ap gilded age notes unit 6

8/6/2019 AP Gilded Age Notes Unit 6

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AP Notes: Unit 6-The Gilded Age

Part 16: The Last West and the New South (1865-1900)

This chapter details the goings on in the South and the West following the Civil War,including the Jackson Frontier Thesis.

A. The West: Settlement of the Last Frontier . Following the War, many Americansnow turned to settling the West, as the land between the Mississippi and thepacific had been referred to as the Great American Desert. Why? Gold inCalifornia, fishing and farming in Oregon, etc. Although there was light yearlyrainfall west of the 100th meridian, there were 15 million buffalo, whichprovided food, clothing, shelter, and tools to the natives who lived there. By1900 these buffalo herds were all but wiped out and the frontier was virtuallygone. Homesteaders had fenced in the land, the railroad had created citiesand towns, and states had been carved out. (Only AZ, OK, and NM remainedas territories by 1900.) The rush for minerals in the west had caused thisdestruction and the natives who stood in the way of the onslaught paid theprice in culture and lives. Settlement of the frontier was achieved by 3 groups:

miners, cattleman and cowboys, and farmers.

a. The Mining Frontier : California gold rush in 1848 started the beginningof a quest for gold and silver that extended into the 20th century. Goldand silver strikes in Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, and SouthDakota kept people coming West. 100,000 miners came to Colorado in1859 when gold was discovered near Pikes Peak. The Comstock Lode(over $340 million in gold and silver in Nevada by 1890) broughtNevada into the Union in 1864.

i. The method : Individual prospectors would look for traces of goldand silver in the streams by placer mining (panning.) Deep-shaft mining took its place, which required wealthy investorsand corporations. A strike meant a rush, boom town. Lawlesstowns sprang up all over the West, including Virginia City, NV,where Mark Twain started his writing career on the local paper.Many boom towns became ghost towns just as quickly asminers moved on to the next strike.

ii. As mines developed , professional miners from Asia and Europearrived, as it was not unusual for half the population of a miningtown to be foreign born. By the 1860s, 1/3 of the miners inNevada were Chinese immigrants. In California, anti-immigrantfeeling led to a $20 miners tax on all foreign miners as well asthe infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibitedfurther immigration from China. This was the first majorCongressional Act to restrict immigration on the basis of race

and nationality.iii. Negative Effects: These strikes not only affected the populationshifts in America, but they also brought about discussion of goldand silver backed currency to the forefront, which wouldbecome a leading political issue in the 1880s and 90s. Also, themining left scars on the land that can still be seen today, as wellas a disastrous effect on the Natives.

b. The Cattle Frontier : Following the War, many saw the vast opengrasslands of Texas as another source for economic boom: Cattle. We


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basically stole the idea of the cowboy from Mexico, as well as thecattle themselves (Texas Longhorns were originally from Mexico.)During the War, after the Union cut Texas off from the rest of theConfederacy, over 5 million head of cattle roamed freely throughout

Texas. When the War ended, the Texas cattle business was easy to getinto because both the cattle and the land were free.

i. Railroads Impact on Cattle: The construction of RR into Kansasafter the war gave Texan cattlemen a destination. If you couldget the cattle to Kansas, they could be placed on the trains andsent to Chicago for slaughter and hamburger. Joseph McCoyrealized the huge profitability to be made by sending beef toChicago. Cows were sold for $30-$50 a head in Chicago. McCoybuilt the first stockyards in Abilene, Kansas. Dodge City,Sedalia, Kansas City and other cow towns followed along therailroad. Trails were established with these cow towns as thefinal destination: Chisholm Trail, Goodnight-Loving Trail, in the1860s and 70s. The cowboys, many of them black or Mexican,were paid on average of $1 a day.

ii. Cattle drives die out : In the 1880s overgrazing destroyed the

grass and a horrible blizzard and drought in 1885-86 killed off90% of the cattle. Homesteaders also destroyed the OpenRange by putting up barbed wire fences all along the frontier.Wealthy cattlemen then turned to developing huge privateranches with scientific methods, learning that if you feed thecattle better grains, the meat is much more tender and tastier.

iii. Eating habits change : These cattle drives turn America from apork eating country to a beef eating country. It also gave rise tothe legend of the loner American hero, the cowboy.

c. The Farming Frontier : Homestead Act of 62 encouraged farming onGreat Plains, offering 160 acres of public land free for five years ofsettlement. Hundreds of thousands came, including immigrants.Overall, over 500,000 families took advantage, but five times that

number ended up having to pay for land because rich speculators tookmost of the best land.

i. Sodbusters : Those who came first, built their homes of sodbricks, experienced the locusts and the heat/cold, lonely life onthe prairie. Little water, wood nonexistent. 1874 Joseph Gliddeninvented barbed wire (due to scarcity of lumber for fences).However, by 1900 at least 2/3 of the farms had been forecloseddue to inability to keep up with the elements. What saved theGreat Plains? Irrigation, dams, etc.

ii. Turners Frontier Thesis : Oklahoma Territory (once set aside fornatives) was opened to settlement in 1889, providing for thelast great land rush in US history. The 1890 census thenannounced that the frontier was now settled, or closed.Reacting to this news was historian Frederick Jackson Turnerwho wrote the essay The Significance of the Frontier onAmerican History (1893). He wrote that 300 years of frontierexperience had played a major role in the development of UShistory.

1. Promoted a habit of independence and individualism.2. Acted as a powerful social leveler, breaking down class

distinctions, fostering social and political democracy.


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3. The frontier forced Americans to be inventive andpractical-minded, but also quite wasteful in their attitudetoward natural resources.

4. Free land on the frontier had always been a safety valve(get rid of the trouble, etc.)

5. Had always been a fresh start.

6. Does this mean we would now have to follow theEuropean model and create class division and socialconflict?

7. What about imperialism?iii. Many debated the Turner Thesis, as they still do, but by the end

of the 1890s, Americans were moving back to the cities and thePlains farms were declining.

B. The Removal of the Native Americans: Natives were the ultimate loser in thewestward progression. 2/3 of the western tribal groups lived on the GreatPlains. (Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, and Comanche. They weredeveloped horsemen and life centered on the buffalo. Large tribes ofthousands generally lived in smaller sub groups between 300-500 men. The

basic problem with the natives is that the Americans wanted to put them onreservation, but the natives wanted to follow the buffalo.

a. Reservation Policy : As we moved west, we wanted the natives out ofour way. At Ft. Laramie and Ft. Atkinson in 1851 the federalgovernment began to assign the plains tribes to tracts of land. Thenatives paid no heed to the restrictions of moving off the reservation tofollow the buffalo.

b. Indian Wars : Warfare was inevitable as Americans began to arrive.1864-the Sand Creek massacre occurred. Federal men killed anencampment of Cheyenne men, women, and children.

i. In the Sioux War of 1865-67 the Sioux actually massacred anarmy column. These wars were followed by new treaties andreservations, with promises of government support. Meanwhile,

the massacre of buffalo begins in earnest. Indians beganneglecting the treaties.

ii. In the 1870s a new wave of fighting opens, including the RedRiver War against the Comanche and a second Sioux Warfeaturing Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. George Custer and his 7th

Cavalry were ambushed and destroyed at Little Big Horn in1876.

iii. Chief Josephs attempts to lead a Nez Perce band into Canadawere defeated in 1877. His famous quote? We will fight nomoreforever.

c. Assimilationists : Helen Hunt Jackson wrote of the injustices done toNative Americans in her 1881 book A Century of Dishonor. The bookcreated sympathy, but most felt the Indians should assimilate intoAmerican society. Formal education (Carlisle School in Pennsylvania,for example), conversion to Christianity, etc.

d. Dawes Severalty Act (1887): A new approach, instead of treating thenatives as separate nations, treats them all the same. This act wasdesigned to break up tribal distinctions; many people felt it was thesetribal customs that kept the Indians from becoming civilized. DawesAct divided the Indian lands into 160 acre plots, after living on the plotfor 25 years and leading a civilized life, the Indians were Americancitizens. 47 million acres were distributed, over 90 million acres of


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former reservation land was sold off by the government to rich realestate investors, much of this land being very good farm land. Thisnew policy was a disaster, as by 1900 only 200,000 natives remain,most of them wards of the federal government.

e. Ghost Dance Movement : The last effort to resist. Whites assumed theGhost Dance was a preparation for a massive war; Sitting Bull was

killed during his arrest, then in Wounded Knee, SD federal soldierskilled over 200 natives (men, women, and children) in what becameknown as the Battle of Wounded Knee.

f. U.S. Indian Policy in the 20th Century : In 1924, the US governmentgranted full citizenship to all natives, FDR later reestablished all Indiantribal rites in his Indian Reorganization Act (1934). Today there areover 1.8 million Native Americans, 116 tribes, some on reservations,some off.

