Jocz Notes Period 6 (APUSH)

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1868 - 1890's: Gilded Age Politics

President Grant (1868 - 1976)

Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant wins the Presidency for the Republican party in 1868

• Temporary social and political revolution - black voters vote for Republican candidates

Corruption during the Grant administration

• Credit mobilizer affair: VP and members of Congress involved in Railroad stock scandal
• Whiskey Ring: 1875- Private secretary of Grant helped steal 3 million from federal government in a tax corruption scheme
• Grantism - term used to describe corruption in politics

Political Corruption: Boss Tweed

Local Political corruption: Tammany Hall (Democratic party political machine)

• Boss Tweed used bribery, graft, and fraudulent elections to steal over $200 million from NY taxpayers

Thomas Nast would expose this corruption to people.

Panic of 1873

Severe economic collapse further distracts the nation from enforcing Reconstruction

Causes:

• Overproduction in industries such as factories, railroad, and mining
• Overspeculation by bankers: too much money loaned out.

Hard times inflicted the worst effects on debtors

Debtors advocated for relaxation of tight money policies

• Debate between “hard currency” vs. “greenbacks”
• Agrarian and debtor groups want cheap money   * Want greenbacks issues

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Election of 1876

Republican Rutherford Hayes vs. Democrat Samuel Tilden

Political controversy as results in 3 southern states were contested

Compromise of 1877

• South/Democrats would recognize Hayes as President
• Hayes would pull federal troops out of the south and end reconstruction
• Hayes to provide south political positions (patronage) and federal aid for a transcontinental Railroad for the South
• END OF RECONSTRUCTION

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The Court Undermines Reconstruction

Civil rights act of 1875: Protected Rights

• Made it a crime for any individual to deny full and equal use of public places
• Prohibited racial discrimination in jury selection

Civil rights cases of 1883: Court Striking down

• Supreme court said 14th amendment only protected against government violations of civil rights   * Individuals can discriminate all they want
• Overturns the Civil Rights Act of 1875

Jim Crow laws spread throughout the south

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Racial segregation was constitutional if equal facilities were made available to each race (“separate but equal”).

Idea of New South promoted: south would rebuild, industrialize, and develop their economy.

However, Agrarian sharecropping and tenant farming continued to dominate the region

Life for African Americans in the Post Reconstruction South continued to be filled with many challenges.

15th Amendment (Only black men could vote not women

• Literacy tests
• Poll taxes
• Property requirements
• Grandfather clauses: Exempted from electoral requirements anyone who had voted in 1860

\ Democrats Dominate the South

• White democrats (Redeemers) reassumed political power in the south

Chinese immigration

Large increase in Asian immigration

Important during various mining booms and building of railroad

Spike in nativism toward Asian immigrants in the west

Chinese Exclusion Act 1882: Prohibited further immigration of Chinese laborers

• 1st time immigration restrictions on basis of race and nationality

\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Gilded Age politics were intimately tied to big business and focused nationally on economic issues such as tariffs and currency policy

Laissez Faire

“Gilded Age politics were intimately tied to big business and focused nationally on economic issues such as tariffs and currency policy”

Both political parties during the Gilded Age ignored the political and social consequences of industrialization.

Key issues: Currency, Civil Service Reform and Tariffs

Patronage was used by both political parties

• Civil service jobs given
• to supporters (“to the victor belong the spoils”)
• Calls for Civil Service Reform

Half Breeds: Advocated civil service reform (James Blaine)

Stalwarts: Supporters of patronage

By the 1880’s the US Treasury had a huge surplus from tariffs.

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Gilded Age Presidential Politics

1876-1880s Rutherford B Hayes (R)

• Becomes President following Compromise of 1877
• Sends federal troops to break up Great Railroad strike

1880-1884: James Garfield

• Garfield is assassinated
• Chester A. Arthur throws support behind the Pendleton Act (1883) civil service reform

1884 - 1888: Grover Cleveland (D)

• Strong advocate of laissez faire - though the people support the government, the government should not support the people
• Signed into law interstate commerce act (1887)

1888-1896: Benjamin Harrison (R)

• advocated for keeping the tariff high
• Billion-dollar Congress - McKinley Tariff, Civil War pensions

1892 - 1896: Grover Cleveland (D)

