Toward A National Governing Class
- As the economy grew, so did government = new responsibilities for regulating society
- New governments campaigned extensively and began desperately trying to secure votes
The Growth of Government
- Many new services became publically-owned - eg: police, water supply, school systems
- In large cities such as Boston and New York, taxes soared
- New departments, bureaus, and cabinets were formed to help organise the country
- Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) - 1st independant regulatory agency
- Created in 1887 to organise state laws concerning railroads
- Marked a shift in the balance of power from the states to the federal government
The Machinery of Politics
- Republicans - still ran on Civil War record and promised new reforms
- Democrats - desired to give the states more powers and repeal legislation
- Nearly all the elections in the last quarter-century were decided by around 1%
- Democrats usually had a majority in the House; Republicans usually held the Senate - Neither party could govern effectively - little legislation passed before 1890
- Tariff - Major Political Issue - imposed a fee on imported goods, esp manufactured ones
- North - liked it as it protected and encouraged domestic industrial growth
- South - disliked it as it forced poor farmers to pay high prices on necessities
- Politicians urged voters to support their party and appealed to party loyalty
- Republicans - elephants - Democrats = donkeys
- In attempts to gain funds for campaigning, winners took “spoils” of office
- Politicians would organize sporting events or give loyal voters municipal jobs
One Politician’s Story
- James Garfield - began as a humble Ohio resident, briefly worked as a canal boat driver
- Civil War hero
- denounced his own party for corruption under Ulysses S. Grant
- traded favours and manuvered shrewedly to win 1880 nomination
- won Presidency by less than 40,000 votes out of more than 9,000,000
- was shot by a frustrated patronage seeker 200 days after inauguration
- like others, assumed the President served as his party’s titular leader and played a mainly ceremonial role in office
The Spoils System and Civil Service Reform
- For decades, reformers desired to introduce legislation to improve the quality of govt
- Jan 1883 - Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act - allowed the president to make a three-person commission to draw up a set of guidelines for exec and legislative appointments
- Made a fair system to select federal workers
- Although many reforms were made, many observers felt govt was still controlled by “insiders” not interested in the needs of ordinary people
Farmers and Workers Organise Their Communities
- Late 1860’s - farmers and workers began organising what became the populist movt.
The Grange
- 1867 - farmers on the Great Plains formed the Patrons of Husbandry
- Much like the secretive Masonic order
- Grange - HQ of the local chapter - center of social activity
- Main crop on Great Plains was grains (wheat and corn)
- Competition from other countries as well as environmental disasters hurt farmers
- Farmers hoped to improve their condition through collective action - joined P of H
- Grangers protested against railroads for charging high shipping prices
- “Granger laws” established maximum shipping rates
- Grangers began to set up co-operatives in the interests of “buying less, producing more”
The Farmers’ Alliance
- Newspapers advised to move out of cotton and into other crops and to cut expenses
- With budgets as low as $10 per year, farmers had no room to cut expenses
- Shipping costs for perishable crops made diversification nearly impossible
- Both African American and white farmers formed unions in attempts to create reforms
- Hard conditions led many farmers to join the Alliances
- 1890 - Alliances controlled Nebraska legislature and had power in Minn and SD
Workers Search for Power
- Tompkins Square Riot - Police hit protesters demanding living wages and steady jobs
- Great Uprising of 1877 - 1st nationwide strike - all rail workers rioted against pay cuts
- Began in Martinsburg, West Virginia
- Ended when President Hayes called in the Army to suppress the workers
- Led to the creation of the National Guard
- Labour parties began fielding candidates in elections
Women Help Build Alliances
- Many women felt that “government based on caste and class privilidge cannot stand.”
