Politics and Law and Order; Indian wars. Flashcards
What type of government is the government of the US?
A federal government, with power split between the national and state government.
How many states in the US to start with?
13
How did the constitution change as more states were admitted?
It did not need to, the constitution allowed for the addition of more states.
How is each state governed?
Each state has a governor and a legislature (law making body). It sends delegates to the House of Representatives and the Senate in Washington DC.
What is the implication of having state legislatures?
Laws can vary in different states and even areas.
As the west developed, it was carved roughly into?
territories.
What could territories do?
Appoint some officials, but the federal government appointed many of the more important ones.
When could a territory become a state?
When it reached a population of 60,000.
Why would ambitious local politicians want people to move into their territory?
Because they wanted the territory to become a state, as that meant the local politicians would be more important.
Who divided the states?
Their own legislature.
What was each state divided into?
Counties.
What did each county have?
Administrative seat, courthouse and jail.
How did towns start?
Some grew naturally, others were “boosted” in to being by business promoters, and towns formed their own municipal governments.
The west had developed quite a lot by 1890, what did the US Bureau of the Census do?
It declared the frontier closed, there were no large areas of unclaimed land awaiting settlers, and what there was was not good quality land.
What did town marshals control?
Law enforcement in a small area around their town.
What could federal marshals do?
Enforce law throughout the US, but the crime had to be one dealt with by the federal courts.
What is the distinction between state courts and federal courts?
They try different crimes.
What is the final point of appeal for the states?
The state governor.
How many of the people who struggled into the west for the gold rush and beef bonanza made a huge fortune?
Very few.
How were the transcontinental railway, and cities such as San Francisco, funded?
By the gold revenues.
What helped make the US a major world trading nation?
Trading in gold.
What natural resource became important in the last quarter of the 19th century?
Oil
Where are many of the best oil fields in the US?
In the West.
What was law like in the old West?
It was very violent, lawless.
Why was the West in the late 1800s so violent?
There were changes in society, cattle barons, railroads and other corporations (who were large) were taking over from the small homesteaders, small ranchers and prospectors.
What do some historians call the violence of the late 1800s in the American West?
Western Civil War of Incorporation.
What were some outlaws treated as, and why?
They were treated as heroes as they were seen as standing up for ordinary people against the corporations.
Who was Jesse James?
The leader of the outlaw James Younger gang.
Why was Jesse James so popular?
The gang’s targets were the hated banks and railway companies.
What were the range wars?
Small scale conflicts between groups of ranchers with competing interests.
Who was famous in the Lincoln County War in New Mexico?
Billy the Kid. The “war” was fought between two competing cattle kings.
Who was Wyatt Earp?
An outlaw who later became a lawman.
What was Wyatt Earp’s crime?
He was arrested in 1871 for cattle rustling (stealing); he was involved in the killing of 3 men at the OK Corral in 1881. He also took part in the “Dodge City War” in 1883, when Dodge City was the “wickedest city” in the West. 3 years later, cattle trails gone, it was just a sleepy little town.
What was Wyatt Earp’s career after his stealing and murdering?
He became a lawman. He also got to write the history of the OK Corral, and even got to advise on the film made about the event in Hollywood!
Why did people take the law into their own hands in the West?
The place was often lawless, laws were not enforced so people had to defend their own property or even lives.
What did the lack of formal law enforcement lead to?
Vigilante groups (people who decided to enforce law in their own way, often with violence)
Who joined the early vigilante groups?
Ordinary citizens, often ordinary citizens who had a grudge as they had suffered because of actions of others.
What happened to vigilante groups later on?
They were used as tools by the big businesses, usually against “outlaw” groups opposing their expansion.
Who was on the side of law, and who was outlaw, in the West?
It was hard to tell, it was often a matter for debate, and the whole truth was almost impossible to find out.
When was the Johnson County War?
1892
What was the Johnson County War?
One of the Range Wars
What started the Johnson County War?
Small landowners in Johnson County felt that the cattle barons were stealing their land. The Ranchers thought that the homesteaders were stealing their cattle.
In 1889 Watson and Averill were murdered by a lynch mob. Why?
A rancher, AJ Bothwell wanted land claimed by Averill. Averill lived with a prostitute called Watson who had some rebranded cows. Bothwell accused them both of rustling and the lynch mob killed them.
What did the Wyoming Stock Growers Association do in 1892?
They drew up a hit list of 70 suspected rustlers, and mounted a huge vigilante raid into Johnson county - on a special train laid on by Union Pacific Railroad! They called themselves “the Regulators”
What happened when the Regulators got into Johnson County?
They killed two alleged rustlers, but a group of locals came and laid siege on the Regulators at a ranch called the TA. Eventually there were 250 locals,including the Sheriff of Buffalo, ready to kill the Regulators.
How was the siege at the TA ranch resolved?
The Stock Growers Association had influence with the government, and they used this to influence the government who called the army to rescue the Regulators, which was done by a bloodless truce.
Who was taken to court after the Regulators had murdered two men?
No one!
How did the settlers believe the Native Americans were?
Lazy, savage.
What did the settlers believe about land?
They believed in land ownership, so their exclusive use of the land had priority over the tribal rights. They would also have felt that they only had a “little bit”, and why should the Native Americans have all that land when they don’t even use it.
Who were the exceptions to the general settler view of the Native Americans?
They tended to be the people who knew them best, eg Jim Bridger, the mountain man.
What were the Native Americans given as their land in 1830?
The whole of the Great Plains.
What was the eastern edge of the Great Plain known as?
The Permanent Indian Frontier.
How were the plains viewed at the time that they were given to the Native Americans in 1830?
The Great American Desert - wild, inhospitable.
Why did the great migration start in 1843?
The population of the US was rising rapidly.
Where did the great migration go?
It moved west across the plains to Oregon and California to find land.
What did the great migration mean for the Plains Indians?
There was some disruption to the buffalo herds, but mainly it was just a trading opportunity for the Plains Indians.
