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“Bloody Shirt”
Using Civil War memories to recieve votes
Grant Administration Scandals
Credit Mobilier, Whiskey Ring
Credit Mobilier
Railroad insiders hired themselves at inflated prices
VP of US accepted payments
Whiskey Ring
Stole excise-tax revenues from Treasury department
Grant’s private secretary was involved
Boss Tweed
Tammany Hall, stole over $200 million
Thomas Nast helped contribute to his capture
Causes of Panic of 1873
Overproduction of RR’s, mines, factories, etc.
Bankers made too many risky loans
Effects of Panic of 1873
Debate over hard currency vs. greenbacks
Debtors wanted greenbacks
Paper $, inflation decreased value
Lenders wanted hard currency
Hard $, not affected by inflation, increased value
Solid South
Democratic base in much of the South
GAR
Several 100,000 Union veterans that tended to vote Republican
Stalwarts
Led by Roscoe Conkling, believed in patronage
Half-Breeds
Led by James G. Blaine, wanted civil-service reform
Compromise of 1877
Settled the dispute in the election of 1876 (Hayes - Republican, Tilden - Democrat)
Hayes (R) is elected, Democrats are promised:
Reconstruction ends, military is withdrawn
Patronage, RR construction through Texas
Civil Rights Act of 1875
Guaranteed equal accommodation in public places and prohibited racial discrimination in jury selection
Civil Rights Cases (1883)
Supreme Court stated that 14th amendment only prohibited government violation of civil rights, not denial by individual
Set the stage for legal segregation through Jim Crow laws
RR and Immigration
1880: 9% of CA population were Asian immigrants
Asians tended to build RR and dig for gold
Leads to discrimination and resentment towards immigrants (nativism)
Chinese Exclusion Act - Limits Chinese immigration until 1943
US vs. Wong Kim Ark - Guarantees citizenship to ALL people born in the US (didn’t apply to NA)
Rutherford B. Hayes
Compromise of 1877, 1st president to send troops to breaks up RR strike
James A. Garfield
Died 6 months into office - Destiny of a Republic
Favored civil service reform
Chester A. Arthur
VP of Garfield, was a stalwart
Pendleton Act of 1883, instituted Civil Service Reform
Grover Cleveland
Laissez-faire advocate
Tariffs
1881: Treasury had an annual surplus of $145 million
Most of government revenue came from tariffs
Cleveland wanted lower tariffs (Democrat)
McKinley Tariff of 1890
Highest peacetime rate ever (48.4%)
Hated by farmers, loved by North
^^R^^epublicans wanted to ^^R^^aise Tariffs, ^^D^^emocrats wanted to ^^D^^ecrease Tariffs
Union Pacific RR
built west from Omaha, NE
Given 20 square miles of land for each mile of track laid
Given generous loans from government
“Irish Paddies”
Central Pacific RR
Sacramento to Sierra Nevada
Given same subsidies as Union Pacific
Used predominantly Chinese labor
Great Northern
Minnesota to Seattle
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Made millions in RR industry, popularized the steel rail
Improvements in RR
Steel rail - safer, stronger, last longer
Standard gauge - interchangeable parts, ELI WHITNEY
Westinghouse air brake
Pullman Palace Cars
Impacts of RR
RRs “created an enormous domestic market for American raw materials and manufactured goods”
Other impacts of RR
Stimulated immigration
Establishment of time zones
Wrongdoing in RR
Stock watering - Railroad stock promoters grossly inflated the value of stock
RR tycoons became very powerful
Bribed judges and legislators, employed lobbyists
“Pools”
An agreement to divide the business in a given area and share the profits
Charged more for short than long hauls
Governmental dilemma against RR domination
Should the government intervene? Against laissez-faire philosophy (Cleveland)
Farmers wanted to regulate RRs
Wabash case:
Individual states had no power to regulate interstate commerce
ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission)
Prohibited rebates and pools
First large-scale legislation passed by federal government to regulate corporations in the interest of society
ICC didn’t effectively regulate the RRs, way to appease the public
Stock watering
Railroad stock promoters grossly inflated the value of stock
“Pools”
An agreement to divide the business in a given area and share the profits
Wabash v. Illinois
