Unit 7

1. Unit 7 CH 22,23,26

2. Crédit Mobilier Scandal • Crédit Mobilier– construction company set up by several stockholders of the Union Pacific • Included Oakes Ames member of congress • Investors signed contracts with themselves • Overcharged Union Pacific-RR agreed to pay inflated bills • Investors made several millions but RR was almost bankrupt • Ames gave other members of Congress shares in Union Pacific priced below market value • Election campaign 1872 came out in New York Sun • Listed members of congress that accepted bribes • Speaker of the House James Blaine • James Garfield (future President of US) • Vice President Schuyler Colfax • Scandal impression that all RR entrepreneurs were robber barons-people that loot and industry and give nothing back

3. Stalwarts & Halfbreeds • Stalwart – main leader Roscoe Conkling (NY) • Senator and local boss of Republican political machine • Angry that Hayes appointed reformers to cabinet • Angry that Hayes abandoned reconstruction • Angry that Democrats gained control of the south • Halfbreeds – Republican reformers • Backed reform to create openings for their own supporters • Result = Republicans nominated a mixed ticket for president

4. Election of 1880

5. Assassination of President Garfield http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6USyilfk6w&safe=active

10. Pendleton Act 1883 • Allowed President to decide which federal jobs would be filled • Based on rules by bipartisan Civil Service Commission • Candidates would compete for jobs • Examinations • Could not be removed for political reasons • Result = shift from spoils system

11. Republicans Party of reform Voting edge in New England & upper Midwest Preserved the Union Established pensions for Civil War veterans Support of formers Union soldiers Americans that were strongly patriotic Support of big business Support from farmers on the Great Plains Supported abolition Supported temperance Most were Protestants Defender of traditional American morals & values

12. Democrats Party of personal liberty Dominated the south White voters that were anti-republican following the Civil War & Reconstruction Support in big cities Support of Catholics Immigrants that lived in big cities

13. "Tattooed Man"Bernard Gillam, Puck, 1884

14. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Bernard_Gilliam_-_Phryne_before_the_Chicago_Tribunal.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Bernard_Gilliam_-_Phryne_before_the_Chicago_Tribunal.jpg

15. Election of 1884

16. Interstate Commerce Commission • Both parties=govt. should not interfere with corporations property rights • 1886 Supreme Court case Wabash V Illinois • IL could not restrict rates Wabash RR charged for traffic between states • Only federal govt. could regulate interstate commerce • 1887 congress created Interstate commerce commission • 1st federal law to regulate interstate commerce

17. Free Enterprise • U.S. embraced laissez-faire=French “let do” meaning “let people do as they choose” • Government should not interfere in the economy other than protect property rights & maintain peace • If government regulates economy=increased cost and hurts society

18. In 1888, Grover Cleveland, with his running mate, Allen G. Thurman, led a spirited campaign for reelection to the presidency. Although he played up his strong record on civil service reform and tariff reduction, Cleveland, an incumbent, lost the election to his Republican challenger, Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland tallied the greatest number of popular votes, but Harrison easily won in the Electoral College by a margin of 233 to 168. In this lithograph campaign poster, the Democratic ticket invokes the legacy of Thomas Jefferson and the patriotism of Uncle Sam.SOURCE:The Granger Collection.

19. Election of 1888

20. McKinley Tariff • Cut tobacco taxes & tariffs rates on raw sugar • Increased rates on other goods (textiles) • Discourage people from buying exports • Result = lowered federal revenue • Transferred nations budget surplus to deficit • 1890 new pension law to veterans worsened federal deficit

21. Sherman Antitrust Act 1890 Trusts=large combinations of companies that dominated certain markets Not effective because courts were responsible

22. Mining & Ranching

23. Mining Towns • Mining fostered western expansion. • Gold discoveries brought thousands of fortune seekers. • Most fortunes went to corporations that bought out the smaller claims. • Although some mine communities eventually became permanent settlements, most were short-lived boomtowns.

24. Western Labor • The western labor movement emerged in this rough and often violent climate. • Unions refused membership to Chinese, Mexican, and Indian workers. • Unions were unable to stop owners from closing down mines when the ore ran out, leaving ghost towns and environmental blight.

26. In 1890, Nicholas Creede discovered a rich vein of high-grade silver on a tributary of the Rio Grande River in Colorado. His small camp quickly grew into a boom town of more than 10,000. This photograph, taken during the years of the silver rush, shows crowds flocking to the saloons, shops, and dance halls that lined Main Street. “It’s day all day in the day time,” the editor of the local newspaper commented, “And there is no night in Creede.” SOURCE:Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

28. MAP 18.3 Railroad Routes, Cattle Trails, Gold and Silvers Rushes, 1860–1900 By the end of the nineteenth century, the vast region of the West was crosscut by hundreds of lines of transportation and communication. The trade in precious metals and in cattle helped build a population almost constantly on the move, following the rushes for gold or the herds of cattle.SOURCE:Encyclopedia of American Social History.

29. The Long Drives • The destruction of buffalo opened the path for the western cattle industry. • Cowboys rounded up herds for $30 a month (at best) and lived under harsh circumstances, stimulating efforts to unionize. • Workday lasted from sunup to sundown with night shifts to watch the cattle. • There was no protection from the elements. • Poor diet often led to disease. • The drive could be as far as 1,500 miles. • One-fifth to one-third of cowboys were Indian, Mexican, or African American.