C. The New South : Many southerners now want to become a self-relianteconomy, led by Atlanta Constitution editor Henry Grady. He wantedeconomic diversity and laissez-faire capitalism. Tax exemptions were offeredto people who would start businesses in southern states, and there was plentyof cheap labor in the South.

a. Economic Progress : Birmingham became a leading steel center,Memphis became a leading lumber center, and Richmond was rebuiltand became a leader in the tobacco industry.

i. Cheap labor meant Georgia, NC, and SC to become leaders inthe textile industry, with 400 cotton mills by 1900 employing100,000 white workers. Railroads also contributed to the South,by 1890 they had an integrated RR (same gauge) and by 1900the South had equaled or surpassed that of the other areas ofthe country (in terms of population, industry, and railroads.)

b. Continued Poverty : South remained an impoverished region, however.Northern financing dominated the southern economy now more thaneven before the War, Northern investors owned 75% of the southernrailroads and controlled the Southern steel industry by 1900. Industrialworkers in the South earned half the national average and workedlonger hours (94% of the industrial workers in the South were white).Most southerners lived in traditional roles of sharecroppers and tenantfarmers.

i. Why was the South so impoverished ? 2 reasons:1. The Souths late start at industrialization.

2. South had a poorly educated work force. No tech school,few possessed the technological skills needed forindustrial development. With this lack of education, theSouth is still basically cut off from economicopportunities for the rest of the 19th century.

c. Agriculture : Southern economy was still mainly tied to growing cotton.

Between 1870 and 1900, the number of planted acres doubled, whichonly added to the cotton farmers problems. Cotton prices declined bymore than 50% in the 1890s due to a glut of cotton on the worldmarket. Per capita income declined in the South, leading to farmfailures. By 1900, over half the white farmers and 75% of the blackswere tenant farmers (15 to 20 acres each.) Crop lien systemdevelops out of this. Basically, crop lien is where farmers borrowsupplies from local merchants in the spring with a lien, or mortgage, on


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their crops to be paid at harvest time. This forces poor farmers toremain tenants, like serfs tied to the land by debt.

i. Innovation Attempts : George Washington Carver, a scientistat Tuskegee Institute, promoted growing peanuts, potatoes, andsoybeans so that the farm can diversify. Others picked up onthis example.

ii. Cycle of debt and poverty : These hard times produced aharvest of discontent. By 1890 the Farmers SouthernAlliance had more than a million members. The ColoredFarmers National Alliance had roughly 250,000 members.Both organizations rallied behind political reforms to solve theproblems. These organizations should have combined forces;they would have been a strong force. However, as separateunions they did not have near the power needed to knock outthe controlling elites in the South.

d. Segregation : With the end of Reconstruction, the North withdrew itsprotection of the freedmen in 1877. The Redeemers were in control, soit was up to the freedmen to take control of their political, economicand social futures. The business community and white supremacists

supported the redeemers, who in turn supported segregation andseparation. By playing on the racial fears of whites, the redeemersgained and kept political power as they fought to keep blacks in theirplace.

i. Discrimination in the Supreme Court : Supreme Court beganstriking down Reconstruction Acts as soon as Reconstructionended. In the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, the Court ruled thatCongress could not legislate against the racial discriminationpracticed by private citizens, which included railroads, hotels,and other businesses used by the public. (Its your private rightto be a bigot.)

1. Plessy v. Ferguson: (1896) Court upheld a Louisianalaw requiring separate but equal accommodations for

white and black passengers on railroads. The Court ruledthat this did not violate the 14th Amendments guaranteeof equal protection of the laws. A wave of segregationlaws, calledJim Crow Laws, followed. Segregatedwashrooms, drinking fountains, park benches, and otherfacilities. Only the use of streets and most stores werenot restricted according to race.

e. Loss of civil rights : Other discriminatory laws resulted in the wholesaledisenfranchisement of black voters by 1900. Examples: Louisiana had130,000 registered black voters in 1896 but only 1,342 in 1904 (99%decline.) Various legal devices and obstacles were used to stop blackfrom voting, for example literacy tests, poll taxes, politicalprimaries for whites only, grandfather clauses (which allowed aman to vote only if his grandfather had voted in elections prior toReconstruction.) The Supreme Court declared these laws constitutionalin an 1898 case, which it upheld that literacy tests can be used todetermine citizens qualifications for voting.

i. The forms of discrimination : Blacks could not serve on juries,they were given stiffer penalties for similar crimes, blacks werenot given the benefit of court-ordered sentences, lynch mobskilled 1,400 men during the 90s, blacks were kept out of skilled


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trades and factory jobs, so while poor whites were movingahead, blacks were kept in farming and low pay domestic work.

f. Responding to segregation : Black leaders advocated leaving the Southfor Kansas, Oklahoma, or even Africa. Bishop Henry Turner formedthe International Migration Society in 1894 to migrate to Africa, Ida B.Wells, editor of the Memphis Free Speech (a black paper), fought

against lynching and Jim Crow laws. Wells had to eventually move tothe North as death threats and the destruction of her printing pressforced her out.

i. Booker T. Washingtons Ideas: A former slave whograduated from Hampton Institute in 1881, Washingtonestablished an industrial and agricultural rural school in

Tuskegee, Alabama which became the largest and bestindustrial school in the nation. He taught blacks skill trades, thevirtues of hard work, moderation, and economic self-help.Earning money was like having a little green ballot. People willpay attention. At the Atlanta Exposition and Protest, hedeclared the agitations of the questions of social equality is theextremist folly. In other words, lets prepare ourselves before

we demand equalitymake ourselves capable of successbefore we go out and beg for it. In 1900 he founded theNational Negro Business League, which supportedbusinesses owned and operated by blacks around the country.He also preached racial harmony and economic cooperation,which drew praise from Andrew Carnegie and Teddy Roosevelt.

ii. In later years, many considered Washingtons stance a bit of asellout to discrimination and segregation. In the 20th century,W.E.B. DuBois would demand an end to segregation and thegranting of equal rights.

D. Farm Problems: North, South and West: Farmers were becoming the minoritythroughout the country, the percentage of farmers in society dropped from60% of the working population in 1860 to 37% in 1900.

a. Changes in agriculture : Farming was becoming more commercializesand specialized. Farmers in the North and West single cash crops, likecorn or wheat, for national and international markets. Farmers alsobegan to procure their food from stores in town and manufacturedgoods from mail order catalogs like Sears and Roebuck or MontgomeryWard. Farmers also began to rely heavily on big farm equipment likesteam engines, seeders, and combines. Farms began to run likefactories and small farmers were run out of business.

i. Falling prices : Increase in world production of wheat, cotton andother crops drove crop prices down. As prices fell, farmers withmortgages faced both high interest rates and the need to growtwo or three times as much just to pay off the debt. Thisoverproduction led to further falling of prices. This vicious cycleended with more debt, foreclosures, and more tenant andsharecroppers.

ii. Rising costs : Industrial corporations were able to keepmanufactured good prices high by forming monopolies (trusts).Middlemen (wholesalers and retailers) took their cuts beforeselling to farmers. Railroads, warehouses, and elevators thentook their cut, leaving the farmer, or the consumer, to pay highprices to cover everyones cut. Railroads often charged more tohaul short hauls with no competition than they charged for long


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hauls with heavy competition. Greedy bastards. To make itworse, the government charged heavy taxes on farmequipment and land but no taxes on stocks and bonds. Tariffsdidnt help farmers, they only helped industrialists.

b. Fighting Back : The rugged individualism that farmers possessed keptthem from forming alliances, but with all of these problems farmers

began to collectively seek a solution.i. National Grange Movement : The National Grange of Patrons and

Husbandry was organized in 1868 by Oliver Kelley primarily asa social and educational organization for farmers and theirfamilies. By the 1870s, the Grange was taking political action todefend against middlemen, railroaders, and trusts. Granges inevery part of the country formed cooperatives, businessesowned and run by farmers in order to save the costs charged tomiddlemen. The Grange was probably most powerful in the OldNorthwest, or the Midwest as we call it today.

ii. The real targets of the Grange : Storage costs and shippingrates. Railroads would charge smaller farmers two or threetimes what they would charge larger shippers. That is, until the

Grange placed pressure on state politicians to pass lawsregulating the rates charged by railroads and elevators. OtherGranger laws made it illegal for railroads to fix prices by meansof pooling and to give rebates to privileged customers.

1. Munn v. Illinois : (1877) SC upheld the right of a state toregulate businesses of a public nature, such as railroads.

c. Interstate Commerce Act : States could only regulate short hauls orlocal hauls because once the line crosses a state border, it is under the

jurisdiction of another statethis caused mass confusion as to whotruly had the right to regulate the railroads. Interstate commerce hadalways been regulated by the federal government, so in the case of therailroads the railroad companies simply applied the Granger laws byraising their long-haul rates.

i. Wabash v. Illinois : (1886) SC ruled that individual states couldnot regulate interstate commerce. In effect, this ruling nullifiedmany of the Granger laws in individual states.

ii. With farmers in an uproar, the federal government addressedthe problem by passing the first federal laws regulating therailroad. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1886 requiredrailroad rates to be reasonable and just. It also set up theInterstate Commerce Commission, the first federal regulatoryagency, which had the power to investigate and prosecutepools, rebates, and other discriminatory practices. Ironically,this regulation initially helped the railroads more than thefarmers because it allowed the railroads to curtail competitionand stabilize rates, plus the fact that the Commission lost mostof its cases in the federal courts.

d. Farmers Alliances : Separate alliances were formed in different states,but the fact was that farmers were tired of being oppressed by theman. They served farmers needs for education and the latestscientific methods, as well as organize farmers for political andeconomic action. Unlike the Grange, this alliance had a seriouspossibility of turning into a real political party simply because itscommon man approach appealed to people outside of farming.