Individual states had no power to regulate interstate commerce
ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission)
Prohibited rebates and pools
First large-scale legislation passed by federal government to regulate corporations in the interest of society
Didn’t effectively regulate the RRs, way to appease the public
New Inventions
Millionaires look for areas to invest their capital
Patents were issues at high rates
Key inventions
Phone (Alexander Graham Bell); leads to women working the “switchboard”
Electric light, phonograph, mimeograph, dictaphone, moving pictures
Integrations
Andrew Carnegie (steel) introduces vertical integration
Controlling every aspect of production from beginning to end
Improves efficiency by making supplies more reliable, controlling quality of the product at all stages of production, and eliminate middlemen’s fees
Horizontal integration (Rockefeller)
Owning most or all business in an industry
Illegal
Vertical Integration
Andrew Cernegie
Controlling every aspect of production from beginning to end
Improves efficiency by making supplies more reliable, controlling quality of the product at all stages of production, and eliminate middlemen’s fees
Horizontal integration
Rockefeller
Owning most or all business in an industry
Illegal
The Gospel of Wealth
Carnegie believed the wealthy should be morally responsible
“Survival of the fittest”
Darwin’s ideas about species were later applied to business and humans
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
Created in response to public demand for curbing excess of trusts
Provision - Forbade combination in restraint of trade
Largely ineffective as it had no significant enforcement mechanism
Ironically used by corporations to curb labor unions or labor combination that were deemed to be restraining trade
Impact of the IR on America
Standard of living rose sharply and remained highest in the world
Urbanization developed as a result of factories
The work-place became regimented and impersonal
Women achieved social and economic independence in new careers such as typing, sternography, and switchboard operating
Marriages delayed, smaller families resulted
Unions (generalized)
Massive immigration created a favorable labor market for owners
Advantages against unions
Could import strike breakers (scabs)
Courts could order to end
Hayes used military
“Yellow-dog contracts”
“Black list”
Labor Unions (specific)
National Labor Union
Major boost to union movement
Lasted 6 years, 600,000 workers
Excluded Chinese, barely included women
Knights of Labor (Led by Terence Powderly)
Much leadership and membership was Irish
Sought to include all workers in “one big union” including blacks and women
Wanted 8 hour work day
Skilled and unskilled workers
Downfall of the Knights of Labor
Demise due to Great Upheaval (1886) - 1,400 strikes involving 500,000 workers and Haymarket Square Bombing:
Alleged German anarchists urged violent overthrow of government
A dynamite bomb thrown in the crowd that killed or injured dozens
Knights were associated with anarchists
National Labor Union
Major boost to union movement
Lasted 6 years, 600,000 workers
Excluded Chinese, barely included women
Knights of Labor
Led by Terence Powderly
Much leadership and membership was Irish
Sought to include all workers in “one big union” including blacks and women
Wanted 8 hour work day
Skilled and unskilled workers
Downfall of the Knights of Labor
Demise due to Great Upheaval (1886) - 1,400 strikes involving 500,000 workers and Haymarket Square Bombing:
Alleged German anarchists urged violent overthrow of government
A dynamite bomb thrown in the crowd that killed or injured dozens
Knights were associated with anarchists
AFL
Formed in 1886 under the leadership of Samuel Gompers
Shunned politics of economic strategies and goals - bread and butter issues
Only consisted of skilled workers
Consisted of an association of self-governing national unions with the AFL unifying overall strategy
Chief weapons were walkout and boycott
General ideas around urbanization
1st skyscraper built in Chicago in 1885
Aspects of cities
Electric trolleys
Residential neighborhoods segregated by race
Industrial jobs drew people from the country
Cities gave women economic opportunity and independence
Social workers, secretaries, stenographers, etc.