- Women were represented in the Knights of Labor and the Patrons of Husbandry
- Frances E. Willard - presided over the WCTU from 1878 - 1897
- Most famous woman of the 19th Century
- Most political parties refused to endorse woman suffrage
Farmer-Labor Unity
- Dec 1890 - Farmers’ Alliance met at Ocala, Florida to press for a third-party movt
- Joined with workers and other reformers to form the People’s Party
- Called themselves “Populists”
- Nominated James Baird Weaver for President and James Field for VP
- 1892 - Grover Cleveland (Democrat) regained the Presidency, but Populists elected three governors, ten Congressmen, and five Senators, and won 22 electoral college votes
The Crisis of the 1890s
- Populist Ignatius Donnely felt that the poor and the rich would eventually come to war
- During the depression many hoped or feared that the political system would topple
Financial Collapse and Depression
- Railroads represented the center of the economic growth of the late 19th Century
- When railroads went bankrupt, the entire country’s economy halted
- 1893 - Philadelphia and Reading Railroad collapsed, sent country into panic
- Unemployment reached as high as 25%
- Populist Jacob Sechler Coxey attempted to lead the masses to Washington to demand a public works program from Congress
Strikes and Labour Solidarity
- Wage cuts and poor working conditions led to numerous strikes and protests
- 1892 - leaders of the Carnegie steel company decided to break the union
- Hired a personal army to fight off the strikers
- After four months the union admitted defeat and accepted reduced wages
- George Pullman - leader of the Pullman Palace Car Company - made rail cars
- Supported the industrial community of Pullman, Mass
- During hard times, workers’ wages were cut by as much as one-half, but prices remained the same
- May 1894 - workers voted to strike after Pullman disregarded a list of grivances
- Eugene V. Debs - recently formed the American Railway Union (ARU)
- Delegates to an ARU convention voted to boycott all Pullman cars
- Debs advised peaceful protest and banned any non-railway interference
- President Cleveland ordered the Army to break up the strike - 13 dead, 50+ wounded
- July 17 - strike ended when Debs was arrested and sentenced to six months in jail
- Debs believed that the labour movt could not regain dignity under the present system
- Came out of jail a committed socialist, tried to form a utopian colony
- Ran for president as a socialist in five elections
The Social Gospel
- Many people saw a discrepancy btwn Christian ideals and attitudes towards the poor
- Clergy began to envision a cooperative order based on the principles of Christ’s gospels
- People across the country began trying to apply religious ideas to their everyday life
- New literature questioned social inequalities
- If Christ Came to Chicago (1894 - W.T. Stead)
- If Jesus Came to Boston (1894 - Edward Everett Hale)
- In His Steps (1896 - Charles M. Sheldon)
- Asked the question, “What Would Jesus Do?”
- Many women’s groups joined to form the YWCA, offered cheap hotels, etc
Politics of Reform, Politics of Order
- Election of 1896 was a turning point in American politics
- Hardships of the 1890s had led to a crisis in the two-party system
- Populists managed to break down some of the long-standing party lines
The Free Silver Issue
- When the economy collapsed, Cleveland was sure that the economic crisis was the result of financial policy, and called a special session of Congress to reform the currency
- “soft currency” - an increase in the money supply that would:
- loosen credit
- accelerate economic development
- allow farmers to repay loans with “cheaper” money than they had borrowed
- Civil War - govt replaced old notes with a common national currency - “greenbacks”
- 1873 - President Grant signed a Coinage Act that added silver to gold as the precious metal base of the currency
- 1876 - Peter Cooper ran for President as an independant on a soft money campaign
- Sherman Silver Purchase Act - 1873
- Directed the Treasury to print currency backed by silver
- Cleveland felt that only the gold standard could pull the country out of depression
- 1894 - Midterm elections brought a huge shift
- Republicans gained 117 seats, Democrats lost 113
Populism’s Last Campaigns
- Although Populists made significant gains, they were still a very small party
- Democrat William Jennings Bryan became increasingly popular
- Jumped on the increasing popularity of Free Silver
- Bryan’s popularity pushed the Silver Democrats to the forefront