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e. Ocala Platform : The National Alliance met in Ocala in 1890 to addressthe problems of rural America. They attacked both major parties formerely being puppets of Wall Street bankers and big business.Delegates at Ocala introduced a platform that would resurface in thefuture.

i. Direct election of senators.

ii. Lower tariffs.iii. A graduated income tax.iv. A new banking system regulated by the federal government.v. Wanted treasury notes and silver be issued so that there would

be more money in circulation (farmers wanted this to createinflation and raise crop prices.)

vi. Wanted federal storage for farmers crops and federal loans,which would lessen farmers reliance on middlemen.

f. Effects of the Grange and Farmers Alliances : The backing of local andstate candidates who pledged support for alliance goals often proveddecisive in the elections of 1890. Many reforms became the basicplatform of the Populist movement and would eventually be seen aspart of the Progressive party at the turn of the century.

Part 17: The Rise of Industrial America, 1865-1900

A combination of forces led to the U.S. being the leading industrial power inthe world by 1900. What were these forces?

1. Americas natural resources (coal, iron ore, copper, lead, timber,oil.

2. Abundant labor supply (immigrants, freedmen, etc.)3. A growing population combined with advanced transportationsystems led to the U.S. becoming the largest market in the world forindustrial goods.4. Lots of capital, as Europeans saw the promise of America and

invested in its future.5. Technologies saved on labor (over 440,000 new patents between

1960-1890.)6. Laissez faire policy of the federal government allowed railroad toexpand, U.S. manufacturing to grow, and kept taxes relatively low.7. Talented entrepreneurs emerged at this time as well, building vast

monopolies.

A. The Business of Railroads : RR production increased more than five-fold from 65-90. The development of the American RR network wasthe single greatest achievement of the 19th century, having thegreatest impact on American economic life. Also, and veryimportantly, the RR business promoted other industries, especiallycoal and steel. Railroads also separated the nation into four timezones in 1883, a change the country adopted officially. The mostimportant innovations of the RR may have been the creation of thestockholder corporation and the development of complex structuresin finance, business management, and the regulation of competition.

a. Eastern Trunk Lines : In the early days of the RR, all kinds ofdifferent companies built little RR lines connecting smalltowns. These lines were often of different gauges, which led tono main line. This stopped for the most part after the Civil War


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with the consolidation of many lines. These small lines wereintegrated into trunk lines, which mean a trunk line is a majorroute connecting two large cities; smaller branch lines wouldconnect outlying towns.

i. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt : Used his fortunesgained in steamboat business to merge local railroads

into the New York Central RR, which ran from NYC toChicago on more than 4,500 miles of track. Many othertrunk lines connected other major eastern cities as well.

b. Western Railroads : RR played a major role in settling the westin two basic ways, first they promoted settlement on the GreatPlains and secondly, they linked the east and the west creatingone giant national market.

i. Federal Land Grants : Federal government new that theRR would lead the way to settlement, so the Fed gavethem many land grants and loans. 80 RR companies gotover 170 million acres. The government expected thatthe RR companies would then sell this land to newsettlers to finance construction of the actual rail lines. It

was hoped that the completed RR would increase thevalue of government lands and that the lines wouldprovide lower rates for transporting mail and troops.

1. Negative consequences to the land grants andloans: First, they promoted hasty and poorconstruction and secondly, it led to widespreadcorruption in all levels of government. Forexample, the Credit Mobilier scandal, in which acompany was used in order to pocket hugeprofits. Also, by the 1880s, it was discovered thatthe RRs controlled nearly half of the land in theWest, which led to protests.

ii. Transcontinental Railroads : Two new companies weregiven this job (tying Cali to the rest of the Union). UnionPacific was to build westward from Omaha, while theCentral Pacific was to build eastward from Sacramento.Gen. Grenville Dodge oversaw the Union Pacific withmassive use of war veterans and Irish immigrants.Charles Crocker oversaw the Central Pacific, where heused over 6,000 Chinese to blast their way through theSierra Nevada Mountains. May 10, 1869 they cametogether at Promontory Point, Utah, where the goldenspike was driven.

1. Four other transcontinental railroads were builtbefore 1900: Southern Pacific tied New Orleans toLA; the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe tied KC toLA; the Northern Pacific tied Duluth, Minnesota toSeattle; and the Great Northern connecting St.Paul and Seattle. The Great Northern was built by

James Hill and was the only one to be builtwithout federal subsidies.

iii. Competition and Consolidation : The railroads wereoverbuilt, which means many of them did not make anymoney. Also, mismanagement and fraud werecommonplace.


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1. Jay Gould -a speculator, went into the RR businessto make a quick buck, he made millions by sellingoff his assets and watering his stock. (Inflatingthe value of a corporations assets and profitsbefore its stock to the public.)

2. To Survive, RRs offered rebates and kickbacks to

favored shippers, while raising the prices forsmaller shippers and farmers. They also formedsecret pools, in which competing companiesagreed to fix rates and share traffic.

3. Panic of 93 forced 25% of RRs to go bankrupt.J.P. Morgan and other bankers quickly swooped into take control of the bankrupted RRs andconsolidated them. This reduced competition andallowed owners to stabilize rates and removedebts. By 1900, seven giant systems controlled23 of the nations RRs. Unfortunately, theseseven companies had interlocking directorates,meaning one man (like Morgan) served on the

Board for several RR companies, meaning thatthese companies were basically one hugemonopoly controlled by a small group of wealthymen.

4. Attempts to change this control was slow. GrangerLaws were overturned by the courts in the 1870s,and the Interstate Commerce Act of 86 wasworthless without a ballsy president to enforce it.Only with the Progressives of the 20th century didwe actually see change. Until then, in the wordsof William Vanderbilt (son of the Commodore),Let the public be damned!

B. Industrial Empires : This period (post Civil War to 1900) has beencalled the Second Industrial Revolution. Instead of producingclothing and leather, these factories produced steel, petroleum,electric power, and the industrial machinery to produce other goods.

a. The Steel Industry : The big breakthrough came when menfigured out a new process for making larger quantities of steel(called the Bessemer process after Henry Bessemer ofEngland, but also discovered by William Kelly in the U.S.) TheGreat Lakes area (with the Mesabi Range in Minnesota)became the leading steel producer.

i. Andrew Carnegie : Came to America as a dirt poorScottish immigrant but by the 1850s had worked his wayup to a superintendent of a Pennsylvania railroad. Hebegan producing steel in the 1870s, using salesmanshipand the latest technology to pull away from hiscompetitors. His vertical integration (whereby acompany would control every stage of the industrialprocess, from mining of raw materials to transportingthe finished product) was ahead of its time. By 1900,Carnegie Steel, which employed 20,000 workers, was theleader in its industry, out-producing all the steel mills inBritain.


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ii. U.S. Steel Corporation: Carnegie wanted to go intophilanthropy in 1900, so he sold Carnegie Steel to J.P.Morgan for $400 million. U.S. Steel was the largestcorporation in the world, it became the worlds firstmulti-billion dollar company, employing 168,000 peopleand controlling 3/5 of the worlds steel business.

b. The Oil Industry : First U.S. oil well was drilled by Edwin Drakein 1859 in Pennsylvania. 4 years later, a young JohnRockefeller started a company that would eventually controlmost of the countrys oil supply. He was known as a fiercelycompetitive man, and took over hundreds of companies by anymeans necessary.

i. Rockefeller employed the latest technologies and thepractices, he also forced rebates from the railroads aswell as lower his oil price (kerosene at the time) forcingothers out of business and then raising his prices tomake up for the losses. Standard Oil Trust controlled90% of the oil refinery business by 1881. Standard Trustwas made up of all the companies that Rockefeller had

acquired, with Rockefeller himself controlling the Board.This was called horizontal integration, in which all ofyour competitors are brought under one umbrella, sothat you control the entire industry. He controlled thesupply and prices of oil products, thus creating a truemonopoly. He did manage to keep prices low forconsumers. His fortune soared to over $900 million atthe time of his retirement. Other businessmen followedRockefellers lead, leading to the creation of more trustsin other industries.

c. Antitrust Movement : The trusts came under attack in the1880s, both by the rising new middle class who feared theunchecked power of the trusts, and by the old wealth of the

cities, who resented the rise of new wealth. Stats would nottouch it, primarily because of payoffs and pressure. Congresspassed the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which prohibitedany contract, combination, in the form of trust or otherwise,or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce.

i. The Sherman Act was vaguely worded, thus it was notused very often. Then, in 1895, in the court case U.S. vs.E.C. Knight the Supreme Court established that theSherman act could be applied only to commerce and notto manufacturing. Long story short, its not until theProgressive Era that the U.S. gets real antitrustconvictions.

