Period 6: 1865 - 1898 Flashcards
President Grant (1868-1878)
Grant wins for the Republicans, first election that blacks can vote in and they vote Republican; administration plagued w/ corruption
Credit Mobilier affair
Under Grant, VP and members of Congress involved in railroad stock scandal
Whiskey Ring (1875)
Private secretary of Grant helped steal 3 million from the fed. gov. in a tax corruption scheme
Grantism
term used to describe corruption in politics
Boss Tweed
Boss of Tammany Hall (political machine) who used bribery, graft, fraudulent elections to steal $ from ppl and get them to vote for him; ex. of local political corruption
Thomas Nast
political cartoonist who would #expose Boss Tweed
Panic of 1873
severe economic collapse which further distracts the nation from enforcing Reconstruction
Causes: 1. overproduction in industries
2. over speculation by bankers: too much $ loaned out
- hard times were worst on debtors and they wanted to relax tight money policies
- big businesses like JP Morgan consolidate RRs and created monopolies
Hard $ v. Soft $
debate between “hard currency” and “greenbacks” so farmers and debtors want more greenbacks so they can pay their debts off faster
Election of 1876, Compromise of 1877
Republican Hayes vs. Democrat Tilden, political controversy as 3 S. states were contested so the Compromise of 1877 says that the S. would recognize Hayes as President as long as he pulls federal troops from the S. and end Reconstruction, and provide patronage for S. and fed. aid for transcontinental RR
- End of Reconstruction!
Civil Rights Cases of 1883
Court says that the 14th amendment only protects against gov. violations of civil rights so ppl can discriminate all they want; overturns the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and leads to Jim Crow
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
separate but equal is constitutional
“New South”
promoted southern rebuilding, industrializing and development of economy but it remains mostly agrarian w/ sharecropping and tenant farming carrying the economy
Disenfranchisement of blacks
- literacy tests
- poll taxes
- property requirements
- grandfather clauses: exempted from electoral requirements anyone who voted in 1860 (white ppl)
Chinese immigration
large increase in Asian immigration so important during the various mining booms and railroads, caused spike in nativism towards Asians in the W. -> Chinese Exclusion Act
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
prohibited further immigration of Chinese laborers; first time immigration restrictions put in place based on race and nationality
Gilded Age
post Civil War post Reconstruction time of rapid economic and population growth; term coined by Mark Twain bc all looks prosperous on the outside but so much corruption on the inside like rise of poverty and bad working conditions bc of industrialization
Civil Service reform, Half-Breeds, Stalwarts
patronage used by both political parties so civil service jobs given to supporters (“to the victor belongs the spoils”)
Half-Breeds: advocated civil service reform
Stalwarts: supporters of patronage
2nd Industrial Revolution
growth of large scale industry and production of steel, petroleum, power and machines to produce goods
Steel Industry, Carnegie, Vertical integration
Andrew Carnegie used vertical integration (company controls every stage in production process) in the U.S. Steel Corporation
Oil Industry, Rockefeller, Horizontal integration
Standard Oil Trust run by Rockefeller which used horizontal integration (eat up all the competition like the squid cartoon thing)
Sherman Antitrust Act
prohibited trusts but didn’t say what a trust was so they started calling unions trusts and it was a bad law
Laissez-faire capitalism
no gov. regulation of business, gov. pro business pro trust usually policies
Social Darwinism
belief that Darwin’s ideas of natural selection and survival of the fittest could be applied to the marketplace so those who were rich were meant to be better and helping the poor was bad bc it disrupted natural order
Gospel of Wealth
Protestant defense of wealth saying that God gave the wealthy their riches and that they had a God-given responsibility to use it to benefit society through philanthropy (Carnegie)
Marketing
department stores and mail order companies and consumer culture
Impact of industrialiation
raised the standard of living for more ppl bc they could afford the new mass produced technologies but created sharper class divisions, 10% controlled 90% of the wealth
Changes in labor during Industrial Revolution
before there was more value on artisan skill but now in factories were prized on productivity not quality and workers did monotonous asks under the “tyranny of the clock” Just like ur boy JURGIS from THE JUNGLE
Employment strategies for defeating unions
lockout, blacklists, yellow-dog contracts, calling in private guards and state militia, getting court injunctions
Great Railroad Strike of 1877
RR companies cut wages during depression and strike at Ohio Railroad spread and for the first time federal troops were used to end labor violence (Pres. Hayes)
National Labor Union
first union which advocated higher wages and the 8 hour workday which they succeeded to do
Knights of Labor
open to all workers, reform goals included worker cooperatives, abolition of child labor, abolition of trusts and monopolies; preferred arbitration rather than strikes; was v popular then declined after Haymarket Bombing
Haymarket Bombing (1886)
bomb explodes during public meeting in Haymarket Square which causes public to view labor union movement as a radical and violent and filled with Marxists
American Federation of Labor
AF of L Sam Gompers, concentrated skilled workers and on more narrow economic goals than the Knights, focused on higher wages and improved working conditions through local collective bargaining; “bread and butter” issues w/ direct results
Pullman Strike
RR workers strike against co.
