ABSTRACT
Panaceas became identified with patent medicines: concoctions sold by hearty, entertaining traveling salesmen; John D. Rockefeller, Sr.’s father was one of them. Men like Rockefeller retailed “medicines” that would allegedly clear the blood, remove pimples and moles, grow hair—anything the purchaser wanted done. Free Trade was another of the great postwar panaceas, producing Free Trade Leagues, Free Trade political planks, and other signs of social vitality. Panaceas produced two immortals not unconnected with the career of progressivism, though distinct from it. Silver became a major panacea for America’s financial troubles of the late nineteenth century. The silver panacea took over in Populist terrain and frenzied the nation in the election year of 1896. Edward Bellamy avoided, therefore, the concept of nationalization though it was at the heart of his panacea; thus he termed his growing movement “nationalism,” with its appeal to the patriotic motive in readers and followers.