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1865 - 1900: Industrial Revolution: Industry Comes of Age

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1865 - 1900: Industrial Revolution: Industry comes of Age

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1865 - 1900: Industrial Revolution: Industry comes of Age

Industrial Revolution

• 1900 - America was the leading industrial power in the world
• Rapid economic transformation of American society   * Impacts the country economically, socially, politically
• Manufacturing replaces agriculture as the primary source of economic growth
• Rise of big business encouraged massive migrations and urbanization

Inventions and Innovations

• Large number of new inventions developed during this period   * High rate of patents issued     * Alexander Graham Bell: Telephone     * Thomas Edison: Electric light
• Changed daily lives, created new jobs, had social consequences

RxR

• Land and loan subsidies given by the federal government to the railroad companies
• New business practices introduced by RxR companies such as making the modern stockholder corporation, business management strategies, financing, and regulation of competition
• Consolidation leads to standardization of the industry: steel rail, standard gauges

Western Expansion happens at the same time as the Age of railroads and the settlement of the Great Plains

First Transcontinental Railroad

• Pacific Railroad Act (1862)
• Union Pacific: Built from Omaha, Nebraska to the west
• Central Pacific: Sacramento to Sierra Nevada   * Chinese laborers
• Two come together at Promontory Point (May 10 1869)

Impact of the Railroad

• Unified the Domestic Market- created a national market for goods
• Allowed for mass distribution of raw materials and manufactured goods
• Encouraged mass production, mass consumption, and economic specialization
• Helped promote the growth of other Industries (coal, steel, etc) and lead to growth of new cities
• Facilitated immigration both internally and externally
• Changes daily life: American Railroad Association divided the country into 4 time zones

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Problem in America

• Railroad Tycoons became extremely powerful
• Federal land grants and friendly loans led the rampant corruption within the government
• Frequent speculative bubble would burst   * Speculators attempt to sell overvalued stock to the public   * Overbuilding was common   * Mismanagement and fraud plagued the industry
• Rebates (discounts) were oftentimes given to favored shippers   * Small farmers were often charged much higher rates
• Pools - secret agreements between companies to fix rates and share profits

Government Regulation

• Demands for the government to intervene
• Dominate philosophy of the time period: Laissez Faire   * Leave alone, no regulation
• Farmers most vocal group calling for reform - Grange Movement
• Munn v. Illinois (1877) state could regulate buisness
• Wabash case: States could NOT regulate interstate commerce
• Interstate commerce act   * Set up interstate commerce commission   * Federal government would oversee   * Banned pooling, rebates, and rate fixing   * Companies had to publish rates

First large scale attempt by Federal Government to regulate business in the interest of society at large

ICC was initially not very effective

Rise of Heavy Industry

Standard Oil - John D Rockefeller

Andrew Carnegie - steel industry

Horizontal integration

• Controlling all competition in a particular industry
• Merging competing oil companies into one giant corporation
• Consolidating all competitors to monopolize a market

Vertical Integration

• Control all aspects of manufacturing from extracting raw materials to selling the finished product

Ideas of the industrial revolution

• Laissez Faire (Leave alone) believed that government should not attempt to control or regulate business
• Survival of the fittest - Charles Darwin’s ideas about the natural world were applied to the business world   * Advocates of “laissez faire”
• Gospel of Wealth: Belief that the wealthy had a moral obligation to help out those less fortunate

Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890

Outlawed trusts and other monopolies that fix prices and restrained trade

Ineffective at regulating corporations: Used to attack labor unions

Labor Unions

Challenges for Unions

• Division between skilled and unskilled workers
• Ethnic and racial divisions
• Hostility from corporations, no protection by government   * Scabs - replacement workers   * Court Injunctions   * Yellow-dog contracts: could not join a union   * Blacklist - banned from working   * Public opinion - unions viewed as radical

National Labor Union (1866)

• First attempt to organize workers in all states
• Demand for higher wages and 8 hour work day

Knights of Labor (1869)

• Terence Powderly opened the union to all workers (skilled and unskilled workers; women and african americans)
• Decline following Haymarket Riot in 1886

American Federation of Labor (1886)

• Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers focused on skilled workers
• Focus on “bread and butter” issues-wages, working conditions
• By 1900 it was the largest union

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Labor Unrest

Great Railroad Strike of 1877: Rutherford B Hayes uses federal troops to end labor unrest

Haymarket Bombing 1886: Bomb explodes during a public meeting in Haymarket Square

• Public views labor union movement as radical and violent

Homestead strike 1892: Henry Clay Frick uses a lockout, private guards, and scabs to defeat steelworkers at Carnegie’s factory.

