This paper aims at revealing my contention that American populism is not an one-time particular phenomenon of the Populist Movement in the nineteenth century, but ever-present universal phenomena appearing continuously throughout the American history. To defend my own theme, I traced the roots of populism to the earlier stages of the American Republic, in which I found the basic traits of populism: belief in the genius and virtue of the common man, doctrine of popular government or direct democracy, and anti-elitist disdain for privileges and monopoly. In the writings of Thomas Jefferson, I found the populist faith in the common men, disdain for impediments to the popular will, and plebiscitary notions of direct democracy. In the writings of Tom Paine, I found the populist faith in the rights of the common man. In the policies of the Andrew Jackson administration, I found the threads of agrarian populism or direct democracy. The egalitarian slogan of $quot;equal opportunity for all, special privileges for none,$quot; which had been shaped through the ideas and policies of Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, and Andrew Jackson, was a precursor to the rise of populism both in the nineteenth-century and latter-day America.