Pullman Strike
RR workers strike against co.
Growth of railroads
even tho gov. is laissez faire they are pretty pro business so gave land and subsidies to railroad companies bc hope it would increase value of federal land and get preferred rates so RR co.’s est. modern stocks, management strategies, financing and competition; consolidation and standardization
First Transcontinental Railroad
est. by Pacific Railroad Act (1862); Union Pacific like the middle uses Irish immigrants and Central Pacific in the W. uses Chinese
Impact of railroad
unified domestic market so creating a national market for goods, mass distribution of raw materials and manufactured goods, mass production, mass consumption and specialization, promote other industries, ease of movement and time zones
*corruption and economic instability
Gilded Age Republicans
waved the “bloody shirt” to campaign, kept votes of African Americans, reformers, businessmen, supported pro-business and high protective tariffs
Gilded Age Democrats
solid South, political machines, immigrants, supported states’ rights and limiting powers of federal gov.
Rutherford B. Hayes (R, 1876-1880)
becomes Pres. after Compromise of 1877, sends federal troops to break up Great Railroad strike
James Garfield (1880-1884)
assassinated, Chester A. Arthur supports Pendleton Act and civil service reform
Grover Cleveland (D, 1884-1888)
strong advocate of laissez faire and signed Interstate Commerce Act and Dawes Act (Native Americans)
Benjamin Harrison (R, 1888-1892)
advocated for keeping high tariff, Billion Dollar Congress - McKinley Tariff, Civil War pensions
Pendleton Act (1881)
set up Civil Service Commission and created system of testing for civil service workers to be hired; reduce the idiots from the spoils patronage system
Hard money v. Soft money
debtors and farmers wanted soft money bc it would allow them to borrow money at lower interest, and pay off their loans faster; bankers and businesses wanted hard money so that backing by gold would preserve value during inflation and they wanted to get paid at real value
Greenback Party
supporters of paper money made up of farmers who benefited high prices
Specie Resumption Act (1875)
Congress withdraws all greenbacks from circulation like those issued during the Civil War
Harrison’s Billion Dollar Congress
McKinley Tariff raised tax on foreign goods to record high, increased monthly pensions to Civil War veterans, Sherman Antitrust Act
Wabash case
states could not regulate interstate commerce
Interstate Commerce Act, Interstate Commerce Commission
sets up Interstate Commerce Commission: first large scale attempt by federal gov. to regulate business in interest of society but initially not v effective
so federal gov. would oversee RRs, banned pooling rebates and rate fixing (corruption in RR big business system) and companies had to publish rates
Ideas of Industrial Revolution
Laissez faire, survival of the fittest, gospel of wealth
Growth of cities
huge increase in urbanization bc of economic opportunities in industrial jobs bringing ppl to cities, African Americans moving N., supported by new technology
Challenges in cities
growth of urban poverty leads to lack of sanitation (tenements) and rising gap between rich and poor, neighborhoods segregated by race like Little Italy
Political machines
controlled the party and rewarded supporters w/ jobs so got the immigrants by providing them w/ welfare; Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall; greed, graft, corruption, fraud
Different type of immigration
Old immigrants: from N. or W. Europe, Protestant, unskilled, quick to assimilate, came from democratic places, not that poor
New immigrants: S. or E. immigrants, more diverse religion, more skilled, reluctant to assimilate, more radical beliefs, arrived poor
Why did ppl come to America
American ideals of political and religious freedom, stories and the economic opportunity of the American Dream, also bc lack of land and more poverty in Europe
Response to changing immigration
large rise in nativism for reasons, racial: not Anglo-Saxon, economic: stealing American jobs, political: radical ideals, religious: not Protestant
policies attempted to exclude like the Chinese Exclusion Act, American Protective Association (Anti-Catholic), literacy tests, *connection to quota acts later
Responses to Urbanization
Social Gospel Movement: Christians had responsibility to deal w/ urban poverty
