I. Gilded Age

Grant elected 1868 thanks to Black Republican vote.

Mark Twain’s term “gilded age” for corruption such as Jim Fisk, Jay Gould tried to corner the Gold Market with help from Treasury Dept.

Gilded Age

Boss Tweed/Tweed Ring – NY bribery, graft, and fraudulent elections, making $200 million; jailed by Tilden and Nast.

Credit Mobilier – construction company run by Union Pacific RR, paid itself to build rr.

More scandal

Whiskey Ring – govt workers stealing excise tax revenue, including Sec. War Belknap.

Grant defeated NY Tribune editor Horace Greeley (D) through mud-slinging: free-loving vegetarian, too soft on South.

review

Bloody Shirt Gilded Age Fisk/Gould Boss Tweed Thomas

Nast/Samuel Tilden

Credit Mobilier Whiskey Ring Horace Greeley

Newspaper editor lost to Grant

Reason to vote Republican

Corner gold market RR paid itself to build NY political boss Cartoonist, attorney

who put away Boss Tweed

Stole tax money

II. Gilded Age economics, politics

Panic of 1873 – too many loans for railroads, mines, factories, farms.

Debtors wanted greenbacks printed for inflation, formed Greenback Party; hard-money advocates won over Grant.

Passionate, purposeless politics Parties agreed on

issues; high turnout (80%) based on patronage.

GOP – midwest, rural NE - strict morality, govt involved in ec. and values; Democrats – South and Big Cities – Catholic, Lutheran immigrants, easier going morality

Stalwarts v. Half-Breed Republicans

Stalwarts – led by Roscoe Conkling (NY), pro-patronage and spoils system.

Half-Breeds – James Blaine (MN), flirted with civil service reform; real fight over who controlled patronage

review

Panic of 1873 Greenbacks Hard money Why high turnout? Republican support Democratic

support Stalwarts Half-Breeds Stalwart leader Half-Breed leader

James Blaine Roscoe Conkling Too many loans Patronage all the way Some civil service

reform Midwest, rural NE South, big cities Patronage Helps creditors Helps debtors

I. Election of 1876 and Jim Crow

Rutherford Hayes (R-OH) v. Tilden (D-NY), who won popular vote 184 electoral votes (185 needed).

3 disputed Southern states – FL, SC,LA – two sets of returns.

Compromise of 1877

Electoral Count Act – Commission of 15 would count, 8-7 GOP; Compromise 3 days before inauguration: Hayes President, troops out of La/SC.

Civil Rights Cases (1883) – Civil Rights Act 1875 applied to govt, not individuals

Jim Crow South

Jim Crow (segregation) laws passed by Redeemer Southern governments, upheld in Plessy v. Fergeson 1896, enforced through record lynching.

Debt: sharecroppers and tenant farmers; no voting: literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clause, white primaries

Election of 1876/compromise of 1877/Rutherfraud B. Hayes - explain

review

Who ran in 1876? How close did Tilden come to winning? What were the disputed states? What were the terms of the Compromise of

1877? What did the Supreme Court rule in the Civil

Rights Cases of 1883? What court case enshrined segregation laws? How was segregation enforced in the 1890s? How did African-Americans suffer

economically? Politically?

III. More politics

Nativism – Chinese came to California (“Chinatown in S.F.) to work mines and railroads, mostly male

Irish demagogue Stephen Kearney and others pushed Chinese Exclusion Act 1882, in place until 1943.

2nd assassination

1880 GOP ticket Garfield (Ohio)/Arthur instead of Hayes.

Stalwart Charles Guiteau shot Garfield (2nd shortest presidency): “I am a Stalwart. Arthur is now President.”

Pendleton Act, 1882

Stalwart Arthur signed Pendleton Act – civil service reform/merit system

By promoting good government, Arthur ruined his political career, and died in 1886.

Make your own document

Everybody make a document/cartoon that explains the importance of Garfield’s assassination.

review

Who came to China to work mines and railroads?

What law, pushed by whom, was passed in response?

Who was the second President assassinated? Who killed him and why?

What law did President Arthur sign? How did this affect his political fortunes?

I. Grover “the good” Cleveland Blaine – “Burn this

letter” – the 1884 GOP nominee – pushed mugwumps (sanctimonious) to vote Democrat

Democrat Cleveland, so honest he admitted an illegitimate son

Personal politics

“Burn, burn, burn this letter!” “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?” “Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!”

Republican insult of Democrats of “Rum, Romanism, and rebellion” pushed NY Irish to vote Democrat

Laissez-faire (hands off) Cleveland

Vetoed Texas farm bill: “people support the govt; govt doesn’t support the people.”