Pullman Strike 1894

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1865 - 1900: Immigration and Urbanization America Moves to the City

1865 - 1900: Immigration and Urbanization: America Moves to the City

Growth of Cities

Huge increase in urbanization

• Economic opportunities in industrial jobs bring people to the cities   * Both international and internal migrations
• New technology supports growth   * 1885 - 1st skyscraper built in Chicago   * Electric Street-carts allow people to travel greater distances
• Changing roles for women   * Took on new jobs   * Economic opportunity and sense of independence

Problems in the Cities

Challenges

• Growth of urban poverty   * Rising gap between the rich and the poor
• Huge population increase leads to:   * Lack of clean water   * Limited trash disposal and poor sanitation   * Rise tenement/slums     * Dumbbell tenement
• Neighborhoods segregated by race, ethnicity, and class   * Little Italy in NY   * Lower Eastside Jewish Community   * Polish neighborhood of Pilsen in Chicago   * Southside of Chicago

Political Bosses and Machine Politics

• Political machines controlled politics in major cities   * William “Boss” tweed of Tammany Hall in NY
• Political bosses controlled the rank and file and rewarded supporters with jobs
• Provided basic welfare type services to the poor and immigrant community
• Greed, graft, and fraud was common

Old vs New Immigrants Generalizations

Why did they come to America?

Pull factors

• America’s ideals   * Political and religious freedom
• Stories from previous generations
• Factory jobs from Industrialization   * Economic opportunity

Push Factors

• Farm jobs lost to mechanization   * Lack land of Europe   * Poverty and difficult lives
• Political Instability   * Lack of political freedom
• Religious persecution   * Pogroms (Violence against Jews in Russia)

Response to Changing Immigration

Ellis Island opened in 1892 as a Immigrant processing station

As a result of new immigrants, rise in nativism

• RACIAL - New Immigrants seen as racially inferior (not Anglo-Saxon)
• ECONOMIC - Took jobs and lowered wages- labor unions often opposed immigrants
• POLITICAL: Radical ideas
• RELIGIOUS: not Protestant

Attempts to exclude

• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
• American Protective Association = anti-Catholic group made up of Protestants
• Literacy Test in 1917
• Quota Acts of 1920s restrict immigrants

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Response to Urbanization and Immigration Issues

Various attempts undertaken to deal with the problems posed by urbanization & immigration

• Social Gospel Movement   * Christians had a responsibility to deal with urban poverty
• Salvation Army came over from England in 1879 & provided poverty relief while spreading Christian values
• YMCA & YWCA- Christian values
• Settlement House Movement   * Jane Addams establishes the Hull House in 1889   * Provided various social services in the community   * Helped immigrants adapt to new society

Belief Systems of the Industrial Revolution

Belief in Protestant work ethic

• Horatio Alger: story of “rags to riches”   * Honesty, hard work leads to success   * Re-enforced by experience of people such as Andrew Carnegie (immigrant from Scotland)

Critics of the Industrial pro business climate of the Gilded Age

• Henry George “Progress & Poverty” critically examined the inequalities in wealth caused by industrialization and laissez faire capitalism.
• Edward Bellamy “Looking Backward” about a utopian socialist society that has fixed the social and economic injustices of the time.

Effort to reform these problems will eventually lead to a movement known as the Progressive Movement in the 1890s

• Rise of press and education
• compulsory attendance, tax supported schools were more accessible, & Illiteracy rates were dropping

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African American Responses

Booker T Washington

• From the south, ex-slave
• Wrote autobiography “Up From Slavery”
• African Americans should acquire vocational skills to gain self-respect and economic security
• Established Tuskegee Institute
• Did not advocate for directly challenging white supremacy   * Accused of being a “accommodationist” by critics

W.E.B DuBois

• From the north
• 1st African American to earn a Ph.D from Harvard
• Helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909
• Demanded immediate political and social equality for black people
• Rejected Booker’s gradualism

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