- Bryan said mankind would not be “crucified upon a cross of gold”
- Democrats nominated Bryan for the Presidency
- Populists decided to support Bryan, with one of their own as Vice President
- Democrats ignored the Populists, Bryan’s running mate being Arthur Sewall
The Republican Triumph
- Republicans nominated William McKinley, another Civil War veteran
- Mark Hanna ran a well-financed, efficient campaign
- After the 1896 election, Democrats only dominated the South
- Republican victories seemed inevitable, and voter participation spiraled downward
- McKinley brought new tariffs and favored the passage of the Gold Standard Act (1900)
The Limits of Democracy
- Both Brian and McKinley were very similar in many aspects
- Neither addressed the escalating racism and nativism in the US
- More and more, “foreigners” were blamed for hard times
- Jim Crow Laws - discriminatory and segregationist legislation
- Plessy v. Ferguson - US Supreme Court upheld a Louisiana state law formally segregating street cars - “separate but equal”
- New restrictions essentially disenfranchised blacks
- Ida B. Wells - denounced the lynching that occurred throughout the South
- Argued that lynching was essentially a way of eliminating successful blacks
Tom Watson
- Campaigned to restore the civil rights of Southern African Americans
- Wanted to overturn Democratic rule by building up black support for the People’s Party
- Watson stirred the only truly interracial movement the South had yet seen
- After McKinley’s victory, Watson retired to Georgia
- Later returned to public life, but now blamed blacks for attacks on poor whites
Imperialism of Righteousness
- Some saw an overbuilt economy and an insufficient market for goods as causes for the crisis of 1893-97
- Americans needed a “new frontier” to settle
The White Man’s Burden
- Chicago’s World Fair - showcased American business ingenuity
- Foreign displays tried to lure Americans to their countries as “tourists”
- The fair was organised in a way to promote white American superiority
- Various clergy members argued that God had chosen America to lead in the regeneration of the world
Foreign Missions
- As early as the 1820s, missionaries had travelled to Hawaii
- 1915 - More than 3 million women were members of missionary societies
- “Rice Christians” - feigned conversion to get food from missionaries
- Missions prepared the way for American economic expansion
An Overseas Empire
- Political leaders began to look overseas for trade sources
- Many Americans considered neighbouring countries to be destined to become American
- 1867 - Seward purchases Alaska for 7.2 million dollars - known as “Seward’s Icebox”
- “Good Neighbour Policy” - would secure Americans all the trade from Latin America
- Wanted to annex various islands and colonies
- July 7, 1898 - Hawaii annexed to the States
- After the Hawaiian queen tried to limit American power, she was deposed by troops
- Open Door Policy - said that the US had the right to advance its commercial interests anywhere in the world
- President McKinley contributed 5000 American troops to the international army that put down the boxer rebellion
The Spanish-American War
- McKinley was firmly committed to economic expansion
A “Splendid Little War” in Cuba
- José Marti declared that Cuba must be free from Spain and the US
- Marti was ambushed and killed by Spanish troops
- Cleveland did not want war with Spain, therefore he refused to back the revolutionaries
- McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war against Spain
- Fewer than 400 Americans died in battle, and Spain quickly surrendered
- Americans established their economy in Cuba and involved themselves in its industry
War in the Philippines
- After war was declared with Spain, McKinley sent troops to occupy the Philippines
- McKinley refused to sign the armistice unless Spain revoked all claims to its islands
- After Spain was beaten, the Filipinos attacked the Americans in attempts to evict them
- Filipinos refused to give in, and fighting continued on some islands until 1935
- Americans refused to leave, and controlled the government
- The Philippines remained a US territory until 1946
Critics of Empire
- Many public figures voiced their disapproval of expansion loudly
- Anti-Imperialist League - organised to protest military action
- 1899 - The League had more than 500,000 members
- Emphasized Republic over Empire
- Supporters were either democratic or racist
- Foreigners should either govern themselves or were not fit to be American
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