Fought pension-grabbers and the tariff, which caused a surplus (Oh, no!!!), and he lost to Harrison in 1888

Explain the cartoon and the context

review

Blaine Mugwump “Burn, burn, burn this letter!” “Ma, ma, where’s my pa!” What response to this? Laissez-faire Support the government Pensions tariff

II. populism

Republicans under Harrison and House Speaker Thomas Reed passed McKinley Tariff, hurting farmers and losing elections – Cleveland again, only time ever.

Populists – People’s Party – met Omaha, Nebraska and nominated Greenback James Weaver, getting 22 electoral votes

Populist proposals

Free, unlimited silver

Graduated income tax

Govt owned railroads

Direct election of Senators

1 term Presidency Initiative,

referendum Shorter workday Immigration

restriction

Challenges to Populism

Georgia’s Tom Watson first wanted interracial populism, but became race-baiting , vociferous segregationist.

Panic of 1893; huge debt; Cleveland got loan from JP Morgan and Wall Street

review

How did Republicans hurt farmers? Populists: where and what

candidate? Name 8 Populist proposals. Who was Tom Watson and how did

he change?

I. Railroads

1865 – 32,000 miles of rr; 1900 – 192,500; government subsidized building – 200 million acres given to railroads

Transcontinental RR begun by Union Pacific 1869

Irish workers: low pay, dangerous , “hells on wheels” towns

Wedding of the Rails

Central Pacific – 10,000 Chinese laborers; ex-California Governor Leland Stanford; blasting through mountain (many explosion deaths)

1869 wedding of the rails; Stanford drove a golden spike with silver hammar

Railroad revolution

Innovations: steel rail, standard gauge track, Westinghouse air brake, Pullman Palace car, standard time

Economics: Vanderbilt $100 million Markets for raw materials, manufactured goods; source of steel industry

review

How fast did rrs grow? When was transcontinental rr begun? What two companies? What two groups of laborers? What hazards? Where was the wedding of the rails? Name 6 railroad innovations. What economic significance did the

rrs have?

II. Captains of industry/robber barons

Vanderbilt – shipping, then railroads: “The law/the public”

Rockefeller (Reckafellow)– Standard Oil (for lighting first), used trusts; Social Darwinism

Carnegie , then banker JP Morgan– U.S. Steel – vertical integration, stock watering

2 famous cartoons

legislation

Interstate Commerce Act, over Cleveland’s veto, created Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroads.

Often railroad men on the commission, but stabilized system

Inventors/inventions

Kelly/Bessemer – Steel process – cold air blown on hot iron

Bell – telephone; had been a teacher of the deaf

Edison – phonograph, mimeograph, dictaphone, moving picture, lightbulb

review

Rockefeller Carnegie Vanderbilt JP Morgan Edison Bell Bessemer/Kelley ICC

Regulate railroads US Steel Shipping/railroads/

public be damned Telephone Steelmaking Lightbulb,

phonograph Standard Oil

III. Gospel of Wealth

Rockefeller, – God made me rich; Carnegie – Gospel of Wealth – altruism/responsibility.

Social Darwinism – survival of the fittest; Spencer, Darwin

change

Interstate commerce, 14th amendment protected corporations; 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act was originally ineffective.

New South – Henry Grady Atlanta Constitution; Duke – cigarette production; cotton mills with cheap labor and company store

conditions

Women, children doing factory work; inequality and wage labor up.

Regimented, repetitive factory an adjustment for farm workers.

review

Gospel of wealth Social Darwinism Why were corporations hard to

regulate? Sherman Antitrust Act Grady/New South Name 2 successful Southern

industries 4 Problems of industrialization

I. unions

1881-1900 23,000 strikes; ½ successful.

Challenges: 1. scabs 2. Bought lawyers,

press, judges, politicians, and hired thugs (Pinkertons)

3. Lockout, yellow dog contracts, and blacklist

First two

National Labor Union – 1st; skilled and unskilled; struggled to unite racially; hurt by Depression

Knights of Labor – skilled and unskilled; led by Irish Terence Powderly; fought for 8 hour day; utopian, ruined by Haymarket Square Strike

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Led by Jewish Samuel Gompers; skilled only

Shunned politics; wanted better hours, pay, conditions

Used long strike, closed shop

review

Union challenges National Labor

Union Knights of Labor American

Federation of Labor (AFL)

Terence Powderly Samuel Gompers

Leader of AFL Leader of Knights

of Labor 1st union; hurt by

bad economy Skilled worker only

union; practical goals

Skilled and unskilled; utopian goals

II. urbanization

1870-1900 – population doubled, but city population tripled.

