The Populists were an agrarian-based political movement aimed at improving conditions for the country's farmers and agrarian workers. The Populist movement was preceded by the Farmer's Alliance and the Grange. The People's Party was a political party founded in 1891 by leaders of the Populist movement.
Democratic-Republicans favored keeping the U.S. economy based on agriculture and said that the U.S. should serve as the agricultural provider for the rest of the world.