30. Cowboys Vaqueros Mexican and Native American cowboys Civil War soldiers Former slaves Difficult and lonely work A vaquero about to rope a steer

31. Cattle Drives Led cattle to trains headed east Meatpacking industry expanded in Chicago Chisholm Trail Chuck wagon and wranglers Era ended by 1890s Cowboys herding cattle on the prairie

32. Community and Conflict • Personal violence was commonplace in the cattle towns and mining camps. • Horse theft rose rapidly during the peak years of the cattle drives. • During the 1870s, range wars turned violent when farmers, sheep ranchers, and cattle ranchers battled over the same land. • By the mid-1880s the cattle business went bust. • Overstocking led to herds depleting sparse grasslands. • Bad weather from 1885 to 1887 killed 90 percent of western cattle, and prices plummeted.

33. The Sporting Life • Few women worked on the open range. • Some 50,000 women worked as prostitutes in the West during the second half of the nineteenth century. • There were few jobs for women and many resorted to prostitution simply to pay the bills. • Their life was quite harsh and seldom paid well.

34. The Legendary Wild West • More popular presentations emphasized the West as a source of “vigorous manhood.” • Thousands of “dime novels” appeared that portrayed the region in romantic, heroic terms. • Wild West show promoters like “Buffalo Bill” Cody brought the legendary West to millions of people around the world.

35. Curly Wolves Howled on Saturday Night, a commercial woodcut from the 1870s. The artist, recording this scene at a tavern near Billings, Montana, captured what he called a “Dude and a Waitress” dancing the “Bull Calves’ Medley on the Grand Piano.” Illustrations depicting a wild and lively West appeared prominently in magazines like Harper’s Weekly, which circulated mainly among readers east of the Mississippi. SOURCE:Horace Bradley.Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

36. Romantic Notions of the West Arts and media stoked public fascination “Anything goes” spirit Cowboys and Indians Buffalo Bill A poster advertising Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show

37. Buffalo Bill’s “Wild West Show” poster from 1899. William Cody’s theatrical company toured the United States and Europe for decades, reenacting various battles, and occasionally switching to football (cowboys versus Indians). Cody’s style set the pace for both rodeos and Western silent films. SOURCE:Library of Congress.

38. Populism

39. The symbols chosen by Grange artists represented their faith that all social value could be traced to honest labor and most of all to the work of the entire farm family. The hardworking American required only the enlightenment offered by the Grange to build a better community. SOURCE:Kingfisher Reformer , May 3,1894,Library of Congress.

40. The Grange • Farmers and workers built movements that challenged the existing system. • The Grange formed in the 1870s by farmers in the Great Plains and South who suffered boom and bust conditions and natural disasters. • Grangers blamed hard times on a band of “thieves in the night,” especially railroads, and pushed through laws regulating shipping rates and other farm costs. • Grangers created their own grain elevators and set up retail stores for farm machinery. • The depression of the late 1870s wiped out most of these programs.

41. The Farmers’ Alliance • In the late 1880s, Texas farmers, led by Charles W. Macune, formed the National Farmers Alliance and Industrial Union, in cooperation with the Colored Alliance. The Alliance sought to: • challenge the disproportionate power of the governing class • restore democracy • establish a cooperative economic program • Northern Plains farmer organizations soon joined the Alliance. • Midwestern farm groups battled railroad influence. • By 1890, the Alliance was a major power in several states demanding demanded a series of economic reforms.

42. Populism and the People’s Party • Between 1890 and 1892, the Farmers’ Alliance, the Knights of Labor, the National Colored Farmers’ Alliance and other organizations formed the People’s Party. • The People’s Party platform called for: • government ownership of railroads, banks, and the telegraph • the eight-hour day • the graduated income tax, and other reforms • Though the party lost the 1892 presidential race, Populists elected three governors, ten congressional representatives, and five senators.

43. Women Build Alliances • Women actively shaped labor and agrarian protest. • The Knights included women at their national convention and even ran day-care centers and baking cooperatives. • Women were active members in the Grange and Alliances. • The greatest female leader was Frances E. Willard, who: • was president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union • mobilized nearly 1 million women to promote reform and to work for women’s suffrage

44. The Depression of 1893 • In 1893, the collapse of the nation’s major rail lines precipitated a major depression. • Full recovery was not achieved until the early 1900s. • Unemployment soared and many suffered great hardships. • Tens of thousands took to the road in search of work or food. • Jacob Coxey called for a march on Washington to demand relief through public works programs. • “Coxey’s Army” was greeted warmly by most communities on the way to Washington. • The attorney general, who was a former lawyer for a railroad company, conspired to stop the march. • Police clubbed and arrested the marchers for trespassing on the grass in Washington.

45. The Free Silver Issue • Grover Cleveland won the 1892 election by capturing the traditional Democratic Solid South and German voters alienated by Republican nativist appeals. • When the economy collapsed in 1893, government figures concentrated on longstanding currency issues to provide a solution. • The debate was over hard money backed by gold or soft money backed by silver. • Cleveland favored a return to the gold standard, losing much popular support.

46. Populism's Last Campaign • The hard times strengthened the Populists, who were silver advocates. • They recorded strong gains in 1894. • But in 1896, when the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan as a champion of free silver, Populists decided to run a fusion ticket of Bryan and Tom Watson. • Republicans ran William McKinley as a safe alternative to Bryan. • Republicans characterized Bryan as a dangerous man who would cost voters their jobs.

47. Election of 1892

48. Election of 1896

49. The Election of 1896 • Map:Election of 1896 • Bryan won 46% of the vote but failed to carry the Midwest, Far West, and Upper South. • Traditional Democratic groups like Catholics were uncomfortable with Bryan and voted Republican. • The Populists disappeared and the Democrats became a minority party. • McKinley promoted a mixture of pro-business and expansionist foreign policies. • The return to prosperity after 1898 insured continued Republican control.

50. MAP 20.2 Election of 1896 Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan carried most of rural America but could not over-come Republican William McKinley’s stronghold in the populous industrial states.