It was so named because it split from the Republican Party by supporting free silver (effectively, expansionary monetary policy) and bimetallism.
The main Republican Party opposed free silver and supported the gold standard.
A leading spokesman in the House of Representatives was Willis Sweet of Idaho.
In both the 1896 and 1900 presidential elections, Silver Republicans supported Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan over Republican nominee William McKinley.
However, some Silver Republicans, such as Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho and former Secretary of the Interior Henry M. Teller of Colorado, joined the Democratic Party instead in order to aid the Bryan wing of the party against the conservative Bourbon Democrats.