C. Laissez-Faire Capitalism : this belief went with the prevailing feelingsof the times.

a. Conservative Economic Theories : Adam Smith, way back in1776, had written in The Wealth ofNations that businessshould be regulated by the invisible hand, (law of supply anddemand) and not by government. Business should bemotivated by its own self-interest to offer improved goods andservices at low prices. However, in the 19 th century businessgot an added bonus, they got high protective tariffs andgovernment subsidies. However, the monopolies of the time


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went against this competitive requirement. What themonopolies wanted was freedom to continue their rule withoutgovernment interference.

b. Social Darwinism : People like Herbert Spencer (English socialphilosopher) applied the ideas of natural selection and survivalof the fittest to the marketplace. He thought the concentration

wealth in the hands of the fit was a benefit for the future ofthe human race. William Graham Sumner of Yale argued thatgovernment assistance for the poor only interfered with thelaws of nature and weakened the evolution of the species bypreserving the unfit.

c. Gospel of Wealth : Many rich people of the time period usedGod as a reason why they were rich, especially people likeRockefeller. Reverend Russell Conwell preached in his Acresof Diamonds lecture that everyone had a duty to become rich.Andrew Carnegie wrote in an article entitled Wealth that thewealthy had the God-given responsibility to civic philanthropy.Carnegie eventually distributed over #350 million to thebuilding of libraries, universities, etc.

D. Technology and Innovations: These things led to greaterproductivity, etc.

a. Inventions : Morse Telegraph (1844)-sped up communicationsand, along with the railroad, revolutionized transportation.Cyrus Fields transatlantic cable in 1866 made it possible tosend messages across the seas in an instant. By 1900, allcontinents were connected. In 1876, Bell invented thetelephone. Also, the typewriter (67), the cash register (79),the calculating machine (87), and the adding machine (88).Consumer products included George Eastmans Kodak camera(88), Lewis Watermans fountain pen (84), and King Gillettessafety razor (95).

b. Edison : He got his first patent in 1869 (a machine for recording

votes). In 1876 he established an invention laboratory in MenloPark, New Jersey. It was revolutionary because it created theworlds first research lab where teams of inventors andengineers worked together, not alone as most inventors did atthe time. Over a thousand patented inventions came out ofthis lab, including the phonograph, the light bulb, the dynamofor generating electric power, the mimeograph machine, andthe motion picture camera.

i. George Westinghouse : held more than 400 patents. Hedeveloped air brakes for the RR (69), a transformer forproducing high-voltage electric currents (85) whichmade it possible to light cities and operate electricstreetcars, subways, and electricity in the home.

c. Marketing Consumer Goods : The Department store was bornout of trying to get more stuff into peoples hands faster. R.H.Macy in NY and Marshall Field in Chicago were the first urbandepartment stores, while Frank Woolworths five and ten centstore brought the idea of the limited department store totowns. Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Montgomery Ward werethe first mail order companies for those who could not get into the cities, their catalogs were known as wish books.


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i. Kellogg and Post brand names became popular,refrigerated railroad cars changed the way people atebecause now beef could be shipped to the east. Canninghelped as well, both canning and refrigeration wereintroduced by Gustavus Swift. Also, advertising andmarketing created a new consumer economy in which

going shopping became an American pastime.E. Impact of Industrialization : The growth of the American industry

raised the standard of living for many, but it also created a sharperdivision between the classes (rich, middle and poor.)

a. The Concentration of Wealth : By the 1890s, the richest 10% ofthe American population controlled 90% of its wealth. Thesenew wealthy types lived lavish lifestyles, (Vanderbilts inNewport, RI with summer homes throughout the country.)

b. Horatio Alger myth : Americans liked the idea of the AmericanDream, or the self-made man, instead of realizing how poorthey actually were. Also, the ideas of Horatio Algers books,(titles include Fame and Fortune, Ragged Dick, Mark the MatchBoy) in which a young man of modest means ended up rich and

successful by the end. It was possible to move up in society(much more so than in Europe at the time), but it was not verylikely. The average millionaire of the time came from wealthand was white.

c. The Expanding Middle Class: This growth of large corporationsled to the opening of white collar management jobs. (Whitecollar jobs are ones which are high paid and require no manuallabor.) Middle management was needed as a buffer betweenthe chief executives and the factory workers, but there werealso jobs for accountants, clericals, salespeople, which weremiddle class jobs. In turn, these middle class people began ademand for other middle class types, like doctors, lawyers,storekeepers, etc. All of these jobs considerably increase the

income of the middle class.

d. Wage Earners: By 1900, 2/3 of all working Americans workedfor wages. Generally, hours were 10 hours a day, 6 days aweek. Wages were based on supply and demand, and thesupply of workers was high.

i. Low wages were justified by David Ricardos Iron Law ofWages. It said that raising wages could only increase theworking population, and this availability of workerswould only cause wages to fall, thus creating a cycle ofmisery and starvation.

ii. Although wages rose, a family could not support a familyon one income. Therefore, women and especially

children were expected to work. In 1890, 11 million ofthe 12.5 million families in the U.S. averaged less than$380 a year income.

e. Working Women : In 1900, one in every five women wereworking for wages. Most were young and single, only 5% ofmarried women worked outside the home in 1900. In 1900,men and women still believed that the woman belonged in thehome, if economically feasible. If working, women weresupposed to go into jobs that were extensions of the home,


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like textiles, garments, food processing. Women soon becamesecretaries (a formerly male profession), bookkeepers,telephone operators. Any job that became feminized usuallylost status and were paid less.

f. Labor Discontent : Before the Industrial Revolution, workersproduced entire products and usually felt a sense of

accomplishment and liked their jobs. However, this conditionradically changed with factories. Factories were all aboutproductivity. This work was repetitive and monotonous,requiring only semi-skilled workers. You were now workingunder the tyranny of the clock, and the conditions were oftenunsafe. Complain? Youre fired.

i. Workers generally changed jobs every three years, themost common form of worker protest at the time wasabsenteeism and quitting, not striking. 20% of peoplewho worked in the factories left that life behind as theirpersonal form of protest, a much higher number thanthose who joined unions.

F. The Struggle of Organized Labor : The late 19th century witnessed the

most violent labor conflicts in the nations history. The reports ofworkers fighting with police and military were so commonplace thatmany feared we were heading for open class warfare between laborand management.

a. Industrial Warfare : The problem for the workers is that therewere too many of them. Management could simply hirestrikebreakers or scabs; there was no desperate need forworkers. There were, however, certain tactics thatmanagement used to defeat unions.

i. The lockout : closing the factory to break a labormovement before it could get organized.

ii. Blacklists : names of pro-union workers were circulated.

iii. Yellow Dog Contracts : workers were told that in order towork, they had to sign a contract promising not to join aunion.

iv. Private Guards and State Militia : often called in to quelluprisings.

v. Court Injunctions : were often used to stop strikes,because the government in this time period did notsupport labor unions as they tended to slow productionand raise wages.

vi. Most believed during this time period that labor unionswere anarchistic and un-American. Before 1900,management won most of its court battles with unionsbecause violence was frowned upon by state and federal

governments.vii. Labor itself was not sure how it wanted to achieve its

goals, some wanted strikes, others wanted picketing orslowdowns to achieve collective bargaining.

viii. Great Railroad Strike of 1877 : During an economicdepression, railroad lines started cutting its wages tosave money. A strike on the Ohio and Baltimore linequickly spread across 11 states, and 500,000 workersfrom other industries joined in on the strike, which was


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quickly becoming national in scale. President Hayes wasforced to call out the military to end the violence. Morethan 100 were killed; some companies actually improvedthe conditions of the workers, while others attemptedthe hard line and busted the workers organizations.

b. Attempts to Organize National Unions : before the 1860s,

unions were local in nature. This changes after the War.i. National Labor Union : The first attempt to organize all

workers, skilled and unskilled. Founded in 1866, therewere 640,000 members in 1868. Goals: higher wages, 8-hour day, equal rights for women and blacks, monetaryreform, worker cooperatives. Its big victory was winningthe 8-hour day for government workers. It lost supportduring a depression of 73 and the unsuccessful eventsof 77.

ii. Knights of Labor : Founded in 1869, started as a secretsociety in order to avoid detection by employers.Terence Powderly was its leader, it went public in 1881.All workers were welcome, including blacks and women.

Powderly wanted the following: worker cooperatives tomake a man his own employer, abolition of child labor,and abolition of trusts and monopolies. He wantedarbitration to settle labor disputes, not strikes. TheKnights were a loose organization, so Powderly had nocontrol over local units who decided to strike. Itsmembership peaked in 1886 with 730,000 members, butthe Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886 turned publicopinion against unions.

iii. Haymarket Square Bombing : The first May Day labormovement took place in Chicago in May of 1886. 80,000Knights showed up there. 200 anarchists were alsoliving in Chicago at the time. The May Day movement

called for a general strike on May 1. Labor violencebreaks out at the McCormick Harvester plant in Chicago.Days later, at public meeting (May 4) in HaymarketSquare, a labor meeting was going on. Cops arrived tobreak up the meeting and a bomb went off. Seven copswere killed, the bomb thrower was never found. 8anarchists were tried for the crime (some of themwerent even in Chicago at the time.) Seven weresentenced to death, but the real death occurred with thelabor movement, as most Americans now associatedunions with violence and bombs. The Knights, especiallylost membership, as they had been the most visible.

iv. American Federation of Labor : Unlike the Knights, the

AF of L sought only practical economic goals. Founded in1886 as an association of craft unions. Samuel Gompers(head of the union from 1886-1924) wanted higherwages and improved conditions. He advocated walkoutsuntil management agreed to collective bargaining. Over1 million members by 1900 but became highly successfulin 20th century.