NY (3.5m) , Philly, Chicago, all over 1 million people.

Pull factors

Came for jobs, electricity, plumbing, telephones (1880 – 50,ooo; 1900 – 1 million), department stores (Sister Carrie)

Congestion addressed by skyscrapers (Sullivan), subways

Urban problems

Crime (police invented)

Trash invented; nothing thrown away on farm; Baltimore smelled like “a million polecats.”

Dumbbell tenements and flophouses for urban poor/slums

leisure

Circus – PT Barnum – “sucker born every minute – Barnum and Bailey

Wild West shows – Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley

Sports – baseball, basketball/Naismith, football/Walter Camp

review

Population 3 cities with a million 4 pull factors 2 solutions to congestion 3 city problems

I. New Immigrants

S and E Europe – Italians, Jews, Russians, Greeks, Polish, Croats, Slovaks

Darker skin, Orthodox Christian, parochial schools, for. Language newspapers

Esp. in NY, Chicago

Push pull

Failed European farms, failure in European cities

Letters home, advertisements about unlimited opportunity in U.S.

Italians

From South; 4m came; ½ went back

Worked in construction and as longshoremen

1% graduated high school; raised chickens and vegetables in cities

review

Where? Assimilation issues Push and pull The Italian experience

II. Reactions to New Immigrants

Party Bosses controlled local governments, which built schools, parks, and hospital in immigrant communities.

Acres of Diamonds v. Social Gospel – Rauschenbusch, Gladden, Salvation Army

Women helpers and workers Jane Adams –

settlement houses – Hull House – aid and train new immigrants.

White women: phone operators, social workers, secretaries, Dept store clerks; immigrants – factories; African-Americans - maids

nativism

Nativists feared high birthrates, labor scabs, “mongrelization,’ and radicalism formed American Protective Association.

Statue of Liberty 1886, gift from France, Emma Lazarus poem

review

Party bosses Christians Settlement houses/Jane Addams Women workers and race Name 4 nativist fears Emma Lazarus

question

If you’re in a bad situation, do you try to make the best of it, or change it?

Interpret a line from the song.

I. Thought

Christian Science – Mary Baker Eddy (not scientology) faith makes you healthy

Evolution – Darwin and accomodationists

Public high schools increased; illiteracy halved

Fact/value, public health improved – Lister and Pasteur

Washington v. Du Bois

Booker T. Washington – Tuskegee Institute – self-help, segregation, agriculture (Carver) and trades, “Uncle Tom?”

W.E.B. Du Bois – talented 10th, NAACP, Niagara Movement, Harvard PhD

Ida B. Wells - antilynching

Higher ed

Black colleges – Howard, Morehouse

Hatch Act (1887) extended Morrill Act for agricultural colleges – Cal, Ohio State, Texas A&M

Philanthropists – Stanford, U of Chicago

Review – match ‘em

Christian science Evolution Public health Trades and

segregation NAACP Black colleges Pragmatism Hatch Act/Morrill

Act

Mary Baker Eddy – pray for healing

Agricultural colleges

Pasteur/Lister WEB Du Bois Booker T.

Washington Howard, Atlanta U Truth as

consequence

II. Writing

Pragmatism – John Dewey, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William James – evaluate truth of idea by consequences

Yellow journalism – Hearst, Pulitzer – sensationalism, v. AP, New York Times

writers

Mark Twain – Huck Finn, The Gilded Age

Emily Dickenson – no fame poetry

Stephen Crane – Red Badge of Courage

Jack London – Call of the Wild

Theodore Dreiser – Sister Carrie

Women

Divorce rate up, birthrate down

Carrie Chapman Chatt – suffrage (Wyoming first ) is good for urban motherhood

WCTU – Francis Willard, Carrie Nation

matching

Pragmatism Yellow Journalism Mark Twain – Emily Dickenson Stephen Crane Jack London Theodore Dreiser Sister Carrie Women’s issues

no fame poetry Call of the Wild James, Dewey,

Holmes – truth of idea in consequence

sensationalism Divorce, suffrage,

antilynching Sister Carrie Huck Finn, The Gilded

Age Red Badge of Courage

III. Frontier and Native Americans

Plains Tribes: Comanche in Texas, Sioux in Dakotas, Apache in AZ and NM, Cheyenne in Wyoming

Horses, buffalo (1865 – 15 million; 1885 < 1000) key to hunting and warfare

Treaties

Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1851; Fort Atkinson, 1853 tribal territory in Oklahoma, Dakotas