Rural general stores replaced by Sears and Montgomery Ward mail order catalogs
What stores are replacing “mom and pop” stores today
Issues in city life
Waste disposal
Criminals flourished
Uncollected garbage
Population explosion
Tenement housing
Issues in city life
Waste disposal
Criminals flourished
Uncollected garbage
Population explosion
Tenement housing
The New Immigration
Old Immigration: Before 1880
Mostly British and Western European
Usually Protestant (some German and Irish Catholics)
High literacy rate
Adjusted to American life easily
New Immigration (1880 - 1920)
Southern and Eastern Europe
Mostly illiterate, poor, and likely to work in cities
Tensions mount between New and Old Immigrants
Reasons for Immigration
Pull factors
American Letters
No military conscription
Free from institutionalized religious persecution
“Birds of Passage”
Push factors
Many Jews forced to leave, and became tailors and shopkeepers
Europe’s population increasing at drastic rates, many unemployed people
Pull factors for immigration
American Letters
No military conscription
Free from institutionalized religious persecution
“Birds of Passage”
Push factors for immigration
Many Jews forced to leave, and became tailors and shopkeepers
Europe’s population increasing at drastic rates, many unemployed people
Reactions to New Immigration
Mostly ignored, except by political bosses
Rewarded with jobs
Tammany Hall
Social crusaders attempted to improve the “shame of the cities”
Walter Rauschenbach and Washington Gladden
Insisted that churches tackle social issues
Jane Addams
Hull House (Settlement House), Chicago
Walter Rauschenbach and Washington Gladden
Insisted that churches tackle social issues
Jane Addams
Hull House (Settlement House), Chicago
Examples of Nativism
Most New Immigrants came for same reasons of Old; to escape poverty
More concern about New Immigrants
High birth rate
Anglo-Saxons could be outvoted and outnumbered
Radical ideas such as socialism, communism, anarchism, etc.
Anti-foreign groups emerge
APA urged voting against Catholics
More about immigration (Info Card)
New immigrants were used as strikebreakers
Immigrants were hard to unionize (language)
1882: Chinese Exclusion Act (Chinese not part of New immigration)
Literacy tests were proposed for immigration, but not enacted until 1917
The Social Gospel
Church movement to improve conditions affecting society
YMCA/YWCA were formed by churches
Salvation Army
Christian Science
Educational advancements
Who helped spread influence and spread education?
Horace Mann
By 1900, high schools were increasing dramatically
Free textbooks supported by taxpayers
Private Religious Schools
Illiteracy rates dropped from 20% in 1870 to 10.7% in 1900
Important AAs
Booker T. Washington
Former slave
Believed blacks should be educated in trades so they could gain self-respect and economic security
Labeled “Accommodationist” - someone who seeks compromise
W.E.B Du Bois
PhD from Harvard
Demanded immediate political equality for Blacks
Helped found NAACP
Differences reflected the contrasting life experiences of southern and northern blacks
Booker T. Washington
Former slave
Believed blacks should be educated in trades so they could gain self-respect and economic security
Labeled “Accommodationist” - someone who seeks compromise
W.E.B DuBois
PhD from Harvard
Demanded immediate political equality for Blacks
Helped found NAACP
Development of New Schools
Morrill Act of 1862:
Granted public land to states for support of education
Hatch Act of 1887:
Provided federal funds for establishment of agricultural experiment stations
New colleges and universities develop
Cornell
JHU
The Press and Journalism
Sensationalism
Public interested in sex, scandal, and human interest stories
Yellow Journalism
Exaggerating/making up stories to sell newspapers
Hearst and Pulitzer
Important Books and Authors
Edward Bellamy:
Looking Backward, government nationalized big business to serve public interest (socialism)
Horatio Alger
Wrote that virtue, honesty, and industry are rewarded by success, wealth, and honor
Rags to Riches stories
Frank Norris
The Octopuss, RR and corrupt politicians
Jacob A. Riis
How the Other Half Lives (1890)
Photo-journalist who exposed dirt, disease, vice, and misery of rat-infested New York slums
Edward Bellamy
Looking Backward, government nationalized big business to serve public interest (socialism)
Horatio Alger
Wrote that virtue, honesty, and industry are rewarded by success, wealth, and honor
Rags to Riches stories
Frank Norris
The Octopus, RR and corrupt politicians
Jacob A. Riis
How the Other Half Lives (1890)
Photo-journalist who exposed dirt, disease, vice, and misery of rat-infested New York slums
Frederick Jackosn Turner
Turner Thesis
Argued closing of the frontier had ended an era in American history
Used census report of 1890 to explain that settlement of the frontier had created the American character and spurred American development
Frontier produced democracy
State of Native Americans (Westward Expansion)
Populations continued to dwindle due to disease, fighting, etc.