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c. Strikebreaking in the 1890s : Two massive strikes in the 90sdemonstrate two basic things: Labor is unhappy andmanagement wins industrial disputes.

i. Homestead Strike (1892): Henry Clay Frick, who ranCarnegies Homestead Steel plant near Pittsburgh,caused a strike by cutting wages by 20%. Frick used

lockouts, private guards and strikebreakers to end thestrike after 5 months. This failure of the union set backthe labor movement in the steel industry until the NewDeal.

ii. Pullman Strike : George Pullman ran a company townnear Chicago. The plant manufactured the famousPullman Cars (sleeper cars). In 1894 he announced a cutin wages and fired the delegation of workers who weresent to negotiate with him. The workers laid down theirtools in retaliation and sought help from the AmericanRailroad Union and its leaders Eugene V. Debs. Debsdirected railroad workers across the country not tohandle any trains with Pullman cars, which leads to a

general standstill.1. Railroad owners sided with Pullman, and began to

attach his cars to mail trains. They then went toPresident Cleveland, who used the army to keepthe trains running. A federal court issued aninjunction forbidding interference with the mailand ordered the workers to abandon the boycottand the strike.

2. The case ofIn re Debs (1895): The Supreme Courtapproved the use of court injunctions againststrikes, which gave employers a very valuableweapon against strikes. Debs served six months in

jail then came out more radical than when he

went in. He turned to socialism and founded theAmerican Socialist party in 1900.

3. By 1900, only 3% of the nations workersbelonged to unions. Management held the upperhand, with government taking its side.

Part 18: The Growth of Cities and American Culture, 1865-1900

A. A Nation of Immigrants : US population jumped from 23.2 million in1850 to 76.2 million in 1900. 16.2 million immigrants arrived duringthis time, with 8.8 million more arriving from 1901-1910 (the peakyears of immigration.)

a. Growth of Immigration : Pushes (negative factors from whichpeople are fleeing) and pulls (positive attractions of theadopted country) of immigration.

i. Negatives in Europe at the time: displaced farm workersreplaced by mechanization, population boom in Europeresulting in overcrowding and joblessness, and religiouspersecution (i.e. the pogroms in Russia.)

ii. Positives reasons to come to US : Political and religiousfreedom, economic opportunities, cheap travel to


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America (could travel in steerage on the steamersallowed millions to emigrate from Europe.

b. Old Immigrants and New Immigrants : 1880s, vast majorityof immigrants came from northern and western Europe (theBritish Isles, Germany, Scandinavia). Most of these oldimmigrants were Protestants, although a large minority were

Irish and German Catholic. Most spoke English, most wereskilled workers, making it easier to blend into Americansociety. Many of them moved to the Midwest and farmed, notnecessarily settling into poor neighborhoods on the East Coast.

c. New Immigrants : Starting in the 1890s (and continuingthrough WWI), there was a new source of immigration: Thesenew immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe(Italians, Greeks, Croats, Slovaks, Poles and Russians.) Manywere poor and illiterate, had left autocratic countries and wereunused to democracy. These were Roman catholic, Greekorthodox, Russian orthodox, and Jewish. Most crowded into thepoor ethnic neighborhoods of New York, Chicago, etc.

i. At least 25% of them were birds of passage (young

men contracted for unskilled factory, mining,construction jobs, and would return to their mothercountry once they saved enough money for their familyback home.

d. Restricting Immigration : By 1886, Congress had passed anumber of new laws restricting immigration (the same yearthat Bartholdis Statue of Liberty was placed in New YorkHarbor.)

i. Anti-immigration laws : Chinese Exclusion Act 1882, banon all new immigrants from China. Followed by a ban ofall undesirables (criminals, mentally incompetent.) In1885, a law was passed prohibiting contract labor inorder to protect American workers. With Ellis Island

opening in 1892, immigrants had to pass more rigorousmedical exams and had to pay an entry tax beforegetting in.

ii. Who supported anti-immigration ? Labor unions, theAmerican Protective Association (openly prejudicedagainst Roman Catholics, and Social Darwinists, whoviewed these new immigrants as biologically inferior toEnglish and German immigrants. Also, during theeconomic depression 1890s foreigners becamescapegoats and were often blamed for strikes violence,etc.

iii. In 1900, 15% of the US population was immigrant, soalthough there were limitations, they kept on coming.Only the Quota Acts in the 1920s would severely slowimmigration.

e. Urbanization : Urbanization and industrialization went hand inhand. The jobs were in the cities, factory made goods wereavailable in the cities. With each passing decades, more andmore people moved to the cities. By 1920, for the first time inhistory, more Americans lived in cities than in rural areas.


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i. Both immigrants and Americans were moving to thecities, leaving farms behind. Including a greatmigration of blacks from the South.

f. Changes in Nature of Cities :

i. Streetcar Cities : With streetcars, cable cars, horse-drawn cars being replaced by electric trolleys, elevated

railroads, and subways, and the Brooklyn Bridge (1893)people began to live not so close to their place of work.

1. The effect of mass transportation: Segregatedworkers by income. Upper and middle class movedto streetcar suburbs to escape the pollution,poverty and crime of the city. Older sections ofthe city were left for the poor, often immigrants.

ii. Skyscrapers : Increasing land values in the cities causedthe construction of high rises. 1885, William Le Baron

Jenny built the ten story building in Chicago (the firstskyscraper with a steel skeleton.) The Otis elevator anda central steam heating system made these buildingspossible. By 1900, skyscrapers overshadowed church

spires in the big cities.iii. Ethnic Neighborhoods : Landlords began to divide up the

housing in urban areas into smaller, more affordable andmore profitable rooms. The resulting slums meant youcould jam 4,000 people into one city block. NYC passed alaw in 1879 saying that all bedrooms in the city had tohave a window. Builders found ways around it, andovercrowding and filth promoted the spread of diseasessuch as cholera, typhoid, and tuberculosis.

1. Ethnic neighborhoods were created, with eachgroup maintaining its own language, culture, etc.These ghettos were still areas were peopledreamed the American Dream.

iv. Residential suburbs : In Europe, rich people live in thecities and the poorer types live in the suburbs. Why isthis different in the U.S.? Because the upper and middleclasses in the 19th century moved out to escape thenoise and immigrants in the cities. Factors thatencouraged this were: abundant land at low cost,inexpensive transportation by rail, low cost constructionmethods, ethnic and racial prejudice, an Americanfondness for grass, space, privacy, and a detachmentfrom work and other houses.

1. Frederick Law Olmsted was one of the first todesign a suburban community, by 1900 they wereeverywhere. This gave rise to the American idealof a house, a lawn, and a white picket fence. Wewere the worlds first suburban nation.

v. Private city vs. public city : It took a while formunicipalities to understand the necessity for publicservices, like waste collection, pollution control, disease,crime, fires, etc. Advocates slowly convinced city leadersof the need for water purification, sewage systems,street lighting, police departments, zoning laws, etc.


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g. Boss and Political Machines : Political parties in the cities cameunder the control of tightly organized groups of politicians,known as political machines (just like business was beingcontrolled by a few powerful men in each industry.)

i. Each machine had a boss, who doled out orders to therank and file of the party and jobs to loyal supporters.

Tammany Hall in Hew York was the biggest, whichactually started as a social club but evolved into a groupwhich gave support to the poor and immigrants inexchange for votes.

ii. In a sense, these machines brought a sort of welfare forurban newcomers; there was always support for you ifyou needed it, but at a price. They would find you a job,an apartment; bring baskets of food during hard times.Why would you not support them if you were poor? Well,it turns out they were stealing millions from taxpayers inthe form of graft and fraud. For example, in the 1860san estimated 65% of building funds wound up in thehands of Boss Tweed.

B. Awakening of Reform : A new social consciousness arises in the 1880sand 90s. As usual, it is started through books.

a. Books of the era :

i. Henry Georges Progress and Poverty(1879): Critical oflaissez-faire economics. He called for a one-time tax onland as a solution to poverty (as opposed to a yearlyproperty tax), and he also attacked the inequalities inwealth caused by industrialization.

ii. Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy. (1888) Heenvisioned a future in which a cooperative societyeliminated greed, corruption, crime. People wereinspired by these books and joined social reform groups.Basically, social reformists wanted more governmentcontrol of business (which we wont truly get until theProgressive Era and New Deal.)

b. Settlement Houses : Volunteers who provided aid to the poor,social services, etc. Hull House in Chicago was the mostfamous, by Jane Addams in 1889. Taught English toimmigrants, early childhood education, taught industrial arts,neighborhood theaters, music schools. Over 400 settlementhouses in America by 1900.

i. These were the forerunners of the modern day socialworker. They also crusaded for child labor laws, housingreform, womens rights. Frances Perkins and HarryHopkins were settlement house workers who went on togreat roles in the New Deal era.

c. Social Gospel: Preachers who preached the importance ofapplying Christian principles to social problems. Leaders wereWalter Rauschenbusch in New York (in Hells Kitchen, he wroteseveral books urging religious organizations to take up thecause of social reform.) His work linked Christianity with theProgressive movement later on and encouraged middle classProtestants to attack urban problems.


