June 1896 and passed at his request a platform strongly supporting the gold standard, a number of "Silver Republicans" walked out of the convention.
    • Silver forces were supported by the Democratic National Bimetallic Committee, the umbrella group formed in 1895 to support silver Democrats in their insurgency against Cleveland.
    • In that year's presidential election, the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan, who focused (as Populists rarely did) on the free silver issue as a solution to the economic depression and the maldistribution of power.
    • In the address, Bryan supported bimetallism or "free silver," which he believed would bring the nation prosperity.

  • The Farmer's Alliance

    • Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance stressed the demand for free coinage of large amounts of silver.
    • The convention produced the "Ocala Demands," which included a call for the abolition of national banks, an increase of circulating money, free silver, industrial regulations, a graduated income tax, lower tariffs, and the direct election of United States senators.

  • The Agrarian and Populist Movements

    • In the North, farmers attacked a wide range of capitalistic legislation that hurt their business, and called for the abolition of national banks, the free coinage of silver, a sufficient issue of government paper money, tariff revision, and a secret ballot.

  • The Farm Problem and Agrarian Protest Movements

    • The pragmatic portion of the Populist platform focused on issues of land, railroads, and money, including the unlimited coinage of silver.
    • It was the currency question, however, pitting advocates of silver against those who favored gold, that soon overshadowed all other issues.
    • Agrarian spokesmen in the West and South demanded a return to the unlimited coinage of silver.
    • The Democratic Party, which supported silver and free trade, absorbed the remnants of the Populist movement as the presidential elections of 1896 neared.
    • Pleading with the convention not to "crucify mankind on a cross of gold," William Jennings Bryan, the young Nebraskan champion of silver, won the Democrats' presidential nomination.

  • The Sectional Crisis Deepens

    • Between 1854 and 1856 alone, an abundance of new political parties and organizations emerged, including the Republicans, the People's Party Men, Anti-Nebraskans, Fusionists, Know-Nothings, the Temperance Movement, Hard Shell Democrats, Rum Democrats, and Silver Gray Whigs.
    • The debates between slave state and free state interests raged in Congress; many people in the North and the South began to polarize along similar fault lines and various disparate political organizations began to coalesce into distinct camps.
    • Northern Democrats hoped for a long-term compromise between slave and free states in new territories, while Southern Democrats demanded federal protections of slavery and threatened secession if Congress refused to meet their demands.