Shrinking bison population affected Natives
Nomadic lifestyle
“Buffalo Bill” Cody
US military and NA engaged in several battle during the late 1800s
Wounded, Battle of Little BigHorn
Helen Hunt Jackson wrote A Century of Dishonor
Chronicled record of government ruthlessness and deceit toward NA
Dawes Severalty Act of 1887
Dissolved many tribes as legal entities
Wiped out tribal ownership of land
Set up Indian family heads with 160 free acres
Impact
Completely altered way of Natives’ lives
Forced assimilation
Loss of culture
Homestead Act of 1862
Encouraged settlement of western land by:
Granting 160 acres of land by living on it for five years, improving it, and paying small fee of $30
Impact of Act
In theory, favorable to those who could not afford to buy land
500,000 took advantage of it
Land was not always the best, rain-scarce
RR companies created phony people to acquire land
1890 Census
Used in Turner Thesis
For the first time in US History, frontier line was no longer discernible
Safety-valve theory
Supposedly, during depressions, city unemployed moved west to farm and prospered.
In reality, few city folk in eastern centers migrated to frontier during depressions
In fact, near century’s end, many farmers moved to the city
Safety-valve theory
Supposedly, during depressions, city unemployed moved west to farm and prospered.
In reality, few city folk in eastern centers migrated to frontier during depressions
In fact, near century’s end, many farmers moved to the city
Crop lien system
Basis of the commercialization of southern agriculture
A planter or merchant extended a line of credit (at high interest rates) to a struggling farmer
Impossible for a farmer to get out of debt
Resulted in many poor white and black farmers becoming landless tenant farmers of sharecroppers
Benjamin Harrison
Key accomplishments, laws
Sherman Antitrust Act (RR monopolies)
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Increased supply of silver (Westerners liked it in hopes of inflating currency)
The Grange
Provided social and economic opportunities for farmers
Sought to end monopolies in RR, wanted government ownership of businesses
Prelude to Populist Party
The Grange
Provided social and economic opportunities for farmers
Sought to end monopolies in RR, wanted government ownership of businesses
Prelude to Populist Party
Munn v. Illinois (1877)
State government can regulate industries when in best public interest
Overturned by Wabash v. Illinois (states cannot regulate interstate commerce)
Greenback Labor Party
Wanted to increase supply of $
Didn’t receive many votes, but ideas later absorbed
Populist Party
Absorbed some ideas from farmers
Omaha Platform (written by Ignatius Donnelly)
Free and unlimited coinage of silver at ratio of 16 to 1
A graduated income tax (redistribution of wealth)
Government ownership of the telephone and telegraph, and RR
Initiative, referendum and recall
Postal savings banks (safe repository run by government)
Limiting government land grants to settlers rather than RR
Direct election of senators
8 hour workday
Homestead Strike
1892, Pittsburgh, PA at Carnegie’s steel plant
State govt’s sided with owners, strike organizers were charged with various crimes
Remember, when in doubt, the govt sides with business in labor disputes, except for Teddy Roosevelt
Pullman Strike
Eugene V. Debs
Federal government sent in military, said strike interfered with US mail
Workers held strike in response to pay cuts
Injunction
Court order to mandate the breaking up of strikes
Causes of the Panic of 1893
Overspeculation
Stock-market crash
Overproduction
Effects of the Panic of 1893
Govt repeals Sherman Silver Act
William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold
Against gold standard
Pro silver introduction to help farmers and general public
Legacy of Populism
Populism failed as a 3rd Party cause but had a political influence for 25 years after its defeat in the 1896 elections
Population ideas that carried forward during the Progressive Era
RR legislation
Graduated income tax
Direct election of Senators
Initiative, referendum, and recall
Initiative - individuals can propose laws to the government
Referendum - individuals can vote on laws
Recall - get rid of elected official