In a time after the Civil War, when a transcontinental railroad was created connecting the East and West, people began to move and settle across the country, creating new cities and manufacturing hubs. It was because of the railroad that the Second Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age took place which rapidly increased the manufacturing of products through new machines in factories and the spread of ideas by the telegraph and railroad. It was in the context that many farmers, as well, began to move West and experience a loss in the prices of their crops. It is also in this context that many workers were forced to work long, laborious hours with little pay. Farmers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age by forming organizations…show more content… Abraham Lincoln, who was President of the United States until his assassination in 1865, assisted the farmers by forming the Department of Agriculture, which acted as the farmers’ voice in the government and educated them on profitability. The department created the National Grange of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, or the Granger movement. This movement eventually began to organize cooperatives in which farmers pooled their resources the purchases stories, silos, marketing campaigns, and create factories. The money produced by the businesses would be divided among those who contributed as a part of the Grange. The Farmers Alliance, divided into a Northern and Southern group, replaced the Grange and encouraged farmers to gain political power. The Alliance created a platform which consisted of lobbying Congress for regulated railroads, a lower tariff on farm equipment, and “free silver,” the idea that money would be based on the silver standard, allowing more to be printed. The Farmers Alliance combined with the National Colored Farmers Alliance and the Southern Democrats formed the Populist Party. The party was deemed a success for the farmers because their candidate, as well as the Democratic Party’s candidate, William Jennings Bryan, won in the presidential election in 1896 and provided a voice for the