Midterm Study Doc

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Identifications:

1. Wade Davis Manifesto: Document produced by the radical Republicans in 1864. It accused Abraham Lincoln of courting southern voters and asserted Congressional authority over reconstruction. It responded to Lincoln’s pocket veto of the Wade Davis Bill.
2. Fourteenth Amendment: July 28, 1868. Said that all persons born in the United States are citizens of the state where they reside. Thus, no state can infringe on their rights as a citizen of the United States. This amendment granted citizenship to all people born in the United States, including all former African American slaves.
3. Fifteenth Amendment: February 3, 1870. Prevents states from discriminating against any people based on color, race, or previous condition of servitude. This was important because it granted former slaves the right to vote.
4. Wade Davis Bill: 1864. The first reconstruction act was proposed by the radicals. Acted in opposition to Abraham Lincoln’s 10% bill. Proposed the majority of people in each former Confederate state take an Ironclad oath of support to the US. Considered very harsh.
5. Election of 1868: Both parties were pushing for Ulysses Grant. He chooses to run as a republican against Horacio Seymor. Seymour lost because the republican’s “waved the bloody shirt,” meaning they reminded everybody that they were the party of Lincoln, who won the civil war.
6. The Homestead act of 1862: A person only needed to claim 160 acres of land and if you improved it (build a structure) and lived on it for 5 years, it was cost-free.
7. Interstate Commerce Act: 1887. Created the interstate commerce commission. Enforced regulations to encourage competition in interstate commerce (commerce between more than one state, mostly railroads)
8. Sherman Antitrust Act: 1890. Designed to prevent and break up monopolies. It promoted competition and prevented contracts and conspiracies.
9. Vertical Integration: 19th century business practice. A company would own all companies that had the resources they needed to make a product. If you built cars, you would own the company that made the doors, handles, bolts, engines, etc.
   10. Horizontal Integration: 19th century business practice. A company would own all companies that made the same thing they did. Essentially a monopoly
   11. Grover Cleveland: Democrat who wins the presidential election of 1884. The first Democrat to be elected President since the Civil War. Loses the election of 1888 to the Republican Benjamin Harrison. Defeated Benjamin Harrison in the election of 1892, becoming the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms.
   12. Charles Guiteau: disgruntled office seeker from Freeport, Illinois who kills President James A. Garfield on July 2nd, 188. Garfield’s assassination leads to the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Act. This said for government jobs were hired based on merit, not political influence
   13. Sinking of the Maine: American Warship that exploded in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898. It was one of the reasons for the US declaring war on Spain and leading to the Spanish-American war. The great slogan of the Spanish-American war was “Remember the Main? The hell was Spain.”
   14. Teller Amendment: 1998. An amendment added to the US Declaration of war against Spain in 1898 that stated that the US would not annex Cuba after the war was over. Designed to protect western sugar beet interest.
   15. Open Door Policy in China: 1899, policy created by Secretary of State John Hay that stated any nation could trade in China. It was used to create access for US trade in China.

Essay Questions

Essay Questions:

1. Discuss the emancipation experience of African Americans during Reconstruction:

• After the end of slavery, the African American experience was wrapped up in two categories: social and cultural.
• They had freedom of movement throughout and in between states. Their marriages were permanent and not cultivated by slave owners. They had full ownership of their children, and the ability to segregate themselves from hateful whites.
• Culturally, they clung to their families, religion, and education. They had access to the full bible, something they previously didn’t have. Many black students decided to go to college and get degrees because they knew what it meant to have and know nothing.