Problems: 1. illegit. Signers 2. broken promises 3. defective

provisions 4. corrupt agents

2 massacres

1864 Sand Creek, Colorado – Chivington massacred 400, including women and children

1866 William Fetterman and 81 others killed by Sioux in Wyoming Mountains, defending Bozeman Trail

review

Name 4 tribes of Plains Indians, with their location

2 key animals 2 treaties 2 reservations 4 problems with treaties 2 massacres

IV. Indian Wars

US army – many immigrants , 1/5 African-American “Buffalo soldiers”

Bozeman Trail abandoned in 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, but 1874 Gen. Custer discovers gold in SD Black Hills

Little Bighorn

Battle of Little Bighorn, 1876 Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and 2500 Sioux killed Custer and 264

Chief Joseph and Nez Perce were chased 1700 miles, just short of Canada: “I will fight no more forever.”

Last resistance

Geronimo and Apaches fled to Mexico; finally surrendered in 1886

Wounded Knee Massacre 1890, result of Ghost Dance, last violence

review

Describe the U.S. army in Indian Wars

Where was gold discovered, by whom?

Where was Custer killed, when, by whom?

Where was Chief Joseph captured/what quote?

What Apache holdout? What happened at Wounded Knee?

I. End of wars

Why Indians lost: 1. rr – endless

supplies and settlers

2. disease 3.

alcohol/firewater 4. demise of

buffalo – 15m to < 1000 in 20 years; Buffalo Bill killed 4000

reservations

1880 Helen Hunt Jackson – Century of Dishonor – bad treatment

Dawes Act – 160 acres, forced assimilation

1879 Carlisle Indian School (PA) – “kill the Indian and save the man”

1934 Indian Reorganization Act – tribes recognized

More gold

1858 – “paydirt” in Pike’s Peak, Colorado

59ers – Comstock Lode in Nevada; gold and silver, statehood 1864

Boomtowns/ghost towns, mines, suffrage

review

Why did the Indians lose (4 reasons)? What book was written about the

bad treatment of Indians? What did the Dawes Act do? What was the philosophy of the

Carlisle Indian School Where else was gold found? Where was the Comstock Lode?

II. Cowboys and Long Drive Cowboys - confed

vets, freedmen, Mexicans - in Texas took Longhorns on long drive, mainly to cattle towns in Kansas

Longhorns sent to NY, Chicago, other cities;

Cowboys to ranches

Long Drives ended because:

1. barbed wire 2. overgrazing 3. winters 1885-

1886 Cattle production

shifted to large ranches

Moving west

Homestead Act of 1862 brought farmers (“Homesteaders, sodbusters”) west, given 160 acres for promise to farm five years; dry farming worked.

8 new western states 1893 – Turner Thesis –

closing of the frontier

Utah, Oklahoma special

review

Name 3 groups of cowboys. Where did the Long Drives go? Why did the Long Drives end? What law brought people west? What were the conditions? Name 8 new states. Which 2 were special?

III. Return of the Populists

New farmers problems:

1. one crop – wheat or corn

2. world market 3. deflation 4. interest rates 5. boll weevil 6. droughts and

floods 7. property taxes 8. freight rates

Farmers’ organizations

1. Grange (Oliver Kelly), 2. Alliance – social activities – cooperative stores, warehouses, some political success

Mary Lease – Populist leader – “raise less corn and more hell!”

Populist proposals

Free, unlimited silver

Graduated income tax

Govt owned railroads

Direct election of Senators

1 term Presidency Initiative,

referendum Shorter workday Immigration

restriction

1890s fireworks

Panic of 1893 – Coxey’s army marched on DC, demanded public works jobs

Pullman strike – Eugene Debs, palace car workers protested lower wages; army called by Cleveland

review

Name 10 farmers problems Name 2 farmers organizations ID: Mary Lease Coxey’s army Pullman Strike

IV. Election of 1896

GOP - McKinley – pro-tariff, Gold Standard; Westerners walked out of convention

Democrats – William Jennings Bryan – Cross of Gold speech; free silver

Populist dilemma

Push all reforms, stay pure and lose; join Democrats for a chance to win; supported Bryan and free silver.

Bryan – 18,000 miles, 600 speeches, 5m listeners; McKinley front porch campaign more money

Realigning election

McKinley won 271-176; Bryan wound South and west, not urban workers.

Soon crop prices rose and more gold was found, inflating currency; farmers prospered, no need for Populists

Tell the story of the 1896 election

What candidates? What third party? What issue? What speech? Why did Populists join Democrats? Why did McKinley win? Why was the election important?

IV. Election of 1896

Populists/Democrat William Jennings Bryan – cross of gold speech; unlimited silver purchase

McKinley and gold standard, business and workers won; 4th party system/realignment