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d. Religion and society : All religions began adapting to thechallenges of urban living. Roman Catholics gained enormousumbers from immigration and Catholic leaders like Cardinal

James Gibbons of Baltimore inspired old and new immigrantsby supporting the Knights of Labor and organized labor.Among Protestants, Dwight Moody and his Moody Blue

Institute helped generations of urban evangelists to adapttraditional Christianity to city life.i. The Salvation Army (which started in England) helped

the poor and homeless while preaching the gospel.

ii. Mary Baker Eddy: taught that good health was result ofcorrect thinking about Father-Mother-God. By the timeof her death in 1910, hundreds of thousands had joinedher Christian Science church.

e. Families and women in urban society: Urban life placed greatstrains on the family, divorce rate increased to one in 12marriages by 1900 (partly due to the fact that many states hadmade it easier to get a divorce, citing desertion and cruelty aspossible cause.) Family sizes were reducing, on the farm more

kids were a plus, but not in the city.i. Womens suffrage : Vigorously carried forward during

the era. National American Womens SuffrageAssociation was created by Stanton and Anthony in NYin 1890. Its goal was to get the right to vote. Wyomingwas the first state to grant full suffrage for women(1869). By 1900, some states allowed women to vote inlocal elections, and most allowed women to own andcontrol property after marriage.

f. Temperance and morality : Many felt that drinking was a majorcause for poverty among immigrants and the working-class.Womens Christian Temperance Movement (WCTU), founded in1874, wanted to correct this. 500,000 members by 1898, led by

Frances Willard. The Anti-saloon League, founded in 1893, hadpersuaded 21 states to close down all saloons and bars by1916. Carry Nation, of Kansas, actually raided saloons andsmashed barrels of beer and whiskey with a hatchet.

i. Moralist types saw the cities as a breeding ground forvice and obscenity, pushing Anthony Comstock of NYC toform the Society for the Suppression of Vice. Hepersuaded Congress to pass the Comstock Law in 1873,which prohibited the mailing or transportation ofobscene and lewd material.

C. Intellectual and Cultural Movements : this move to the city affectedall parts of American life, including culturally.

a. Changes in education : The complexity of modern life,combined with the ideas of Darwin, raised questions as towhat the public schools should teach.

i. Public Schools : Elementary schools continued to teachthe 3 rs along with the moral values in McGuffeysReaders. Compulsory laws meant there were many morekids in school; As a result, the literacy rate grew to 90%by 1900. Kindergarten was becoming very popular by1900.


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urban neighborhoods. The abstract painters wereupsetting to everyone; this type of art was rejected bymost Americans until the 1950s.

iii. Architecture : Henry Hobson Richardson changedAmerican architecture in the 1870s. He usedRomanesque style of massive stone walls and rounded

arches, adding stateliness to functional commercialbuildings. Louis Sullivans work in Chicago was alsogroundbreaking aesthetically, Frank Lloyd Wrightdeveloped an organic style that was in harmony withits natural surroundings. He would become the mostfamous American architect of the 20th century.

1. Frederick Law Olmsted planned parks and scenicboulevards, including Central Park in NYC and theU.S. Capitol grounds in D.C. He became the basisof all urban landscaping.

iv. Music : With more people in the cities, a larger variety ofmusic was needed. Most large citied had a symphonyorchestra by 1900, or at least an opera house. Outdoor

bandstands were seen in smaller towns, where thepopular marches of John Philip Sousa were played.

1. African American music: They were the greatmusical innovators of this era. Jelly Roll Mortonand Bobby Bolden introduced the Americaninvention of jazz. Scott Joplin was the master ofragtime, and blues music also came out of thesouthern black experience. These musical styleswent north with the blacks themselves, moving toMemphis, St. Louis, KC, and Chicago.

v. Popular Culture : Entertainment became big business atthis time, including newspapers.

1. Popular press : Joseph Pulitzers New York World

became the first million-circulation paper.Sensational stories of crime and disaster, andcrusading feature stories sold millions, whileWilliam Randolph Hearst pushed these ideas evenfarther.

2. Magazines : Ladies Home Journal and others soldfor 10 cents a copy but due to advertising theymade millions.

3. Amusements : What promoted this growth inleisure time activities?

a. Gradual reduction in the number of hourspeople worked.

b. Improved transportation.c. Promotional billboards and advertising.d. The decline of the old Puritan idea that one

should not waste time playing.e. The most popular form of entertainment at

the time was drinking at the local saloon.f. Vaudeville was popular in the cities, but

also plays. The circus was popular, too(Barnum and Bailey). Wild West shows with


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Buffalo Bill Cody with Sitting Bull and AnnieOakley toured the country.

4. Spectator Sports : John L. Sullivan was the mostfamous athlete of the day (boxer.) Upper andlower classes watched boxing. Baseball had beena rural game but was now used to show the

requirement of teamwork in the workplace.William Howard Taft threw out the first ball forthe first time in 1909. Basketball was invented inSpringfield, Ma. In 1891 by James Naismith. Thefirst intercollegiate football game was playedbetween Rutgers and Princeton in 1869.

a. These spectator sports were played for thebachelor subculture of men in their 20sand 30s, whose lives centered on saloons,horse racing, and pool halls. Middle classestook a long time to come around to the ideaof spectator sports.

5. Amateur sports : Women played croquet and

bicycling, rich boys played tennis and golf, poloand yachting. Blacks were barred from joining anyof these clubs due to Jim Crow laws.

Part 19: Politics in the Gilded Age

This era features stalemate and inactivity, especially when compared to theReconstruction Era. We were much more interested in the West, industry, labor, andthe growth of the cities.

A. Politics in the Gilded Age: Mark Twains term in 1873 as a book title, meaningall show and no substance. Forgettable presidents, none served

consecutively, and politicians both local and national who ignored the needsof the people. Neither major party took a stand on any major issue.

a. Causes of Stalemate: Three basic factors contributing to thecomplacency and conservatism of the time: The prevailing politicalideology of the time, campaign tactics of the two parties, and partypatronage.

b. Belief in limited government: We were living in laissez-faire and socialDarwinism, both ideas with a central thesis of do nothing. Federalcourts were ruling narrowly in relation to business; and this limited theregulatory of the Congressional laws that actually did get passed.

c. Campaign Strategy: The elections from 1876-1892 were very close,leading to neither party stepping too far out of bounds on key issues.

The Democrats won only two elections in the electoral college (but won

4 in popular vote.) Congress was divided, except for two years of theHarrison presidency when Congress and the White House wasRepublican.

i. Campaigns change: Buttons, bands, flags, free beer, andrhetoric. Both parties highly organized (the Republicans at thestat level and the Dems in the cities. The irony being that theseissue-free elections brought out 80% of the voters. This was dueto strong party affiliation and loyalty, whether it be due toregional, religious, or ethnic ties.


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ii. Waving the Bloody Shirt still effective for the Republicans, asthey continually won the vote of reformers and blacks. Middleclass, Anglo-Saxon protestants voted Republican, and theysupported high tariffs for business.

iii. Democrats had the Solid South but in the North Democraticsupport came from big city political machines and immigrants.

Dems were Catholics, Lutherans and Jews who hatedtemperance and prohibition crusades conducted usually byRepublicans. Dems believed in states rights and limited federalpower.

d. Party patronage: Since neither party had a real agenda, this erabecame a game of getting an office and holding on to that office, thenproviding jobs to the party faithful. For example, Roscoe Conkling ofNew York was elected Senator for NY, then dictated who among theRepublican ranks would be appointed in the NY Customs House.Conkling and his men were known as the Stalwarts while their rivals,under the control ofJames Blaine, were known as the Half Breeds.Who got jobs became the most important issue of the day, while thoseRepublicans who refused to play along were labeled Mugwumps,

because their mug was on one side of the fence while their wumpwas on the other. Either way, this was American politics at its nadir.

e. Presidential Politics:

i. Rutherford B. Hayes: Ended Reconstruction, tried to bring backhonest government, Lemonade Lucy, he vetoed efforts torestrict Chinese immigration. He and his family sang religioussongs around the piano every night of his presidency.

ii. James Garfield: Hayes decided to serve only one term, so theRepublicans nominated Halfbreed Garfield of Ohio with StalwartChester Arthur of New York as VP. Dems nominated WinfieldHancock. Reps win very close vote. Garfield was then besiegedby 100,000 job seekers, he gave most of those jobs toHalfBreeds, which pissed off the Stalwarts and Senator

Conkling. Garfield was eventually shot by a Stalwart whileboarding a train in Baltimore. After 11 weeks, he died due tothe constant probing of doctors using filthy instruments.Alexander Graham Bell was even brought in to try to find thebullet with a primitive metal detector, but no luck.