1. Analyze the corruption of the Grant Administration:

• The Grant Administration is characterized by three major scandals.
• The first is The Credit Mobilier. The government was paying a company to build railroads, but when they sent someone out to quality check it, there were no railroads. The company was taking all the money and keeping it for themselves.
• The second is The Whiskey Ring. Orville G. Babcock, a member of the US government, was a part of this scandal that stole over 3 million dollars in tax money. When tax collectors went out to collect the Whiskey tax, they would take part of the money for the government and keep the majority for themselves.
• The third is the Belknap Scandal. William Belknap was the Secretary of Interior, observing all of the Indian reservations. He took bribes to appoint Indian agents, who oversaw smaller Indian reservations individually. They were meant to ensure that the reservations got enough food, water, cattle, and medicine, but often failed their duties. Because of this, thousands of Indians died.
• This corruption occurred because we had a President whose experience is in the military, not politics. America was recovering from slavery in the midst of a reconstructive era. It’s people were tired and desperate for money

1. Citing specific examples, discuss the rise of American business, including the trend toward concentration and attempts at regulation. Include factors of industrial growth. Talk about business practices and why they’re successful and the federal regulations that the government tried to put on them.

• American business skyrocketed during the 18th and 19th centuries.
• Factors for industrial growth included an abundance of raw materials, larger growing labor supply, a pro-business government, ambitious groups of entrepreneurs and new technologies.
• The elements of business took off during this period of time. They included things like salesmanship, customer service, quality control, cost accounting, vertical integration (owning all aspects of your business), and horizontal integration (monopoles).
• The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and the Sherman Antitrust act intended to cultivate competition to create more interstate trade and stop monopolies. Both were ineffective.

1. Compare and contrast old and new immigration. Cite specific examples.

• Old immigration was mostly northern and western Eauropeans. They tended to be wealthier, better educated, and more likely to stick around in the US through the challenges. They tended to be rural/agricultural workers and came with their families.
• New immigrants are mostly southern and eastern Europeans. They were more poor, less educated, and more likely to return to their home country. They tended to be factory workers, and traveled alone.
• Both groups set up ethnic neighborhoods to promote culture. They all had to adjust to the American way of things. They brought over our minor religions like Judism and Catholocism. However, they both experienced mass racism and discrimination.

1. Discuss the general characteristics of Gilded Age politics and the presidencies of Ritherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, and Grover Cleveland.

• Gilded Age Politics were characterized by hard money versus inflationary currency.
• Democrats, westerners, farmers, and debtors support inflationary currency, or paper money.
• While republicans, creditors, and easterners support hard money, like gold and silver.
• This era was considered to have the worst Presidents in American History.
• Rutherford B. Hayes was considered very fake and fraudulent, and referred to as Rutherfraud B. Hayes
• James A Garfield was shot early in his presidency by a disgruntled office seeker. He eventually died, and is our shortest serving president
• Grover Cleaveland was the only president in history who served two non-concecutive terms in office as president. Handled the economic crisis surrounding silver in his second presidency very poorly

1. Trace the rise and fall of populism in the United States. Cite specific examples

• 19th-century Agrarian (farmers) reform movement. Most popular in the south and the upper midwest (Minnesota). Populists wanted to put more political and economic power into the hands of the people. In the election of 1892, the populists succeeded in electing a large number of candidates in state and national office, capturing the governorship of Kansas. Their political platform supported: the coinage of silver, low tariff, income tax. But it ultimately fails after next election because the republican party takes over their issues

1. Discuss the United States climb on to the international stage during the 1890s. Include in your discussion possible motivations and the Spanish American war.

• America didn’t have one at it’s start, but after the Spanish American war, things changed. In the treaty of Paris, America gained the territories of Guam, the Philipenes, and Puerto Rico. Guam and Puerto Rick are both still US territories, later adding Hawaii and American Samoa.
• This could be because of the book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History written by Alfred Thayer Mahan. This book claimed that all great powers of the world were naval powers. If the United States wanted to be leading power, they had to have naval bases dotted over the entire US.
• It could also be because of Rudyard Kipling’s books The Jungle Book and The White Man’s Burden which said that as a white person, our job is to help the non-white, non-christian peoples of the world. This permitted white people colonizing other countries and claiming that they were “helping” them.

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