Salvation Army: poverty relief
moral improvement and Americanization of the poor and immigrants
Settlement House Movement: Jane Addams and the Hull House
What does industrial revolution eventually lead to
so many problems will eventually cause Progressive Movement in the 1890s bc of the rise of press and education and more opportunities for ppl to advocate moral improvement
Booker T. Washington
says African Americans need get vocational skills to gain respect and economic security, est. Tuskegee institute, does not directly challenge white supremacy
W.E.B. BuBois
founds the NAACP which demanded immediate political and social equality for blacks, rejected Booker T. Washington’s gradualism
Changes in the arts
increase of realism to expose corruption like Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain and naturalism to show how emotions affect humans, color block painting and more realism,, jazz and ragtime
19th century popular culture
popular press, amusements like nickelodeon theaters, amusement parks and the circus bc of advertising, less working hours and decline of Victorian ideals, sports
Western expansion
promoted by federal gov. w/ laws like the Homestead Act, Pacific Railroad Act
Homestead Act
offered public land to any person who lived on it and improved it for 5 years to encourage W. settlement; limitations: quality of land poor, high cost of supplies, nature, fraud, fluctuating economy
Pacific Railroad Act (1862)
authorized building of transcontinental railroad and the fed. gov. would give money and land subsidies to RR companies to construct
Economy of the W., Mining
boom and bust cycle shown in the mining industry like gold in Pike’s Peak and the Comstock Lode; environmental destruction and loss of Native land
Economy of the W., Cattle
Vaqueros had been doing cattle for long time and RRs open up new markets but bust when bad winter or barbed wire from railroads
Myth v. Reality of the W.
romanticized view of cowboys, ignored the Natives, melting pot like all the Chinese immigrants, African Americans and Mexican cowboys
Biggest impact of W. expansion
Natives were severely strained w/ all the ppl coming in, severe decrease in bison pop. -> Indian Wars
Indian Wars, Sand Creek Massacre, Battle of Little Big Horn
violence as whites move to Native land, Sand Creek Massacre, Battle of Little Big Horn (Sioux tribe kills Custer and his men), Battle of Wounded Knee
Battle of Wounded Knee
ghost dance movement amongst the Sioux in Dakota which was a religious revival that they thought would rid of white settlers, in the battle the U.S. kills 200 Natives in basically a massacre; *marks end of Native Americans frontier wars
Attempts of assimilation of Natives
boarding schools intended to Americanize Natives, Dawes Severalty Act (1887)
Dawes Act (1887)
purpose to end tribal ownership of land, reservations were split into farms and Natives had potential of getting citizenship if they became American enough; v bad for natives bc most good land was sold to speculators and their pop. drops
Closing of the frontier, Frederick Turner
Oklahoma territory opens for settlement in 1889, Frederick Turner writes book to argue the closing of the frontier in 1890 and emphasized importance of frontier on American identity, criticized bc most ppl moving to cities
*connection: overseas expansion in 1890s
Farmers during late 1800s
farming was becoming more commercialized and specialized led to problems like: 1. falling prices 2. unfair business 3. high cost of machines 4. high tariffs
Grange Movement and Farmers Alliance
Grange Movement
org. social and educational activities for farmers then advocated reforms like gov. regulation and ownership of business
Munn v. Illinois
upheld law that states could regulate railroads, overturned in Wabash case which says they can’t -> Interstate Commerce Act
Farmers Alliance
alliance like the Grange to promote economic and political action for farmers
Populists
formed by ppl in Grange Movement and Farmers Alliance, wanted gov. ownership of railroads, free coinage of silver (increase $ supply), rich pay more income tax, direct election and referendum
End of 19th Century America summary
- growing frustration over laissez faire capitalism
- org. of farmers like the Grange, Alliance, Populists
- Industrial Problems like Homestead Strike, Panic of 1893, Coxey’s Army (unemployed demanded the gov. hire jobless for public works jobs), Pullman Strike