1. Charles Guiteau shot him. Guiteau had been seenstalking around the White House for days and was eventold by SecState Blaine to never come back again.

2. Garfield, by the way, had been part of the CreditMobilier scandal during the Grant administration (heaccepted a bribe of $329. During the campaign of 1880,anti-Garfield politicos scrawled 329 in front of his house,and everywhere else they could find.)

iii. Chester Arthur: He distanced himself from the Stalwarts,supported a civil service bill (Pendleton Civil Service Reform),and approved the development of a modern American navy. Healso began to question the high protective tariff. As a reward forgoing against the party, he was not nominated in 1884. Peoplethough he was very lazy, that he was content putting off tiltomorrow what could be done today. In reality, he had Brightsdisease, which severely saps ones energy. He contracted


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malaria while fishing in Florida and died only 8 months afterleaving the White House.

f. Congressional Leaders: Weak Congressmen as well. John Sherman(brother of William) was in 1855 to 1898 and did almost nothing,except loan out his name to a number of bills, including the ShermanAnti-Trust Act of 1890. Thomas Czar Reed from Maine took over the

House as speaker in 1890 and instituted an autocratic rule that tookyears to break. James Blaine transformed the Republican Party from ananti-slavery party into a big business party, but his reputation wastarnished by Railroad bribes and other scandals.

g. The Election of 1884: Blaine nominated by the Republicans, butMugwumps were wary of his scandals, so they jumped aboard theDemocratic ticket and Grover Cleveland. Governor of New York andincorruptible, honest, frugal, etc. Republicans attacked him for havingan illegitimate child (which he fully admitted during the election, anhonesty that helped him win). The Dems were labeled as the party ofrum, Romanism, and rebellion. Catholics were offended and theirvotes in NY and other key states turned the election over to Cleveland.

i. Cleveland Fun Fact: He had a friend named Oscar Folsom who

died, leaving behind a wife and an 11-year-old daughter.Cleveland had been caring for the kid, named Frances, sinceshe was born (when Cleveland was 27.) Emma and Franceswould often visit Cleveland in the White House, and the nationbegan to wonder if the bachelor president was wooing EmmaFolsom. Instead he was actually wooing Frances, who was now21. He became the first president to be married in the WhiteHouse. The two of them had 5 children. One daughter, namedRuth, was so popular with the nation that Nestle named a candybar after her, Baby Ruth.

ii. Clevelands First Term: A true Jeffersonian in that he was frugaland supported limited government. He implemented the newCivil Service system, and vetoed hundreds of private pensionbills for those wrongfully claimed had been injured in the CivilWar. He signed the Interstate Commerce Act (governmentsfirst effort to regulate business) and the Dawes Act (assimilationof natives) into law. He also took 81 million acres of federal landback from cattle ranchers and railroaders.

h. Issues: Civil Service, Currency, and Tariffs.i. Civil Service Reform: Garfields assassination pushed Congress

to limit the types of jobs usually reserved for patronage. ThePendleton Act of 1881 set up the Civil Service Commission,creating a system where one had to score highly on a test toqualify for certain government jobs. Civil servants could nolonger make political contributions. This law applied to only10% of federal employees but expands later until most federal

jobs were classified (taken out of the hands of politicians.)ii. The Money Question: A hotly debated question during this time

was whether or not the federal government should expand themoney supply.

1. There was a growing division between the haves and thehave nots. Debtors, farmers, and start up businesseswanted more money in circulation, which would enablethem to borrow money at a lower interest rate, as wellas pay off their loans easier with inflated dollars.


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2. After the Panic of 73 many Americans blamed the goldstandard for restricting the money supply for the Panic.Soft money advocates campaigned first for morepaper money (greenbacks) and then for unlimitedcoinage of silver.

3. Hard money types (bankers, investors, creditors,

wealthy) stood firm, meaning currency backed only bygold stored in government vaults. They understood thatas our population grew, a limited supply of gold wouldmean that the value of that gold would only increase.

The dollar did increase in value by 300% from 1865-1895.

iii. Greenback party: The government had issued greenbacksduring the Civil War but just for emergency, this money had notbeen backed by specie. Farmers liked it, creditors hated it. In1875 Congress sided with creditors and withdrew thegreenbacks from circulation. Supporters of paper money formedthe Greenback party, receiving nearly 1 million votes in theCongressional elections of 1878 (sending 14 members to

Congress, including James Weaver of Iowa, a future leader ofthe Populist Party.) When the hard times ended, the Greenbackparty died off, but this money question would persist.

iv. Demands for silver money: Congress also stopped the coinageof silver in the 1870s, (critics called it the Crime of 73!). thensilver was discovered in Nevada, bringing back demands for theuse of silver to expand out money supply. A compromise lawwas passed, at the ration of 16-1 in favor of gold, called theBland-Allison Act. This allowed for a little bit of minting of silver,but farmers, debtors, and western miners wanted unlimitedcoinage of silver.

v. Tariff Issue: Western farmers and eastern businessmendisagreed on whether or not we should have a high tariff.

During the War, we had a high protective tariff which alsohelped fund the War. After the War, Democrats both north andsouth objected to this tariff, due to the fact that it raised pricesand also caused other countries to pass similar tariffs, whichmeant that American farmers were losing a share of theoverseas market which created surpluses of wheat and cornresulting in lower farm prices. Industry was growing rich at theexpense of rural America.

B. The Growth of Discontent: 1888-1896. People despised the corruption, themoney issue, tariffs, railroads, trusts, etc. Politicians began to take small stepsto respond to the public, but not until a third party (Populists) formed wouldthere be any change.

a. Harrison and the Billion Dollar Congress: Toward the end of his term,

Cleveland introduced a lower tariff, since we had a growing surplus andwe did not need the tax revenue.

i. The Election of 1888: This was the first real issue to bediscussed in Washington in years. Dems campaigned forCleveland, Republicans campaigned for Benjamin Harrison(grandson of William Henry Harrison) and a high tariff. Repsargued that a low tariff would wreck business, they ralliednorthern workers whose jobs required a good economy. Repsalso attacked Clevelands vetoing of pensions which broughtout the veteran vote. After a close election, Cleveland received


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more popular votes, but Harrisons sweep of the North gave himmore electoral votes and the election.

ii. The Billion Dollar Congress: This Congress was very busy,passing the first billion dollar budget in US history. For the firsttwo years of Harrisons term, The Reps controlled both housesand the presidency. They enacted the following:

1. McKinley Tariff of 1890: Raised the tax on foreignproducts to 48%, a peacetime high.2. Increases in the monthly pension for Civil War vets,

widows, and kids.3. Sherman Anti-Trust Act: Outlawed combinations in

restraint of trade.4. Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890: Increased the

coinage of silver, but in amounts too small to satisfyfarmers and miners.

5. A bill to protect the voting rights of blacks: passed by theHouse but defeated in the Senate.

iii. Return of the Democrats: 1890 mid term elections, Democratswin many seats. Why? Because voters were reacting tounpopular measures passed by local Reps, like prohibition ofalcohol and Sunday closing days (Blue Laws.) Dems were nottrying to legislate public morality.

b. The Rise of the Populists: Farmers Alliances were electing US senatorsand Congressmen as well as governors in several states, and were themajority in 4 western state legislatures.

i. Omaha Platform: The Alliance movement transformed into thePeoples, or Populist, party. In 1892 delegates from severalstates met in Omaha to draft a political platform and nominatecandidates for president and vice president. Populists wanted tobreak up the concentration of power and wealth. OmahaPlatform called for both political and economic reform.Politically, it wanted the direct popular election of US senatorsand initiative and referendum laws. Economically, it wantedunlimited coinage of silver, a graduated income tax, publicownership of railroads by the U.S. government, telegraph andtelephone owned and operated by the government, loans andfederal warehouses for farmers so they could stabilize theirfarms, and an 8-hour day for workers. This attack on laissez-faire was gutsy and revolutionary, but it also marked the firsttime we see a political alliance form between poor blacks andpoor whites.

ii. The Election of 1892: James Weaver was nominated forpresident, he received more than 1 million votes and won 22electoral votes (not many third party guys can claim that.) Theylost badly in the South and failed to win support of northernworkers. This uniting of blacks and whites sent the Southscurrying to figure out new ways of disenfranchising blacks.

1. Cleveland won the election over Harrison. He wonbecause of the unpopular high McKinley tariff. Clevelandbecomes the first and only president to return to officeafter leaving. After leaving office, Harrison eventuallymarried his late wifes niece and cut his complainingchildren out of his will. He was the last president to havea beard.


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c. Depression Politics: As soon as Cleveland took office, the nation fellinto a severe depression. (Panic of 93, the longest one so far.)

i. Panic of 1893: Over-speculation on the stock market caused itto crash, and dozens of railroad companies went bankrupt as aresult of overbuilding. This depression lasted 4 years (with farmforeclosures reaching a new high and unemployment reaching

20%. Soup kitchens, riding the rails, hobos provide a previewfor the 1930s. Cleveland adopted hands off approach, evenmore conservative than he had been in the 1880s.

ii. Gold reserve and tariff: A decline in silver prices encouragedinvestors to trade their silver dollars for gold dollars. The goldreserve (gold bars stored in the U.S. Treasury) fell to adangerously low level, and Cleveland and Congress repealedthe Sherman Silver Act. It didnt help the gold drain. J.P. Morganloaned $65 million in gold to support the gold standard. Thisdeal showed many that the government was simply a bitch forbusiness. Cleveland then crushed the Pullman strike using themilitary, further pushing Americans into this belief.

1. Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894: This is one of the things

the Dems did that people approved of. It provided amoderate reduction of the tariff and a 2% income tax onthose whose income was more than $2,000. This wasonly those in the higher income bracket (averageAmerican made less than $1,000 at the time.) TheSupreme Court later declared an income taxunconstitutional.

iii. Jobless on the march: The depression worsened and the joblessnumbers swelled, conservatives began to fear class warfare.

1. Coxeys Army: A march to Washington in 1894 bythousands of unemployed led by Populist Jacob Coxey ofOhio. This army demanded that the government spend$500 million on public works programs to create jobs.

Coxey and other leaders were arrested for trespassing,and the Army headed home.

2. Coins Financial School, a book by William H. Harveyfeaturing cartoons, seemed to offer an easy solution tothe problem. The book said that Americas problemswere caused by a conspiracy of rich bankers and onlywhen the government coined silver in unlimitedquantities would prosperity return.

C. Turning Point in American Politics, 1896: With Clevelands repeal of the SilverAct and his mishandling of the Depression, and the Republican comeback inthe midterm elections of 94, the stage was set for a reshaping of Americanpolitics in 96.

a. The Election of 1896: It was one of the most emotional elections, as

well as marking a new era of American politics.i. Bryan, Democrats, and Populists: The Democrats were split

between gold candidate Cleveland and silver people, whowere looking for a candidate. The pro-silver forces dominatedthe convention in Chicago, with 36-year-old William JenningsBryan delivering a rattling speech at the convention thatliterally made him the nominee overnight. The Cross of Goldspeech, which ends with you shall not crucify mankind upona cross of gold!


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1. The Dems called for unlimited coinage of silver, at thetraditional ratio of 16 ounces of silver to one ounce ofgold (at the time the market ratio was 32 to one.) In oneswift move, the Democrats had adopted the Populistplatform, which left the Populists to also nominateBryan.

ii. McKinley, Hanna, and Republicans: Reps nominate McKinley ofOhio (of high protective tariff fame.) Big businessman MarcusHanna was his financial power behind the scenes and becamehis campaign manager. McKinley blamed the Dems for theDepression, and proposed a high tariff and the gold standard.

This was the first time a candidate went coast to coast and somuch money was spent by both parties to get their candidateinto the White House.

iii. The Campaign: Gold bug democrats defected and joined theReps, giving the Reps the early lead in the campaign. Bryancountered by making the silver issue a national crusade, goingby train from one end of the country to another, he traveledover 18,000 miles and gave over 600 speeches. McKinley and

Hanna, however, used the mass media and millions of bigbusiness dollars to conduct McKinleys front porch campaign.Oh by the way, Mac used over #3 million while Bryansspending maxed out at $50,000.

1. Bryan was hurt in the last days of the campaign by a risein wheat prices, which made farmers less desperate,employees telling their workers that factories would beshut down if Bryan were elected. McKinley won all thenortheast states and the upper Midwest, winning 271 to176 electors and 7.1 million to 6.5 million.

b. McKinleys Presidency: Mac took office just as the economy wasreviving. Klondike gold discovery in Alaska in 97 increased the moneysupply under the gold standard, which resulted in the inflation that the

silverites had wanted. Farm prices rose, factory production increased,and the stock market regained momentum. Reps enacted a highertariff (the Dingley tariff of 1897) and made gold the official standard ofU.S. currency. Mac was good at getting people together, and evenbrought the nation together with the war in Cuba and the Philippines.He was the last president who was a veteran of the Civil War, firstwhose inauguration was filmed. His wife, Ida, was epileptic and wouldhave seizures frequently. If it was at a state function, he would simplydrop a towel over her face, as the darkness would settle her down.When he was shot, his first reaction was My wifebe careful how youtell heroh, be careful!

c. Significance of the Election of 96:i. Marked the end of the stagnation that had characterized the

Gilded Age.ii. The defeat of Bryan initiated the dominance of the Republican

Party (seven of the next nine presidents, and 17 of the 20Congressional sessions were all-Republican as well.) The oldparty of free soil, free labor and free men was now the partyof big business, industry, and strong national government. TheDems were a sectional (Southern) party and host to whateverremained of the Populists movement.

iii. Populist Demise: Party declined after this election, ThomasWatson and other party leaders gave up on uniting poor whites


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and blacks, as racism was stronger than common economicinterests. Most of the Populist reforms would see the light ofday as ingredients in the Progressive platform (1900-1917).

iv. Urban Dominance: This election was a clear victory for bigbusiness, urban centers, conservatives, and middle classvalues. It was the last chance for the rural Americans to reclaim

their lost dominance. Perhaps this was an election whichshowed the triumph of the values of modern industry and urbanAmerica over the ideals of TJ and Andrew Jackson.

v. Beginning of modern politics: Mac emerged as Americas firstmodern leader, taking us from an isolationist country to a majorplayer in international affairs. Mark Hanna created a model fororganizing and financing a successful campaign focused onwinning favorable publicity in the mass media.

Terms:

Gilded AgeSolid South

Roscoe ConklingStalwartsHalfbreedsMugwumpsRutherford B. Hayes

James GarfieldChester Arthur

Thomas ReidJames BlaineGrover ClevelandRum, Romanism, and RebellionPendleton ActGreenback Party

James WeaverCrime of 1873Bland-Allison Act (1878)Benjamin HarrisonBillion dollar CongressVeterans pensionsMcKinley Tariff (1890)Sherman Silver Purchase Act (90)Populist PartyOmaha platformPanic of 1893Gold drainCoxeys ArmyWilliam Harvey and Coins Financial SchoolWilliam Jennings BryanCross of Gold SpeechFree silverGold Bug DemocratsWilliam McKinleyMark HannaDingley Tariff (97)

Term List for Reconstruction-1900:


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Presidential ReconstructionProclamation of Amnesty andReconstruction (1863)Wade-Davis Bill (1864)Andrew JohnsonFreedmans Bureau

Black CodesCongressional ReconstructionRadical RepublicansCharles SumnerThaddeus StephensBenjamin WadeCivil Rights Act of 186614th AmendmentEqual ProtectionDue Process of the lawReconstruction Acts (1867)Tenure of Office Act (1867)Edwin StantonImpeachment15th AmendmentCivil Rights Act of 1875ScalawagsCarpetbaggersBlanche BruceHiram RevelsSharecroppingSpoilsmenPatronage

Jay GouldCredit MobilierBoss Tweed and the Tweed RingThomas NastSamuel TildenLiberal RepublicansHorace GreeleyPanic of 73GreenbacksRedeemersKu Klux KlanAmnesty Act of 1872Rutherford B. HayesCompromise of 1877Great American DesertMining frontierComstock Lode

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)Cattle drivesCowboysBarbed wireFarming frontierGreat PlainsOklahoma TerritoryFrederick Jackson TurnerReservations

Indian WarsSitting BullCrazy HorseGeorge CusterLittle Big HornChief Joseph

Helen Hunt JacksonAssimilationistsDawes Severalty Act (1887)Ghost Dance MovementWounded KneeIndian Reorganization ActNew SouthGeorge Washington CarverTuskegee InstituteCivil Rights Cases of 1883Plessy v. Ferguson

Jim Crow LawsGrandfather clausePoll taxLiteracy testHenry TurnerIda WellsBooker T. WashingtonNational Negro Business LeagueCommercial farmingCrop-price deflationGrange movementCooperativesGranger lawsMunn v. IllinoisWabash v. IllinoisInterstate Commerce Act (1886)National AllianceOcala PlatformCornelius Vanderbilt

John D. RockefellerAndrew Carnegie

J. P. MorganNew York Central RailroadTrunk lineTranscontinental railroadsUnion and Central Pacific

Jay Gould (again)Watered stockpools

RR land grantsRebatesPanic of 1893William VanderbiltBessemer ProcessSecond Industrial RevolutionVertical IntegrationHorizontal IntegrationU.S. Steel


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Standard Oil TrustAnti-trust MovementSherman Antitrust ActU.S. v. E. C. Knight (1890)Laissez-faire capitalismAdam Smith

Social DarwinismHerbert SpencerSurvival of the fittestGospel of wealthRussell ConwellProtestant work ethicTransatlantic cableAlexander Graham BellThomas EdisonSamuel MorseGeorge WestinghouseConsumer goodsSears and RoebuckMontgomery WardConcentration of wealthHoratio Alger

Upward mobilityWhite collar workersMiddle classDavid RicardoIron law of wagesOrganized labor

ScabsLockoutsblacklist

Yellow dog contractsinjunctionRR strike of 1877National Labor UnionKnights of LaborTerence v. PowderlyHaymarket Square RiotAmerican Federation of LaborSamuel GompersHomestead Strike (1892)Pulman Strike (1894)Eugene V. DebsIn re Debs

ap gilded age notes unit 6

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